The overall impact of distributed generation on
power quality in GEPCO region by the insertion of
Shadiwal Hydel power station
Engr. Waqas Ahmad Chaudhry
Research Scholar Electrical Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
Engineer.waqas2011@gmail.com
Engr. Rab Nawaz
Asst. Prof. Electrical Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
Mirza Jabbar Aziz Baig
Lecturer Electrical Power Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
Fahim Ashiq
Lecturer Electrical Power Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
Abstract— Unidirectional transfer of power
from Small Power Stations through transmission
network in orthodox Electric Power Distribution
Systems to serve consumers is not viable due to
transmission loss, service cost on transmission lines and
other related issues. Another way of energy utilization is
the direct connection of Small Power Stations with local
distribution networks. Injection of active and reactive
power from these Small Power Stations seriously
agitates the power flow, causing Harmonic Voltage
Distortion in the system. In countries like Pakistan, it
has aggravated the situation where there is a huge gap
between energy supply and demand: whereas Small
Power Stations are found everywhere throughout the
world. Distributed networks seem preferable over
Micro – Grid and Smart – Grid schemes, especially due
to disagreement of Distributed Generators and electric
supply companies on this issue. Therefore, before
applying this it is important to analyze the impact of
Distributed Generation on power quality in such areas.
This paper covers the power quality issues related to
GEPCO region; however the method can be applied in
any situation like this.
Keywords—Harmonic Voltage Distortion, Micro-Grid,
Distributed Generation
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Engr. Dr. Majid Mumtaz
Asst. Prof. Electrical Power Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
sardar.majid@must.edu.pk
Engr. Zafar A. Khan
Asst. Prof. Electrical Power Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
Shahbaz Baig
Junior Lecturer Electrical Power Engineering Department
Mirpur University of Science and Technology Mirpur AJK
I. INTRODUCTION
Harmonic Voltage and current distortion
levels badly affect the performance and analysis of
power system components such as generators,
transmission lines and transformers. Load flow
studies can be used to calculate harmonic distortion
level of voltage & current assuming power generation
and transmission system to be perfectly linear. In
practice, generators will produce harmonic voltages
and currents due to transformer magnetizing current
harmonics. This shift of harmonics changes the
waveform of transformer flux due to which
magnetizing spectrum will be distorted. The new
distorted magnetizing spectrum results in repetition
of the harmonic shifting at the generators. Also
another power component like transmission line can
cause harmonic interaction between transformer and
generator.
Effect of harmonic cross coupling within
conventional frames of reference can't be analysed
easily. For the purpose of dynamic analysis of the
power system components; we require a detailed
model of the specific part of the system while
keeping the remaining system as an equivalent
circuit. By doing so, the analysis and computations
can be made easy.
There is a simplest equivalent model
approach at fundamental frequency called short
circuit impedance. But this approach holds very good
 for fault analysis at fundamental frequencies and not Analytical computations can be performed for the
suitable for finding system behaviour at harmonic purpose of determination of system impedance when the
frequency. There are a number of harmonic size of system is not too large. Succession of resonances
producing components in power systems like caused by cable or transmission line capacitance, results
capacitor banks for compensating KVARs, collector in variation of impedance. When the capacitance of the
cables, Line capacitance, transformer reactance, system is high there is great chance for resonances to
FACTS devices and power electronics devices for occur on low frequencies sometimes at power
power system control. Harmonic measurements and frequencies. It can happen due to capacitor banks and
simulations are performed for the determination of collector cables.
harmonic levels of voltage and current distortions. At power frequency, power systems are primarily
inductive. At distribution levels capacitive effects are
II. SYSTEM’S HARMONIC-IMPEDANCE normally neglected. There is direct relation between
System's Harmonic Impedance is an inductive reactance and frequency.
important thing in system response under harmonic Short circuit reactance Xsc, based on transformer
frequency and is used in modeling of systems under impedance only is:
harmonic conditions. It offers great difficulty in 𝑋𝑆𝐶 ≅ 𝑋𝑡 (3)
analyzing full power system in harmonic study. So Where
the dimensions of the system are therefore reduced to (𝑘𝑉)2
𝑋𝑡 = × %𝑍 (4)
minimum possible scale using the equivalent 𝑀𝑉𝐴
impedance representing the behavior of the Fig. 3 shows impedance frequency response
component to harmonic distortions. Impedance does of an inductive system without capacitors. For the
not remain constant and varies over time and from purpose of Harmonic analysis, capacitance can't be
one point to other in the power system. This change neglected. System impedance is dramatically
of impedance depends upon various factors such as changed due to shunt capacitance caused due to
cable length, short circuit power of the system, VAR collector cable and capacitor banks used for VAR
compensation and load level in the system. When the compensation.
measurement of the harmonic impedance is needed, a The Capacitive reactance is given as:
1
powerful harmonic current source and high pre- 𝑋𝑐 = (5)
2𝜋𝑓𝐶
existing harmonic voltage at the node where
impedance is to be measured, is presented in the Where C is the capacitance.
system. The line to neutral capacitive reactance can
Pre-existing harmonic or inter harmonic be determined by:
voltage Vh causes an inter-harmonic current to flow
in load Z as shown below in Fig. 1. 𝐾𝑉 2
As shown in the fig. below, the harmonic impedance 𝑋𝑐 = (6)
𝑀𝑉𝐴𝑅
Zh is given by:
Impedance (Ohms)

80
Zh 70
60
50
40
Vh2 Vh1 30
20
10 Frequency

Fig.1. Thevenin harmonic equivalent of a system

500 1000

Fig. 3: Frequency response of an assumed purely inductive system

Due to both inductive and capacitive components in
the system, resonance conditions can occur in the system.
Zh i Theses resonance conditions cause the currents and
Vh voltages to be very high which is very harmful for the
power systems.
Power system generation appears to be short circuit when
frequency deviates from fundamental frequency. In case
Fig. 2. Determination of harmonic impedance
of Xl and Xc become equal, resonance occurs.

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 The resonant for a parallel combination of an inductive
and capacitive element is:
1
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = (7)
2𝜋√𝐿𝐶
Where L is the inductance and C is the capacitance of
the system. At high voltage levels caused due to harmonic
distortions, resistance of the network on the whole
becomes small as compared with capacitance and
inductance. So impedance changes abruptly and situation
becomes harsh. Due to harmonic voltage and current
amplification, system power components can be damaged.
A number of resonance frequencies can occur depending
upon grid configuration.
Advance analyses of harmonics are very important
due to small distortions in the resonance frequency. There
exist two types of resonances called parallel resonance
and series resonance. In paper we will concentrate only on
Parallel Resonance. Fig. 4: Cable capacitance in the inductive system and equivalent circuit
In parallel resonance, impedance becomes high and
resistance becomes zero in case of ideal resonance.
Impedance becomes infinitely high due to which voltage
rises to extremely high level. The parallel resonance in both the cases shown in Fig.5 is
Any source of harmonic current can cause parallel occurring in the same region, 400 Hz and 575 Hz respectively
resonance and that source of harmonic current can be for 50 km and 25 km cable lengths. This indicates that
modeled as a parallel connection of inductive and transformer’s rating as well as its physical location are the
capacitive components. There are several possibilities in important factors and have significant effect in determining
the power system when parallel resonance is caused due the resonance frequency.
to capacitor banks for VAR compensation, Collector Table 1: Data for different parameters in Fig.3, used for plots
cables in the grid, Transmission line reactance and
transformer reactance Case/Pl T1 T2 X1 X2 L1 L2

Simulation is performed based on the data presented ot MVA MVA 𝛀 𝛀 mH mH

in Table 1 for two different cable lengths. The cables are 𝑽𝟐𝑳 𝑽𝟐𝑳
assumed of 25 and 50 kilometers lengths at a capacitance X=10 X=10 � � � � 𝑿𝟏 𝑿𝟐
of 0.4 𝜇F/km. Therefore, 10 𝜇F and 20𝜇F capacitance 𝑴𝑽𝑨 𝑴𝑽𝑨
% % /𝟐𝝅𝒇 /𝟐𝝅𝒇
corresponds to Xc = 320 Ohms and Xc = 160 Ohms × 𝟏𝟎% × 𝟏𝟎%
respectively. The resistance R1 and R2 in the circuit of
Fig. 4 are assumed small (0.01 Ohms) and 1 5 0.5 2.42 24.2 7.7 77
correspondingly transferred to 400V. The transformer is 2 5 1 2.42 12.1 7.7 38.5
usually a very efficient machine and operates at an
efficiency of about 98%; therefore its winding resistance 3 5 5 2.42 2.42 7.7 7.7
is usually small and so is the case assumed in this 4 10 0.5 1.21 24.2 3.9 77
discussion.
5 10 1 1.21 12.1 3.9 38.5
6 10 5 1.21 2.42 3.9 7.7
7 15 0.5 0.81 24.2 2.6 77
8 15 1 0.81 12.1 2.6 38.5
9 15 5 0.81 2.42 2.6 7.7

Case 3, in the Table 1; is not considered as it can be

seen from the transformer ratings that the system
with such an arrangement will be un-economical
and un-necessary.

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 1 1
1000 𝐶15𝑀𝑉𝐴 = 2
× = 39𝑢𝐹
C=20uF (2𝜋 × 500) 2.6 × 10−3
800 C=10uF All three plots in Fig. 2.8, demonstrate good
Impedance Ohm

Without Capacitance
agreement with afore calculated respective values of resonant
600
frequencies which substantiate the correctness of simulation
400
process.
Fig. 9 depicts the impact of three different parallel
200 resistances in the same case of parallel resonance in system
response characteristics. As little as ten percent resister
0 loading can have a noteworthy and valuable impact on peak
0 500 1000 1500
Frequency Hz impedance. The most troublesome resonant conditions evolve
1000 when capacitors are installed on substation buses where the
Without Capacitance transformer dominates the system impedance and has a high
800 C=10uF X/R ratio. The relative resistance is low and corresponding
Impedance Ohms

C=20uF
600
parallel resonant impedance peak is very sharp and high. This
is a common cause of capacitor failure, transformer failure or
400 the failure of other load equipment. It is a misunderstanding
200
that resistive load damp harmonics as in the absence of
resonance, load will have little impact on the harmonic
0
0 500 1000 1500
currents and the resulting voltage distortion. Most of the
Frequency Hz current will flow back in the power source. Nevertheless it is
appropriate to say the resistive loads damp the resonance
Fig.5. Frequency response of circuit shown in Fig.3, Case 1 and 2, Table 1 hence considerably reducing the harmonic distortion. Motor
Fig. 6 shows the frequency response of circuit shown in Fig 4. loads are primarily inductive and provide little damping, rather
The graphs correspond to Case 4, Case 5 and Case 6 in the they may cause an increase in the problem by shifting the
data Table 1. Unlike first three cases the transformer used resonant frequency closer to a significant harmonic. However
from 33 kV to 11 kV is a 10 MVA transformer, which some small fractional horsepower motors may help in
indicates a smaller value of inductive reactance. damping because their X/R ratio is lower than large three
Consequently the inductance in the circuit shown in Fig 4 has phase motors.
shifted to the new position determined by the length of the
cable. This is repeated for a 15MVA transformer in three
following cases.

The resonance frequency varies with cable capacitance. The

longer is the length of cable, lower is the resonance frequency.
It is also important to notice that the deviation from blue line
in Fig. 7 as well as Fig. 8, starts quite earlier than actual peak
occurs and continues after the peak has occurred.
This explains that the real interval for which harmonic
distortion is produced in the system cannot be specified only
by the spike due to parallel resonance which can cause severe
impact on the quality of the supply voltage.
For a certain known resonant condition, given the
value of either inductive reactance or capacitive reactance, the
value of unknown component can be evaluated. For example,
if the resonant frequency is assumed at 500 Hz for Parallel
combination of L1 and C;
1 1
𝐶= 2 × (8)
(2𝜋×500) 𝐿1
For three values of L1 ; 7.7mH, 3.9mH and 2.6mH
corresponding to for 5, 10 and 15 MVA transformers and an
assumed resonance frequency of 500 Hz, the relevant
capacitances are:
1 1
𝐶5𝑀𝑉𝐴 = × = 13.16𝑢𝐹
(2𝜋 × 500)2 7.7 × 10−3
1 1
𝐶10𝑀𝑉𝐴 = × = 26𝑢𝐹
(2𝜋 × 500)2 3.9 × 10−3

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 1000 Every small power plant has its own resonance
Without Capacitance frequency that is dependent on the grid topology, associated
800
Impedance Ohms

C=10uF generators and reactive power apparatus used [9]. Furthermore

C=20uF
600 the impedance and the resonance points of the plant may also
400
change when the number of capacitor banks in operations
changes.
200 Shadiwal hydel power plant is a small generating
0 station having capacity of 13.5 Mega Watt. 11/132 kilo volt
0 500 1000 1500
Frequency Hz transformers are used for stepping up for transmission purpose
1000 and connected to Gujrat Grid by 10 kilo meter transmission
Without Capacitance line.
800
Impedance Ohms

C=10uF
C=20uF
600

400

200

0 Cable
0 500 1000 1500
Frequency Hz

1000

Without Capacitance
800
Impedance Ohms

C=10uF
C=20uF
600

400 Fig. 7. Shadiwal Power Station one-line diagram

200 T/F1 T/F2

0 T-line Xl
0 500 1000 1500
Frequency Hz

Fig.6. Frequency response of circuit in Fig.4, Case 4, 5 and 6, Table 1

III. HARMONIC INCURSION DUE TO SHADIWAL Line

Capacitance
Power Collector
Factor Cables
HYDEL POWER STATION OF 13.5MW CAPACITY Bank
Shadiwal Hydel Power Station is a distributed generation
station of small scale and presents harmonic incursion on the
system due to line capacitance, Capacitor Banks for Power Fig. 8. Equivalent model of Shadiwal Power House Transmission System
factor improvements, collector cables etc. Due to increase of
capacitance effects in the system, there is a great possibility Transmission line of this system has not symmetrical spacing
for parallel resonance to occur on lower frequencies like but horizontal spacing as shown below.
power frequency which causes incursion of harmonics in the
system. This harmonic injection causes severe damages to the D12=2.4384 m
system like mall operation of relays, line losses, capacitor D12=2.4384 m
bank’s failure etc. Measuring and controlling these harmonics
is one of the greatest challenges of the power quality in small R Y B
power stations. These harmonics can form a serious threat for
power quality. That is why harmonic analysis has to be D31=4.88m
developed and taken as an integrated part of power plant Fig. 9. Spacing of overhead line conductors
design. Because every power network is unique and has
different characteristics, the effect of the harmonics on every
power system varies. Nevertheless, some common features
can be found. Even if the percentage of the harmonics seems
Following data has been collected from plant and
small, the harmonic injection becomes a significant issue grid.
when the capacity of a grid-connected power plant is hundreds
of megawatts.

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 Table 2. Shadiwal to Grid data
Name of Plant Shadiwal Hydel Power Now let us see impedance-frequency responses of our system.
Station
Impedance
Capacity of Plant 13.5 MW 15000

Rating of Step up 5MVA

Transformers 11/132KV

Impedance (ohms)
10000
Per phase
reactance of step 8%
5000
up Transformer
Length of Line 10 Km
Spacing between Horizontal 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
conductors D12=2.4384m Frequency (Hz)

D23=2.4384m
Fig. 10: Frequency Response
D13=4.8768m
Total Line 377 Ohm 1000
Impedance

Reactance
800
Total Line 12 mH

Impedance (ohms)
Inductance 600

Total Line 33 Ohm 400

Capacitive 200
reactance
0
Total Line 0.1 µF 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
Frequency (Hz)
Capacitance
KVAR of 400 KVAR Fig. 11: Zoom View of frequency response
Capacitor Banks
In the above response, system resonates near 3400Hz.
Per phase 0.073 µF
capacitance of IV. CONCLUSIONS
banks Addition of a distributed generation source into a system
Collector cable 500 mm²(1000 MCM) may cause parallel resonance and harmonics in the system
Size
which affects the power system badly. Sources of theses
No. of per phase 3
collector cables distortions in voltage and current levels may be
Collector cable’s 0.1 µF transformer reactance, line reactance, capacitor banks,
capacitance collector cables etc. The number of resonances is likely
equal to the number of physical and equivalent capacitors
Table 3. Data for components in Fig.8
(cables, capacitor banks etc). The effect of capacitive
Case T1 T2 X2 L1 L2 elements on resonance appears to be decoupled. Each
X1
/Plot 11/132 132/11 𝛀 mH mH
𝛀 capacitive element contributes to a resonance. Such is a
kv kV 𝑽𝟐𝑳 𝑽𝟐𝑳
5 6 � � � � 𝑿𝟏 𝑿𝟐 case of Shadiwal Hydel power station. In the context, the
No. MVA MVA 𝑴𝑽𝑨 𝑴𝑽𝑨
/𝟐𝝅𝒇 /𝟐𝝅𝒇 effect of connecting Shadiwal Hydel power station to the
X% X% × 𝟖% × 𝟖%
nearest grid (Gujrat old grid) is surveyed and results for the
level of parallel resonance are analysed.
1 8 8 278 232 887 740

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 V. REFERENCES

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harmonic impedance”, Working group CC02, Cigre
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[2] M. Lemoine; “Methods of measuring

harmonic impedances”, IEE, International
Conference on Electricity Distribution, 1977.

[3] Roger Dugan, "Electric power system

harmonic design guide" report for the US department
of energy.

[4] E. W. Gunther, "Interharmonics in Power

Systems", IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer
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[5] D. Patel, "Impact of Wind Turbine

Generators on Network Resonance and Harmonic
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[6] G. J. Wakileh, "Power System Harmonics -

Fundamentals, Analysis and Filter Design", Springer,
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[7] H. D. Young and R.A. Freedman, "Sears

and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern
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[8] Fox. B, Flynn. D, Malley.O. M, Bryans .L

and Watson. R; "Wind Power Integration Connection
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[9] C. H. Chien and R. Bucknall, "Harmonic

Calculations of Proximity Effect on Impedance
Characteristics in Subsea Power Transmission
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[10] L. Xiaodong and W. M. Jackson, "Influence

of Subsea Cables on Offshore Power Distribution
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