Comparison of three control theories for single-phase Active Power Filters

Active power filters have been developed in last years, mostly for three-phase systems applications. The use of shunt active power filters on single-phase facilities brings many benefits for the electrical grid, since these installations have non linear loads and power factor problems, and in their total, they are responsible by a significant portion of the total electric energy consumption. Harmonics and reactive power consumed by single-phase installations cause additional power losses on the electrical grid. So, mitigate harmonics at the origin helps reducing these extra losses and other problems caused by the harmonics. The drawback of this solution is the necessity of a large number of active power filters distributed by the generality of the single-phase facilities. So, it becomes necessary a simple and low cost shunt active power filter to install on single-phase installations. This paper presents three simple control theories to use on single-phase shunt active power filters. Simulation and experimental results comparing the three different control theories are presented and analyzed.