Mitigation of Total Harmonic Distortion on Industrial Feeders (Case study: NMV/RFG/33KV/1&2 Feeder)
Abstract
Power systems are designed in such a way that they operate at fundamental frequency, that is 50Hz or 60 Hz. However nonlinear loads such as induction motors and power electronic devices produce currents and voltages which are at frequencies that are integer multiples of fundamental frequency known as harmonics. These harmonics lead to power quality issues such as voltage and current distortions, metering errors, power losses, power system instability, electromagnetic interference among others. For that matter, harmonics should be reduced in order to avoid costs and fines related to the poor-quality power.
The goal of this project is to implement and undertake a comparative analysis of Total Harmonic Distortion mitigation measures on industrial feeders using the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) and Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC). The overall performances of the devices for the all four possible arrangement options, that is, STATCOM, UPQC, STATCOM_UPQC and UPQC_STATCOM are obtained
Basing on the simulation results, it was determined that the option STATCOM_UPQC with UPQC being nearest to the load side is more efficient at mitigating harmonics thus provides the best performance.