FPGA Based Control Scheme for Active Power Filter

The design of a controller for a single-phase shunt active power filter (APF) using Simulinkreg and Xilinxreg system generator as design platforms is presented. The control scheme applied allows the APF to achieve both, a reduction of the line current total harmonic distortion (THD), and correction of the power factor for multiple nonlinear loads connected to a common electric distribution node. Additionally, the control scheme reduces the amount of external measurements, facilitating the filter installation for compensation at the point of common coupling (PCC). The digital controller design and its simulation are presented, showing acceptable THD results for the word-length used in the fixed-point computations involved in the switching sequence generation. Further, the APF also achieves the correction of power factor at the source line to a value close to unity