Improvement of power system quality using active,
passive and hybrid Filters and their comparison.
Hassan Raza [2017-MS-EE-05]
Assistant Manager Protection & Control department
National Transmission & Dispatch Company
Lahore, Pakistan
hassanbhutta91@gmail.com
Abstract The advent of power electronics and computerized
equipment in recent decades has brought enhanced efficiency and
improved system but at the same time also created harmonics and
waveform distortion to the power system network [1]. Poor quality of
electric supply is a major issue of modern power system which is
normally caused by power line disturbances such as transients,
notches, on linear loads momentary interruptions, voltage sag and
swell, over-voltage, under-voltages and harmonic distortions.
Different filters are used for improving the power quality of system.
Active and Passive filters eliminate major fluctuating factors. Hybrid
filters are the combination of active and passive filters. Conventional
Active Filtering also reduces the harmonics. Total Harmonic
Distortion (THD) can be reduced by implementing combination of
active and passive filters. To design a hybrid power filter to reduce
the harmonics for enhancing the quality of power [2].
Key words--- Active filters, Passive Filter, Hybrid filters, Total
Harmonic Distortion (THD)
I. INTRODUCTION
Harmonic Interference in power system which are produced
by harmonic producing load such as diode or thyristor
converter or cyclo-converters have been serious problem to
solve[1]. Passive filters consisting of a bank of tuned LC
filters and or a high pass filter have been broadly used to
suppress harmonics because of low initial cost and high
efficiency. But Passive filter suffers with a major disadvantage
that parallel resonance between a source and filter causes
amplification of harmonic currents on the source side at
specific frequencies. Also these filters fall into series
resonance with source so that voltage distortion produces
excessive harmonic currents flowing through this filter [1].
i.
Fig 1. Combination of series active and shunt passive filter.
With progresses in power electronics devices, active filters
consisting of voltage or current source PWM inverters have
been studied and put into practical use because they have the
ability to overcome the disadvantages caused by passive filters.
However the difficulties faced with active filters are difficult
construction of large rated current source with rapid current
response and its initial cost and running cost are high fig 1
shows a combination of active filter and shunt passive filter,
shunt passive filter connected in parallel with load suppresses
the harmonic current produced by the load, whereas the active
filter connected acts as harmonic isolator between the source
and the load
In this assignment we will discuss some active, passive and
hybrid (combination of active & passive) filter to eliminate
specific no. of harmonics in our power circuit according to the
system requirements. Moreover we will also make a little
comparison of these filters keeping in view of some
parameters, efficiency and cost of the filters.
II. ACTIVE FILTER
An active filter is a type of analogue electronic filter,
distinguished by the use of one or more active components i.e.
voltage amplifiers.
III. PASSIVE FILTERS
A passive filter is a kind of electronic filter that is made
only from passive elements in contrast to an active filter, it
does not require an external power source (beyond the signal).
Since most filters are linear, in most cases, passive
filters are composed of just the four basic linear
elements resistors, capacitors, inductors, and
transformers
More complex passive filters may involve
nonlinear elements, or more complex linear
elements, such as transmission lines.
IV. TYPES OF FILTERS
Filter can be classified as:
Series Passive filter
Shunt Passive filter
Series Active filter
Shunt Active filter
Hybrid filters
Serier Passive filter:
This type is used to filter all harmonics frequency by
varing amount. It can only improve harmonic distortion.
But it cant create system resonance. Fig.2 shows the
series passive AC reactor.
 v.
Fig.2 Series Passive ac Reactor
ii. Shunt Passive filter:
This is a commonly used filter which is mostly
connected at load end. It offers low impedance path to
tuned harmonics component connected to load end. But
problem with these can occur when it resonate with the
system and it import harmonics from other sources. It
can also classified as single tuned and double tuned.
Fig. 3 shows the shunt passive filter.[2]
Fig.3 Series Passive ac Reactor
iii. Series Active filter:
It is connected before the load in series with the main using
matching transformer. In this filter is act as a controllable
voltage source. Fig.4 shows the series active filter.
Fig.4 Series Active ac Reactor
iv. Paralell Active filter:
Shunt Active Filter is most widely used to eliminate current
harmonics, reactive power compensation and balancing
unbalanced currents. Only the control scheme makes difference
either it work as an SAF or STATCOM. Fig.5 shows the shunt
active filter.
Fig.5 Series Active ac Reactor
Hybrid filter:
Passive filter has a disadvantage of resonance and does not
properly work for load variation. Then Active filter is used in
place of passive filter, because of their good dynamic response
in load and harmonic variation.
Active filter also use for the compensation of more than one
harmonics and reactive power compensation. But active filter
has some disadvantage. Economically it is not good option for
power quality improvement. For such cases hybrid filter is
use. Which is the combination of both Active filter and
Passive filter? Mainly used to reduce the rating of active filter.
It can used with already existing passive filter. With these
active filters the dynamic performance of the overall filter can
be improved. [4]
Hybrid filter can be further classified in the following types
Hybrid of series active and parallel passive
Hybrid of parallel active and series passive
Series combination of parallel-passive and parallel-
active
Parallel combination of series-passive and series-
active
Combined system of series-active and parallel-active
Combined system of parallel-active and series-active
a) Series active & parallel passive filter:
In Fig 6, the shunt passive filter is located at the load side and
can be used to compensate for the load harmonics. On the
other hand, the series portion is at the source side and can act
as a harmonic blocking filter. This topology has been called
the Unified Power Quality conditioner. The series portion
compensates for supply voltage harmonics and voltage
unbalances, acts as a harmonic blocking filter, and damps
power system oscillations. The shunt portion compensates
load current harmonics, reactive power, and load current
unbalances.
Fig.6 Series active & parallel passive filter
b) Parallel active & series passive filter:
Shunt /parallel active series passive filters are used for the
cancellation of harmonics and for Q control as well. These
type of filters are economical to use in low power applications.
Fig.7 shows a parallel active and series passive filter.
Fig.7 parallel active & series passive filter
 c) Series active with series passive filter:
These type of filters are used in medium and high voltage
applications.

-Series APF enhance Existing passive filter

-Easy protection possible
-CT is minimized
-No Q control

Fig.9 Block Diagram of Shunt Active Filter

Fig.8 Series active & series passive filter Fig.10 Control scheme with instantaneous reactive power theory for
the compensation of both harmonic and reactive

V. DEVOLVEMENT OF VARIOUS FILTERS USING

MATLAB
Here designing of active shunt and passive filter are presented
for effective filtering of harmonics. The design of the power
circuit includes the following three main parameters:
Selection of reference value of DC side capacitor
voltage.
Selection of filter inductor, Lc.
Selection of DC side capacitor, Cdc
The simulation analysis of Shunt Active Power Filter is
performed with PLL technique and PQ theory as discussed in
previous chapter. For this purpose, a SIMULINK model is
developed for the Shunt Active Power Filter to investigate the
performance during steady states as well as transients Fig.10 Control scheme with instantaneous reactive power theory for
the compensation of both harmonic and reactive power
condition. Here a three phase diode bridge rectifier and a
controlled rectifier with RL load on its DC side is taken as the
nonlinear load is use for which filtering is required. First shunt
active filters are designed with PLL technique and Reactive
power theory for filtering and comparison is done on their
performance. Simulation is carried out for both harmonic and
reactive power compensation. Then a shunt active power filter
is appended to the system for better filtering. In the simulation
power source with the following parameters is used:[6]
Voltage Vrms (phase to phase) = 400V
Source inductance Ls=0.5mH,
Source resistance Rs=0.1 ohms.
An inductive load with Resistance RL =30 ohms and
Inductor L=40mH is connected to the DC side of rectifier is
used as nonlinear load. Active filter is modeled by a MOSFET
Fig .11 Control scheme with PLL technique
based inverter with a capacitor on its DC side which acts as an
energy storage element during transients. The switches of the
inverter are taken as ideal ones. A resistance is taken in series
with the compensation inductance to account for the switching
losses of active filter. The various parameters of the active
filter are taken as Q=8KVA; Vs,rms(line to line)=400;
Vdc,ref=700V; LC=3.35mH; Rc=0.5ohms;
Cdc=2200uF. [7]

Fig .12 block diagram of hysteresis controller


IV. SIMULATION RESULT FOR VARIOUS FILTERS
Rating of active filter is totally depends on the reactive power
compensation. With the increase of firing angle of converter
rating of active filter are also increases. It is clear from the
data 4.68 KVA rating of SAF required at a firing angle of 25o
which is 59% of the load KVA. And data 5.026 KVA rating of
SAF required at a firing angle of 30o which is 70.6% of the
load KVA. This increases the losses as well as coast. However
this problem is overcome by using hybrid filter, which is a
combination of active and passive filter. Passive filter is
design for reactive power compensation and simultaneously it
is tuned for lower order harmonics. Harmonic spectrum of
load, passive,active and Hybrid filter are shown here.
Fig.13 Harmonics spectrum of nonlinear load
Fig.14 Harmonics spectrum with passive filter only
Fig .15 Harmonics spectrum with active filter only
V. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS W.R.T THD AND
COST
Comparative analysis by making the table is done among the
three configurations of hybrid active filter[6].
Hybrid configuration 1: shunt active and shunt passive filter
Hybrid configuration 2: shunt active and series passive filter
Hybrid configuration 3: Active filter in series with the parallel
passive filter
Table1: COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE HYBRID
FILTER CONFIGURATION
VI. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF VARIOUS
FILTERS OR CONCLUSION
Various techniques are used for filtering two of them are
compared with simulating model. That shows steady state as
well as dynamic response with instantaneous reactive power
technique is better than conventional control (with PLL).
Rating of active filter is totally depends on the reactive power
compensation, with the increase of firing angle of converter
rating of active filter are also increases. It is clear from the
data 4.68 KVA rating of SAF required at a firing angle of 25o
which is 59% of the load KVA. And data 5.026 KVA rating of
SAF required at a firing angle of 30o which is 70.6% of the
load KVA. This increases the losses as well as coast. Then it
was observed that use of a Shunt Passive Filter along with
Shunt Active Filter reduce the rating of active filter. From the
simulation it is clear that for the demand of 3.7 KVAR at
converter firing angle 25o, passive filter inject 3.35 kVAR and
active filter inject only 0.35 KVAR. This reduces the rating of
active filter. We can conclude that hybrid filter response with
instantaneous reactive power technique gives better
performance for reactive and harmonic compensation.
REFERENCES
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[6] Abhishek Agrawal and Prof. Pramod Agarwal, Comparison of
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