A study on the impact of a massive integration of compact fluorescent lamps on power quality in distribution power systems

The non-sinusoidal current absorbed by non-linear loads induces current harmonic distortion in the power grid and affect severely its power quality. More specifically, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) with no power factor correction cause low power factor and high harmonic distortion. In this paper, and after an experimental measurement, a mathematical model of a 23W compact fluorescent lamp is proposed. This model is established on the basis of experimental data and using a spectral decomposition up to 31^st harmonic. After model verification through numerical simulations using Matlab, the effect of increasing the number of CFL lamps, mixed to a load consisting of televisions and refrigerators, on the power factor, total harmonic distortion, the active, reactive and distorting power is evaluated. It is demonstrated that, by increasing the nonlinear part of the load given by the CFLs, the power factor reaches its maximum for a specific combination of CFLs and the given load, and then decreases for an increasing number of CFLs, whereas the total current harmonic distortion always increases. On the contrary, by using incandescent lamps instead of CFLs, it is shown that the power factor grows continuously whereas the total harmonic distortion decreases for an increasing number of lamps.