Harmonics

The Effect of Harmonics

ORIGINS OF HARMONIC DISTORTION
The ever increasing demand of industry and commerce for
stability, adjustability and accuracy of control of electrical
equipment led to the development of relatively low cost
power diodes and thyristors.
Now used widely for rectifier circuits for U.P.S. systems,
static converters, and D.C. motor control, these modern
devices replace the Mercury Arc Rectifiers of earlier years and
in consequence create new and challenging conditions for the
power engineer of today.
Although solid state devices such as the thyristor have
brought significant improvements in control techniques, they
have the disadvantage that they produce harmonic currents.
Harmonic currents can cause an unacceptable disturbance on
the supply network and adversely affect the operation of
other electrical equipment including power factor correction
capacitors.
WAVEFORM
All complex waveforms can be resolved into a series of
sinusoidal waves of various frequencies, hence any complex
waveform is the sum of a number of odd or even harmonics of
lesser or greater value.
Thyristor convertors or rectifiers are usually referred to by the
number of DC current pulses they produce each cycle, the
most commonly used being 6 pulse and 12 pulse.
There are many factors that can influence the harmonic
content but typical harmonic currents, shown as a percentage
of the fundamental current are given in the following table.
Some content of the harmonics not listed will always be
present to some degree but for practical reasons they have
been ignored.
Order of
Harmonic
Percentage of Harmonic
Content
6 Pulse 12 Pulse
1 100 100
5 20 --
7 14 --
11 9 9
13 8 8
17 6 --
19 5 --
23 4 4
25 4 4
HARMONIC OVERLOADING OF CAPACITORS
The impedance of a circuit dictates the current flow in that
circuit.
As the supply impedance is generally considered to be
inductive, the network impedance increases with frequency
while the impedance of a capacitor decreases. This
encourages a greater proportion of the currents circulating at
frequencies above the fundamental supply frequency to be
absorbed by the capacitor, and all equipment associated with
the capacitor.
In certain circumstances such currents can exceed the value
of the fundamental (50Hz) capacitor current. These currents
in turn cause increased voltage to be applied across the
dielectric of the capacitor. The harmonic voltage due to each
harmonic current added arithmetically to the fundamental
voltage dictates the voltage stress to be sustained by the
capacitor dielectric and for which the capacitor must be
designed.
Capacitors of the correct dielectric voltage stress must
always be used in conditions of harmonic distortion to avoid
premature failure.
HARMONIC RESONANCE
As freqency varies, so reactance varies and a point can be
reached when the capacitor reactance and the supply
reactance are equal. This point is known as the circuit or
selective resonant frequency.
Whenever power factor correction is applied to a distribution
network, bringing together capacitance and inductance, there
will always be a frequency at which the capacitors are in
parallel resonance with the supply.
If this condition occurs at, or close to, one of the harmonics
generated by any solid state control equipment, then large
harmonic currents can circulate between the supply network
and the capacitor equipment, limited only by the damping
resistance in the circuit. Such currents will add to the
harmonic voltage disturbance in the network causing an
increased voltage distortion.
This results in an unacceptably high voltage across the
capacitor dielectric coupled with an excessive current through
all the capacitor ancillary components. The most common
order of harmonics are 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th but resonance
can occur at any frequency.
AVOIDING RESONANCE
There are a number of ways to avoid resonance when
installing capacitors. On larger systems it may be possible to
re-position the proposed capacitor installation onto another
part of the system.
The same value of kvar installed at high voltage rather than
at low voltage may eliminate a resonant difficulty, or there
may be other low voltage busbars where there is no harmonic
generating load. Varying the output rating of the capacitor
bank will alter the resonant frequency.
With multi stage capacitor switching there will be a different
resonant frequency for each stage. Changing the number of
switching stages may avoid resonance at each stage of
switching.
OVERCOMING RESONANCE
If resonance cannot be avoided an alternative solution is
required.
A reactor must be connected in series with each capacitor
switching section such that the capacitor/reactor combination
is inductive at the dangerous frequencies but capacitive at
fundamental frequency. To achieve this the capacitor and
series connected reactor must have a tuning frequency below
the lowest order of harmonic to be experienced, which is
usually the 5th.
This means the tuning frequency is usually in the range of
175Hz to 230Hz, althouth the actual frequency will depend
upon the magnitude of the harmonic currents present. The
actual tuning frequency will be varied to suit the specific
needs of each case.
The inclusion of a reactor in the capacitor circuit increases
the fundamental voltage across the capacitor in the order of
5 to 9% in addition to the harmonic voltages previously
mentioned.
COST EFFECTIVENESS
Due to varying site conditions, it is not always possible to
determine with certainty that resonance will occur.
Adding series reactors to power factor correction equipment is
expensive and can increase the cost to uneconomic levels. If
later found not to be required, then unnecessary expenditure
is incurred.
An intermediate step is to install appropriate capacitors with
facilities for the addition of reactors if found to be necessary
at a later date, thus lowering considerably the initial capital
cost.
When capacitors are used in series with reactors they are
rated at higher than system voltage, so when used without
reactors they have the ability to withstand higher levels of
harmonic overload, which alone may resolve the situation.
If resonance does actually occur reactors can be added to the
existing power factor correction equipment at minimum extra
cost
LIMITS OF HARMONIC DISTORTION
Harmonic distortion can cause severe disturbance to certain
electrical equipment and as it is the duty of the electric
utility to provide a clean supply, many countries now set
limits to the harmonic distortion allowed on the distribution
networks.
In the U.K. the Electricity Council Engineering
Recommendation G5/3 provides for three levels of acceptance
for the connection of harmonic generating equipment, defined
as stages.
STAGE 1 permits the connection of individual loads up to 14kVA
at 415 volt and 25OkVA at 11 kV without special consideration.
STAGE 2 limits the total harmonic current which any installation
may produce at the point of connection with the supply
authority, as follows:
HARMONIC 2 4 5 7 11 13
415V 48A 22 56 40 19 16A
6.6 - 11kV 13A 6 10 8 7 6A

STAGE 3. Individual analysis of systems is required to ensure
total harmonic distortion does not exceed 5% at 415 volts and
4% at 11 kV
Before accepting harmonic generating loads, the existing
harmonic voltage distortion on the supply network is taken
into consideration in setting the individual limits of Stage 3,
and may also restrict the maximum limits as tabulated for
Stage 2.
Where these limits are exceeded, it may be necessary to
reduce or eliminate the harmonics produced.
REDUCTION OF HARMONIC DISTORTION
Harmonic currents can never be totally eliminated from an
electrical system. They can, however, be very significantly
reduced by using a harmonic filter.
In its basic form a filter comprises a capacitor connected in
series with a reactor tuned to the frequency to be eliminated.
In theory the impedance of the filter is zero at the tuning
frequency and therefore all of the particular harmonic current
is absorbed by the filter.
In practice, however, the capacitor and reactor are usually
tuned slightly below the harmonic frequency. This together
with the natural resistance of the circuit means that only a
small acceptable level of harmonic current will flow in the
network.
When it is necessary to reduce more than one harmonic, a
multi arm filter may be required.
TYPES OF FILTER
The effectiveness of any filter scheme depends on the nett
reactive output of the filter, filter tuning accuracy and the
impedance of the network at the point of connection.
Harmonics below the filter tuning frequency will be amplified.
The experience of the filter designer is therefore important to
ensure that insignificant distortion is not amplified to
unacceptable levels.
Where there are several harmonics present, a single arm
filter may reduce some harmonics whilst increasing others,
e.g. a filter for 11th harmonic may create resonance in the
vicinity of 7th harmonic and high magnification of any 5th
harmonic already on the network
In these cases it may be necessary to use a multi-arm filter
where each arm is tuned to a different frequency Experience
is paramount in the design of such filters to ensure:
the most efficient and cost-effective solution is chosen
there is no adverse interaction either between the system and
the filter or between branches within the filter.
LOAD ALTERATION
Whenever load expansion is considered, with or without
additional power factor correction equipment, the network
impedance is likely to change and existing filter equipment
must be re-appraised in conjunction with the new load
condition and be suitably uprated.
It is not recommended to have two or more filters fine tuned
to the same frequency connected on the same busbar
system. Slight tuning differences may cause one filter to take
a much larger share of the harmonic distortion, or even cause
a harmonic resonance condition leading to amplification of
the very harmonic order for which the equipment has been
designed to reduce.
When there is a need to vary the power factor correction
component of a harmonic filter, careful consideration of all
parameters is necessary.
HARMONIC ANALYSIS
To determine capacitor and filter requirements to meet
specific harmonic conditions, it is necessary to establish with
accuracy the impedance of the supply network and the value
of each harmonic current experienced at the point of intended
connection of any filter or power factor correction capacitor.
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Copyright 2000 Philip J. Alcorn & Co.
While every care is taken to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, no legal responsibility
can be accepted for any inaccuracy. The Company reserves the right to alter or modify the information contained herein
at any time in the light of technical or other developments.