MODULE 2: HARMONICS

In a modern power system, due to broader applications of nonlinear loads such as power
electronic equipment or arc furnaces, the degree of waveform distorted is increasingly serious
now. These loads may cause poor power factors, lead to voltage notch, or result in a high degree
of harmonics. Such cases have brought the power quality as an increasing concern Therefore;
efficient solutions for solving these pollution problems have become highly critical for both
utilities and customers.
HARMONICS
When a nonlinear load is supplied from a supply voltage of 60-Hz or 50-Hz frequency, it
draws currents at more than one frequency, resulting in a distorted current waveform. Fourier
analysis of this distorted current waveform resolves it into its fundamental component and
different harmonics.
Harmonics are sinusoidal voltages or currents having frequencies that are integer
multiples of the fundamental frequency (usually 60 Hz or 50 Hz in power systems).
Harmonic distortion is a growing concern for many customers and the utilities because of
increasing application of power electronics equipment.

Where do the harmonics come from:

When a non-linear load draws current, that current passes through all of the impedance
that is between the load and the system source. As a result of the current flow, harmonic voltages
are produced by impedance in the system.

These voltages sum and when added to the nominal voltage produce voltage distortion. The
magnitude of the voltage distortion depends on the source impedance and the harmonic
voltages produced.

If the source impedance is low then the voltage distortion will be low. If a significant portion
of the load becomes non-linear (harmonic currents increase) and/or (system impedance
increases), the voltage can increase dramatically.

Usually, the higher-order harmonics (above the range of the 25th to 50th, depending on the
system) are negligible for power system analysis. While they may cause interference with lowpower electronic devices, they are usually not damaging to the power system. It is also difficult
to collect sufficiently accurate data to model power systems at these frequencies. A common
exception to this occurs when there are system resonances in the range of frequencies. These
resonances can be excited by notching or switching transients in electronic power converters.

Causes for Harmonics

Different categories of harmonic-producing loads are supplied by the electric utilities, such as
1. Domestic loads such as fluorescent lamps, light dimmers, etc.
2. Ripple control systems for regulating hot-water loads
3. Medium-sized industrial loads such as several adjustable speed drives in
a cement mill, paper mill, etc.
4. Large loads such as high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converters, aluminum smelters, static
var compensators (SVCs), heavy single-phase ac traction loads for hauling coal trains, etc.

Common Sources of Harmonics

Fluorescent lighting

Computer switch mode power supplies

Static VAR compensators

Variable frequency motor drives (VFD)

DC-DC converters

Inverters

Television power supplies

AC or DC motor drives

Single-phase non-linear loads are prevalent in modern office buildings, while threephase, non-linear loads are widespread in factories and Industrial plants.

Effects of Harmonics
The undesirable effects of the harmonics produced by the aforementioned loads are
1. Capacitors may draw excessive current and prematurely fail from increased dielectric loss and
heating.
2. Harmonics can interfere with telecommunication systems, especially noise on telephone lines.
3. Transformers, motors, and switchgear may experience increased losses.
4. Induction motors may refuse to start (cogging) or may run at subsynchronous speeds.
5. Circuit breakers may fail to interrupt currents due to improper operation of blowout coils.
6. The timecurrent characteristics of fuses can be altered, and protective relays may experience
erratic behavior. In particular, maloperation of the relays associated with ripple control systems
can occur.

7. Errors happen in induction kilowatt-hour meters.

8. Excitation problems cause generator failure.
9. Interference occurs with large motor controllers.
10. Overvoltages and excessive currents in the system happen due to resonances of
harmonics in the network and consequent dielectric instability of insulated cables.

HARMONIC CURRENT
The rectifier, because it draws nonsinusoidal current from its source, along with notching
and ringing effects, introduces distortion to the voltage wave from the source. This is called
harmonic distortion. According to theories of waveform analysis, cyclical waveform is made up
of components consisting of fundamental sine wave plus other sine waves, called harmonics,
which are multiples of the fundamental frequency. Figure 3 shows separation of a distorted
waveform into its component parts. The nonlinear source, therefore, does not see distorted
current waveform as a single waveform, but as multiple, fundamental plus harmonic, waves.
Harmonics may have adverse effects upon the power source or other loads connected to the same
source. It is important to note loads drawing harmonic currents cause voltage distortion at the
source, the source does not produce the harmonic distortion.

Interharmonics
Interharmonics are defined as voltages or currents having frequency components
that are not integer multiples of the frequency at which the supply system is designed to operate.
The causes include induction motors, static frequency converters and arcing devices. The effects
of interharmonics are not well known.
Triplen harmonics
As previously mentioned, triplen harmonics are the odd multiples of the third harmonic (h = 3, 9,
15, 21,). They deserve special consideration because the system response is often considerably

different for triplens than for the rest of the harmonics. Triplens become an important issue for
grounded-wye systems with current flowing on the neutral.
Two typical problems are overloading the neutral and telephone interference. One also hears
occasionally of devices that misoperate because the line-to-neutral voltage is badly distorted by
the triplen harmonic voltage drop in the neutral conductor.
For the system with perfectly balanced single-phase loads illustrated in Fig below an assumption
is made that fundamental and third-harmonic components are present. Summing the currents at
node N, the fundamental current components in the neutral are found to be zero, but the thirdharmonic components are 3 times those of the phase currents because they naturally coincide in
phase and time.
Transformer winding connections have a significant impact on the flow of triplen harmonic
currents from single-phase nonlinear loads.
When the currents are balanced, the triplen harmonic currents behave exactly as zero-sequence
currents, which is precisely what they are. This type of transformer connection is the most
common employed in utility distribution substations with the delta winding connected to the
transmission feed. Using grounded-wye windings on both sides of the transformer (bottom)
allows balanced triplens to flow from the low-voltage system to the high-voltage system
unimpeded. They will be present in equal proportion on both sides. Many loads in the United
States are served in this fashion.

Some important definitions:

Harmonic:

A sinusoidal waveform with a frequency that is an integral multiple of the

fundamental 50/60 Hz frequency.

50/60 Hz fundamental
100/120 Hz 2nd harmonic
150/180 Hz 3rd harmonic
200/240 Hz 4th harmonic, etc
Triplen Harmonics: Odd multiple of the 3rd harmonic (3rd, 9th, 15th, 21st, etc.)

Harmonic Distortion: Non-linear distortion of a system characterized by the appearance in the

output of harmonic currents (voltages) when the input is sinusoidal.
Voltage Harmonic Distortion (VHD): Voltage harmonic distortion is distortion caused by
harmonic currents flowing through the system impedance.

The utility power system has

relatively low system impedance, and the VHD is very low. VHD on the distribution power
system can be significant due to its relatively high system impedance.

Harmonic Indices
The two most commonly used indices for measuring the harmonic content of a waveform are the
total harmonic distortion and the total demand distortion. Both are measures of the effective
value of a waveform and may be applied to either voltage or current.

Total harmonic distortion

The THD is a measure of the effective value of the harmonic components of a
distorted waveform. That is, it is the potential heating value of the harmonics
relative to the fundamental. This index can be calculated for either voltage or
current

where Mh is the rms value of harmonic component h of the quantity M. The rms
value of a distorted waveform is the square root of the sum of the squares as shown
in Eqs.
The THD is related to the rms value of the waveform as follows

The THD index is most often used to describe voltage harmonic distortion.
Harmonic voltages are almost always referenced to the fundamental value of the
waveform at the time of the sample. Because fundamental voltage varies by only a
few percent, the voltage THD is nearly always a meaningful number.
Variations in the THD over a period of time often follow a distinct pattern
representing nonlinear load activities in the system.
Total demand distortion
Current distortion levels can be characterized by a THD value, as has been
described, but this can often be misleading. A small current may have a high THD
but not be a significant threat to the system. For example, many adjustable-speed
drives will exhibit high THD values for the input current when they are operating
at very light loads. Some analysts have attempted to avoid this difficulty by
referring THD to the fundamental of the peak demand load current rather than
the fundamental of the present sample. This is called total demand distortion

IL is the peak, or maximum, demand load current at the fundamental frequency

component measured at the point of common coupling (PCC). There are two ways
to measure IL. With a load already in the system, it can be calculated as the
average of the maximum demand current for the preceding 12 months. The
calculation can simply be done by averaging the 12-month peak demand readings.
For a new facility, IL has to be estimated based on the predicted load profiles.

Total harmonic distortion and Power Factor

The power factor PF for any non-sinusoidal quantities is defined by:

PF

VS I S1 cos1 I S1

cos1
VS I S
IS

I S1 is the rms value of the fundamental 60Hz component of the current. The displacement power
factor (DPF, which is the same as the power factor in linear circuits with pure sinusoidal voltage
and current) is defined as the cosine of the angle 1 (angle between the fundamental-frequency
(60Hz) current and voltage waveforms) which could be written as: DPF cos1 , therefore, the
power factor PF with a nonsinusoidal current is:
PF

I S1
DPF
IS

In terms of total harmonic current distortion (THD) i , the PF and I S (the rms value of the total
current) could be written as:

PF

Where

DPF

1 THDi2

(4.1)

I S I S1 1 THD

2
i

(4.2)

From an examination of (4.1) and (4.2), we can conclude that the power factor value decreases
with any high current harmonic content or distortion (THD) i . These definitions assume that the
source voltage is near sinusoidal of fundamental frequency (maximum allowable (THD)V =5%).

Harmonics effect on induction motors:

Harmonics in the power system are generated due to the usage of non linear load. Some of the
effects of harmonics on the performance of induction machine are:

Core losses in the Induction machine increases

Torque of the Induction motor reduces

Increase in the Skin effect

Damage of the induction motor insulation

Electromagnetic Interference

Deviation in the induction motor Torque-Speed curves

Increase in Core Loss:

Core loss in any machine machine constitutes both hysteresis loss and eddy current loss.
Hysteresis loss of the induction machine is proportional to the applied frequency and eddy
current loss is proportional to the frequency squared. Frequency of the harmonics will be in the
order of the multiples of the fundamental frequency. Therefore core loss is major concern at
higher frequencies due to harmonics. Also harmonic currents and voltages reduces the overall
efficiency of the machine
Increase in Skin effect:
Increase in the harmonics frequency results in increase in skin effect tending the current to flow
on the surface of the conductor. Skin effect contributes the loss in the form of resistance to the
flow of current
Electromagnetic Interference:
Harmonics increase the Electromagnetic Interference(EMI). This EMI does not affect the motor,
however it affects the operation of nearby electronics, control and communication circuits
Reduced Motor Torque:
Fundamental frequency of the induction motor produces forward operating torque. However it is
observed that harmonics frequency will generate torque in both forward and in reverse direction.
For example 5th 7th and 11th harmonics produce torques in reverse direction and on the other hand
7th, 13th and 19th harmonics components produces torque in forward direction.5th harmonic
components will have higher magnitude compared to 7th harmonics. Hence harmonics torque
will reduce the operating torque of the machine
Deviation from Torque-Speed Characteristics:
Losses which occur due to Harmonics will cause the deviation in the torque speed characteristics
of the motor from original and affects the performance of the motor