Evaluation of an Advanced Harmonic Filter for Adjustable Speed Drives using a Toolbox Approach

A large diversity of solutions exists to reduce the harmonic emission of the 6-pulse Adjustable Speed Drive in order to fulfill the requirements of the international harmonic standards. Among them, new types of advanced harmonic filters recently gained an increased attention due to their good harmonic reduction performance at the same time with small costs and engineering. In the event that such filters are used to replace existing solutions, the assessment of the harmonic performance before commissioning is a necessity. This assessment is possible by using software tools to compare the performance of different topologies. This paper presents a method to integrate the model of the filter into an existing harmonic calculation toolbox dedicated for harmonic analysis on the 6-pulse converter. The results are linked together into a practical PC software toolbox for harmonic estimation. By using a combination of a pre-stored database and new interpolation techniques the toolbox can provide the harmonic data on real applications allowing comparisons between different mitigation solutions.