The influence on harmonic propagation of the resistive shunt harmonic impedance location along a distribution feeder and the influence of distributed capacitors

Although complete compensation is only possible using true active filters, resistive shunt harmonic impedances (SHI) have been shown to provide a considerable reduction of the harmonic propagation. In this work, the harmonic mitigation potential of a resistive SHI is discussed concerning its influence on the voltage distortion profile along a typical distribution feeder, with the location of the SHI along the feeder as a parameter. Although the distortion values are dependent on the SHI location, it is shown that installing the SHI between the middle and the end of the feeder is generally a good choice to locate the SHI, especially when the power system parameters can vary or are unknown. Calculations are performed on a typical radial distribution feeder with distributed capacitors (to model power factor correction capacitors or cable capacitances). In this study, the non-Linear loads are concentrated in single nodes whereas the linear loads are disconnected to obtain the worst case for the voltage distortion.