Tagged: IEEE 519
AHF Compensates Thruster and Refrigeration Compressor
Danfoss used an Active Harmonic Filter to compensate the THD of their installed 960 kW of VFDs for thruster and refrigeration compressor on the fishing vessel Gitte Henning #8. The AHF ensured to keep the installation within class requirements. Read more at:
Active Harmonic Filter as a Tool to Save Money
Power quality mitigation products are not only used to fulfil regulations such as IEEE-519 and G5/4. They have actual effects saving both power and increasing productivity. This presentation by ABB exemplifies some of their early case studies indicating savings of up to 10%. Note that these savings compare to having no harmonic mitigation.
The cases below clearly show the great business value of implementing a high power quality standard within your facility. The secondary effects of complying with IEEE 519 or similar standards enables the local grid to be dimensioned for less reactive power and harmonic current thus saving money through thinner cabling, smaller transformers etc. Power quality mitigation is not only a cost in the general investment calculation but a tool to save money.
IEEE 519 and Active Harmonic Filters
Electric Grid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Standards governing distiortion parameters in the electric grid such as IEEE 519, G5/4, EN 61000, EN 50160 and D-A-CH-CZ among others most often require voltage harmonic distortion to be below 5-8%. These are all recommended, not obligatory practices.
Although adherence to standards such as IEEE 519 is not obligatory, more and more utilities and other parties of interest are using these standards as a benchmark to place demands on their customers. This is a way for them to be able to guarantee disturbance free delivery on their end. It is also used as a part of an active environmental agenda to show a decreased energy usage and reduced energy costs for many energy intensive processes.
One way to meet the new requirements is to simply reduce the harmonics to an acceptable level. Many modern active harmonic filters can pinpoint the harmonic orders that are contributing, and the compensation power can be optimized to meet the requirements in the most cost efficient way.
The modern Active Harmonic Filter is one of the most efficient harmonic solutions the market today. Filters are commonly available in a 208 – 480V version and a 480 – 690V. The Active Harmonic Filter can be combined with 6 pulse drives and will be placed in parallel with the load, minimizing the need of compensation power to 20 – 30 % of the load. The parallel placement will also ensure the redundancy in the design, which is a major advantage in a critical applications. Modular solutions, which are now more commonly available gives a dynamic and agile solution to work for future improvements to existing machinery. This is all in keeping with the spirit of standards such as the IEEE 519 toward a sustainable energy future.
Power Losses and Low Harmonic Drives
Using the active filter in shunt applications has a lot of energy saving potential compared to using serial filters – either passive or active front end.
Here are some examples and what they mean to you as user. When seen as a system, the active filter in shunt mode offers a total system loss that is lower than that of the passive filter.
Passive Harmonic Filters
A passive filter has between 0.6-1.5% losses
Assuming a 6-pulse drive has 2% losses, the total system loss is the sum of the losses
Pdrive*PFilter = 2% + (1.5 <-> 0.6)% => 3.5% to 2.6% total system loss.
NOTE! This does not include an eventual voltage drop through the passive filter and its effect on the motor’s losses.
Serial Active Filter – Front End
An active front end drive essentially has twice the loss of a standard drive as the power has to pass through two IGBTs.
Pafe = 2% + 2% + 1% for the LCL-filter = 5% losses. Total system losses observed in documentation are 4.7-5%.
Shunt Active Filter
Unlike the serial solutions the shunt active filter only has to be sized according to the harmonic currents to be filtered out. Under normal conditions this means that in a IEEE-519 or G5/4 application the filter has to be sized 15-30% of the 6-pulse load. This means the total system loss is also much lower even though the efficiency of the Active Filter is:
Pdrive + Padf = 0.02 + 0.02* (0,15 – 0,3) = 2.3 – 2.6 % in total system losses.
Summary from a System Owner’s View
Shunt Active Harmonic filters offer between 0 and 1.17% points lower power consumption compared to Passive Harmonic Filters. This does not include any effect from voltage drop through the serial passive filter.
Shunt Active Harmonic Filters offer between 2.7 – 2.4 % lower power consumption compared to Active Front End drives.
Power Losses are a Significant Part of Your Life Cycle Cost Calculation
Minimising losses over time, especially in industrial process loads with more than 8000 hours of yearly operation, 1%-point saving in power consumption translates into significant value.
(Pdrive + Pcooling) (kW)* Yearly operation hours(h)*Net Losses(%) = Total cost saving potential
Energy Cost Estimate
Electrical power prices differ but the relation between cooling and electricity is roughly equivalent to
Pcooling = 0.3 * Pdrive
In the case of the AFE there are cases where the entire harmonic mitigation solution has been paid off in 2.5 years simply by choosing shunt Active Harmonic Filters instead of Active Front End thanks to lower power losses.
The Active Harmonic Filter is very competitive compared to both Passive filters and Active Front End. As the capital expenditure is very similar, a lower power consumption make the AHF a very good overall choice.
Furthermore the availability offered by a shunt installation where the drive can continue to operate even though the mitigation has failed offer a great upside through higher availability of the process.
Active Harmonic Filters 