IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 44, NO.

3, MAY/JUNE 2008

867

Adaptive Compensation of Reactive Power

With Shunt Active Power Filters
Lucian Asiminoaei, Member, IEEE, Frede Blaabjerg, Fellow, IEEE, Steffan Hansen, Member, IEEE,
and Paul Thgersen, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper describes an adaptive method for compensating the reactive power with an active power filter (APF),
which is initially rated for mitigation of only the harmonic currents given by a nonlinear industrial load. It is proven that, if
the harmonic currents do not load the APF at the rated power,
the available power can be used to provide a part of the required
reactive power. Different indicators for designing such application
are given, and it is proven that the proposed adaptive algorithm
represents an added value to the APF. The algorithm is practically
validated on a laboratory setup with a 7-kVA APF.
Index TermsActive filters, harmonics analysis, power-system
harmonic, pulsewidth-modulated inverters, reactive power.

I. I NTRODUCTION

HUNT active power filters (APFs) are solutions used for

compensation of harmonic currents from nonlinear loads.
They can be connected either as a local harmonic-mitigation
solution, next to a given nonlinear load, or as a global solution
at the point of the common coupling (PCC) [1], as it is shown
in Fig. 1. Usually, the optimum location is selected based
on desired performance, network stability, harmonic-mitigation
efficiency, and costs.
The APF detects the harmonic spectrum of the load current
and generates an output current, which ideally is of the same
harmonic spectrum as of the load current but in opposite phase.
In this way, the APF cancels out the harmonic currents and
leaves the fundamental current component to be provided by
the power system [2].
In the last decade, the use of active techniques to mitigate
harmonics has become more attractive due to the technological progress in switching power devices, sensors, transducers,
DSPs, and control algorithms [3]. These factors allowed the
implementation of APFs not only in laboratory conditions but
also in real-life applications.

Paper IPCSD-07-101, presented at the 2006 Industry Applications Society

Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, October 812, and approved for publication in
the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial
Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review December 23, 2006 and released for publication
October 19, 2007.
L. Asiminoaei and S. Hansen are with Danfoss Drives A/S, 6300 Graasten,
Denmark (e-mail: las@danfoss.com; s.hansen@danfoss.com).
F. Blaabjerg is with the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Medicine,
Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark (e-mail: fbl@iet.aau.dk).
P. Thgersen is with KK-Electronic A/S, 7400 Herning, Denmark (e-mail:
pbt@kk-electronic.dk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2008.921366

The efficiency of an APF is higher than as of a shunt

passive filter, because the real power consumed by the APF
is much smaller. Unlike the shunt passive filters, there is no
need of connecting multiple branches for mitigation of several
harmonic orders at once.
One single APF is capable of mitigating up to a practical
30th50th harmonic order, meeting the actual harmonic standards and regulations.
Furthermore, the APFs can protect themselves against voltage imbalance and predistortion and keep the same good quality
of the compensated harmonic current. The harmonic compensation with APF is expected typically 5%7% total harmonic
distortion (THDi ), while, with a passive filter, the THDi is
within 10%15%.
However, the costs involved (i.e., equipment, installation,
maintenance) of an APF are higher as compared to typical
passive filters [4].
To minimize the cost and retrofit existing passive-powerfilter installations, various types of hybrid topologies were
introduced and successfully implemented in recent years [17].
The hybrid filters mitigate the harmonic currents relatively well,
and their cost is reduced as compared to a pure active-filter
solution because of lower power-inverter rating. In spite of all
these advantages, the hybrid filter is suitable for applications
where there is a need of reactive-power compensation, just like
in the case of the passive filter. The amount of reactive power
is fixed from design stage according to the maximum demand
and difficult to control, because it depends on the installed
capacitors. For adjustable speed drives (ASDs) based on frontend diode rectifier, the current displacement is close to unity;
therefore, the use of hybrid filters is of a little interest because
of the risk of generating leading power factor.
In order to increase the value proposition of an APF without changing its design, one may further develop the control,
including more features in terms of power-quality regulation, such as compensation of voltage unbalance, dips, swells,
flickers, and damping network resonances. Nevertheless, any of
the above increases even more the cost of harmonic mitigation,
because the APFs inverter must carry a higher power. This
means an increase of the inverter-power capability (insulatedgate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), the size of the boost LCL
filter, heat-sink, ventilation) but also a larger dc-link for energy
storage.
Reactive-power compensation is another solution to increase
the value proposition of an APF [5]. However, in real applications, the mitigation of the reactive power with an APF is not
a simple task, because the reactive power may be much higher

0093-9994/$25.00 2008 IEEE

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Fig. 1. General block diagram of a shunt APF connected at the PCC of an industrial plant.

than the harmonic power, and thus, the APF looses its initial
purpose, again with the same consequence of an increasing cost.
Nevertheless, the mitigation of the reactive power is attractive,
as this can be done without increasing the size of the dc
capacitor. Furthermore, reducing the reactive power together
with a reduction in harmonic currents provides higher power
factor, which consequently lowers the losses and improves
network stability.
This paper describes a new adaptive compensation algorithm
of reactive power to utilize the power inverter at maximum. The
proposed algorithm requires no hardware changes or increase
of the power rating. The APF is rated, according to the initial
design specifications, for mitigation of the harmonic currents
at full-loading conditions of a given industrial plant. When the
loading becomes lower and the harmonic currents do not load
the APF inverter at its full capability, then the reactive power is
compensated within the inverter limits [6].
A similar approach to adaptive compensation of reactive
power is described in [7], where the calculation is based on
empirical coefficients determined and readjusted as a result of
experimental results. Further work of [8] and [9] uses neural
networks to find optimal compensation of harmonic current distortion and power factor via constrained optimization problem,
based on simulations.
This paper describes an adaptive compensation algorithm
in synchronous dq-frame, thus accommodating an easy implementation that retrofits the existing hardware and control
of an APF. This paper proposes three methods of detecting
the available power left for reactive power compensation and
presents the underlying principle. The methods are modeled
with circuit simulators, and the most suitable one is validated
in practice. Several design steps are presented with respect to
the APFs inverter. The proposed algorithms are sustained by
practical measurements on a laboratory setup with a total rated
power of 7 kVA at 400 V.

Fig. 2. Decomposition of the total apparent power S in three power vectors:

P1 is the real fundamental power; Q1 is the reactive fundamental power; and
DN is the harmonic-distortion power.

ASD reaches the nominal power, this is not a permanent state.

Otherwise, if the motor needs to operate at full power all the
time, the ASD is not required.
When the ASD loading decreases the harmonic currents are
reduced as well, which leaves the APF operating at a lower
power than it is designed. This opens the possibility of using
the APF for reactive-power compensation, as it is described in
Section I. Typical applications are as follows:
ASD applications (i.e., water pumps, heaters, elevators,
etc.) running at a power lower than nominal;
front-end thyristors-control ASDs, where both harmonic
and reactive currents change with the firing angle;
mixed linear and nonlinear loads, connected together at
the same PCC but operating independently from each
other.
The apparent power S of the plant shown in Fig. 1 is given
by three power vectors, as shown in Fig. 2

II. P OWER R ATING OF S HUNT APF

A common characteristic of ASD applications is the
operation at a loading lower then nominal output power, with
an average between 70%80%. Although it is expected that

S=

2 .
P12 + Q21 + DN

(1)

An active filter installed at the PCC ideally compensates the

entire amount of harmonic distortion power DN . Assuming

ASIMINOAEI et al.: ADAPTIVE COMPENSATION OF REACTIVE POWER WITH SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTERS

869

Fig. 3. Simulation of a front-end diode rectifier adjustable speed drive as a function of loading and the line impedance Lac . (a) Line current THDi . (b) Generated
harmonic power.

sinusoidal voltages, the harmonic-distortion power is calculated as

DN = SASD THDi

(2)

where the SASD and THDi are the apparent power respective of
the THD from an ASD.
Variation of the THDi with the ASD loading is simulated
in Fig. 3 for a typical three-phase diode-rectifier ASD as a
function of the front-line ac inductance Lac . The results indicate
that if the ASD loading decreases, then the THDi increases,
because the fundamental current becomes smaller. However,
the harmonic-distortion power DN is reduced, because the
apparent power drawn by ASD is lower. This indicates that the
APF is not used all the time at the full inverter capacity when
the ASD operates in a point lower than nominal. Fig. 3(b) shows
how the distorted power decreases almost linear with the ASD
loading.
If the APF is imposed to compensate both reactive and
harmonic powers, the total rated power of the APF inverter
becomes


SAPF =


SAPF =
SAPF
=
SASD

2
Q2LIN + DN

(3)

(SLIN sin(LIN ))2 + (SASD THDi )2



SLIN
SASD

(4)

sin(LIN ) + (THDi )2

1 + (THDi )2

(5)

where QLIN and LIN are the total reactive power, respective
of the displacement angle given by the linear loads, DN is the
harmonic-distortion power from the nonlinear load associated
with the existing THDi .
One particular case of (5) often quoted in literature [10] is of
a plant consisting of ASDs only but no linear loads, i.e., SLIN =
SASD , which gives (6).

Fig. 4. Rating an APF as a function of the existing harmonic current distortion

from the ASD. A possible case is shown with a value of the THDi lower than
the designed limit. Thus, the remaining available power of the APF may be used
for reactive power compensation.

Fig. 4 shows a graphical representation of (6) for different

THDi values and displacement angles cos(). Fig. 4 shows an
example of an APF which is rated to compensate the maximum harmonic-distortion power of 50% THDi . For a smaller
THDi , for instance 30% (caused by reduced ASD loading), the
APF mitigates the entire distorted power without reaching the
inverter limit


(sin())2 + (THDi )2
SAPF

=
SASD
1 + (THDi )2

1 cos()2 + (THDi )2

=
.
(6)
1 + (THDi )2
As presented in Section I, it is attractive to use the available
power of the APF inverter for reactive-power compensation.
Depending on the amount of the required reactive power, the
APF may provide only partial compensation. In Fig. 4, the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 44, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2008

Fig. 5. Calculation of the APF rating based on the existing cos(LIN ) and total power SLIN as in (5). The ratio SLIN /SASD is equal to (a) 0.5, (b) 1, and (c) 2.

Fig. 6. Control block diagram of APF in a typical dq-frame implementation. The proposed algorithm of adaptive compensation of reactive power can be easily
integrated into the existing control structure.

active filter is allowed to compensate the reactive power only

up to a cos() of 0.94. For lower values of power factor, the
APF is not capable to compensate the required reactive power.
Taking a more general approach of (5) by assuming that the
plant consists of linear loads generating reactive power and
nonlinear loads (i.e., ASDs), Fig. 5 shows three different cases
showing the effect of an increased ratio SLIN /SASD .
If the reactive power is larger than harmonic power (i.e.,
SLIN > SASD ), the inverter becomes ineffective to cope with
the imposed compensation requirements.
The outcome of this investigation is that mitigation of both,
harmonic distortion and the reactive power, is not a straightforward task if the behavior of the plant is not exactly known.
For a plant that requires large reactive-power compensation, the
APF inverter is overrated too much as compared to its initial
purpose of harmonic mitigation. Therefore, an adaptive method
for compensating the reactive power within the inverter limits
is the best choice of keeping the same hardware. This extends
the utilization of the inverter and assures that the design of the
APF is decoupled from the exact knowledge of the plant.
III. C ONTROL A LGORITHM
The control algorithm is developed in the synchronous
dq-reference frame [10]. The input signals (iL , iF , vS ), which

are initially achieved in abc-coordinates (stationary reference

frame), are transformed into the dq-rotating reference frame by
means of the Park transformation


 i
 
2
id
cos cos(2/3) cos(+2/3) a
ib
=
iq
3 sin sin(2/3) sin(+2/3)
ic
(7)
where id , iq and ia , ib , ic are the currents in the dq-frame,
respective in abc-frame, and is the reference angle.
The frame rotates with the angular speed of fundamental
frequency, which transforms the fundamental current into dc
component. The harmonic currents in dq-frame are still ac
signals but with a shift in frequency, depending on their positive
or negative sequence. The characteristic harmonics 5th and
+7th harmonics are folded on the 6th in dq-frame, 11th,
+13th on 12th, etc. Thus, the harmonic-detection method in
Fig. 6 resumes to remove the dc signal by means of a high-pass
filter (HPF) [2], [11].
The block diagram of the proposed control (Fig. 6) is a typical implementation of an APF having the current controller in
the inner loop and the voltage controller in the outer loop [12].
The current control is realized in a combined structure with a
classical proportionalintegral (PI) controller for fundamental

ASIMINOAEI et al.: ADAPTIVE COMPENSATION OF REACTIVE POWER WITH SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTERS

Fig. 7. Proposed principle of adaptive compensation of reactive power. The

APF supplies a variable QAPF vector that maximize SAPF .

current and resonant controllers (Rez sixth in Fig. 6), one for
each harmonic pair k = 6n 1 [6], [13][15] as in
H(s) = HPI (s) + HRez6 (s)



 2K6k s
Ki

+
= Kp +
2
s
s2 + 6k

871

rotating vectors, of which composed effect places the resultant

iF current vector on a given trajectory.
Fig. 8(a) shows how the APF generates harmonic currents
without reaching the maximum inverter-current limit. Fig. 8(b)
shows the concept of the proposed adaptive control, which imposes a reactive-current component (idc
qF ) such that the inverter
reaches its full power capability.
The instantaneous value of the inverter current can be written
as in (9), which, by derivation, gives the maximum allowed
reference of reactive current in (11). As (11) is determined
using instantaneous currents, the final result (idc
qF ) has both dc
and ac components. However, only the dc component is useful
in order to have a steady-state reactive current reference idc
qF .
In order to extract the maximum dc components within a
given period of time, the output of (11) has to be filtered by
a low-pass filter. Fig. 9 shows the following three filtering
methods:
1) rms value of both d- and q-axis [Fig. 9(a)];
2) peak value of both d- and q-axis [Fig. 9(b)];
3) maximum value of the resultant rotating vector
[Fig. 9(c)].


(idF )2 + (iqF )2

iF =

(8)

k=1,2

where KP and KI are the proportional respective the integral

constants of the PI controllers. K6k and 6k are the integral
constant respective the angular frequency of the considered
resonant controllers.
Resonant controllers are used in this paper for selective
regulation of harmonic currents. They have ideal infinite gain,
which gives zero stationary error at the selected frequency.
There is a tradeoff in selecting the right gains. A lower gain
gives higher rejection of disturbances, smaller output ripple,
and slower response to transient conditions. However, they are
suitable for harmonic compensation in ASDs [18][20].
The dc-voltage control loop is a PI controller, its output being
the dc current references in d-axis. This determines a real power
to be drawn by the APF in order to keep the dc-link voltage at
the reference value and to cover the inverter losses.
The proposed algorithm of adaptive compensation of reactive
power is integrated into the existing control structure to provide
the reactive current reference on q-axis current controller. The
principle of the algorithm is shown in Fig. 7, where it is shown
that the APF maintains such a reactive current that maximizes
the inverters output power SAPF within the inverter limits
Slimit . If the harmonic-distortion power DAPF is reduced,
the reactive power QAPF can be increased to keep SAPF at
maximum. However, there is one limitation imposed for the
QAPF vector, i.e., it must not be higher than the required QLIN ;
otherwise, the APF overcompensates the reactive power.
The algorithm shown in Fig. 7 in terms of power vectors
can be derived in current equations. Fig. 8 shows the current
vectors in the rotating dq-plane. The fundamental current is a
constant dc signal, and the characteristic harmonic currents are

idc
qF =
idc
qF =
where
iV (DC)
iac
Fd
iac
Fq
iF (max)

ac
idc
dF + idF

2

2

ac
+ idc
iF (max)
qF + iqF

(9)

2

(10)



ac 2 iac
idc
qF
dF + idF

2

2

iV (DC) + iac
iac
qF
dF

(11)

iF (max)
iF (max)

reference current given by the dc-voltage

controller;
reference d-axis current given by the HPF from the
load current (ASD);
reference q-axis current given by the HPF from the
load current (ASD);
current limit imposed for the APF inverter.

Each of the proposed filtering methods is evaluated on a

specific window Tw over which the reactive current reference
is updated. A sliding window is selected to assure a continuous
evolution of rms or peak outputs. A shorter window interval
determines faster response but also oscillations in the reference,
while a longer window Tw causes a slower dynamic [16].
The proposed methods are simulated on the system shown
in Fig. 13. The simulated ASD is a 25-kVA three-phase diode
bridge rectifier, and the linear load is of an inductive type with
a total power of 20 kVA and a power factor of 0.85. APFs
inverter current limit is set to 24 A. Each of the proposed
methods calculates the output for on a window interval Tw
equal to half of the fundamental period, which gives enough
speed and acceptable ripple rejection.
Fig. 10 shows the capability of the APF to mitigate the
harmonic currents at two loading values. The harmonic currents
are controlled considering the first five characteristic pairs, i.e.,
5th, 7th, . . ., 31st. Due to space consideration, the harmonic

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Fig. 8. Examples of two possible cases. (a) APF compensates only the harmonic distorted power. (b) APF compensates also a part of the reactive power. For
both cases, the resultant current vector current must be lower than the maximum limit of the inverter current iF (max) .

Fig. 9. Generalized representation of the dq-frame currents for an APF current controlled with the algorithm of adaptive compensation of reactive power. Three
methods are proposed here to provide low-pass filtering function. (a) RMS-value case. (b) Peak-value case. (c) Maximum-value case.

compensation is not described, although one can find more

details in [18]. The transient represents a change of the ASD
loading from 50% to 80%. This simulated case does not include
the compensation of reactive power (i.e., the adaptive algorithm
is disable) and are given as reference for comparison with the
next simulation case. The power factor before and after the
transient is 0.91, respective 0.93. The THDi of the sum current
IS stays within 4% in both cases, before and after the transient.
The simulation of the active filter employing the adaptive
compensation algorithm is shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
Fig. 11 shows the resultant reactive current references from
each of the proposed methods. As shown, the highest output is
given by the rms-value method, thus creating the highest reactive power (cos() is increased to 0.990.96 in Fig. 12). The
simulation results are in agreement with Fig. 9 that shows that
the rms-value method is the least limiting method, because the
rms is always smaller than the peak values. The most restrictive
method is the third one, i.e., maximum-value method, because
the highest resultant peak occurring during the window interval
imposes the reactive current reference.
Regarding the results obtained in the case of peak-value
method, the reactive current references lies in between.

As shown in Fig. 11, all methods give zero reactive current

reference during the transient. During transients, the APF must
charge the dc capacitor in order to keep the imposed dc-voltage
reference. When the load step goes to higher values, the d-axis
current increases to draw more current from the supply. This
increases the real current reference and, overall, the output APF
current. Consequently, the reactive current reference decreases,
eventually reaching the zero limit.
The ripple seen in all reactive current references (Fig. 11)
can be removed either with supplementary low-pass filter or by
increasing the duration of the window Tw . This is a tradeoff
between quality and speed. Higher ripple in the reactive current
reference means higher disturbance induced in the harmonic
compensation that affects the overall quality of the harmonic
mitigation.
Regarding the selection of the best proposed method for
practical implementation, it is finally a matter of compliance
with the hardware design and specifications. In APF applications, the ampere requirement of the power switches (e.g.,
IGBTs) is determined by the peak current and not the rms value.
The peak may reach values two to three times higher than the
rms current. Thus, large IGBTs are required depending on the

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873

Fig. 10. Simulated waveforms showing the APF capability to mitigate harmonic currents during a transient. The APF does not compensate reactive power.
(a) Line current from ASD. (b) Line current from linear load. (c) Compensation current from APF. (d) APF dc voltage. (e) Line current after harmonic
compensation.

Fig. 11. Simulated output from each proposed filtering method, rms-, peak-, and maximum-value cases. Each method gives a different reactive current reference.

load-current behavior. The rms value of the current determines

the inverter rated power, power losses, and consequently, the
size, volume, and cost. However, as a physical unit, the APF
have several hardware limitations (i.e., safe-operation area) due
to the heat dissipation, IP protection classes, ambient temperature, humidity, etc. It is a matter of individual assessment of
each presented method to establish how much the existing APF
stays in the safe-operation area.
As shown in Fig. 9, the rms-value method may overlap the
maximum current limit. If this is in agreement with the hardware specifications of the APF inverter (i.e., the output peak
current is lower than the maximum value of allowed repetitive
peaks in a given period), then this is the best method for
implementation. The advantage is that it provides the highest

reactive current magnitude, therefore, the highest reactive current compensation.

The maximum-value method is much more restrictive, which
is suitable for inverters operating at the limit of their thermal design or to assure a higher protection. One concern
is the higher risk of discontinuous reactive current injected
by the APF, which may create oscillations of the network
voltage.
The peak-value method gives higher output reactive current as compared to maximum-value method, but it has a
lower risk to overload the inverter as compared to the rmsvalue method. The simulations conclude that the peak-value
method is a suitable candidate for further validation by laboratory tests.

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Fig. 12. Simulated waveforms of the line current after the harmonic current compensation. The reactive power is also compensated according the proposed
methods. (a) At 50% ASD loading. (b) At 80% ASD loading.

Fig. 13. General diagram of the laboratory setup. The APF compensate the harmonics and the reactive power from the ASD and the RL load.

IV. I MPLEMENTATION
The proposed topology and control method are tested on a
laboratory setup (see Fig. 13), where the APF is realized with a
Danfoss inverter VLT 5006 rated 400 V, 7.6 kVA. The original
control card dedicated for motor control was replaced with a
custom-made control card interfacing the IGBT gate commands
and protections.

The value of the inverter boost inductor is LF = 7 mH,

and the dc capacitor is CDC = 2 mF. The switching frequency is set to 10.2 kHz. The sampling frequency is identical to the switching frequency, and the sampling is done
synchronous with the pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) interrupt
routine. The control algorithm is implemented by using the
MATLAB/Simulink real-time workshop toolbox. The implementation is done in a floating-point DSP, although the PWM

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875

of the ASD loading), the inverter operates within the same

imposed maximum limit of 5 A. However, the center point (i.e.,
reactive current reference) is lower on q-axis for the case of
75% loading, indicating a reduced reactive current reference. It
is interesting to see that the center point on the d-axis is slightly
increased, which is the effect of higher real current drawn by
the APF. This is because the APF is required to produce higher
harmonic content at the output, which determines higher losses,
covered by a higher real current.
V. L IMITATIONS D URING T RANSIENTS

Fig. 14. Measured waveforms during a change in the ASD loading from 50%
to 75%. The APF compensates the harmonic currents and the reactive power
with the proposed peak-value adaptive compensation method.

generation is executed by TMS320F240, embedded fixed-point

16-b DSP.
The harmonic currents are given by a three-phase diode dcsmoothed rectifier that replicates the behavior of a typical ASD.
The rectifier is loaded with a variable resistor RLoad in the
range of 50200 , which simulates a variable loading. The
setup is arranged to perform a load step from 50% to 75%.
In parallel with the ASD, there is an RL load with a power
of 3 kVA and cos() of 0.88. The experiment consists of
maintaining the RL constant and changing the ASD loading.
The APF is a typical feed-forward topology with a control
loop as described in Section III. The implementation of adaptive
compensation of the reactive power considers the peak-value
algorithm only. The maximum current limit set to 5 A. This
limitation is lower compared to the maximum capability of the
inverter for protection purpose.
The APF reduces the harmonic current distortion from an
existing THDi of 27% down to 2%. The harmonic currents are
controlled as explained in Section III by considering the first
five characteristic pairs, i.e., 5th, 7th, . . ., 31st [18]. The reactive
power is also reduced as much as the current limit allows.
Fig. 14 shows the performance of the APF to compensate the
reactive power before, during, and after the transient.
At 50% ASD loading, the APF compensates the entire reactive power, reaching a displacement angle cos() of 0.99
[see IS in Fig. 15(a)]. At 75% ASD loading, the APF cannot
compensate the entire reactive current, because it is prioritized
to provide harmonic compensation at first.
Higher ASD loading means higher harmonic currents, which
in turn demands higher currents in APF. At 75% ASD loading,
the APF provides a lower displacement angle cos() of only
0.98 [see IS in Fig. 15(b)] because of reaching the inverter
current limit.
Fig. 16 shows the evolution of the filter currents in
dq-coordinates (d-axis controls the real current, and q-axis
controls the reactive current). In both cases (50% and 75%

The APFs control calculates two current references, the

harmonic and reactive currents, of which the total value should
stay within the inverter limits. Therefore, whenever reaching
the maximum current limit, the control must decide which of
the current references should take priority. As presented herein,
the harmonic current reference has priority over the reactive
current. Thus, when the total current reference reached the maximum limit, the reactive current reference was reduced to zero.
However, the efficiency of this algorithm depends on the
duration and magnitude of the transient. Thus, there are three
possibilities that may occur as follows.
1) The APF controls both reactive and harmonic powers
operating within the limits.
2) The maximum limit is reached but the duration of the
transient is smaller than the window Tw . In this case, the
control is able to set the reactive current reference to zero
in useful time, while keeping a proper harmonic current
mitigation.
3) The control is not able to calculate the required current
references fast enough or the magnitude of the imposed
reference is over the inverter limit. Thus, both reactive
and harmonic currents are limited to protect the inverter.
In this case, the APF is unable to mitigate the harmonic
currents.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper describes an adaptive algorithm for reactivepower compensation for shunt APF. The proposed algorithm
compensates the reactive power if the APF inverter current limit
is not reached. The principle is based on calculation of instantaneous d- and q-axes currents to determine by different means
the average value of reactive current (i.e., q-axis) imposed as
reference.
This paper proposes three methods of detecting the available
power left for reactive power compensation, referred to as rmsvalue, peak-value, and maximum-value method. The methods
are analyzed and simulated. While it is analyzed that the best
implementation depends on APF hardware design and existing
specifications, it is concluded that a suitable candidate for
practical implementation is the peak-value method. This is
because the peak-value method gives higher reactive current
as compared to the maximum-value method but lower risk
to overload the APF inverter as compared to the rms-value
method. This method is further tested on an existing laboratory
stand rated as 7 kVA, 400 V, delivering the expected results.

876

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 44, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2008

Fig. 15. Snapshots from measured waveforms in Fig. 14 magnifying the time scale. (a) At 50% ASD loading. (b) At 75% ASD loading.

Fig. 16. Filter current trajectory in dq-plane when the APF uses the adaptive algorithm for reactive-power compensation. While the ASD loading is
increased from 50% to 75%, the APF keeps the total filter current lower than
the maximum limit.

This paper describes the APF structure and implementation

of the control algorithm in the dq-reference frame. The proposed algorithm extends the utilization of the APF inverter and
assures that its design is decoupled from the exact knowledge
of the plant.
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Lucian Asiminoaei (S03M06) received the

M.Sc.E.E. degree from the Faculty of Shipbuilding
and Electrical Engineering, Section of Power Electronics and Advanced Control Systems, Dunarea de
Jos University of Galati, Galati, Romania, in 1997,
and the Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Energy
Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark,
in 2006.
From 1996 to 2003, he was a Maintenance Engineer with Iron&Steelworks Sidex S.A., Galati. In
2003, he was with the Institute of Energy Technology, Department of Power Electronics and Drives, Aalborg University, where
he was involved in projects sponsored by Danfoss Drives A/S, Graasten,
Denmark, and Power Lynx A/S, Denmark. He was a Visiting Scholar with
Texas A&M University, College Station. He is currently with Danfoss Drives
A/S. His areas of interests include harmonic mitigation, harmonic measurement, and active filters.

Frede Blaabjerg (S86M88SM97F03) received the M.Sc.EE. degree from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, in 1987, where he also
received the Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Energy Technology in 1995.
From 1987 to 1988, he was with ABBScandia,
Randers, Denmark. In 1992, he was an Assistant
Professor, in 1996, an Associate Professor, and in
1998, a Full Professor in power electronics and
drives and, since 2006, he has been the Dean of the
Faculty of Engineering, Science and Medicine with
Aalborg University. His research areas are in power electronics, static power
converters, ac drives, switched reluctance drives, modeling, characterization
of power semiconductor devices and simulation, wind turbines, and green
power inverters. He is the author or coauthor of more than 400 publications in his research fields including the book Control in Power Electronics
(Eds. M.P. Kazmierkowski, R. Krishnan, F. Blaabjerg, Academic Press, 2002).
He has held a number of chairman positions in research policy and research
funding bodies in Denmark.
Dr. Blaabjerg was appointed to the board of the Danish High Technolgy Foundation in 2007. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
POWER ELECTRONICS, Journal of Power Electronics, and of the Danish
journal Elteknik. Since 2006, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS. He was the recipient of the 1995
Angelos Award, for his contribution to modulation technique and control of
electric drives, and an Annual Teacher Prize from Aalborg University in 1995.
In 1998, he was the recipient of the Outstanding Young Power Electronics
Engineer Award from the IEEE Power Electronics Society. He was the recipient
of nine IEEE Prize Paper Awards in the last ten years. He was the recipient of
the C. Y. OConnor Fellowship 2002 from Perth, Australia, the Statoil Prize in
2003 for his contributions to power electronics, and the Grundfos Prize in 2004
for his contributions to power electronics and drives. From 2005 to 2007, he
was a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Power Electronics Society.

877

Steffan Hansen (S95A96M99) was born in

Sonderborg, Denmark, in 1971. He received the
M.Sc.E.E. and Ph.D. degree from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, in 1996 and 2001, respectively. His Ph.D. degree was supported by
an industrial fellowship from Danfoss Drives A/S,
Graasten, Denmark, and the Danish Academy of
Technical Sciences.
He is currently the Director of Technology with
Danfoss Drives A/S, where he has been since 1996
in various positions. His responsibilities include solutions to reduce line-side harmonics from adjustable-speed drives, control
engineering of adjustable-speed drives, and their applications.

Paul Thgersen (M92SM01) was born in Thy,

Denmark, on June 29, 1959. He received the
M.Sc.E.E. degree in control engineering and the
Ph.D. degree in power electronics and drives from
Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, in 1984 and
1989, respectively.
From 1988 to 1991, he was an Assistant Professor
with Aalborg University. From 1991 to 2005, he was
with Danfoss Drives A/S, Graasten, Denmark, where
he was, first, a Research and Development Engineer
and, later, Manager of Technology, mainly responsible for the drives control technology area. Since 2006, he has been the Manager
of the Modeling and Control Group, which is a part of the R&D Department, KK-Electronic A/S, Herning, Denmark. Since 1991, he has had a close
relationship with Aalborg University, resulting in more than 20 coauthored
papers and participation in more than ten Ph.D. student advisory groups.
Dr. Thgersen was the recipient of the Angelos Award in 1999 for his
contributions to the development of industrial drives.