Increasing Efficiency of Hydro Power Plants by Means of Active Power Filters

Bizjak Boris, Vori Joe

University of Maribor - FERI, Smetanova 17,
Maribor, SI - 2000, Slovenia
Tel: +386-2-2207083
Fax: +386-2-2511178
E-mail:boris.bizjak@uni-mb.si

Abstract
Power electronic loads resulting from the solid-state equipment are constantly increasing in distribution
systems. It has been estimated that after 2000 static power converters will be process 60% of the total
electric power. The non-linear nature of switching devices such as thyristors give rise to harmonic current
flows in power transmission lines, thus causing considerable losses and voltage distortion, electronic
equipment failure, and inefficient use of electric energy.
Active power filters have become a promising alternative for controlling harmonic levels in industrial and
commercial facilities. However, many different filter configurations can be employed. There is no standard
method for rating them. This paper describes an implementation of active power filters aimed at
correcting poor power factors of a hydro power plant excitation system. The described harmonic
compensation approach increases the power plant efficiency and quality, all to assure compliance with
specifications of the European standards EN 50160 and ANSI/IEEE STD 519.

1. Electric Power Harmonic Phenomena

The ever increasing demand by industry and commerce for reliable, adjustable and accurate control of
the electrical equipment has led to the development of relativity low cost power diodes, thyristors, SCRs
and other power semi-conductors. Now widely used in rectifier circuits for UPS systems, static converters
and AC-motor control, these modern devices create new challenging conditions for the power quality
engineer of today.
There are three main groups of harmonic sources:

Power electronic equipment: variable speed drives, UPS systems, rectifiers, switch mode power
supplies, static converters, thyristor systems and other SCR controlled systems.
Arcing equipment: arc furnaces, welders, lighting devices (mercury vapour, fluorescent).
Saturable devices: transformers, motors, generators, etc. Harmonic amplitudes of these devices
are usually insignificant compared to power electronic and arcing equipment, unless saturation
occurs.

The maximum acceptable voltage (current) distortion and total harmonic distortion (THD) have been
specified in various national and international standards and recommendations. The first guide for
harmonic control and reactive static compensation was IEEE 519-1981. The a.c. line of today, both
current and voltage, must be cleaned of harmonics in compliance with specifications of ANSI / IEEE 5191992.
IEC 1000 is the basic standard for electric power low frequency interference. The most recent currently
applied standard directly connected with electric energy quality is EN 50160.

2. Harmonic Sources
Thyristor converters cause high order current harmonic distortion. Figure I shows a typical thyristor
rectifier where a sufficient d.c. inductance produces a constant d.c. current.

Figure I Typical current-source type of the harmonic source

The input current of the six-pulse thyristor rectifier is an integral odd multiplie of the fundamental 50 Hz
sine waveform (i.e. the first harmonic = 50 Hz, 5th harmonic = 250 Hz, the 7th harmonic = 350 Hz, the
11th harmonic = 550 Hz). The theoretical values are very similar to the measured harmonic spectrum
from the six-pulse thyristor excitation system. This is shown in Figure II.

Figure II Measured current harmonic spectra (FigureV at point 2)

Nowadays, another common harmonic source is that of the diode rectifier with smoothing d.c. capacitors.
Although the current is very much distorted, its harmonic amplitude is greatly affected by the impedance
of the a.c. side, whereas the rectifiers voltage is characteristic and less dependent upon the a.c.
impedance. Therefore, a diode rectifier behaves like a voltage source rather than a current source.

3. Devices for Filtering Harmonic Distortion

There are two general classes of harmonic filters: passive filters and active filters.
Passive filters are made of power factor capacitance, inductance, and resistive elements. They are
relatively inexpensive compared with other means for eliminating harmonic distortion, but their drawbacks
are potential adverse interactions with the power system. Whenever power factor correction capacitors
are applied to a distribution network, which combines capacitance and inductance, there will always be a
frequency at which the capacitors are in parallel resonance with the supply.
There is a number of ways to avoid resonance when installing capacitors. In large systems, it may be
possible to fit them in a part of the system that will assure avoidance of a parallel resonance with the
supply. Varying the kVAr output rating of the capacitance bank will alter the resonant frequency. With
capacitor switching, there will be a different resonant frequency for each step. Changing the number of
switching steps may prevent resonance at each switching step.

Active filters are a relatively new type of harmonic eliminating devices. They are based on sophisticated
power electronics.
Active power filters monitor the line current in real time and process the measured harmonics as digital
signals in a high powered DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The output of the DSP controls PWM (Pulse
Width Modulated) power of IGBT modules that through line reactors inject harmonic currents with an
exactly opposite phase to those that are to be filtered. The net effect is an elimination of the harmonics
and a clean sine wave as seen by the feeding transformer. The basic idea of parallel active power filter
for the harmonic current source is shown in Figure III. The basic idea of the series active power filters for
the harmonic voltage source is shown in Figure IV. Active filters can typically correct the power factor as
well as harmonics.

Figure III Basic principle of a parallel active filter

Figure IV Basic principle of a serial active filter

4. Analysis of Power Plants

On the river Drava, there are several hydro power plants. One of them is responsible for PF (Power
Factor) correction and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) minimization in the excitation part of 75 MVA
main generators. Advanced technical and commercial solutions for the Zlatolije hydro power plant are
being searched for.
The first synchronization of the Zlatolije power plant to the network took place in 1968. Excitation of the
two main generators was made by the Ward Leonard rotation machine system. The main generator
operation was interrupted by a mechanical brake. In 1991 the old rotation excitation system was replaced
by a static excitation system. The main part of the new excitation system is a six-pulse full wave thyristor
rectifier. Due to irregular maintenance, the mechanical brake has worn out. The new excitation rectifier is
used also for electrified braking and stopping the main generator.

Figure V Zlatolije Power plant plan with the static excitation system
The power source for the thyristor rectifier of the Zlatolije plant is an extra 1 MVA "OG" generator
(operating under normal condition). At the brake-stop time of the main generator, the power source for
thyristors rectifier is 20 kV of the distribution network.
Advantages of the newly introduced static excitation system for the internal power plant system are
electrified brake-stopping of the main generator and less frequent maintenance of the excitation system.
Some of the disadvantages of power plant excitation system due to the thyristor rectifier are:

In steady state operation THD voltage is 21.5% (at the measuring point 2) and PF < 0.5 (at
measuring point 1).
At the brake-time of main the generator, the THD voltage is 10.8% (at the measuring point 3).

This is the reason why many current and voltage measurements and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)
and PF (Power Factor) calculation have been made. The relevant results show the presence of a higher
order harmonic current component over the 20th harmonic, resembling the distortion voltage.

Figure VI Measured voltage harmonic spectra (Figure V at point 2)

5. Solutions for Power Plants

To have the THD and PF problem solved, the basic measure is to assure power that is more real for the
additional generator. This can be attained with a transformed harmonic energy (apparent power) in real
power by introducing the active power filters into the system. In this way, a sinusoidal current and voltage
wave-shape are obtained measuring the power plant efficiency from 1% to 2%.

Figure VII Reference values for the analysis

The proposed system solutions were modified by computer simulation verification. For this purpose, we
used the Siemens simulation system named Netomac. The simulation model includes all the major
components of the power plant.
In general, the best solution is a combination of active and passive power filters, offering two practical
advanced solutions:

The first solution is a parallel active filter in combination with large inductance linking the serial
rectifier with the excitation rectifier.
The second solution is a series active filter in combination with the passive filter made of the power
factor capacitance.

The first step to improve the poor THD voltage is introducing a series large inductance (L = 0.18 mH) at
the rectifier input. The main effect of this adaptation is an increased THD voltage, the one foreseen by
IEC 1000. Therefore, the power is factor kept at 0.5. The second disadvantage is a large voltage drop on
series inductance.
Results of the calculated waveforms shown in Figure VIII are very good. This is a combination of parallel
active filters and large inductance linking serial with the excitation rectifier. The parallel active power filter
was connected at the terminal marked with 2 (Figure V) and injected after the occurrence of high order
current harmonics in the system: 120 A of the 5th harmonic, 90 A of the 7th harmonic, 50 A of the 11th

harmonic, 50 A of the 13th harmonic and 30 A of the 17th harmonic. This solution is based on the hightech industry product SIPCON P. This parallel active power filter, which is made by Siemens, can be
compared with PQFA power active filters by ABB's. Calculations for this application are made for 600 V
and total 300 A rms harmonic current. Excitations current was 1250 A.

Figure VIII Simulated waveforms for solutions achieved with a parallel active filter
The power factor at terminal 1 (Figure V) is now 0.8 and the current have a sinusoidal wave shape. In
steady state operations at terminal 2 (Figure V) the THD voltage is 3%. All voltages and currents of the
internal power plant system meet the European standards EN 50160 and IEC 1000. After this adaptation,
the excitation regulator set-up is now ready to operate.

Figure IX Best solution a series active power filter and power factor capacitors

Figure X shows a relatively inexpensive solution. This is a combination of series active power filters and
power factor capacitors. The power factor passive filter is made of three 15 mF capacitors. They are
connected in Y (star). The passive filter is controlled by a microcomputer. Worldwide, passive filters have
been used already for over 15 years. Combinations of series active power filters are new. After the
introduction of power factor capacitors, the values of the 5th and the 7th harmonic voltage components
were too high at terminal 3 (Figure V). By building in an extra series active filter, the values of the 5th and
7th harmonic voltage components were dispatched.
Such solution is enabled by hightech industry active power filter SIPCON S made by Siemens.
Installation of such filters into the electric power system ensures transformation of the apparent harmonic
power into the real power.
By doing so, the rated real power from the OG additional generator is increased for 400 kW. This can be
seen in Figure X where there is no voltage waveform distortion. The series active power filter was
calculated only for the power of 25 kVAr. The overall power of the connected consumers on terminal 4
(Figure IX) is 200 kVA. The current and voltage of the additional generator is specified, (Figure X) in
compliance with standards EN 50160 and IEC 1000. The resonant frequency is attained with the
capacitor bank and the excitation system inductance. The parallel resonance is designed for 130 Hz to
assure of good stability and safe operation of the excitations system and the power plant itself.

Figure X Calculated waveforms for solutions with the series filter

6. Conclusion
Parallel active filters have been studied by many contributors since 1970s and have been put into
practical use. Unfortunately, no paper has discussed the characteristic and application considerations of
parallel active filters when they are applied to nonlinear loads that are of the voltage source type. Though
the series active filter is not found in common practical use, this paper puts more emphasis on the
application issues of both parallel and series active filters needed for special applications at hydro power
plants. Their features and required operational conditions are determined with computer simulations and
demonstrated within real site testing.

7. References
[1] Toshihiko Tanaka, Reducing Supply Harmonics, IEEE Industry Applications, Vol.4, No.5
September/October 1998.
[2] Fang Zeng Peng, Application Issues of Active Power Filters, IEEE Industry Applications, Vol.4, No.5
September/October 1998.
[3] Increases in Power Quality in Distribution Grid (In Germany), Elektrizitatswirtschaft, Dr. Duan Povh,
Klaus Pregizer, Dr. Michael Weinhold, Rainer Zurowski, 1996.
[4] Unified Device for Power Flow Control in Electrical Power Networks, dr. Igor Papi, University of
Ljubljana, Doctoral Dissertation, 1998.
[5] Dugan, Roger C., Electrical power systems quality, McGraw-Hill, New York, Tokyo, 1996