TABLE OF CONTENTS The growing number of power electronics-based equipment has produced an important impact on the quality of electric power supply. Both high power industrial loads and domestic loads cause harmonics in the network voltages. At the same time, much of the equipment causing the disturbances is quite sensitive to deviations from the ideal sinusoidal line voltage. Therefore, power quality problems may originate in the system or may be caused by the consumer itself. Moreover, in the last years the growing concern related to power quality comes from:
Consumers that are becoming increasingly aware of the power quality issues and being more informed about the consequences of harmonics, interruptions, sags, switching transients, etc. Motivated by deregulation, they are challenging the energy suppliers to improve the quality of the power delivered.
The proliferation of load equipment with microprocessor-based controllers and power electronic devices which are sensitive to many types of power quality disturbances.
Emphasis on increasing overall process productivity, which has led to the installation of high-efficiency equipment, such as adjustable speed drives and power factor correction equipment. This in turn has resulted in an increase in harmonics injected into the power system, causing concern about their impact on the system behavior.
For an increasing number of applications, conventional equipment is proving insufficient for mitigation of power quality problems. Harmonic distortion has traditionally been dealt with the use of passive...
