Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 13371341

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Fuzzy logic controller for three-level shunt active lter compensating harmonics
and reactive power
S. Saad , L. Zellouma
Laboratoire des Systmes Electromcaniques, University of Badji-Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 July 2007
Received in revised form 19 January 2009
Accepted 6 April 2009
Available online 21 May 2009
Keywords:
Fuzzy logic control
Harmonics
Reactive power compensation
PWM control
Shunt active power lter

a b s t r a c t
In this paper, the three-level inverter is used as a shunt active power lter, making use of the multilevel inverter advantages of low harmonic distortion, and reduced switching losses. This PWM inverter is
employed as shunt APF compensating reactive power and suppresses harmonics drawn from a nonlinear
load. Most previously reported three-phase active power lters are based on two-level inverters with conventional controllers requiring a complex and a complicated mathematical model. In order to overcome
this problem a fuzzy logic controller applied and extended to a three level shunt APF is proposed.
In this paper, fuzzy logic control algorithm is proposed for harmonic current and inverter dc voltage
control to improve the performances of the three levels active power lters. The MATLAB Fuzzy Logic
Toolbox is used for implementing the fuzzy logic control algorithm. The obtained results showed that,
the proposed shunt active power lter controller have produced a sinusoidal supply current with low
harmonic distortion and in phase with the line voltage.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Active power lter implemented with two levels voltage source
inverters have been widely studied and used to eliminate harmonics and compensate reactive power [13]. Due to power handling
capabilities of power semiconductors, these active power lters
are limited in medium power applications. Hybrid topologies were
proposed to achieve high power lters [47].
Recently, there has been an increasing interest in using multilevel inverters for high power drives, reactive power and harmonics
compensation [815]. Multilevel pulse width modulation inverters can be used as active power lter for high power applications
solving the problem of power semiconductor limitation. The use of
neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverters allows equal voltage shearing of the series connected semiconductors in each phase.
The controller is the main part of the active power lter operation and has been a subject of many researches in recent years
[1626]. Conventional PI voltage and current controllers have been
used to control the harmonic current and dc voltage of the shunt
APF. However, the conventional PI controller requires precise linear mathematical model of the system, which is difcult to obtain
under parameter variations, nonlinearity, and load disturbances.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 71815039; fax: +213 871168.

E-mail addresses: saadsalah2006@yahoo.fr (S. Saad), zellouma13@yahoo.fr
(L. Zellouma).
0378-7796/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2009.04.003

In recent years, fuzzy logic controllers have generated a great

deal of interest in certain applications [16,19,21,25,26]. The advantages of fuzzy logic controllers are: robustness, no need to accurate
mathematical model, can work with imprecise inputs, and can handle non-linearity.
In this paper, fuzzy logic control schemes are proposed for
harmonic current and inverter dc voltage control to improve the
performances of the three levels shunt APF.
The performance of fuzzy controller is evaluated through computer simulations under steady-state conditions. The obtained
results showed that, the proposed active power lter controller
have provided a sinusoidal supply current with low harmonic distortion and in phase with the line voltage. The operation of APF
is explained in details as well as the harmonic current (reference
current) and dc voltage of the inverter control schemes.
The fuzzy logic controller algorithm development and implementation is carried out in this paper.
2. Description of shunt APF topology
The main task of the proposed shunt APF is to reduce harmonic
currents and reactive power compensation. The structure in Fig. 1,
describes this shunt APF based on a three-phase three-level VSI.
The diodes are used to make the connection with the point of reference O to obtain Midpoint voltages. In order to produce an inverter
(active lter) of N levels, N 1 capacitors are required. The voltage
across each capacitor is equal to Vdc /(N 1), Vdc is the total voltage
of the dc source. Each couple of switches (S1, S3) form a cell of com-

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S. Saad, L. Zellouma / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 13371341

Fig. 2. PWM synoptic block diagram of currents control.

The reference currents (harmonic currents) identication is

based on transformation to obtain real and imaginary powers.
The voltages (VS1 , VS2 , VS3 ) and currents (IS1 , IS2 , IS3 ) are transformed to bi-phase system according to the following equation:

Fig. 1. Active power lter operation.


Table 1
Obtaining of three-level inverters Vdc /2, Vdc /2, Ki .
Ki

Ti1

Ti2

Ti3

Ti4

Vio

1
0
1

1
0
0

1
1
0

0
1
1

0
0
1

Vdc /2
0
Vdc /2

mutation, the two switches are ordered in a complementary way.

The inverter provides three voltage levels according to Eq. (1):
Vio = Ki

Vdc
2

(1)

where, Vio is the phase-to-middle ctive point voltage, Ki is the

switching state variable (Ki = 1, 0, 1), Vdc is the DC source voltage,
and i is the phase index (i = a, b and c). The three voltage values are
shown in Table 1 (Vdc /2, 0, Vdc /2).
The phase-to-neutral point voltage Vin is linked to Vio via:
Vin = Vio Vno

(2)

Assuming that the system is balanced, then:

Van + Vbn + Vcn = 0

(3)

By substituting (3) in (2), the equation presented below is obtained:

Vno =

1
(Vao + Vbo + Vco )
3

(4)

The expressions of instantaneous inverter phase output voltages

are obtained by replacing (4) in (2):

Van
Vbn
Vcn

2/3 1/3 1/3

1/3 2/3 1/3
1/3 1/3 2/3

 

Vao
Vbo
Vco

(5)

The line to line voltages are determined by the following equation:

Vab
Vbc
Vca

1 1
0
1
1 0

0
1
1

 

Vao
Vbo
Vco

(6)

X
X


1
2 1
2

=
3

3
2

1
2

X1
X2
X3


(7)

The instantaneous active and reactive powers of the system are

calculated as follows:

 
p
q

Vs
Vs

Vs
Vs

I
I

(8)

Instantaneous powers are composed from a constant part and a

variable part corresponding to fundamental and harmonic current
respectively.

Ih
Ih

1
2 + V2
Vs
s

Vs
Vs

Vs
Vs

 
p
q

(9)

2.2. Inverter control using PWM

This control implements a fuzzy logic controller which starts
from the difference between the injected current (active lter current) and reference current (identied current) that determines the
reference voltage of the inverter (modulating wave). This standard
reference voltage is compared with two carrying triangular identical waves shifted one from other by a half period of chopping as
shown in Fig. 2.
The control of inverter arm constituting the lter is summarized
in the two following stages.
Determination of the intermediate signals Vi1 and Vi2 .
If error carrying 1 Vi1 = 1.
If error < carrying 1 Vi1 = 0.
If error carrying 2 Vi2 = 0.
If error < carrying 2 Vi2 = 1.
Determination of control signals of the switches Tij (j = 1, 2, 3, 4).
If (Vi1 + Vi2 ) = 1 Ti1 = 1, Ti2 = 1, Ti3 = 0, Ti4 = 0.
If (Vi1 + Vi2 ) = 0 Ti1 = 0, Ti2 = 1, Ti3 = 1, Ti4 = 0.
If (Vi1 + Vi2 ) = 1 Ti1 = 0, Ti2 = 0, Ti3 = 1, Ti4 = 1.
General block diagram of currents control is illustrated in Fig. 2.

2.1. Reference current calculation

2.3. Fuzzy logic control application
Several methods [2729] are proposed for the identication of
harmonic currents. Mainly, the methods based on the FFT (Fast
Fourier Transformation) in the frequency domain and the methods based on instantaneous power calculation in the time domain.
In this study, the pq theory method is used allowing the compensation of harmonic currents, reactive power and unbalanced
currents.

Fuzzy logic serves to represent uncertain and imprecise knowledge of the system, whereas fuzzy control enables taking a decision
even if we cannt estimate inputs/outputs only from uncertain predicates. The synoptic scheme of Fig. 3 shows a fuzzy controller, which
possesses two inputs and one output. The inputs are namely the
error (e), which is the difference between the reference current

S. Saad, L. Zellouma / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 13371341

1339

Table 3
Simulation parameters.
Supply: Vs , Rs , Ls
DC load: RDC , LDC
Active lter: VDC , Lf , C1 , C2
Iref calculation: fo
Switching frequency

220 V, 0.01 , 0.1 mH

0.5 , 0.3 mH
1000 V, 0.2 mH, 3 F, 3 F
65 Hz
10 kHz

Fig. 3. Fuzzy controller synoptic diagram.

(harmonic current) and the active lter current (injected current)

(e = iref if ) and its derivative (de) while the output is the command
(cde).
2.4. Active power lter current control
The objective is to get sinusoidal source currents in phase with
the supply voltages. This step consists on replacing the conventional
controllers by fuzzy logic controllers [16,20,21] characteristics of
the fuzzy control used in this work are:
Three fuzzy sets for each input (e, de) with Gaussian membership
functions,
Five fuzzy sets for the output with triangular membership functions,
Implications using the minimum operator, inference mechanism
based on fuzzy implication containing ve fuzzy rules,
Defuzzycation using the centrod method.
The establishment of the fuzzy rules is based on the error (e)
sign, variation and knowing that (e) is increasing if its derivative
(de) is positive, constant if (de) is equal to zero, decreasing if (de) is
negative, positive if (iref > if ), zero if (iref = if ), and negative if (iref < if ),
fuzzy rules are summarized as following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

If (e) is zero (Z), then (cde) is zero (Z).

If (e) is positive (P), then (cde) is big positive (BP).
If (e) is negative (N), then (cde) is big negative (BN).
If (e) is zero (Z) and (de) is positive (P), then (cde) is negative (N).
If (e) is zero (Z) and (de) is negative (N), then (cde) is positive (P).

2.5. DC capacitor voltage control

Table 2
Fuzzy control rule table.

NL
NM
NS
EZ
PS
PM
PL

triangular membership function has the advantages of simplicity,

easy implementation, and suitable for this application.
In the design of a fuzzy control system, the formulation of its
rule set plays a key role in improving the system performance. The
rule table contains 49 rules as shown in Table 2, where (LP, MP, SP,
ZE, LN, MN, and SN) are linguistic codes (LP: large positive; MP:
medium positive; SP: small positive; ZE: zero; LN: large negative;
MN: medium negative; SN: small negative).
3. Simulation model

Among the various available power lter Controllers PI, RST,

hysteresis, adaptive control and fuzzy logic controller. In this application, the fuzzy control algorithm is implemented to control the
DC capacitor inverter voltage based on DC voltage error e(t) processing and its variation e(t) in order to improve the dynamic
performance of APF and reduce the total harmonic source current distortion. The determination of the membership functions
depends on the designer experiences and expert knowledge. It is
not easy to choose a particular shape that is better than others. A

e

Fig. 4. Switching pulses of APF arms (S11, S12, S13, and S14).

The designed fuzzy controller has been tested on a distorted

wave produced by a diode bridge rectier with RL load and three
levels PWM inverter used as shunt APF.
The simulation is performed following the parameters presented in Table 3. The obtained switching signals of the three-phase
three-level inverter are shown in Fig. 4.
The load current obtained before using shunt active power lter
is illustrated in Fig. 5. This current is highly distorted and its THD
calculated from the frequency spectrum shown in Fig. 6 is equal to
15.66%.
4. Results and discussions

e
NL

NM

NS

EZ

PS

PM

PL

NL
NL
NL
NL
NM
NS
NL

NL
NL
NL
NM
NS
EZ
NM

NL
NL
NM
NS
EZ
PS
NS

NL
NM
NS
EZ
PS
PM
EZ

NM
NS
EZ
PS
PM
PL
PS

NS
EZ
PS
PM
PL
PL
PM

EZ
PS
PM
PL
PL
PL
PL

In this section, simulation results are given to illustrate the

system performance of the proposed fuzzy control schemes. Threelevel shunt active power lter performances are related to current
references quality, pq theory is used for harmonic currents identication and calculation, the obtained current is shown in Fig. 7. This
control method is very important; it allows harmonic currents and
reactive power compensation simultaneously, the obtained current
and voltage waveforms are in phase as illustrated in Fig. 8.

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S. Saad, L. Zellouma / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 13371341

Fig. 5. Supply current Is waveform without ltering.

Fig. 9. Source current spectrum with lter.

Fig. 6. Source current spectrum without lter.

Fig. 10. APF output voltage Vao .

Fig. 7. Active lter current If .

Fig. 11. APF output voltage Van .

Fig. 8. Power factor correction (Vs , Is ).

From Fig. 9, it can be concluded that three level shunt APF contains less harmonic with a THD of the source current equal to 0.9%
after compensation which is well below the permissible limit of
5%. The three level voltages are: 333.33 V, 500 V, and 666.66 V, corresponding respectively to Vdc /3, Vdc /2, and 2Vdc /3, the DC voltage
source (Vdc ) is 1000 V. The output voltages Vao and Van are shown
in Figs. 10 and 11. The three level active lter with fuzzy logic controllers has imposed a sinusoidal source current waveform as illustrated in Fig. 12 and a constant and ripple free dc voltage in Fig. 13.

S. Saad, L. Zellouma / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 13371341

Fig. 12. Supply current Is waveform with lter.

Fig. 13. DC voltage of the condensers (Vdc1 , Vdc2 and total Vdc ).

5. Conclusion
In this paper theoretical study with simulation of a fuzzy logic
controller for a three level shunt active power lter based on pq
theory to identify reference currents and PWM to generate switching signals have shown high shunt APF performances in educing
harmonics, and power factor correction. The obtained results show
that DC capacitor voltage and the harmonic currents control are
very important. With these types of control, the active lter can
be adapted easily to other more severe constraints, such as unbalanced conditions. The three level shunt active power lter for the
three-phase circuit is simulated and the THD measured veries the
reduction of harmonics to a very low level when the fuzzy logic
control is employed. The three-level APF provides numerous advantages such as improvement of the supply current waveform, less
harmonic distortion and its use in high power/medium voltage with
a lower maximum device rating.
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