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Harmonic Emission Level Estimation Based on
Measurements at the Point of Evaluation
T. Pfajfar, Member, IEEE, I. Papič, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract--Two methods for determination of harmonic
emission levels at the point of evaluation are discussed in this
paper. A method based on harmonic voltage and current phasor
measurements is compared with the method based on long
duration measurements of harmonic current and voltage
magnitudes. One-week measurements were carried out to
estimate customer harmonic emission levels using the two
methods, and results were compared. Both methods produced
comparable results and enabled the assessment of harmonic
emission levels without switching maneuvers or disturbing the
operation of any customer load. However, the method based on
harmonic current magnitude measurements shows certain
advantages as it does not require harmonic phase angle
information. Both methods require the network harmonic
impedance information, although reference impedances can be
used to estimate the harmonic emission levels.
Index Terms--Harmonic emission level, harmonic phasor,
harmonic magnitude, reference impedances.
I. INTRODUCTION
H armonic distortion remains an important issue in power
networks. Utilities are aware of the harmonics impact on
power quality. A proper determination and quantification
policy for harmonic emission levels could help restrain
harmonic distortion in power networks. For example, an
incentive based policy could compel customers to keep the
harmonic emission levels inside required limits, but an
assessment of the harmonic emission levels remains a
challenging issue. Within the IEC, a new Technical Report
61000-3-6 [1] was prepared and basic guidelines on the
assessment of the harmonic emission levels are provided.
However, the methods for determining the harmonic emission
levels remain complex and difficult to use in practice. In
recent years many techniques were proposed to determine the
harmonic emission levels but for various reasons none of them
is widely used in practice. The switching maneuvers of the
considered load or auxiliary elements [2] are undesirable and
often difficult to use in practice. A method based on harmonic
power flow is sensitive to the phase angle measurement error
and can lead to inadequate results [3]. On the other hand,
many methods require knowledge of the actual network data
[4, 5] which is rarely available. Promising results are obtained
T. Pfajfar is with 2e ltd., a spin-off company of the University of
Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail: tomaz.pfajfar@2-e.si).
I. Papič is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of
Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail: igor.papic@fe.uni-lj.si).
978-1-4577-1002-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
with a method based on a neural network [6] but the
practicability of the method still needs to be assessed.
Harmonic emission levels can be properly assessed with
the harmonic vector method where reference impedances are
used [7] but the method requires harmonic phase angle
measurements. As this measurements are subject to errors, the
results depend on the accuracy of measurements.
To avoid this issue, the harmonic emission levels should be
determined by a simple calculation of voltage and current
magnitudes at the point of evaluation (POE). This paper
presents a comparison of two methods where harmonic
emission levels are calculated either according to the
measured voltage and current phasors, or according to the
voltage and current magnitudes at the POE. The first approach
is based on the IEC 61000-3-6 definitions where a harmonic
emission level is defined as the magnitude of the harmonic
voltage phasor at each harmonic frequency, which is caused
by the considered installation. The second approach uses only
magnitudes of the measured harmonic current at the POE and
the harmonic voltage emission level is defined as the 95%
weekly value of the current magnitude evaluated over “short”
10-minute periods multiplied by the network harmonic
impedance. In this paper simultaneous measurements of the
harmonic voltage and current at a given customer were
performed for one week to evaluate harmonic voltage
emissions and to compare the two approaches.
II. HARMONIC EMISSION LEVEL CALCULATION BASED ON
VOLTAGE AND CURRENT PHASORS
The IEC 61000-3-6 defines the harmonic emission level as
the magnitude of the harmonic voltage (or current) phasor at
each harmonic frequency, which is caused by the considered
installation at the point of evaluation. The point of evaluation
can be the point of common coupling (PCC) or the point of
connection [1] or any other point specified by the system
operator. The proposed definition of the harmonic emission
level is illustrated in Fig. 1, where Ehc presents the voltage
emission phasor at a particular harmonic order h, Eh0 the
phasor of the background harmonic voltage and Uh the
harmonic voltage at the POE.
The harmonic emission level, i.e. the harmonic emission
phasor, is therefore the difference between the harmonic
voltage before and after the considered installation/customer is
connected to the network. The calculation of the harmonic
emission levels is based on the Thevenin equivalent circuit as
shown in Fig. 2. If the network impedances are known, the
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background harmonic voltage phasor Eh0 can be calculated

directly from the measured voltage and current at the POE (1).
The reference values can be used for network impedances.
The reference impedances can be calculated from the network
data or can be a subject of contractual agreement.
E h 0 = U h − I h ⋅ Z h − ref . (1)
Fig. 1. Harmonic emission vectors.
The voltage Eh0 presents the harmonic voltage phasor
before the considered installation or customer is connected to
the network, while the measured voltage Uh presents voltage
conditions after the customer is connected. The customer
harmonic voltage emission level can be calculated with (2):
E hc = U h − E h 0 = I h Z h − ref . (2)

The harmonic emission level is defined as follows:

E hc = I h Z h − ref . (3)

In the IEC 61000-3-6, harmonic emission is taken into Fig. 2. Thevenin equivalent circuit.
consideration, if and only if the resulting Uh has a greater
magnitude than the background voltage Eh0.

U h > E h0 . (3)

An advantage of this approach is that it does not require any

information about the customer. It also does not require any
information about the actual network impedances (use of
reference impedances). However, the calculation of the
background voltage phasor requires information about the
phase angle between the harmonic current and voltage. As it
was mentioned before, the phase angle measurements are
often subject to errors.
III. HARMONIC EMISSION LEVELS CALCULATION BASED ON
VOLTAGE AND CURRENT MAGNITUDES
Harmonic emission levels in this case are assessed through
simultaneous harmonic current magnitude measurements at
the POE during longer periods of time. The main advantage of
this approach is that it does not require any information about
the phase angle between the harmonic voltage and current.
The harmonic phase angle measurement is often subject to
measurement errors that could lead to pure estimation of the
customer harmonic emission levels. The harmonic current
emission level is defined as the 95th percentile of the values of
the harmonic current magnitude, evaluated over one week.
The harmonic voltage emission level is equal to the current
95th percentile value multiplied by the value of the network
harmonic impedance. Because it is difficult to determine the
actual network impedance the reference network impedance
could be used also in this case. Usually the installation
transformer impedance can be used as it represents more than
90% of the network impedance. The harmonic voltage
emission level is defined with (4).
E hc = I h Z h − ref . (4)
95th
Fig. 3. Thevenin equivalent circuit.
The simultaneous measurements of harmonic voltage
magnitudes can bring additional information about the
dominant distorting side (either customer or supply side).
Figure 3 shows voltage and current magnitude values where
the slopes of the straight lines indicate the magnitude of the
harmonic impedance of the network (Zh-ref) at the POE and the
magnitude of the harmonic impedance of the customer
installation (Zhc). In Fig. 3, the network side is the dominant
emitter at the POE as the points are mostly grouped along the
straight line, the slope of which is equal to Zhc. This means
that the influence of the background harmonic level is greater
than the influence of the customer.
IV. LONG DURATION SIMULTANEOUS MEASUREMENTS OF
HARMONIC VOLTAGE AND CURRENT
The comparison of the two different approaches to estimate
harmonic emissions is based on simultaneous measurements
of harmonic voltages and currents at the POE. The first
approach is based on the measured voltage and current
phasors at the POE, while the second method uses measured
harmonic current (and voltage) magnitudes.
The measurements were carried out at a 10/0.4 kV
substation feeding the customer (public building) with a large
share of nonlinear loads. An equivalent circuit of the network
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is presented in Fig. 5. The customer is connected to the

network through a 10/0.4 kV transformer (Sn=0.4 MVA,
usc=4.9 %). A capacitor bank (40 kVAr) for reactive-power
compensation is installed on the 0.4 kV side of the
transformer. The short-circuit power of the network was
estimated at 50 MVA at the 10 kV bus.
The 10-minute measurements at the POE were carried out Fig. 5. Single-phase diagram of the network at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering – public building.
over one week. A window of 10 cycles was used for the FFT
and resulting values were corrected for frequency deviations.
The sampling rate was set to 128 samples/cycle. Harmonic
emission levels were calculated as phasors for every
successive FFT value. Harmonic magnitudes and harmonic
emission levels were averaged over successive 10-minute
intervals. The results for the 5th, 7th and 11th harmonics are
presented as these are dominant in the customer's network.

A. Measurements of harmonic current magnitudes

Harmonic voltage and current magnitudes, showing 10- Fig. 6. 5th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
minute rms values measured over one week, are shown in Fig. Engineering.
6, 7 and 8. The slopes of the straight lines indicate the
reference harmonic impedance of the network (Zh-ref) and the
customer harmonic impedance (Zhc). The reference network
harmonic impedance is calculated as the sum of the short-
circuit network impedance and the supply transformer
impedance. The straight line Zhc represents the minimum value
of the measured (estimated) customer harmonic impedance.
The harmonic current emission level is the 95th percentile of
the values evaluated over one week. The harmonic voltage
emission level is the value of the harmonic current emission
level multiplied by the reference network harmonic Fig. 7. 7th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
impedance. Engineering.
The 5th order harmonic emission levels are presented in
Fig. 6. The 5th harmonic voltage emission level (95th
percentile) of the considered customer is 1.96 V and the
corresponding harmonic current emission level 17.8 A. The
average value of the 5th harmonic voltage emission level is
1.18 V and the corresponding current emission level is 10.7 A
respectively.
The 7th order harmonic emission levels are presented in
Fig. 7. The 7th harmonic voltage emission level of the
considered customer is 1 V and the harmonic current emission
level 6.46 A. The average value of the 7th harmonic voltage Fig. 8. 11th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
emission level is 0.79 V and the current emission level 5.15 A Engineering..
respectively.
The 11th order harmonic emission levels are presented in consideration of the harmonic voltage emissions only in cases
Fig. 8. The 11th harmonic voltage emission level of this when the resulting harmonic voltage Uh has a greater
customer is 0.42 V and the harmonic current emission level magnitude than the harmonic background voltage Eh0.
1.73 A. The average value of the 11th harmonic voltage The 5th harmonic voltage emission level of this customer is
emission level is 0.22 V and the current emission level 0.9 A presented in Fig. 9. If the points, where |Uh| ≤ |Eh0|, are
respectively. considered as zero emissions, the 95th percentile value of the
5th harmonic voltage emission level evaluated over one week
is 1.96 V. The average value of the 5th harmonic voltage
B. Measurements of harmonic voltage and current phasors emission level over one week is 1.06 V.
The harmonic voltage emission levels are calculated The 7th harmonic voltage emission level of this customer is
employing simultaneous measurements of voltage and current presented in Fig. 10. The 95th percentile value of the 7th
phasors at the POE. The presented results are based on harmonic voltage emission level evaluated over one week is
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0.94 V. The average value of the 5th harmonic voltage

emission level over one week is 0.21 V.
The 11th harmonic voltage emission level of this customer
is presented in Fig. 11. The 95th percentile value of the 11th
harmonic voltage emission level evaluated over one week is
0.28 V. The average value of the 5th harmonic voltage
emission level over one week is 0.07 V.
The results of harmonic voltage emission levels determined
from long duration measurements of voltage and current
magnitudes/phasors are compared in Table I. The results in
Fig. 9. 5th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
the table show that the differences in the 95th percentile values Engineering – calculation based on voltage and current phasors.
between the two approaches are relatively small for the 5th and
7th harmonic. The average values however differ significantly
and can lead to poor estimation of the harmonic emission
levels. According to the results (95th percentile values) only
current magnitude measurements are necessary to provide a
good estimate of the customer harmonic voltage emission
level. Therefore, if network harmonic impedance data is
available, the harmonic emission level assessment does not
require any harmonic phase angle measurements and any
customer data.
Fig. 10. 7th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
V. CONCLUSIONS Engineering – calculation based on voltage and current phasors.
Two methods for defining harmonic emission levels are
presented in this paper. Both discussed approaches are simple
and require voltage and current measurements at the POE. The
first method using voltage and current phasors coincides with
the definitions in the new IEC Technical Report 61000-3-6
where customer voltage harmonic emission level is calculated
on the basis of the difference in the harmonic voltage phasors
before and after the customer is connected to the network. The
main advantage of this approach is that it does not require any
customer data but information about the harmonics phase
Fig. 11. 11th order harmonic emission level at the Faculty of Electrical
angles. The second method defines the harmonic current Engineering – calculation based on voltage and current phasors.
emission level as the 95th percentile of the values of the
harmonic current magnitude, evaluated over one week. The
should be carried out.
advantage of this approach is that it does not require any
The comparison shows that the differences between the
information about the harmonic phase angles which is often
results (95th percentile values) of the two approaches are
subject to measurement errors. In both cases the network
comparable. This indicates that in certain cases no harmonic
harmonic impedances are needed to evaluate the harmonic
phase angle measurement and no customer data are necessary
voltage emission levels and long duration measurements
to properly estimate the customer harmonic emission level.
TABLE I
DIRECT COMPARISON OF THE HARMONIC EMISSION LEVELS DETERMINED WITH THE LONG DURATION MEASUREMENTS OF VOLTAGE AND CURRENT MAGNITUDES AND
PHASORS

Long duration simultaneous measurements

Harmonic voltage and current magnitudes Harmonic voltage and current phasors
Voltage emission levels Voltage emission levels
Harmonic
95th percentile value (V) average (V) 95th percentile value (V) average (V)
order

5 1.96 1.18 1.96 1.06

7 1 0.79 0.94 0.21

11 0.42 0.22 0.28 0.07


Only current magnitude measurements at the POE and the
network harmonic impedance are required to calculate the
customer harmonic emission level. Because it is difficult to
determine the actual impedance the reference network
impedance could be used. The network reference impedance
determination can be based on the network data or can be a
subject of a contractual agreement.
For practical reasons the determination of harmonic
emission levels should be a simple task. The two presented
methods indicate the right approach. The approach based on
the harmonic current magnitude measurement at the POE
shows some advantages as it is more robust and does not
require knowledge of the phase angle between the harmonic
voltage and current.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), Part 3: Limits, Section 6:
Assessment of harmonic emission limits for the connection of distorting
installations to MV, HV and EHV power systems, IEC 61000-3-6, Ed. 2,
Technical Report, August 2010.
[2] “Review of methods for measurement and evaluation of the harmonic
emission level from an individual distorting load,” CIGRE 36.05 /
CIRED 2 Joint WG CC02, 1998.
[3] W. Xu, X. Liu, Y. Liu, “An Investigation on the Validity of Power-
Direction Method for Harmonic Source Determination,” IEEE Trans.
Power Delivery, vol. 18, pp. 214-219, Jan. 2003.
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[4] W. Xu, Y. Liu, “A method for Determining Customer and Utility
Harmonic Contributions at the point of Common Coupling,” IEEE
Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 15, pp. 804-811, Apr. 2000.
[5] R. Bergeron, K. Slimani “A Method for the Determination of the
Customer Share of the Contribution to the Level of Harmonic Voltage
on an Electric Network,” IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer
Meeting, vol.1, pp. 354-360, July 1999.
[6] J. Muzamdar, R. G. Harley, F. C. Lambert, G. K. Venayagamoorthy,
“Neural Network Based Method for Predicting Nonlinear Load
Harmonics,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 22, pp.1036-
1045, May 2007.
[7] T. Pfajfar, B. Blažič, I. Papič, “Harmonic Contributions Evaluation with
the Harmonic Current Vector Method,” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery,
vol. 23, pp. 425-433, Jan. 2008.
VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Tomaž Pfajfar received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical
engineering, from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2004 and 2009,
respectively. From 2004 to 2009 he has been a researcher at the Faculty of
Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana. In 2006 he was with Arsenal Research
Distributed Generation Group in Vienna, Austria.
Currently he is the head of R&D department in 2e ltd., a spin-off company
of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His research interests include power
quality, distributed generation and active network operation.
Igor Papič received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical
engineering, from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1992, 1995 and
1998, respectively.
Currently he is a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in
Ljubljana. In 2001 he was a visiting professor at the University of Manitoba in
Winnipeg, Canada. His research interests include power quality, power system
simulations, control and modeling of FACTS devices and Power Conditioners.