Estimation and mitigation of voltage and current harmonics in distribution systems

The widespread application of power electronics is introducing non-linear loads in the distribution system resulting in the distortion of current and voltage waveforms. In this paper, IEEE 13-bus distribution system is considered for analysis of harmonics. The distribution system model is simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC software with static and adjustable speed drives as loads. Harmonic analysis of the system gives the harmonic spectrum and THD of currents and voltages at various buses. Mitigation of harmonics is performed by simulation using single tuned, double tuned, reactance one-port filters. Comparative analysis of filter performance is presented. The simulation study show that the best performance of the filter is obtained when positioned at/near the nonlinear load buses.