This thesis deals primarily with the simulation and analysis of shunt active power filters (APF) on a three-phase power distribution system possessing a harmonic generating load. The shunt active power filters are analyzed based on effective total harmonic distortion (THD) levels and response to changing dynamics. These results are derived from the simulation of a pulse-width modulation (PWM) controlled voltage source inverter (VSI) with a capacitor connected to the DC side of the VSI. The primary difference between individual simulations is the particular control law implemented in the shunt APF.

Firstly, this thesis investigates the electrical power harmonics in an attempt to utilize harmonic current and its distortion power in a novel idea to reconvert the distortion power into useful power. This is done, in order to feed different DC or AC loads in single and three-phase power system by using passive or active filters and accordingly, develop a new topology of hybrid active power filter (HAPF). In addition, this circuit can be considered as a power factor corrector (PFC) because it reduces the total harmonic distortion (THD) and improves the power factor (PF). Secondly, this thesis works on a new design of active power factor correction (APFC) circuit presenting two circuits with the same design principle: the first design consists of two active switches without an external complex control circuit, while the second design contains a single active switch with an additional control circuit. The main contribution of this circuit is 98% reduction of the inductor's value used in the newly proposed PFC circuit in comparison with the conventional boost converter which may lead to a huge reduction in size, weight and the cost of the new PFC circuit. Also, the active switches depend on a carefully designed switching pattern that results in an elimination of the third order harmonic from the input source current which decreases the value of total current harmonic distortion (THDI) to (14%) and improves the input PF to (0.99). Consequently, the simplicity of the design without requiring a complex control circuit and without a snubber circuit plus the minimum size of inductor, gives the newly proposed circuit the superiority on other PFC circuits. Thirdly, this research aims to describe the distortion power through submitting two novel power terms called effective active power (Pef ) & reactive power (Qef ) terms with a new power diagram called Right-Angled Power Triangle (RAPT) Diagram. In addition, a novel de nition of total apparent power (St) has been submitted in order to illustrate the physical meaning of (St) in non-sinusoidal systems. The new RAPT Diagram is based on the orthogonality law and depends on geometrical summation to describe the relationship between different aspects (apparent-active-reactive) of power, and different components (total-fundamental distortion), drawing a bridge to connect the time domain with the frequency domain in a two-dimensional diagram.

Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo apresentar um estudo, uma modelagem e uma simulação de um inversor de comutação suave para aplicação em um filtro ativo para instalações de baixa e média potência. Inicialmente apresenta uma revisão bibliográfica sobre inversores de comutação suave, onde os mesmos são classificados em função do local onde o circuito auxiliar de comutação suave está inserido, gerando três classificações básicas: comutação de linha, comutação de carga e comutação de chave. Três processos de comutação suave são apresentados: comutação em zero de tensão, comutação em zero de corrente e comutação em zero de corrente e zero de tensão. Dentro deste contexto apresentam-se as diversas topologias de inversores de comutação suave. Uma análise de comutação de um inversor em um filtro ativo monofásico é apresentada e o inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares é selecionado para ser aplicado no referido filtro. Uma modelagem completa do inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares é apresentada e corroborada pela comparação dos resultados de simulação obtidos a partir do modelo teórico com os resultados obtidos por meio de simulações realizadas no SPICE. A Modelagem do inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares culmina em uma nova metodologia de projeto, onde é possível determinar com grande exatidão a máxima corrente de carga para a qual o inversor ainda opera no modo ZCT. Diversas simulações realizadas no Simulink/Matlab e no SPICE comprovam as comutações suaves em zero de corrente nas chaves do inversor e também o desempenho dinâmico do mesmo quando operando em um filtro ativo paralelo. / This work shows the study, the selection and the analysis of a soft-switched inverter for an ac single-phase active power filter. For this, various topologies of the soft-switched inverters are classified based upon the location of the auxiliary circuit and the topology that achieves the goals for application in the active power filter is selected. Three commutation processes are presented: zero voltage switching (ZVS), zero current switching (ZCS) and zero current and zero voltage switching (ZCZVS). The ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches is selected for the application in an ac single-phase active power filter: this topology reduces the turn-on losses and practically eliminates the turn-off losses of all IGBTs of the inverter. Some new guidelines to project the ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches are presented, achieving an accurate calculation of the maximum load current for operation in ZCT. The results of the simulation from Simulink/Matlab and SPICE prove some goals of the ZCT inverter: the ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches reduces the total losses when compared with the hard-commutation inverter and the dynamic performance of the ZCT inverter applied in an ac single-phase active power filter is showed.

É cada vez maior a preocupação com a qualidade da energia elétrica tanto do ponto de vista do consumidor quanto da concessionária. Um dos grandes problemas encontrados é o desequilíbrio de correntes trifásicas devido à utilização de cargas monofásicas, bifásicas ou trifásicas desequilibradas em sistemas trifásicos de potência. Para eliminar esse desequilíbrio é necessária a identificação da parcela de corrente de seqüência negativa presente no sistema e sua eliminação. A injeção das correntes de compensação via conversores estáticos operando em PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) é uma das soluções aplicadas. Esta solução exige o cálculo em tempo real da componente instantânea de seqüência negativa, que será utilizada para a obtenção da referência de corrente do conversor. Neste trabalho, alguns dos métodos mais conhecidos para a determinação das correntes de referências são agrupados segundo suas características comuns e suas notações são uniformizadas. Estes métodos são simulados e comparados segundo suas características a partir de resultados obtidos via simulação numérica utilizando o software MATLAB (Simulink-Power System Blockset). Um novo método é proposto para a extração em tempo real da componente da corrente de seqüência negativa, apresentando um bom desempenho em comparação com os outros métodos. O desempenho de um compensador completo é verificado via simulação numérica, utilizando-se um conversor do tipo fonte de tensão operando em PWM, incluindo as malhas de controle de corrente do lado CA e da tensão no barramento CC. As metodologias do projeto do conversor (indutor CA e capacitor CC) e das malhas de controle (rastreamento da corrente CA e regulação da tensão CC) são apresentadas. / The concern with the power quality is great, not only from the consumer\'s point of view but also from the utilities point of view. One of the most common problems is the unbalanced three-phase currents due to the use of single-phase loads, two-phase loads or unbalanced three-phase loads in three-phase power systems. In order to eliminate this unbalance it is necessary to identify the negative sequence components of the load current and to eliminate it. The injection of the compensating currents by means of static converters using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is one possible solution. This solution needs an algorithm for the real time extraction of the negative sequence component that will be used for generating the reference current for the converter. In this work, well-known methods for determination of the reference currents are organized and explained according to their common characteristics. All the methods have their simbology unified and their performance are compared based on simulation results. A new method, faster than the existing ones, is proposed. It is fully simulated using a voltage source converter operating with PWM. Design methodologies are proposed for the converter (AC inductor, DC capacitor) and for the control loops (AC current tracking and DC voltages regulation).

É cada vez maior a preocupação com a qualidade da energia elétrica tanto do ponto de vista do consumidor quanto da concessionária. Um dos grandes problemas encontrados é o desequilíbrio de correntes trifásicas devido à utilização de cargas monofásicas, bifásicas ou trifásicas desequilibradas em sistemas trifásicos de potência. Para eliminar esse desequilíbrio é necessária a identificação da parcela de corrente de seqüência negativa presente no sistema e sua eliminação. A injeção das correntes de compensação via conversores estáticos operando em PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) é uma das soluções aplicadas. Esta solução exige o cálculo em tempo real da componente instantânea de seqüência negativa, que será utilizada para a obtenção da referência de corrente do conversor. Neste trabalho, alguns dos métodos mais conhecidos para a determinação das correntes de referências são agrupados segundo suas características comuns e suas notações são uniformizadas. Estes métodos são simulados e comparados segundo suas características a partir de resultados obtidos via simulação numérica utilizando o software MATLAB (Simulink-Power System Blockset). Um novo método é proposto para a extração em tempo real da componente da corrente de seqüência negativa, apresentando um bom desempenho em comparação com os outros métodos. O desempenho de um compensador completo é verificado via simulação numérica, utilizando-se um conversor do tipo fonte de tensão operando em PWM, incluindo as malhas de controle de corrente do lado CA e da tensão no barramento CC. As metodologias do projeto do conversor (indutor CA e capacitor CC) e das malhas de controle (rastreamento da corrente CA e regulação da tensão CC) são apresentadas. / The concern with the power quality is great, not only from the consumer\'s point of view but also from the utilities point of view. One of the most common problems is the unbalanced three-phase currents due to the use of single-phase loads, two-phase loads or unbalanced three-phase loads in three-phase power systems. In order to eliminate this unbalance it is necessary to identify the negative sequence components of the load current and to eliminate it. The injection of the compensating currents by means of static converters using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is one possible solution. This solution needs an algorithm for the real time extraction of the negative sequence component that will be used for generating the reference current for the converter. In this work, well-known methods for determination of the reference currents are organized and explained according to their common characteristics. All the methods have their simbology unified and their performance are compared based on simulation results. A new method, faster than the existing ones, is proposed. It is fully simulated using a voltage source converter operating with PWM. Design methodologies are proposed for the converter (AC inductor, DC capacitor) and for the control loops (AC current tracking and DC voltages regulation).

Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo apresentar um estudo, uma modelagem e uma simulação de um inversor de comutação suave para aplicação em um filtro ativo para instalações de baixa e média potência. Inicialmente apresenta uma revisão bibliográfica sobre inversores de comutação suave, onde os mesmos são classificados em função do local onde o circuito auxiliar de comutação suave está inserido, gerando três classificações básicas: comutação de linha, comutação de carga e comutação de chave. Três processos de comutação suave são apresentados: comutação em zero de tensão, comutação em zero de corrente e comutação em zero de corrente e zero de tensão. Dentro deste contexto apresentam-se as diversas topologias de inversores de comutação suave. Uma análise de comutação de um inversor em um filtro ativo monofásico é apresentada e o inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares é selecionado para ser aplicado no referido filtro. Uma modelagem completa do inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares é apresentada e corroborada pela comparação dos resultados de simulação obtidos a partir do modelo teórico com os resultados obtidos por meio de simulações realizadas no SPICE. A Modelagem do inversor ZCT com duas chaves auxiliares culmina em uma nova metodologia de projeto, onde é possível determinar com grande exatidão a máxima corrente de carga para a qual o inversor ainda opera no modo ZCT. Diversas simulações realizadas no Simulink/Matlab e no SPICE comprovam as comutações suaves em zero de corrente nas chaves do inversor e também o desempenho dinâmico do mesmo quando operando em um filtro ativo paralelo. / This work shows the study, the selection and the analysis of a soft-switched inverter for an ac single-phase active power filter. For this, various topologies of the soft-switched inverters are classified based upon the location of the auxiliary circuit and the topology that achieves the goals for application in the active power filter is selected. Three commutation processes are presented: zero voltage switching (ZVS), zero current switching (ZCS) and zero current and zero voltage switching (ZCZVS). The ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches is selected for the application in an ac single-phase active power filter: this topology reduces the turn-on losses and practically eliminates the turn-off losses of all IGBTs of the inverter. Some new guidelines to project the ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches are presented, achieving an accurate calculation of the maximum load current for operation in ZCT. The results of the simulation from Simulink/Matlab and SPICE prove some goals of the ZCT inverter: the ZCT inverter with 2 auxiliaries switches reduces the total losses when compared with the hard-commutation inverter and the dynamic performance of the ZCT inverter applied in an ac single-phase active power filter is showed.

The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, in particular Photovoltaic (PV) production units, and the ever-growing use of power electronics-based equipment has led to specific concern about Power Quality (PQ) in the Low-Voltage (LV) grid. These include high- and low-order current harmonics as well as voltage distortion at the point of common coupling. Solutions to overcome these issues, meeting international grid codes, are being proposed in the context of smart energy management schemes.This work proposes a novel three-phase topology for a PV system with enhanced PQ mitigation functionality, tackling the corresponding control challenges.First, a single-stage current-source inverter PV system with active filtering capability is preferred to the more common two-stage voltage-source inverter topology with additional voltage-step-up converter. The system also guarantees a nearly unitary displacement power factor in the connection to the grid and allows for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) with direct control of the PV array power. The grid-synchronised dq-axis grid current references are generated for the mitigation of nonlinear load low-order current harmonics, without the need for additional measurements. Active damping is used to minimise grid-side filter losses and reduce high-order harmonics resulting from the converter switching.Results on a 500W laboratory prototype confirm that active damping reduces the switching harmonics in the grid currents and active filtering properly mitigates the low-order current harmonics. The MPPT algorithm works effectively for various irradiance variations. Second, a PV system with a novel Indirect Matrix Converter (IMC)-based unified power quality conditioner topology is developed for enhanced current and voltage compensation capability, with compactness and reliability advantages. PQ issues such as current harmonics, and voltage sags, swells, undervoltage and overvoltage are mitigated by the shunt and series converters, respectively.The more common Space Vector Modulation (SVM) method used in IMCs is developed for this specific topology. In particular, a new shunt converter modulation method is proposed to additionally control the PV array current with zero switching vectors, resulting in a specific switching sequence.A direct sliding mode control method is also studied separately for the shunt and series converters, so that the zero-vector modulation method of the shunt converter can be used, with no sensitive synchronisation of the switching signals; this contrasts with the SVM method. A new dc link voltage modulation method with 12 voltage zones, instead of 6, is proposed to help overcome the limitation in the choice of shunt converter switching vectors due to the positive dc link voltage constraint.Results are obtained for the direct method on a 1 kW laboratory prototype with optimised IMC dc link connection and alternative shunt converter switching transitions to guarantee a positive dc link voltage. Current and voltage compensation capabilities are confirmed by tests in various operating conditions. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Dans une large variété d'applications industrielles, il existe une demande croissante pour améliorer la qualité de l'énergie fournie par les systèmes électriques. En plus de la fiabilité et de la disponibilité d'énergie électrique, la qualité de la puissance fournie devient maintenant une question importante. Parmi les causes de la pauvre qualité de puissance, les harmoniques sont considérés comme la raison qui contribue à la majorité de pannes de courant. Beaucoup d'efforts ont été développés pour résoudre le problème des perturbations harmoniques comme, par exemple, installer des dispositifs spéciaux tels que les filtres actifs. Ce travail de thèse traite le développement d’une commande directe de puissance utilisant l'approche prédictive hybride. La commande hybride considère chaque vecteur de tension du convertisseur comme une entité discrète qui sera appliquée pour commander un système linéaire continu. Un critère pour calculer le vecteur optimal de tension à appliquer sera établi à partir d’un modèle prédictif. Le vecteur optimal de tension à appliquer pour chaque période de commutation, et le correspondant temps d'application seront utilisés pour approcher la valeur réelle des variables d'état du système au point de référence désiré. Deux théories de puissance instantanées seront employées, p-q et p-q-r, pour une application de filtre active parallèle de puissance dans un système triphasé de 4 fils. Ces théories instantanées de puissance ont été développées pour être appliquées aux systèmes non équilibrés utilisant les variables de puissance pour obtenir les courants qui devraient être injectés par le filtre actif. Le filtre actif produira la puissance réactive demandée par la charge et compensera la composante d'ondulation de la puissance active de sorte que la source livre seulement la puissance active constante. / In a wide variety of industrial applications, an increasing demand exists to improve the quality of the energy provided by electrical systems. Besides the reliability and availability of electric power, the power quality is now becoming an important issue. Among the causes of the poor power quality, the harmonics are included as the reason which contributes the majority of power failures. Many efforts have been developed to solve the harmonics problem as, for instance, to install special devices such as active filters. This research work deals with the development of direct power control using the hybrid predictive control approach. The hybrid control considers each voltage vector of the converter as a discrete entity which will be applied to control a continuous linear system. One criterion to calculate the optimal voltage vector to apply will be established for the predictive control model. The optimal voltage vector to apply for each switching period, and the corresponding application time will be used to approach the actual value of the state variables of the system to the desired reference point. Two instantaneous power theories will be used, i.e. pq0 and pqr instantaneous power theory for a shunt active power filter application implemented in 3-phase 4-wire system. These instantaneous power theories have been developed to be applied to unbalanced systems using the power variables to obtain the currents that should be injected from active filters. The active filter will produce the required reactive power for the load and compensate the ripple component of active power so that the source only delivers constant active power.

This dissertation presents voltage stabilization techniques for flying capacitors used in soft-switching multilevel active power filters. The proposed active filter has proved to be a solution for power system harmonics produced by static high power converters. However, voltage unbalance of the clamping capacitors in the active filter in practical applications was observed due to its unequal parameters. Thus, the fundamentals of flying capacitors were characterized dealing with voltage balancing between flying capacitors and dc capacitors under practical operation, rather than ideal conditions. The study of voltage balancing provides the fundamental high-level solutions to flying capacitor based multilevel converter and inverter applications without additional passive balancing circuits. The use of proposed voltage balancing techniques made it possible to have a simple structure for solving the problems associated with the conventional bulky passive resistors and capacitor banks. Furthermore, the proposed control algorithms can be implemented with a real time digital signal processor. It can achieve the high performance of the active filter by compensating an adaptive gain to the controller. The effectiveness of the proposed controller was confirmed through various simulations and experiments. The focus of this study is to identify and develop voltage stabilization techniques for flying capacitors used in a proposed active filter. The voltage unbalance is investigated and characterized to provide safe operations. After having defined the problems associated with the voltage unbalance, the most important voltage stabilization techniques are proposed to solve this problem, in conjunction with an instantaneous reactive power (IRP) control of an active filter. In order to reduce the switching losses and improve the efficiency of the active filter, the proposed soft-switching techniques were evaluated through simulation and experimentation. Experimental results indicate that the proposed active filter achieved zero-voltage conditions in all of the main switches and zero-current turn-off conditions to the auxiliary switches during commutation processes. Also, various studies on soft-switching techniques, multilevel inverters, control issues and dynamics of the proposed active filter are discussed and analyzed in depth. / Ph. D.

Multi-pulse converters have been widely used for a multi-megawatt scale power generating system to comply with harmonic regulations. Among all types of multi-pulse converters, a 12-pulse converter is the most widely used due to the simple structure, which consists of a delta-delta and a delta-wye phase-shift transformer pair and it effectively mitigates undesirable harmonics from the nonlinear load. In the early 2000s, a shunt type passive front-end for a shipboard power system was proposed. By shunting the two gensets with 30° phase angle difference, a single phase-shift transformer effectively eliminates 5th and 7th harmonics. It achieves a significant size and weight reduction compared to a 12-pulse converter while keep the comparable harmonic cancellation performance. Recently, a hybrid type front-end was proposed. On top of the passive front-end, 3 phase active power filter was added and an additional harmonic cancellation was achieved to further eliminate 11th and 13th harmonics. However, the performance of both the passive and hybrid type front-end are highly dependent on the size of the line reactor in ac mains. A back to back active power filter is proposed in this dissertation to replace the phase-shift transformer in the multi-generator power architecture. The proposed front-end does not include phase-shift transformer and the size and the weight of the overall front-end can be significantly reduced. Due to the active harmonic compensation, the back to back front-end achieves better power quality and the line reactor dependency is improved. The number of required dc-link capacitors is reduced by half by introducing a back to back configuration and the capacitor size is reduced by adjusting the phase angle difference of genset to cancel out the most significant voltage harmonics in the shared dc-link bus. The overview of the existing shunt type front-end is provided and the concept of back to back active power filter is validated by simulation and prototype hardware. The comparison between existing front-end and the proposed front-end is provided to highlight the superior performance of back to back active front-end. The dc-link bus current and voltage ripple analysis is provided to explain the dc-link ripple reduction mechanism. / Doctor of Philosophy / The transportation electrification has gained more and more attention due to its smaller carbon dioxide emission, better fuel efficiency. The recent advances in power devices, microcontrollers, and transducers accelerate the electrification of transportation. This trend is shown in the propulsion system in marine transport as well and the electric propulsion system has been widely used to meet the strict environmental regulations. However, the non-linear circuit components such as capacitor and diode in the electric propulsion system draw non-linear current and significantly deteriorate power quality and lead to critical problems such as reduced life span of circuit components Accordingly, a front-end is required to improve power quality. Also, it is desired to have compact and lightweight front-end for installation flexibility and fuel efficiency improvement. In this dissertation, several front-ends using a phase-shift transformer are reviewed and a detailed analysis is provided to help understand the harmonic cancellation principle of the existing front-end through equivalent circuit analysis, quantitative analysis, and a phasor diagram representation. Based on the analysis of the existing front-ends and shipboard power architecture, lightweight and high-performance front-end is proposed and verified by simulation and prototype hardware. The performance, size comparison between existing front-end and the proposed front-end is provided to show the advantage of the proposed front-end.