Abstract
Due to the progress of power semiconductor technologies and power electronics technologies, applications of power converters have increased significantly in recent years, such as adjustable speed drives, switching power supplies. Most of these applications require diode rectifiers or thyristor rectifiers as the AC/DC front-ends. The nonlinear nature of the front-end rectifiers draw significant harmonic current from the utility grid, which result in harmonic distortion of current and voltage in the power system.In this thesis, a shunt active filter (SAF) is proposed to restrain harmonics propagation of a radial power distribution line. The operation principle and the control algorithm of the shunt active filter system will be presented. The functionality and performance of the proposed system will be verified by computer simulation and prototype experiments. The active filter will be installed on various points along the radial line to test its effectiveness on suppressing voltage harmonics.