Impact of harmonics on the power system

Not all electrical quality problems in an installation are attributable to electrical harmonics, but they are usually
the most common and significant. As we can see in the following graph, there are several sources of problems in
an installation and grid:

Sources of problems in an installation and grid

The main effects of voltage and current harmonics in a power system are usually:
 The potential amplification of some harmonics due to parallel or series resonance*
 Reduced performance of energy generation, transport and usage systems
 The premature ageing of insulation on grid components, leading to energy reduction
 Poor functioning of the system or any of its components
* Resonance is a physical effect in which several elements with specific values interact with each other, oscillating
and amplifying a particular frequency. This amplification leads to higher energy consumption by forcing the system
or some of its parts to work above their specifications. If resonance is not controlled it can lead to the destruction of
parts of the system or the entire system.
 Main problems and effects generated by harmonics in the components or elements of an electrical network

Introduction to compensation and disturbance

filtering in electrical installations
In general, new computer and electrical units perform better on today's processes and tasks.
 Example of an installation with equipment that generate electrical harmonics on the grid
Yet these devices are more complex internally and include components such as switching power supplies, rectifiers
or other elements that typically consume a current wave shape that is distorted and deformed rather than being
sinusoidal.

Ideal wave shape and distorted wave shape

We can thus say that these units have improved our quality of life, but at the cost of greater contamination of our
electrical systems, causing them to exhibit unusual behaviour.

All regular non-sinusoidal wave shapes may be represented as a sum of sinusoidal waves whose frequencies are
integer multiples of the fundamental frequency, which we call harmonics.

Distorted wave shape decomposition

These harmonics mainly affect the quality of the voltage wave shape, and can negatively disrupt many machines
and units, as well as the installation itself.
Harmonics are produced by non-linear loads that absorb non-sinusoidal current. The most common loads that
generate harmonics, in both industrial and domestic environments, are the following:
 Variable speed drivers
 Discharge lamps (mercury vapour, sodium, energy-saving, fluorescent, etc.)
 Rectifiers
  AC/DC transducers
 Arc welding
 Induction furnaces
 UPS
 Computers
 etc.
In turn, the harmonic currents generated when they pass through linear loads generate distortion in the voltage
wave shape, which will depend on both the nature of the harmonic currents and the grid and loads themselves.

Sometimes harmonic distortion is not originated inside our installation, but we can notice its impact due to an
outside source that is generating it, such as a neighbouring installation. In the following chapter we will learn how
to measure and trace these disturbances so we can then treat them correctly.

Electrical harmonics and their costs

Harmonics are therefore disturbances and they entail costs that are not always easy to detect and assess. These costs
can be classified into two types:
 Technical costs
 Economic costs
Technical costs are those that entail a loss of performance in the installation, such as:
 Loss of capacity in energy distribution lines
 Transformer overload
  Conductor overload
 Transformer derating
 Joule effect losses in lines and machinery
 Magnetic losses in electrical machinery
 Increased leakage
Typically, technical costs lead to economic costs, which is why controlling technical costs is so important.
Economic costs are those that can be quantified monetarily, although sometimes they are not easy to calculate.
They may be visible or hidden:
Visible costs:
 Higher electrical consumption
 Electrical consumption peaks
 Surcharge or payment for reactive energy on the electric bill
Hidden costs:
 Distribution losses
 Power and energy losses (due to the Joule effect or magnetic losses)
 Expansion of installations
 Production process downtime
These costs depend on the type of installation and the connected loads.
How can we find out if we are experiencing these harmonic disturbances? How can we avoid them or limit their
negative impact? We will learn how in the following sections.

How can a harmonics problem be analysed?

This section will describe how to conduct a study of harmonics and which units must be used for such purposes.
There will also be a standard procedure available for facing any new situation. This section will be followed by
actual cases in which corrective actions are determined after analysing a harmonics case.
To correctly analyse harmonics, a power analyzer (portable analyzer AR6, AR5L or CIRe3) is needed, which is
capable of measuring all the electrical variables of the installation for their subsequent interpretation.
There is no standard way of carrying out a study, but the following steps may be considered for it:
- Previous identification of the symptoms that may exist in the installation:
Being unaware of the existence of any of the symptoms (marked as “?”) does not mean the installation may not
suffer them; in fact, you should take more care and supervise the installation, e.g., by monitoring the
electrical parameters of various installation points with fixed power analyzers and a PowerStudio-
SCADA system.
Installation diagnosis process

Having identified the symptoms and with the

installation information available (see above
points), you can carry out a proper
diagnosis and provide one or several
more accurate solutions against
harmonics, adapted to the symptoms.
Process for conducting the study
More specifically these steps must be
followed for the study or diagnosis of
harmonics:

After interpreting the

measured data, try to
recognise the effects
produced by harmonics and use
this data to propose installation improvement
solutions. All of this will be shown in the
solutions chapter to eliminate or mitigate
the effect of harmonics. 
Regulations applicable to electrical
harmonics
The results measured can be assessed
according to the following standards,
directives and regulations :
• Low Voltage Directive
2014/35/EU repealing
Directive 2006/95/EC.
• Low Voltage Electrotechnical Regulations (REBT) RD 842/2002
• NATIONAL ELECTRIC CODE 1955/2000, of 1 December, regulating the transmission, distribution, marketing,
supply and authorisation procedures for electrical energy installations
• European Directive 2014/30/EU on the approximation of the laws of Member States on electromagnetic
compatibility, repealing Directive 2004/108/EC
• European Directive 2014/32/EU on measuring instruments repealing Directive 2004/22/EC
• European Directive 2014/33/EU on lifts repealing Directive 95/16/EC
• UNE-EN 12015 Standard “Electromagnetic compatibility. Product family standard for lifts, escalators and moving
walkways. Emission”
• UNE-EN 20460-5-523 Standard “Electrical installations of buildings. Part 5: Selection and installation of
electrical materials. Chapter 52: Piping. Section 523: Acceptable currents.”
• UNE-EN 50160 Standard “Voltage features of electricity supplied by public distribution grids”
• UNE-EN 61642:2000 Standard “Industrial AC networks affected by harmonics. Application of filters and shunt
capacitors”
• UNE-EN 61800-3 Standard “Adjustable speed electrical power drive systems. Part 3: EMC product standard
including specific test methods.”
• UNE-EN 61000-3-2 Standard “Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Part 3-2: Limits. Limits for harmonic
current emissions (equipment with input current < 16 A per phase)
• UNE-EN 61000-3-12 Standard “Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Part 3-12: Limits. Limits for harmonic
currents produced by equipment connected to public low-voltage grids with input current > 16 A and < 75 A per
phase
• UNE-EN 61000-3-4 Standard “Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Part 3-4: Limits. Limits for harmonic
currents produced by units connected to public low-voltage grids with input current >16 A
• IEEE 519-1992 Standard “Recommended Practice and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electric Power
System”
• G5/4-1 Standard “Managing Harmonics: ENA Engineering Recommendation”

Electronic oscillator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A popular op-amp relaxation oscillator.An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit

that produces a periodic, oscillating electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square
wave.[1][2] Oscillators convert direct current (DC) from a power supply to an alternating
current (AC) signal. They are widely used in many electronic devices. Common examples
of signals generated by oscillators include signals broadcast by radio and television
transmitters, clock signals that regulate computers and quartz clocks, and the sounds
produced by electronic beepers and video games.[1]

Oscillators are often characterized by the frequency of their output signal:

 A low-frequency oscillator (LFO) is an electronic oscillator that generates a
frequency below approximately 20 Hz. This term is typically used in the field of
audio synthesizers, to distinguish it from an audio frequency oscillator.

 An audio oscillator produces frequencies in the audio range, about 16 Hz to 20 kHz.[2]

 An RF oscillator produces signals in the radio frequency (RF) range of about 100 kHz to 100 GHz.[2]

Oscillators designed to produce a high-power AC output from a DC supply are usually called inverters.
There are two main types of electronic oscillator — the linear or harmonic oscillator and the nonlinear or relaxation
oscillator.[2][3]
1 MHz electronic oscillator circuit which uses the resonant properties of an internal quartz crystal to control the frequency.
Provides the clock signal for digital devices such as computers.

Contents
 1 Harmonic oscillator
 o 1.1 Feedback oscillator

o 1.2 Negative resistance oscillator

 2 Relaxation oscillator

 3 Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)

 4 History

 5 See also

 6 References

 7 Further reading

 8 External links
Harmonic oscillator

Block diagram of a feedback linear oscillator; an amplifier A with its output vo fed back
into its input vf through a filter, β(jω).

The harmonic, or linear, oscillator produces a sinusoidal output.[2][3] There are

two types:
Feedback oscillator
The most common form of linear oscillator is an electronic amplifier such as a
transistor or operational amplifier connected in a feedback loop with its output fed
back into its input through a frequency selective electronic filter to provide
positive feedback. When the power supply to the amplifier is first switched on,
electronic noise in the circuit provides a non-zero signal to get oscillations started.
The noise travels around the loop and is amplified and filtered until very quickly it converges on a sine wave at a
single frequency.
Feedback oscillator circuits can be classified according to the type of frequency selective filter they use in the
feedback loop:[2][3]
 In an RC oscillator circuit, the filter is a network of resistors and capacitors.[2][3] RC oscillators are mostly used to
generate lower frequencies, for example in the audio range. Common types of RC oscillator circuits are the phase
shift oscillator and the Wien bridge oscillator.

 In an LC oscillator circuit, the filter is a tuned circuit (often called a tank circuit; the tuned circuit is a resonator)
consisting of an inductor (L) and capacitor (C) connected together.[2][3] Charge flows back and forth between the
capacitor's plates through the inductor, so the tuned circuit can store electrical energy oscillating at its resonant
frequency. There are small losses in the tank circuit, but the amplifier compensates for those losses and supplies the
power for the output signal. LC oscillators are often used at radio frequencies,[2] when a tunable frequency source is
necessary, such as in signal generators, tunable radio transmitters and the local oscillators in radio receivers. Typical
LC oscillator circuits are the Hartley, Colpitts[2] and Clapp circuits.
Two common LC oscillator circuits, the Hartley and Colpitts oscillators

 In a crystal oscillator circuit the filter is a piezoelectric crystal (commonly a quartz crystal).[2][3] The crystal
mechanically vibrates as a resonator, and its frequency of vibration determines the oscillation frequency. Crystals
have very high Q-factor and also better temperature stability than tuned circuits, so crystal oscillators have much
better frequency stability than LC or RC oscillators. Crystal oscillators are the most common type of linear oscillator,
used to stabilize the frequency of most radio transmitters, and to generate the clock signal in computers and quartz
clocks. Crystal oscillators often use the same circuits as LC oscillators, with the crystal replacing the tuned circuit;[2]
the Pierce oscillator circuit is also commonly used. Quartz crystals are generally limited to frequencies of 30 MHz or
below.[2] Other types of resonator, dielectric resonators and surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, are used to control
higher frequency oscillators, up into the microwave range. For example, SAW oscillators are used to generate the
radio signal in cell phones.
Negative resistance oscillator
(left) Typical block diagram of a negative resistance oscillator. In some types the negative
resistance device is connected in parallel with the resonant circuit. (right) A negative resistance
microwave oscillator consisting of a Gunn diode in a cavity resonator. The negative resistance of
the diode excites microwave oscillations in the cavity, which radiate out the aperture into a
waveguide.

In addition to the feedback oscillators described above, which use two-port amplifying
active elements such as transistors and operational amplifiers, linear oscillators can also be built using one-port (two
terminal) devices with negative resistance,[2][3] such as magnetron tubes, tunnel diodes, IMPATT diodes and Gunn
diodes. Negative resistance oscillators are usually used at high frequencies in the microwave range and above, since
at these frequencies feedback oscillators perform poorly due to excessive phase shift in the feedback path.
In negative resistance oscillators, a resonant circuit, such as an LC circuit, crystal, or cavity resonator, is connected
across a device with negative differential resistance, and a DC bias voltage is applied to supply energy. A resonant
circuit by itself is "almost" an oscillator; it can store energy in the form of electronic oscillations if excited, but
because it has electrical resistance and other losses the oscillations are damped and decay to zero. The negative
resistance of the active device cancels the (positive) internal loss resistance in the resonator, in effect creating a
resonator with no damping, which generates spontaneous continuous oscillations at its resonant frequency.
The negative resistance oscillator model is not limited to one-port devices like diodes; feedback oscillator circuits
with two-port amplifying devices such as transistors and tubes also have negative resistance.[4][5][6] At high
frequencies, transistors and FETs do not need a feedback loop, but with certain loads applied to one port can become
unstable at the other port and show negative resistance due to internal feedback, causing them to oscillate.[4][5][7] So
high frequency oscillators in general are designed using negative resistance techniques.[4][5][6]
Some of the many harmonic oscillator circuits are listed below:
Active devices used in oscillators and approximate maximum frequencies [5]

Device Frequency
Triode vacuum tube ~1 GHz
Bipolar transistor (BJT) ~20 GHz
Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) ~50 GHz
Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET) ~100 GHz
Gunn diode, fundamental mode ~100 GHz
Magnetron tube ~100 GHz
High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) ~200 GHz
Klystron tube ~200 GHz
Gunn diode, harmonic mode ~200 GHz
IMPATT diode ~300 GHz
Gyrotron tube ~300 GHz

 Armstrong oscillator, a.k.a. Meissner oscillator

 Clapp oscillator
  Colpitts oscillator

 Cross-coupled oscillator

 Dynatron oscillator

 Hartley oscillator

 Opto-electronic oscillator

 Pierce oscillator

 Phase-shift oscillator

 Robinson oscillator

 Tri-tet oscillator

 Vackář oscillator

 Wien bridge oscillator

Relaxation oscillator
Main article: Relaxation oscillator

A nonlinear or relaxation oscillator produces a non-sinusoidal output, such as a square, sawtooth or triangle wave.[3]
It consists of an energy-storing element (a capacitor or, more rarely, an inductor) and a nonlinear switching device (a
latch, Schmitt trigger, or negative resistance element) connected in a feedback loop. The switching device
periodically charges and discharges the energy stored in the storage element thus causing abrupt changes in the
output waveform.
Square-wave relaxation oscillators are used to provide the clock signal for sequential logic circuits such as timers
and counters, although crystal oscillators are often preferred for their greater stability. Triangle wave or sawtooth
oscillators are used in the timebase circuits that generate the horizontal deflection signals for cathode ray tubes in
analogue oscilloscopes and television sets. They are also used in voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), inverters
and switching power supplies, dual slope analog to digital converters (ADCs), and in function generators to generate
square and triangle waves for testing equipment. In general, relaxation oscillators are used at lower frequencies and
have poorer frequency stability than linear oscillators.
Ring oscillators are built of a ring of active delay stages. Generally the ring has an odd number of inverting stages,
so that there is no single stable state for the internal ring voltages. Instead, a single transition propagates endlessly
around the ring.
Some of the more common relaxation oscillator circuits are listed below:
 Multivibrator

 Pearson-Anson oscillator

 Ring oscillator

 Delay line oscillator

 Royer oscillator
Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)
Main article: Voltage-controlled oscillator

An oscillator can be designed so that the oscillation frequency can be varied over some range by an input voltage or
current. These voltage controlled oscillators are widely used in phase-locked loops, in which the oscillator's
frequency can be locked to the frequency of another oscillator. These are ubiquitous in modern communications
circuits, used in filters, modulators, demodulators, and forming the basis of frequency synthesizer circuits which are
used to tune radios and televisions.
Radio frequency VCOs are usually made by adding a varactor diode to the tuned circuit or resonator in an oscillator
circuit. Changing the DC voltage across the varactor changes its capacitance, which changes the resonant frequency
of the tuned circuit. Voltage controlled relaxation oscillators can be constructed by charging and discharging the
energy storage capacitor with a voltage controlled current source. Increasing the input voltage increases the rate of
charging the capacitor, decreasing the time between switching events.
History
Probably the first people to observe an effect due to an electrical oscillator were Auguste Arthur de la Rive, who
observed a hissing arc in 1846,[8] and David Edward Hughes, who observed the humming telephone effect in 1878.
[9] Although in 1880 the French engineer Jean-Marie-Anatole Gérard-Lescuyer observed oscillations in a DC

powered coupled dynamo-motor system,[10] the first practical oscillators were based on electric arcs, which were
used for lighting in the 19th century. Ernst Lecher in 1888 showed that the current through an electric arc could be
oscillatory.[11][12][13] An oscillator was built by Elihu Thomson in 1892[14][15] by placing an LC tuned circuit in
parallel with an electric arc and included a magnetic blowout. Independently, in the same year, George Francis
Fitzgerald realized that if the damping resistance in a resonant circuit could be made zero or negative, the circuit
would produce oscillations, and, unsuccessfully, tried to build a negative resistance oscillator with a dynamo, what
would now be called a parametric oscillator.[16][17] The arc oscillator was rediscovered and popularized by William
Duddell in 1900.[18][19] The current through an arc light is unstable and often produces hissing, humming or howling
sounds.[17] Duddell, a student at London Technical College, investigated this effect. He attached an LC circuit to the
electrodes of an arc lamp, and the LC circuit tuned the frequency of the sound.[17] Some of the energy was radiated
as sound waves by the arc, producing a musical tone. Duddell demonstrated his oscillator before the London
Institute of Electrical Engineers by sequentially connecting different tuned circuits across the arc to play the national
anthem "God Save the Queen".[17] Duddell's "singing arc" did not generate frequencies above the audio range. In
1902 Danish physicists Valdemar Poulsen and P. O. Pederson were able to increase the frequency produced into the
radio range, inventing the Poulsen arc radio transmitter, the first continuous wave radio transmitter, which was used
through the 1920s.[20][21][22]

A 120 MHz oscillator from 1938 using a parallel rod transmission line resonator (Lecher line). Transmission lines are widely
used for UHF oscillators.

The vacuum tube feedback oscillator was invented around 1912, when it was discovered that feedback
("regeneration") in the recently invented audion vacuum tube could produce oscillations. At least six researchers
independently made this discovery and can be said to have some role in the invention.[23][24] In the summer of 1912,
Edwin Armstrong observed oscillations in audion radio receiver circuits[25] and went on to use positive feedback in
his invention of the regenerative receiver.[26][27] German Alexander Meissner independently discovered positive
feedback and invented oscillators in March 1913.[25][28] Irving Langmuir at General Electric observed feedback in
1913.[28] Fritz Lowenstein may have preceded the others with a crude oscillator in late 1911.[29] In Britain, H. J.
Round patented amplifying and oscillating circuits in 1913.[25] In August 1912, Lee De Forest, the inventor of the
audion, had also observed oscillations in his amplifiers, but he didn't understand its significance and tried to
eliminate it[30][31] until he read Armstrong's patents in 1914,[32] which he promptly challenged.[33] Armstrong and De
Forest fought a protracted legal battle over the rights to the "regenerative" oscillator circuit[33][34] which has been
called "the most complicated patent litigation in the history of radio".[35] De Forest ultimately won before the
Supreme Court in 1934 on technical grounds, but most sources regard Armstrong's claim as the stronger one.[31][33]
The first and most widely used relaxation oscillator circuit, the astable multivibrator, was invented in 1917 by
French engineers Henri Abraham and Eugene Bloch.[36][37][38] They called their cross-coupled, dual vacuum tube
circuit a multivibrateur, because the square-wave signal it produced was rich in harmonics,[37][38] compared to the
sinusoidal signal of other vacuum tube oscillators.
Vacuum tube feedback oscillators became the basis of radio transmission by 1920. However, the triode vacuum tube
oscillator performed poorly above 300 MHz because of interelectrode capacitance.[citation needed] To reach higher
frequencies, new "transit time" (velocity modulation) vacuum tubes were developed, in which electrons traveled in
"bunches" through the tube. The first of these was the Barkhausen-Kurz oscillator (1920), the first tube to produce
power in the UHF range. The most important and widely used were the klystron (R. and S. Varian, 1937) and the
cavity magnetron (J. Randall and H. Boot, 1940).
Mathematical conditions for feedback oscillations, now called the Barkhausen criterion, were derived by Heinrich
Georg Barkhausen in 1921. The first analysis of a nonlinear electronic oscillator model, the Van der Pol oscillator,
was done by Balthasar van der Pol in 1927.[39] He showed that the stability of the oscillations (limit cycles) in actual
oscillators was due to the nonlinearity of the amplifying device. He originated the term "relaxation oscillation" and
was first to distinguish between linear and relaxation oscillators. Further advances in mathematical analysis of
oscillation were made by Hendrik Wade Bode and Harry Nyquist[40] in the 1930s. In 1969 K. Kurokawa derived
necessary and sufficient conditions for oscillation in negative resistance circuits,[41] which form the basis of modern
microwave oscillator design.[7]