Active power filters have been used in practice to suppress the harmonic interference in power systems. To compensate for harmonic currents of loads active power filters are usually connected to power systems in parallel with the loads. These filters which are called shunt active filters here are very effective to loads that can be considered as current sources, such a thyristor rectifiers with large DC reactances. Many papers have covered the shunt active filters applied to these currentsource loads. No paper, however, has discussed characteristics of the shunt active filters when they are applied to voltage-source loads.
On the other hand, since more and more diode rectifiers with capacitive DC filters are used recently, harmonics generated by which become an issue.The diode rectifier with capacitive DC filters behaves like a voltage source rather than a current source. When a shunt active filter is applied to such a diode rectifier, the current injected from the shunt active filter may flow into the diode rectifier. As a result, harmonics of the source current cannot be reduced effectively, and harmonic current flowing into the diode rectifier increases largely.
This paper reveals the above-mentioned problem of shunt active filters analytically and experimentally. Then a series active filter is proposed to suppress harmonic current of the diode rectifiers. The features, operating conditions, and considerations of shunt active filters and series active filters are described analytically and demonstrated experimentally. Taking a diode rectifier with capacitive DC filter as a typical voltage-source load, compensation characteristics of shunt active filters and series active filters are discussed by experiment and simulation. The validity of the series active filters is illustrated experimentally.