M. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / This dissertation presents an effective method to determine current/voltage harmonic emission levels caused by various devices in the network. The method is implemented based on the existing power monitoring devices installed in power generation plants. The Digital Fault Recorders (DFRs) are used in this work as the monitoring devices. Due to the advancement of data processing and communication capabilities of such devices, a large amount of information generated by DFRs is concentrated in the utilitys head office. This data is archived for permanent storage and analysis. The presented work aims to assist the power utilities in harmonic invigilation problems based on DFRs.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται την μελέτη και το σχεδιασμό μιας τριφασικής ανορθωτικής διάταξης με την οποία επιτυγχάνεται διόρθωση του συντελεστή ισχύος. Η εργασία αυτή εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο Ηλεκτρομηχανικής Μετατροπής Ενέργειας του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών της Πολυτεχνικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Κύριος σκοπός αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η κατασκευή ενός μετατροπέα ανόρθωσης ανύψωσης ο οποίος λειτουργεί σε ασυνεχή αγωγή και μπορεί να τοποθετηθεί στην έξοδο μιας ανεμογεννήτριας σαν πρώτο στάδιο σύνδεσης με το δίκτυο. Απώτερος σκοπός είναι η πειραματική επιβεβαίωση της θεωρίας καθώς και του μηχανισμού με τον οποίο επιτυγχάνεται η διόρθωση του συντελεστή ισχύος. Αρχικά γίνεται μια γενική αναφορά στην έννοια της ποιότητας ισχύος, τα χαρακτηριστικά της μεγέθη, το συντελεστή ισχύος και τις ανώτερες αρμονικές. Επίσης αναφέρονται βασικές τριφασικές ανορθωτικές διατάξεις με διορθωμένο συντελεστή ισχύος ενώ γίνεται και μια γενική αναφορά στα αιολικά συστήματα, τον τρόπο λειτουργίας τους και την σύνδεση τους με το δίκτυο. Στη συνέχεια, αναλύεται η λειτουργία του μετατροπέα που κατασκευάστηκε κατά την διάρκεια αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας, δηλαδή τριφασικής διάταξης ανόρθωσης-ανύψωσης με ένα διακοπτικό στοιχείο, που λειτουργεί στην περιοχή ασυνεχούς αγωγής (DCM). Ο μετατροπέας αυτός θα δέχεται πολική τάση στην είσοδο του 40-100V, ανυψώνοντας την στα 350V στην έξοδο. Παράλληλα το ρεύμα εισόδου έχει μικρό αρμονικό περιεχόμενο επιτυγχάνοντας έναν υψηλό συντελεστή ισχύος. Το επόμενο βήμα είναι η μοντελοποίηση και η προσομοίωση του μετατροπέα σε περιβάλλον Matlab/Simulink έτσι ώστε να εξακριβωθεί η ορθή λειτουργία του σύμφωνα με τη θεωρητική ανάλυση. Τέλος, μελετάται και κατασκευάζεται στο εργαστήριο η πειραματική διάταξη με την οποία διεξάγονται μετρήσεις για την επιβεβαίωση και αξιολόγηση της θεωρητικής μελέτης. / In this diploma thesis the analysis and design of a three phase rectifier achieving high power factor are presented. This work was developed in the Laboratory of Electromechanical Energy Conversion at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Technology of the Polytechnic School, University of Patras, Greece. The main purpose of this diploma thesis is the implementation of a Power Factor Correction Three Phase Rectifier operated in Discontinuous Current Mode (DCM) which can be used as a first stage for the connection of a small wind turbine to the grid. Through this work, the theoretical analysis and the mechanism that achieves the high power factor are verified through the implementation of a laboratory prototype. Initially, the concepts of power quality, power factor and high order harmonics are explained. Furthermore, some common power factor correction rectifier topologies are reported as well as a reference on wind turbines, their operation and their connection to the grid. Secondly, the working principle of the Single Switch Power Factor Correction DCM Boost Rectifier is presented. This converter is designed to rectify and boost the voltage of a small wind turbine, varying between 40 and 100V line to line rms, to 350Vdc. In addition the converter’s input current presents low harmonic distortion which results in a high power factor. The following step is to model and simulate the converter in Matlab/Simulink in order to verify its operation based on the theoretical analysis. Finally, a laboratory prototype is designed and implemented, on which experiments are conducted, in order to verify and evaluate the theoretical study.

A model of the accurate harmonic allocation methods is developed to improve the current emission limits of IEEE Std.519. IEC 61000-3-6 and IEEE Std. 519 have by now been accepted as two well known standards for interconnecting the MV and HV-EHV customers to utility systems and widely adopted as standards to many power utilities. It is worth noting that the harmonic current emission limits of both standards have not been compared and justified with analytical proofs because there is still no explanation that discusses the origin of the emission limits in IEEE Std. 519, or the complex feature of IEC 61000-3-6. Two new novel methods of allocating the harmonic current emission limits for MV customers and HV-EHV customers have been proposed. Both methods have been developed in accordance with the principles of IEC 61000-3-6. Task II has compared and investgated the emission limits of both IEC 61000-3-6 and IEEE Std. 519. The difference, inconsistency and inaccuracy have been proven with the perspective of practical evaluations based on their own principles. The investigations focus on the specific numerical proofs of the resulting voltage distortions and the current emission limits in the MV and HV-EHV systems rather than on the philosophies. The proposed methods strongly support IEC 61000-3-6 and IEEE Std. 519, and add to their value; these methods could also help utilities allocate fairly and accurately harmonic emission limits to their MV and HV-EHV customers.

No description available.

Current practice in U.S. underground coal mine high-voltage distribution systems is to attempt to limit ground fault current to 25 Amperes and de-energize the circuit at 10 Amperes. However, the significant amount of system capacitance due to the use of shielded cables can cause ground fault current to be two or three times the intended ground fault limit. Consequently, this practice can cause several issues such as ground fault currents significantly exceeding the neutral grounding resistor current limit, loss of relay selectivity in the distribution system, and transient overvoltages in certain ground fault situations. These issues are solved to some extent by using a resonance grounded system, currently used in some other countries. However, a shortcoming of traditional resonance grounded systems is the inability to deal with the harmonic components existing in ground fault current. With the increasing use of nonlinear sources such as variable frequency drives, the proportion of harmonic components in ground fault current can be significant. Consequently, although the fundamental component can be almost fully compensated in a traditional resonance grounded system, the harmonic components can still be large enough to maintain arcing and cause personal injury and equipment damage. In this dissertation, a novel method is developed to perform real-time prediction of the harmonics in ground fault currents. Methods for neutralizing the ground fault current harmonics and identifying ground fault location are also developed. Results indicate that the combination of traditional high-resistance grounding and active current injection to neutralize harmonics in the ground fault has the potential to significantly reduce the total ground fault current and reduce arc and flash hazards during ground faults in high voltage distribution systems.

This thesis deals with the design and implementation of a feedback control scheme for a DC Hybrid Active Power Filter used to filter harmonics from a Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) Drive load. Power electronic systems are non-linear & dynamic [1,3,5]. Power electronic systems employ switching circuits to maximize their efficiency at the penalty that switching circuits generate electrical noise called ripple current and voltage or conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI). The ripple current drawn by the power electronic systems needs to be attenuated to an acceptable level. Filters attenuate this to an acceptable level. Traditionally filters with passive inductors and capacitors are used. Active filters contain switching elements in addition to passive inductors and capacitors which reduce overall size of passive components used. Two control approaches, full-state state space, and plain proportional feedback, are evaluated for this filter. Circuit models are simulated in SPICE and mathematical models are simulated in Matlab/Simulink for evaluating these control approaches. Proportional feedback control was chosen for implementation and the reason for this is provided in the thesis. The active filter was tested with chosen feedback control and experimental results were compared with simulation results. Inferences and scope for further work are finally presented.

With the continuous growth of non-linear power electronic components and the increasing penetration of the distributed generation (DG), the potential for degradation in the power quality of the existing grid exists. There are concerns that the total harmonic distortion (THD) could reach unacceptable levels of 5% or higher. Moreover, there is additional potential of the presence of amplified harmonic components in the power network grid when the harmonic frequencies align with the resonant frequencies that are being injected by power electronic components of the DG. The above conditions could increase the electrical stresses on the insulation system of the power system components, and in particular, cable terminations are a concern. Standard cable terminations are designed to operate under power frequency in the power system network and their service life is considered accordingly. The research work aims to provide an understanding of the performance of the stress grading (SG) system of a commercial cable termination when the voltage waveform is distorted due to the presence of harmonics and when the high frequency and high dV/dt voltage waveforms are present from a typical power electronic drive. An aging experiment was performed for over a 600 hour time period using the pulse width modulated (PWM) high-voltage generator to quantify the impact of high frequency stress on SG system of cable termination. Furthermore, the cable termination was tested under power frequency, distorted voltage waveforms composed of fundamental and low order harmonics using an experiment setup that generate distorted voltage waveforms. Diagnostic techniques such as surface potential distribution measurements and surface temperature monitoring are used to analyze the termination performance. The surface tangential field is calculated based on the gradient of the termination surface potential as measured with an electrostatic voltmeter. The study shows that distorted voltage waveforms with high frequency and high dV/dt components, increase the electric field, resistive heating, and surface temperature rise in the terminations that use the field-dependent SG materials. The rise of electric field by as high as 27.1% and surface temperature rise of as high as 17C demonstrates the severity on the cable terminations. Such electric field enhancements for a period of time have a potential to initiate partial discharge that could lead to degradation of the termination. Moreover, surface temperature rise of 17 deg C could reduce the allowable ampacity of the cable conductor, reduce the short circuit levels, and reduce the feeder loading limits. The field-dependent electrical conductivity (σ(E,T)), permittivity (ε), and the temperature dependencies of (σ(E,T) and ε) have strong impact to degrade the electrical and thermal properties of the termination due to stress from the non-sinusoidal distorted voltage waveform. In order to minimize the surface temperature rise from the hotspot and electrical stress enhancement that eventually lead to insulation degradation and failure, the following recommendations are made for a suitable SG design for a termination to handle the severe voltage stress: Apply the capacitively graded termination in the grid where the distortion levels are low. Under the increased total harmonic distortion levels and HF components, resistively grading with higher degree of nonlinearity (achieved through the use of ZnO filler) is beneficial. The utilities could take preventive maintenance on medium voltage power cable accessories to prevent the termination failure before it actually occurs. Researchers could focus to resolve and minimize the rising power quality issues when the distribution generations are operated, improve the power electronic converters, and provide cost-effective harmonic filter solutions for harmonic mitigation.

Power system harmonics and interharmonics are power quality concerns that have received a great deal of attention in recent years. These phenomena can have several adverse effects on power system operation. The main harmonic and interharmonic sources are devices based on power electronics. An emerging class of harmonic sources is comprised of power electronic-based home appliances. These appliances are dispersed throughout the low-voltage distribution system, and their collective impact can result in unacceptable levels of voltage distortion. The characterization of home appliances based on their harmonic currents is an important step toward understanding the impact of these devices. This thesis presents an evaluation of the relative severity of the harmonic currents from these devices, and the impact of the disparity of the harmonic current phase angles. Typically, the voltage supplied to each harmonic source is already distorted. This distortion causes a change of the harmonic current magnitudes (traditionally referred to as the attenuation effect). Common harmonic analysis methods cannot take this variation into account because they use a typical harmonic current source model specified by a supply voltage having little or no distortion. This thesis characterizes the harmonic attenuation effect of power electronic-based appliances. One of the findings is that harmonic amplification, rather than attenuation, can occur under credible voltage conditions. This finding had not been made previously. In order to include the harmonic attenuation/amplification in appliance modeling, a measurement-based harmonic modeling technique is proposed. One of the most economic and effective ways to mitigate harmonics in power systems is through the use of harmonic shunt passive filters. These filters can be of many topologies. Selecting these topologies is a task that, today, depends on the experience and judgment of the filter designer. An investigation is carried out on the common filter topologies, and the most cost-effective topologies for mitigating harmonics are identified. As many of the larger harmonic loads also generate interharmonics, interharmonics have become prevalent in today’s medium-voltage distribution system. Mitigation cannot be carried out until the interharmonic-source location is known. A method for interharmonic source determination is proposed and then verified through simulation and field measurement studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-80). Also available on the Internet.