Performance Evaluation of Electronic Inductor-Based Adjustable Speed Drives with Respect to Line Current Interharmonics

Electronic Inductor (EI)-based front-end rectifiers have a large potential to become the prominent next generation of Active Front End (AFE) topology used in many applications including Adjustable Speed Drives (ASDs) for systems having unidirectional power flow. The EI-based ASD is mostly attractive due to its improved harmonic performance compared to a conventional ASD. In this digest, the input currents of the EI-based ASD are investigated and compared with the conventional ASDs with respect to interharmonics, which is an emerging power quality topic. First, the main causes of the interharmonic distortions in the ASD applications are analyzed under balanced and unbalanced load conditions. Thereafter, the key role of the EI at the DC stage is investigated in terms of high impedance and current harmonics transfer. Obtained experiments and simulations for both EI-based and conventional ASD systems verify the proposed theoretical analysis in determining the line input current interharmonics.