Impact of Compact Fluorescent Lamp on

Power Quality
Rana A. Jabbar1, M. Al-Dabbagh2, Azah Muhammad2, R. H. Khawaja1, M. Akmal1, M. Rehan Arif1
1

Rachna College of Engineering and Technology, Gujranwala, Pakistan

2
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
principal@rcet.edu.pk

Abstract- The main emphasis of this paper is to highlight the

factors influencing power quality caused by Compact
Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) in terms of Total Harmonic Distortion
(THD) in current and voltage. Whole lighting system of a
practical distribution network mostly comprises of Fluorescent
Lights and incandescent lamps which are planned to be replaced
by Compact Fluorescent Lamps, nationally and internationally to
promote Demand Side Management (DSM), particularly in
developing world due to short fall of electricity. Based upon the
practical results obtained at RCET Lab Pakistan in consultation
with UKM Malaysia, real model of CFL is developed in ETAP
Harmonic Library to carry out simulations for the evaluation of
required power quality parameters. While determining the
impact of CFL at huge scale, current and voltage waveforms
along with their spectrum for the HTs (High Tension side) and
LTs (Low Tension side) of distribution transformers captured in
the form of THDv and THDi have been analyzed for
comprehensive analysis of power distribution system.

I.

9th, 15th etc), which circulate in the delta winding of the

transformer and may damage it due to increased thermal
losses. According to IEEE recommended practice for
establishing transformer capacity, transformer needs to be
derated when supplying non sinusoidal load currents having
more than 5% total harmonics distortion, [8, 9, 10].
Section II highlights the experimental setup of under
consideration system, Section III deals with the system
simulated in ETAP, Section IV gives the simulation oriented
results along with detailed discussion, Section V describes
analytical discussion and Section VI presents the conclusions.
II.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The practical arrangement used to determine the percentage

magnitude of significant harmonics with respect to the
fundamental component (50 Hz) is shown in Figure 1.

INTRODUCTION

This has been a trend in utilities to convince their

consumers to save electricity especially now a days in a
situation where utilities are facing gap of demand and
generation. The price of oil, the major source of generating
electricity, is rising to the ever high values. CFLs are thus
recommended by the utilities to replace the conventional light
sources such as fluorescent lights and incandescent lamps.
CFL has two main parts, the gas filled tube and electronic
ballast. The principle of operation of the CFL is based on the
phenomenon of the electronic ballast. In electronic ballast,
there is a conversion of 50/60 Hz frequency into considerably
higher order frequencies in the range of (20-40) KHz. This is a
major source of harmonics generation in CFL [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Harmonics are sinusoidal voltages or currents having
frequencies that are integral multiples of the frequency at
which the supply system is designed to operate. This deviation
from perfect sinusoid is usually expressed in terms of Total
Harmonic Distortion (THD) [6, 7].
The harmonics result in overheating of distribution
transformers, overloading of LT conductors, burning of
capacitors, deterioration of energy meters performance, maloperation of protective devices, increase in system losses and
considerable impact on the working of rotating machines etc.
Distribution transformers are affected in two ways. Firstly, the
eddy current losses increase with the square of the harmonic
number. The second effect concerns the triplen harmonics (3rd,

Figure 1. Experimental arrangement at RCET lab, Pk.

The desired signal is the waveform and FFT of current

drawn by the lighting load (CFLs) connected to the circuit.
The signal captured by the oscilloscope is taken across a small
value resistor (0.2 ) as shown in Figure 1. Actually the
obtained signal is of the voltage across the resistor, as in a
resistor the current and voltage are in phase; accordingly both
signals have the same waveforms.
Table I shows the magnitudes of different harmonics in
terms of the percentage of the fundamental component along
with the respective phase angles. A group of 23W CFLs is
used for the testing purpose. Average current drawn by each
CFL is 135mA.

To calculate the respective phase angles of these harmonics

the oscilloscope was synchronized with the computer, then
with the help of MATLAB the angles have been calculated
using the real time signal.
TABLE I
HARMONICS MAGNITUDES AND PHASE ANGLES
Order of Significant
Harmonics

% age Magnitude

Phase angle

3rd

76.28

-8.42

5th
7th
9th

56.29
43.39
34.95

-5.20
4.22
16.68

11th

29.14

30.78

th

13
15th

24.93
21.76

45.84
61.51

17th

19.29

77.57

Figure 2. Portion of distribution network fed by 25KVA transformer

Harmonic analysis is performed on the system after it has

been carefully modelled using the actual data obtained through
a series of experiments.
IV.

THDi =

2
I rms
,n
n=2

I1
The average value of THDi for a single CFL, following
IEEE standards is found to be 120%.
ETAP has been used for analysis of the distribution system
at large scale.

III.

SIMULATED MODELS

Complete power distribution network of University of

Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Pakistan has been
modelled in ETAP for the purpose of carrying out the
simulations. The distribution system of UET consists of two
generator sets each rated at 1160 kW and two utility feeders
are also provided as back up supply. The distribution system
includes 30 distribution transformers of different ratings. Total
connected load is 5250 KVA and the maximum demand is
2605 KVA. Total lighting load in the system is 10% of the
total load and is replaced by CFLs during simulation.
Distribution system of UET is summarized in TABLE II.

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION

Graphs of the current as well as voltage waveforms along

with their respective spectrum are obtained both for the HT
and LT sides of the 25KVA distribution transformer. Voltage
distortion at consumer terminals is also given graphically.
A. Current Distortion
Current drawn by the CFLs is responsible for the distortion
in voltage so the emphasis of this subsection is on the current
distortion showing waveforms and spectrum of the current
flowing through the system.
a.

Current waveform in time domain on LT side of

transformer

TABLE II
SUMMARY OF UET DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
Power
sources
Generators(2)
Feeders (2)

Distribution
transformers

Connected
load

Maximum
demand

Lighting
load

30

5250 KVA

2605 KVA

10%

Total load on every transformer is connected in individual

form to represent all electrical loads such as motors, fans,
static loads etc other than the lighting load.
As test case, a 25KVA distribution transformer feeding the
Electrical Engineering Department is selected for displaying
and discussing the results and is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3. Waveform of current through LT side of transformer

The current waveform flowing through the LT side of the

25KVA distribution transformer is shown in Figure 3.
The current drawn is distorted due to the presence of
undesired higher order frequencies known as harmonics.

b.

Spectrum of the current on LT side of transformer

The spectrum of the current through HT side is shown in

Fig.6. The 5th and 7th components are 12% and 8.5% of the
fundamental component of the current respectively. The value
of THDi at the HT side of the transformer is 13%.
B. Voltage Distortion
a.

Voltage waveform in time domain on LT side of

transformer

Figure 4. Current spectrum through LT side of transformer

The value of 3rd and 5th harmonic component is about 18%

and 11% of the fundamental current. The value of THDi is
23%.
c.

Current waveform in time domain on HT side of

transformer

Figure 7. Voltage waveform at the LT side of transformer

Figure 7. represents the waveform of the voltage available

at the LT side of the distribution transformer. The voltage
waveform is polluted by the undesired higher order frequency
components produced as a result of operation of CFLs. These
harmonics will affect the performance of the system causing
overheating of the transformer due to the harmonics currents
which keep on circulating in the HT side of the transformers.
b.

Spectrum of the voltage on LT side of transformer

Figure 5. Waveform of current through HT side of the distribution transformer

The waveform of the current flowing through the HT side of

the 25 KVA transformer is shown in Figure 5. There is a
significant distortion in the current waveform. The triplen
harmonics are being trapped by the delta winding at the HT
side of the transformer, however the effect of remaining
harmonic components will reach up to generation end.
d.

Spectrum of the current on HT side of transformer

Figure 8. Voltage spectrum at the LT side of transformer

Spectrum of the voltage at the LT side of transformer is

given in Figure 8.
The value of THDv has been calculated using the IEEE
recommended standard equation

THDv =

Figure 6. Current spectrum through HT side of transformer

V
n=2

2
rms , n

V1
The value of Total Harmonic Distortion in voltage that is
THDv is 16.77%. Thus the value of THDv is exceeding the
limit which is up to 5% for low voltage levels.

The third component is 0.8% of the fundamental voltage,

the 5th component is 6.7%, 7th is 7.2% while the 9th component
is 4.40%, and the 15th component is 1.1% of the fundamental
component.
c. Voltage waveform in time domain on HT side of
transformer

Figure 11. Voltage waveform at the consumer terminals

f.

Spectrum of the voltage at the consumer terminals

Figure 9. Voltage waveform at the HT side of transformer

d.

Spectrum of the voltage on HT side of transformer

Figure 12. Spectrum of the voltage available at the consumer terminals

The value of THD is also affected by the amount of load

current flowing at the LT side. For larger values of load
current the amount of distortion in voltage at the consumer
end is large, even for smaller lengths of the distributors.
V.
Figure 10. Voltage spectrum at the HT side of transformer

Figures 9 and 10 represent the voltage waveform and its

spectrum respectively available at the HT side of the
distribution transformer.
The value of THDv at the HT side of the transformer is
equal to 12.03%.
e.

Waveform of the voltage in time domain at the consumer

terminals

The voltage quality available at the consumer terminals is

approximately the same as that of available at the LT side of
the transformer as shown in Figure 11 and 12; this is because
of the fact that the length of the distributor supplying the load
from the transformer to the consumer end is negligibly small.
Simulations carried out at other transformers revealed that
the voltage distortion increases at the consumer end and the
value of THDv at that end may rise to very high values even
15 to 20% more than the value of THDv at the LT side of the
distribution transformer for longer lengths of the distributors.

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION

The pre-assessment of the system is done in a situation

when the entire lighting load is replaced by CFLs as desired to
make a cut on energy consumption.
During this simulation it has been assumed that the
transformers are not producing any harmonics, although it is a
well established fact that the transformers are a source of
harmonics in the system due to the saturation of their core. If
that effect may have been included the values of THDv and
THDi would have been more than the present results obtained
by considering the transformers as zero harmonics sources.
For this particular study the CFLs and converters have been
included as the only sources of harmonics in the system.
Thus the operation of CFLs has resulted in extremely
disturbed voltage and current waveforms, which is largely
below the set standards.
All the stake holders that is the manufacturers, utilities and
the consumers must play their part in controlling this situation
that may result in damaging of consumers sensitive electronic
equipment and damage to the utility assets due to the presence
of harmonics generated by CFLs.

VI.

CONCLUSIONS

Experimental results and simulations conducted during this

research paper proved that the CFLs produce harmonics as a
result of their operation which increase the value of THDi and
THDv to an unacceptable level. Consequently, the damage to
the transformers is a two way process, firstly, by the triplen
harmonics trapped in the HT winding, secondly, by the non
sinusoidal nature of the load current being drawn from the
transformers. This distorted current when flows through the
HT side of the distribution transformer, causes distortion in
the HT side voltage as well.
Therefore, it is recommended that the manufacturers must
be bound to produce and supply CFLs having improved power
quality related performance. Consumers must be educated to
maintain a balance between the usage of CFLs and other light
producing sources so that the percentage of CFLs may be kept
in limit and the distortion produced by them. Utilities need to
use K-rated transformers when CFLs are being used at large
scale.
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