642

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 14, No. 2, May 1999

A Comparison of Voltage Source and Current Source Shunt Active Filter by Simulation and Experimentation
L. Benchaita, S. Saadate
Green-uhp-cnrs ura 1438 54500 Vandaeuvre-1Bs-Nancy France

A.Salem nia
Power & Water Institute of Technology P.o. box 16765-1719 Tehran Iran

Abstract - The utilization of active power filters in suppressing harmonics generated by nonlinear loads in ac distribution power systems will considerably be generalized in the near future. With regard to the circuit topology, there are two basic kinds of active filter, voltage source and current source. This paper presents a comparison of these topologies from different points of view such as power circuit design, semiconductor constraints, filtering quality, robustness, adaptability and load transient behaviour.
Keywords - Active power filter, voltage source inverter, current

source inverter, harmonics, total harmonic distortion, nonlinear load, ac distribution system I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, active power filters have attracted considerable attention as an efficient way of minimizing voltage and current disturbances caused by the increasing use of nonlinear loads in AC distribution systems[l]. The active filter's functions can vary from harmonic current and flicker compensation [2] to voltage sags correction [SI and voltage balancing [lo]. Further, the active filter will be used to improve stability in power system as the capacity of active
filters
becomes

larger

[4].

Consequently,

different

configurations of active filter, shunt and series, have been proposed and studied [2,10]. With regard to their power circuit topology, active filters can be categorized into two basic structures: 1) Voltage source active filter (VSAF) which consists of voltage fed inverter [7]. 2) Current source active filter (CSAF) made of current fed inverter [51. Basically, an active power filter for harmonic compensation can operate from a DC energy storage element and does not need any DC power supply. In order to maintain a constant DC voltage or current in the storage element, only a small fundamental current is drawn to compensate the active filter losses. The major drawback of the current source active filter is its high operating losses with respect to the voltage source active filter. Nevertheless, the CSAF presents some important operational features [ 6 ] .

In spite of this preference, both structures of active power filter have been widely considered by the researchers. However, a comparative study between the two types of active filter is, until now, missed by the literature except a brief comparison based mainly on economical considerations 141. In our opinion, though economical aspect is a convincing justification for industrial partner, a complete comparison between the two active filter structures should also involx.~= technical analysis. Besides, following remarks should be taken into account : a) The role of the active filter is first to improve power quality of the AC distribution system. b) The economic reasons which are actually in favor of VSAF may change in the near future [9]. We think that it may become in favor of CSAF when the superconducting coils will be practically used in higher temperatures. The main target of this paper is the comparison between the topological and operational features of the two typzs of active filter. The active filter is considered to be shunt connected to the AC mains and acts as harmonic current compensator. Its performance is evaluated by total harmonic distortion factor of the AC mains current. Firstly, by means of simulation study, the advantages and disadvantages of each structure considering the following comparison points are brought out : power circuit design, semiconductor constraints, filtering quality, robustness and adaptability and load transient regime. Then, the experimental results obtained through two small rate laboratory prototypes of both structures, VSAF and CSAF, with analogical control are presented and discussed. 11. PRINCIPLE OF SHUNT ACTIVE FILTER AND STRUCTURE DESCRIPTION

Fig.1 illustrates the typical implementation of the shunt active filter that incorporates the major topological differences between the two structures VSAF (fig.la) and CSAF (fig.lb). The basic operating principle is described as follows. The nonlinear load which consists of a six pulse controlled rectifier draws a non-sinusoidal current I,. The objective of the shunt active filter is to prevent the harmonic components PE-326-wRS-0-06-1998 A Paper recm"nded and approved by of this current (1,)to circulate b o u g h AC mains impedance the IEEE Power System Dynamic Performance Committee of the IEEE (&fLs)? and hence avoid distortion Of the common Power Engineering Society for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Point voltage v,.This is accomplished by Controlling the Power Systems. Manuscript submitted December 29, 1997; made available for printing June 12, 1998. active filter in order to generate harmonic currents,'I which match in magnitude and phase with those existing in the load current. 0885-8950/99/$10.00 0 1998 IEEE

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a: VoItage source active fdter

b: Current souroe active fdter

Fig.1. Principle scheme of shunt active f t r ie

A . Description o W A F structure f

Fig. la shows the voltage source structure of shunt active filter which uses a DC capacitor , C , as an energy storage element. The inductance, L5 through which the inverter is connected to the power supply network, ensures firstly the controllability of the active filter currents and secondly acts as a first order passive filter attenuating the b h frequency g ripples generated by the inverter [2].

B. Description o CSAF structure f

In fig. a current source active filter made up of a current Ib, source inverter using an inductance, Ld5 as a DC storage element is given. In this case, the inverter is connected to the AC mains through a second order low pass filter formed by C and L5 The harmonics near to the filter's resonance ' frequency are amplified. In order to prevent this phenomenon an additional resistance has to be added or an appropriate current control which takes into account the derivative of the instantaneous active filter current should be adopted [6].

C. The control principle o the shunt activejlter f

In both structures, the control system of the active filter is composed of two parts ; the calculation of the harmonic currents and the generation of the control signals for the inverter semiconductor devices. For the first part, harmonic components of the load current are identified by use of the instantaneous real and imaginary

power method [3]. In this method, the fundamental current is shifted to DC frequency which can easily be separated from the other components.The harmonic current is then calculated from the alternating powers and as shown in fig.2 . Once the harmonic currents are detected, each of them or their sum is used as a reference signal in the inverter current control loop and thus compared with the real active filter current to generate the switches control signals. For a VSAF type, the inverter is controlled by an ordinary hysteresis technique. In fact, the hysteresis control provides a better low order harmonic suppression than PWM control, which is the main target of active filter [ 121. An appropriate pulse modulation technique, adapted to the current source inverter circuit topology, i s employed for the CSAF [ 5 ] . Its principle is illustrated in fig.3. It is based on the correction of the two out of three larger errors of the real active filter current with respect to its reference. For instance, as long as Aifl is the largest positive error and AIp is the largest negative one, the is current in phase 1, ImI is made equal to Idf , whilst fm2 equal to -Zdf and Zm3 null. Thus only switches TI and T2' are kept in on state when all others are blocked. The active filter current in phase 1, I,, increases and that in phase 2, I J ~ , decreases resulting in decreasing the errors and 'A ' i respectively. This state does not change until the error in becomes larger than AZfl or lower than AIfl, phase 3, dP, This principle avoid to command more than two switches simultaneously which is an important requirement in current source inverter control. 111. COMPARISON

A.Power circuif design

The power circuit design of the shunt active filter in both structures, VSAF and CSAF, involves selecting the parameters of the DC source and the elements of the AC output passive filter as well as the choice of the proper semiconductor devices for each structure. 1)- DC source element : The selection of the DC voltage V, or current Idf is made in order to permit the active filter to be capable to follow its reference. The capacitor in VSAF or the

Fig.3. The principle of the modulation technique of CSAF

reactor in CSAF is designed in order to provide a DC voltage or current with acceptable ripples. In the case of VSAF structure, in order to assure the filter current at any instant, the DC voltage V, must be at least equal to 3f2 of the peak value of the line AC mains voltage. For the controllability of the active filter current during the rectifier commutation, V, should verify relation (1)[11]:

fvst order low-pass filter formed by a simple inductance, L, as illustrated by fig.la. In order to provide a sufficient attenuation of the high switching ripples caused by the inverter, an important inductance should be used which deteriorates the filtering efficiency if the inverter DC voltage is not high enough. So, in order to improve the attenuation of the high frequency harmonics, a third order filter should be employed [7]. In this case, the filter produces two resonance frequencies which may complicate the active filter control. The optimized output filter, through which the CSAF is connected to the AC mains, is a second order low-pass filter realized by means of a capacitor C, and inductance L, as shown in figlb. This filter offers a good compromise between a sufficient band-pass and a proper attenuation of switching hannonics. This can be accomplished by an accurate selection of the resonance frequency,

, which must be larger than the highest

fo

=2 7 r G

are the rms value and the angular frequency of the mains voltage, and a is the thyristor firing angle. Ones the voltage V, is fur&, the DC side capacitor value can be calculated considering an acceptable DC voltage ripple AV, as follows : c=- p (2) ciV,AI; where is the harmonic power to be generated by the active filter. In the case of CSAF. the DC current, Idfi must be higher than the peak value of the harmonic current to be generated by the active filter. As in the previous case, the inductance, L is fixed by an allowable current ripple during each , operation cycle according to the following expression :

Equations ( 2 ) and ( 3 ) show that for smoothing DC voltage or current and thus to improve the performance of the active filter, a large capacitor or reactor should be used which increases the active filters cost. However in low and average power applications, a capacitive energy storage element is more efficient and costs less than an inductive energy storage element. On the contrary, in the case of high power applications, superconductor coils are the most reliable energy storage elements. Further, these elements have a large inductance resulting in dc current ripple elimination. It can be deduced that in ordinary power ratings, VSAF is more suitable than CSAF with regard to DC element. 2)- The output passive filter: An active filter must be connected to the AC mains through a decoupling passive filter. The design of this filter should consider two points : a) Providing a sufficient attenuation of the high switching ripples caused by the inverter. b) Preserving high perfomiance for the active filter. The VSAF is generally connected to the AC mains via a

harmonic frequency to be compensated and at the same time much lower than the inverter switching fiequency. At a given resonance frequency, since the capacitor C protects the switching devices against the overvoltage caused by the high current gradient in the inductance Lp increasing Lf will result in decreasing Cf and consequently reduces the semiconductor protection. On the other hand, Lfmust be chosen higher thm the intemal inductance of the AC m i s Thus, a compromise an. has to be made in order to obtain the optinium filter design. It should be noted that harmonic amplification near the resonance fiequency can easily be avoided by using an appropriate current control of the active filter. In fact, in order to damp the oscillations caused by the resonance in decoupling filter LrCf, a term, kW,, corresponding to the active filter current derivative should be added to the reference current. One can easily demonstrate that the parameter k acts as a damping factor in active fdter transfer function [6]. From the forgoing discussions, it can be concluded that CSAF offers a better compromise than VSAF between control complication and filtering capability of high frequency harmonics. 3)- Semiconductor devices and constraints : Figs.4a and 4b show the voltage and current waves applied to the switching devices during one cycle. In fig. 4a, case of VSAF structure, the voltage which must be supported by one switch is unipolar and limited by the DC voltage V , The peak value of the current which is bi-directional is imposed by the active filter current. Thus the appropriate semiconductor device may be an IGBT with an antiparallel diode and must be protected against overcurrent. On the contrary, in CSAF structure as illustrated in fig. 4b, the current is unidirectional and limited by the DC current source while the voltage is bipolar and its peak value corresponds to that of line voltage. So the suitable semiconductor device, in this case, may be a GTQ with reverse voltage blocking Capability or an IGBT with series connected diode and must be protected against overvoltage. Actually IGBT transistor has lower losses and can operate at higher switching Erequencies than GTO thyristor. Hence, from this point of view, VSAF which is made of only six IGBT modules can be preferred to CSAF which needs six series diodes if made of IGBTs or six high losses symmetrical GTOs.

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1 .
- 4 , .
0 . b

. ,0.1- .

* ,

0.1.0

. , .0.h.

, ,

a. m

(a)

(sec.)

-1000

1. . . . , . . . . . .

,'. , . . . .

t (sec.) Fig. 6. Load and source current waves from top to bottom ; I, : load current, Is : source current(VSAF), 2, : source current(CSAF)

(b 1

(sec.)

Fig. 4. Switches voltage and current constraints : (a) for VSAF, (b) for CSAF

-i
O 0 I....

-THD of i. (wth VSAF)

.... ..THD of i.(with CSAF)

B) Filtering eficiency
The comparisons are made under the same operating conditions i.e. both structures of active filter, VSAF and CSAF, operate at the same mean switching fi-equency and have to generate the same harmonic power. In fig. 5 are compared the spectrums of the nonlinear load current, I,, the source current, I,, obtained by use of voltage source and current source active filter when the firing angle of the rectifier is ~ 3 0 "Either VSAF or CSAF improves highly the . THD of the source current. For the first type, the THD is decreased from 28.2% to 7.6% and for the second fiom 28.2% to 6.3%. The better efficiency of the current source with respect to voltage source can be noticed in fig. 6 by its capability to eliminate distortion caused during the thyristors commutation in the rectifier. From fig.6, it appears that the THD evolution, when a increases, is the same for both structures of the shunt active filter. The two curves coincide for the low values of the firing angle (a < 20") and then separate from each other. The THD deterioration is due to the increase of the harmonic current gradient which becomes higher than the maximum gradient of the active filter current. It can be shown from fig. 7, that VSAF is more affected than CSAF by the variation of a.

d i Q ' O e S b 8 d O ' O e 0 . b j a (degree)

Fig. 7. THD versus firing angle a

............................

C) Robustness and adaptability

The influence of the mains inductance, L,, and the quality factor of the output passive filter on the compensation characteristics of VSAF and CSAF is discussed in this part. Fig. 8 gives the source current total harmonic distortion as a function of the AC mains inductance. It demonstrates that in VSAF structure the THD decreases when L, increases. This improvement in the compensation characteristic is the consequence of the current gradient limitation in the AC side of the rectifier. However, for CSAF structure as given in fig. 8, the inductance L, beyond a certain limit, 75pH in our case, does not favor the harmonic compensation because of the decrease of the active filter band-pass. This means that CSAF structure is more sensitive to the variation of the power supply impedance. In fact, the fi-equencies of some dominant harmonics may be higher than the break frequency of the second order passive filter formed by Cfi L, and L,. Lfi Fig. 9 shows that the quality factor of the additional inductance Lf does not have a noticeable effect on the harmonic compensation neither in VSAF nor in CSAF.

- With VSAF
%

25 1

0 4
I,withVSAF
Iv with CSAF

With CSAF

10

5
0

4
a .

A
B

----

---

11

13

17

19

23

25

-- . B . d -

_---_.-160.

do

L (PH) S

Fig. 5. Current spectrums

Fig. 8. THD of the source current versus Ls

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- With VSAF
.....

With CSAF

0 . h 0 . h

j , , , ,.

o.ho

0 . h

0.630

0.L 0 . h o . 6 a

0.

Rf (0)

The VSAF prototype in fig. l l a is made of 6 IGBT modules. The DC voltage is set at 250V. The results are given in figs. 1l b and 1IC.Each switch of the CSAF prototype (fig. 12a) consists of an IGBT in series with a fast diode. For the current waveforms of fig.12b, the DC current is SA. These experiments (figs. 11 and 12) show that in both cases, VSAF and CSAF, the magnitude of harmonic components are considerably reduced in the AC mains. The total harmonic distortion of this current is decreased fiom 29,3% to 3 3 % with VSAF and to 4 % with CSAF. V.CONCLUSION Two topologies of shunt active filter, voltage source (VSAF) and current source (CSAF) have been compared in this paper. It can be concluded from the discussions above that : 1) Both options of active filter VSAF and CSAF achieve the main target of the active filter and hence improve the power quality of the distribution system. 2) The major advantage of the VSAF structure is in its capacitive energy storage element which is more efficient, smaller and costs less than inductive one used in CSAF. Nevertheless, this advantage may become in favor of CSAF in near future when superconductor coils are practically used in higher temperatures. 3) A proper sizing of the output passive filter, through which the active filter is connected to the AC mains, must take into account the inverter switching frequeccy.The objectives claimed to this filter may be better satisfied with CSAF than VSAF. 4) The performance of VSAF is more sensitive to the nonlinear load operating point than CSAF, which means that CSAF may be the better effective solution in case of variable environmental applications. On the contrary, CSAF is more affected than VSAF by the modification of AC supply internal inductance. Finally, experimental results confirm the excellent performance of both realizations of active filter. This should change the actual tendency based mainly on economical considerations in favor of passive filters. Since active filter's cost becomes more interesting in near future, the choice between voltage source and current source structure should be made considering the comparisons proposed in this paper.
REFERENCE

Fig. 9. THD of the source current versus R,

0) Load transient behaviour The voltage or current variation in the DC side of the active filter depends on the fluctuation of the fundamental active power exchanged with the mains. An abrupt decrease of the DC load current of the rectifier results in a brutal increase of the DC side voltage or current of the active filter. The magnitude of this variation depends on the selected values of Cor Ldfand the regulation loop of V, or Idf Figs. 10a and 10b show the DC source control behaviour when the firing angle, a, increases fiom 30" to 60" during one half of the mains cycle. Either DC voltage in VSAF or DC current in CSAF reaches a peak value which is about 110% of its reference value. Since in load transient regime, VSAF should support higher voltages and CSAF higher currents, it could be concluded that VSAF has a better switch utilization. IV. EXPERIMENTAL DEVICE Two experimental models of shunt active filter have been realized in our laboratory with 20 kVA thyristor rectifier as the nonlinear load and 220V, 50Hz AC mains with a shortcircuit power of 25 kVA. The firing angle a is set at 30".

a00

700
6 B 0 1 , , 0.08 0.10

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.20 t (sec )

:
400
200

4a
400

5x4
O.!M

,
Ol .O ' 0'2 .1
0.'14

OI8 .l

0'8 .1

0."

(h)

t (sec.)

10. DC source control behaviour in case of nonlinear load transient regime : (a) case of VSAF, (b) case of CSAF

[l] L. Guygyi, E.C.Strycula, "Active AC Power Filters", IAS'76 annual, pp. 529-535. [2] F.Z. Peng, H. Akagi, A. Nabae "A Study of Active Power Filters Using Quad-Series Voltage-Source PWM Converters for Harmonic Compensation", ZEEE Trans. on power Elecs., vol. 5, no. 1, 1990, pp.9-19 [3] E.H. Watanabe, R.M. Stephan, M. Aredes, "New Concepts of Instantaneous Active and Reactive Powers In Electrical System with Generic Loads", IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, vol. 8, no. 2, 1993, pp. 697-703 [4] H. Akagi, "Trends in Active Power Line Conditioners", IEEE Trans. on Power Elecs., vol. 9, no. 3, 1994, pp. 263-268

.
647
e L
48 R

40 m H
AC mains 380V 50Hz
AC mains

380V SoHz

Rectifier
0.6m H

L!JJ

3.3 mF

Ny\

(c )

Fig. 1 1. Experimental study : (a) Diagram of VSAF prototype, (b) Current waves 10Ndiv and IOms/div and (c ) Current spectrums (from top to bottom : load current, active filter current, source current)

(c 1 Fig.12. Experimental study : (a) Diagram of CSAF prototype, (b) Current waves 10Ndiv and lOms/div and (c ) Current spectrums (from top to bottom : load current, active filter current, source current)

[5] L. Benchaita , S. Saadate, "Current harmonic filtering of non-conventional non-linear load by current source active f filter", Proceeding o IEEE-ISIE '96, Warsaw, vol. 2, pp. 636-641 [6] Y. Hayachi, N. Sato, K. Takahashi "A Novel Control of a Current Source Active Filter for AC Power System Harmonic Compensation", IEEE Trans. on Inustry App., vol. 27, no. 2, 1991, pp. 380-384 [7] C. Lott, 0. Lapierre, H. Poulequen, High Power Voltage Source Active filter PWM Active Filter with Low Switching Effect" Proceeding of EPE '95, Seville [8] V.B. Bhavaraju, P. Enjeti, "A Fast Active Filter to Correct Line Voltage Sags", IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elecs., vol. 41, no. 3, 1994, pp. 333-338 [9] 0. Simon, H. Spaeth, K. P. Juenyst, PKomarek, "Experimental setup of shunt active filter using superconducting magnetic energy storage device", Proceeding o EPE '97, Trandheim, vol. 1, pp.447-452 f [lo] A. Compos, G . Joos, 0. Ziogas, J. Lindsay, "Analysis and Design of a Series Voltage Compensator for treephase Unbalanced Source", IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elecs., vol. 39, no. 2, 1992, pp. 159-167
I'

[ 111 J.H. Xu, "Filtrage actif parallble des harmoniques des reseaux de distribution d'electricite U (in fiench), PhD thesis, INPL -Nancy, Jan. 1994 [12] J.W. Dixon, S. Tepper M., Luis Moran T "Analysis and evaluation of different modulation techniques for active power filters proceeding of IEEE-APEC '94, Orlando, ~01.2, 894-900. pp.
'I

VI. BIOGRAPHIES
Lahlali Benchaita received the (D.1.E) Eng. Degree from "Ecole Nationale Polytechnique", Algeria in 1992. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering with GREEN-UHP laboratory, Nancy1 university, France.

Ahmed SALEM-NI.4 BSc (84) and the MSc(89) from university of Science and Technology of T e h r d r a n and the Ph.D degree from WL-Nancy, France in 1996. He is actually engaged with university of Power and Water in Tehran.
Shahrokh. Saadate BSc (79) from university of Technology of T e h r d r a n , MSc(86), Ph.D.(86) and these #&at (95) from INPLNancy.His research domain is harmonic compensation of the mains.