Design of a New Cooperative Harmonic Filtering Strategy for Distributed Generation Interface Converters in an Islanding Network

TLDR

Distributed generation systems have grown due to rising demand for high‑quality power and new energy technologies, but the rapid deployment of power‑electronics loads creates nonlinearities that generate harmful harmonics. This work proposes a cooperative harmonic filtering strategy for the interface converters of distributed generation sources. The strategy employs a droop control based on each converter’s reactive VA consumption of harmonics, enabling the harmonic‑damping workload to be shared evenly without communication. Computer simulations and laboratory tests confirm the strategy’s distributed harmonic‑damping capability.

Abstract

Increasing demand for premium electric power, in terms of both quality and reliability, and emerging new energy technologies have led to the development of distributed generation systems. Due to rapid penetration of power electronics equipment, many of the loads within distributed generation systems are nonlinear in nature, and the resulting harmonics pollution needs to be addressed. This paper proposes a new cooperative harmonic filtering strategy for the interface converters of distributed generation sources. A droop control method based on the reactive volt-ampere consumption of harmonics of each interface converter is designed and implemented. In this strategy, the overall harmonic filtering workload can be evenly shared without any communications. The operation principle is explained in detail. Computer simulations and laboratory test results validate the distributed harmonic damping capability of the proposed strategy.