Reduction of Harmonics in Power Lines Using Finite Impulse Response Filter

Abstract

This work focused on reduction of harmonics in Power lines using finite impulse response filter. Since the rising usage of power electronic devices sensitive to harmonics, which has resulted in a growth in the number of adverse harmonic-related occurrences, network harmonic investigations have become a major concern in electric power systems. The problem of power quality and how to control it is becoming more of a concern. Power quality difficulties have arisen as a result of the connection of nonlinear loads in the network, resulting in widespread waveform distortion. The harmonic analysis was based on bus bar voltage solutions acquired from a power flow study on the Electricity Distribution Company's power distribution network at the Onitsha TCN work centre. The focus of this work was on the use of active power filter in reducing the harmonics by generating compensation signal by the active filter (APF) for the reduction of harmonic distortion as well as enhancing the system’s power factor. A system model to reduce harmonics in power line by using FIR filter to generate compensation signals and switching pulses for the active filter was modeled and the performance of the FIR filter using Matlab/Simulink environment was compared with the performance without filter. The sending and receiving end bus bar voltages were derived from the power flow analysis and used in the simulation. Harmonic results without filter and with filter were shown and it shows that the use of FIR active filter which has improved advantages over the conventional passive filters in mitigating harmonics was able to reduce the harmonics from 17.77% to 0.87% which is 16.9% ( 95% reduction) thereby improving the current, voltage and power factor (pf) of the system. Reduction of harmonics reduced disturbances that usually cause equipment overheating and deterioration of the performance of electronic equipment; hence the performances of the electronic equipment greatly improved leading to economic benefits.