Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 9 – 14

www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

A graphical method to determine the harmonic magnification in

radial feeders due to SVC operation
Mohamed Abdulla a, Ziyad Salameh b,*
a
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA 02115, USA
b
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Uni6ersity of Massachusetts-Lowell, One Uni6ersity A6enue, Lowell, MA 01854, USA

Received 28 April 1999; received in revised form 19 May 1999; accepted 25 January 2000

Abstract

Static var compensators (SVC) are used widely in power systems. Their disadvantages are the harmonic generation and, under
certain operating conditions, SVC interacts with the power system. This interaction may magnify some of the harmonic
components. This paper represents a graphical method that explores the effect of SVC’s parameters and operating point on the
voltage quality at load’s bus bar due to the harmonic component magnification. This method overcomes the need to solve the
system’s non-linear state equations and/or the use of EMTP program to investigate the possibility of harmonic magnification
occurrence in a particular radial feeder. The method also determines the critical value of SVC inductance to avoid harmonic
magnification. The method is applied to a radial feeder in the state of Massachusetts, USA. The results are reported with a
comparison to EMTP results. © 2001 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Voltage quality; Harmonic magnification; Frequency response; SVC

1. Introduction constant is comparable to the time constant of other

The reactive power component in a power system’s
radial feeder is a disadvantage. The reactive power
reduces the total capacity of the feeder. The ideal
condition is to have a zero VAR flow along the feeder.
This was, and still is for constant loads of poor lagging
power factor, carried out by adding capacitor bank in
parallel with the loads. As the power factor changes,
the controller connects, or disconnects, mechanically a
certain capacitor bank to achieve the near unity power
factor condition.
As power electronics technology advances, power
electronic devices, for example DC rectifiers and ad-
justable speed drives (ASD) have become popular. Be-
cause of fast changes in the operating points of these
devices, the mechanical connection/disconnection of the
capacitor banks cannot cooperate with these new loads.
Introduction of static var compensators (SVC) as a
variable reactance that works in both capacitive and
inductive modes, has gained much attention as its time
* Corresponding author.
power electronic devices.
Many references studied the effect of SVC on the
power system damping, harmonic generation, and dy-
namics [1–9]. Some references studied the effect of SVC
when connected near a HVDC system [10]. An EPRI
report represents the harmonic interaction study in the
power system and its effect on the system performance
[11]. A new instability, time bifurcation instability
[12,13], was reported [11,14 –16]. The authors proved
that the cause of this instability is the harmonic mag-
nification. The mathematical method used was the
Poincare mapping. The Poincare method is based on
the fact that the system under study is piecewise linear
between the instants of thyristor firing. Thus solving the
system’s linear state equations between the firing in-
stants leads to determine the behavior of the system’s
signals. To study the effect of one parameter in the
power system on the bifurcation, the mapping process
must be repeated for each value. The Poincare mapping
method can determine the SVC’s operating point(s)
(that is, the conduction angle | of the TCR’s thyristors)
at which the time-bifurcation instability may occur.
Other references studied the frequency response of
the power system containing SVC devices [17 –19].

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10 M. Abdulla, Z. Salameh / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 9–14
Most of these references used the frequency scanning
method. In this method, a harmonic current or voltage
is injected at a certain node. By plotting the magnitude
of the impedance seen at the node as a function of the
frequency, we can determine the frequency, or frequen-
cies, at which the impedance is very high (that is, the
resonance condition). This method has the same draw-
back as the Poincare mapping, which has no informa-
tion about the effect of individual element(s) on the
resonance condition provided.
The study of the power system dynamics that in-
volves the periodic switching action of the power elec-
tronic devices can be carried out using Poincare
mapping. This method cannot be used if the system
under study contains more than one SVC, and/or con-
tains SVC and another power electronic device. The
reason is, it is difficult, and may be impossible, to link
the operation of one device to the other.
The effect of the eigenvalues’ locations on the har-
monic magnification was reported in Ref. [10].
This paper explains the effect of SVC’s parameters
(inductor, capacitor, and conduction angle) and the
radial feeder’s impedance value on the harmonic mag-
nification. It also proposes a graphical method to find
the effect of the change in SVC operating point on the
magnitude of the harmonic components. In this method
the effect of the change in SVC parameters on the
harmonic components is immediately noticed and the
harmonic magnification can be detected with out solv-
ing the system’s non-linear state equations. Also we can
determine the value of the conduction angle(s) of the
thyristor-controlled reactor, TCR, at which the har-
monic magnification may occur. This method can de-
termine the critical value of SVC’s inductance if the
capacitor value was selected.
2. System under study
2.1. Practical system data
The system under study is a radial feeder supplied
from a 22.9-kV grid through a three-phase Delta/Y
transformer. The feeder has four sections as shown in
Fig. 1. The load at each node is represented by current
sources because the physical components are not given.
The current sources have fundamental and odd har-
monic components as given by the utility. The data of
Fig. 1. Radial feeder under study.
transformer, feeder and fundamental loads’ currents are
given in Table 1. The short circuit current at each node
is calculated and is shown in Table 1. The grid voltage
is reported balanced and harmonic free.
2.2. SVC de6ice
SVC device is of TCR type with shunt capacitor. The
capacitor is a thyristor switched type. This means that
the change in SVC operating point is due to the change
in the TCR conduction angle |, change in the capacitor
value, or both.
The triggering gate pulses are phase controlled. The
VAR and voltage controller calculates the required
delay-firing angle. The triggering circuit is synchronized
with the line voltages through a synchronizing trans-
former and a filter. The SVC system is shown in Fig. 2.
Cq1 = 500 mF and Cq2 = 500 mF. The study is carried
out with two values of Lq, 30 and 2.1 mH.
The triggering scheme is a phase-controlled scheme.
The block diagram of the triggering circuit is shown in
Fig. 3. The input filter filters the harmonics out of Vline
so that Vsynch is 60 Hz and contains two zero crossing
per cycle. The relation between the delay firing angle
and the control voltage is given by Eq. (1). To avoid
the effect of the controller on the system’s response, the
controller is taken as proportional with unity gain and
the feedback signal is inhibited. The relation between
the triggering delay angle h and the applied control
signal Vref is given by Eq. (1).
h= y(0.5035+ 0.2627 Vref) (1)
3. Analysis
3.1. System’s equi6alent circuit
A TCR branch in parallel with a variable capacitor
Cq may represent SVC. The value of Cq depends on the
(T.S.) states. The feeder system and the loads may be
represented by Thevenin equivalent. The Thevenin
equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 4 as seen at node
number (i ), where i= 1, 2, 3, 4. At this stage, there is
no filter connected to node (i ). Thevenin equivalent
circuit consists of inductive impedance in series with a
voltage source. The voltage source may contain har-
monic components. This depends on the actual system
configuration. In the practical system under study, the
feeder current contains harmonic components, so Thev-
enin voltage source generates both the fundamental and
harmonic component voltages.
As proven later, the proposed method is independent
of the voltage source.
Replacing the TCR branch with a variable induc-
tance Leq leads to Fig. 5 [20]. Leq is the ratio between
 M. Abdulla, Z. Salameh / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 9–14 11

Table 1
Transformer and feeder dataa

F0 60
W0 377.1428571
Vph 7620
Reel Imaginary Magnitude Angle

Ztr 0 0.0187831 0.0187831 90

Z1 0.0271 0.044898857 0.052443468 58.88570776
Z2 0.0882 1.543885457 1.771989207 60.6443685
Z3 1.9411 3.606700114 4.095870472 61.71118264
Z4 0.9184 1.707699066 1.938993225 61.72865094
ZN1 0.0271 0.053681957 0.069208393 66.94771272
ZN2 0.8953 1.607282414 1.839814895 60.88100432
ZN3 2.8364 5.213982529 5.935552103 61.45386435
ZN4 5.6728 6.921661614 8.949320433 50.66299499
I1N1 138.4639701 −24.41493378 140.6 −10
I1N2 332.5695782 −58.6409896 337.7 −10
I1N3 213.3093593 −37.61219528 216.6 −10
I1N4 0 0 0 0
IscN1 43112.64985 −101310.3563 110102.253 −66.94771272
IscN2 2015.465157 −3618.252768 4141.721006 −60.88100432
IscN3 613.4797117 −1127.722641 1283.78959 −61.45386435
IscN4 539.7247414 −658.5465413 851.4612989 −50.66299499

a
I1N1, Fundamental component of the load current at node 1; I1N2, Fundamental component of the load current at node 2; I1N3,
Fundamental component of the load current at node 3; I1N4, Fundamental component of the load current at node 4; IscN1, Short circuit current
at node 1; IscN2, Short circuit current at node 2; IscN3, Short circuit current at node 3; IscN4, Short circuit current at node 4; Z1, First section’s
impedance of the feeder; Z2, Second section’s impedance of the feeder; Z3, Third section’s impedance of the feeder; Z4, Fourth section’s
impedance of the feeder; ZN1, Equivalent impedance between the grid and node 1; ZN2, Equivalent impedance between the grid and node 2; ZN3,
Equivalent impedance between the grid and node 3; ZN4, Equivalent impedance between the grid and node 4; Ztr, Transformer impedance
referred to the feeder side.

the rms value of the TCR’s terminal voltage and the point | changes the locations of system’s eigenvalues
fundamental component of the TCR’s current and is change. The system response is different to the har-
given by Eq. (2) [11]. monic excitation as its eigenvalues change. The loci of
y system’s eigenvalue as the value of SVC’s inductance
Leq(|)= L (2) changes are shown in Fig. 6 with Cq = C1 + C2 =1000
|− sin | q
mF.
The conduction angle | is related to the delay-firing From Fig. 6, we notice the following:
angle h by Eq. (3). 1. The off-state’s eigenvalues are relatively stable com-
| =2(y − h) (3) pared with the on-states eigenvalues.

From Eqs. (1) and (3), the relation between the

reference signal Vref and the conduction angle | for the
phase-controlled system under study is given by Eq. (4).
s=p(0.993 −0.5254 Vref); 1.89 ]Vref ]0.0 (4)

3.2. System’s eigen6alues

The system’s eigenvalues are the roots of the charac-

teristic equation of Fig. 5, and is given by Eq. (5).

S3+
  
Rs 2
S +
Ls +Leq
S+
Rs  
=0
 (5)
Ls Leq Cq Ls Leq Cq Ls
The eigenvalues’ locations depend on the values of
Cq and Leq. The value of Leq depends on the TCR’s
conduction angle |. This means that as SVC operating Fig. 2. SVC system.
12 M. Abdulla, Z. Salameh / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 9–14
Fig. 3. Triggering circuit block diagram.
2. As the conduction angle | increases, the eigenvalues
move from the off state location at (− 154.5474 9
j0.4094…0), where …0 is 377 rad/S, towards the
imaginary axis.
3. The maximum value of | is y. At this value, the
eigenvalues’ locations depend on the value of Lq.
The smaller the value of Lq, the larger the value of
the imaginary part and the smaller the value of the
real part of the eigenvalue.
In the analysis, the Lq value of 30 mH limits the
complete conduction | =y to : ( −40 9j…0), location
(1). The change in | will not place the eigenvalues on or
near the second harmonic frequency or more. No sec-
ond or higher harmonic voltage components will be
magnified for Lq =30 mH.
For Lq = 2.1 mH, the limit is located at :( − 5.59
j3.2…0), location (2). The change in | will cover the
third harmonic frequency. The third harmonic voltage
component will be magnified. For three-phase system,
the line voltage has no triplen voltage due to its
Fig. 5. Reduced equivalent circuit without filter.
increases. The number of variables is equal to the
number of the power electronic devices connected to
the feeder. The matter becomes worse as the operations
of these devices (the conduction angles) do not corre-
late with each other, which is generally the case in
practice.
To see how the system’s eigenvalues change with the
conduction angle | and the effect of different parame-
ters on this change, two groups of curves will be
plotted. The first group contains the imaginary part of
the eigenvalues divided by …0 versus Leq. The second
group contains | versus Leq curves for the given values
of Lq. The curves are shown in Fig. 7 for two values of
Cq, 500 and 1000 mF, (curve 1 and curve 2, respec-
tively), and two values of Lq, 30, and 2.1 mH. From
Fig. 7, the value of | at which the voltage distortion
occurs due to the harmonic magnification can be deter-
mined. From |/Leq curve of Lq = 30 mH the range of
connection.
Fig. 6 can be used to determine if the values of Cq
and Lq of SVC causes harmonic voltage magnification.
If the root loci of the eigenvalues as | changes inter-
sects S = 9 j3…0, 9j5…0, or 9j7…0, the system will
magnify the harmonic voltages and voltage distortion
occurs at certain values of |.
3.3. Suggested method
change in | is between Leq =  at |= 0 and Leq =10
mH at |= y. Mapping this range to the imaginary part
of eigenvalue/Leq curve for Cq = 1000 mF leads to the
range of change in the imaginary part of eigenvalue.
This range is limited to values less than or equal to …0.
This indicates that these values of Lq and Cq do not
lead to harmonic magnification, as the imaginary parts
of the system eigenvalues are always less than or equal
to …0.

It is difficult to use Fig. 6 to determine the value(s) of

| at which harmonic voltage magnification occurs. It is
required to substitute the value of S = (a + j…0) along
the loci in Eq. (5) to get Leq. Then from Eq. (2) solve
the non-linear equation to get |. This is not recom-
mended if the feeder has two or more power electronic
devices as loads. The reason is that Eq. (5) becomes
more complex as the number of variables, such as Leq,

Fig. 6. Eigenvalues’ location change as the conduction angle |

Fig. 4. System equivalent circuit without filter. changes.
 M. Abdulla, Z. Salameh / Electric Power Systems Research 57 (2001) 9–14
Fig. 7. The Eigenvalues/Leq and |/Leq curves.
On the other hand, the value of Lq =2.1 mH pro-
13
IEEE standard 519-1992 [22]. The voltage distortion is
: 6%, which is higher than the voltage distortion limits
given by Table 11.1 in IEEE standard 519-1992 [22].
5. Discussion
The paper proposed a graphical method that can be
used to investigate the effect of SVC on harmonic
magnification. It is clear that the harmonic magnifica-
tion condition is affected by both the SVC’s and feed-
er’s parameters. As the feeder’s parameters are assumed
fixed, the only variable in the system is the SVC’s
operating point. The SVC’s operating point, is the
conduction angle | of the TCR’s thyristors.
The paper proved that the system’s eigenvalues are
function of |. As | changes, the eigenvalues change. In
more precise words, as | increases, the eigenvalues
move towards the imaginary axis and in the direction of
duces |/Leq curve that extends from Leq = to Leq =
0.7 mH.
Mapping this range to the imaginary part of eigen-
value/Leq curve for Cq =1000 mF leads to the range of
change in imaginary part. This range is from : 0.4…0
to : 3…0, which indicates that the eigenvalues will be
tuned to the second and the third harmonic at | : 115°
and | :175°, respectively. This will magnify the second
and/or third harmonic components and leads to distor-
tion in the voltage.
Note that for Lq = 2.1 mH the change in | between
75° and 180° changes Leq in a small range. This leads to
a rapid change in the imaginary part of the eigenvalues
near the maximum value of |.
4. Experimental results
The system under study is time simulated using
EMTDC program. The two values of Lq used are 30
and 2.1 mH with Cq =1000 mF. The operating point of
SVC is determined by Vref. The values chosen for Vref
are 0.97 and 0.28 voltages. The corresponding values of
| are 87° and 160°, respectively. For Lq =30 mH, the
system behaves in the expected manner, that is as the
reference voltage decreases the conduction angle
changes from 0 to y. The voltages along the feeder are
almost sinusoidal with distortion level less than 3%,
which is the permissible distortion according to IEEE
standard 519-1992 [22].
For Lq =2.1 mH, the change in the reference voltage
Vref has small effect on the conduction angle. The
conduction angle is fixed at :60° and the TCR current
increases for all the values of Vref. At the Vref =0.28,
the voltage at node c 4, Vann4 has a flat peak. The
TCR current has harmonic components with values
exceeding the maximum values given by Table 4.2 in
increasing the frequency. This means that the eigenval-
ues may hit the frequencies that are multiple of the
fundamental. In such a case, the system will magnify
the corresponding harmonic component.
The method also provided information of how both
the TCR’s inductor and SVC’s capacitor affect the
harmonic magnification. The method proves that the
increase in the value of the TCR’s inductor avoids the
magnification of harmonic components. It was seen
that decreasing the value of SVC’s capacitor shifts the
root loci to a higher frequency.
In a future work, we will link this work with another
work [21] to design an artificial neural network (ANN)
to predict and control the SVC. Its purpose is to avoid
the harmonic magnification. This is important as the
feeder impedance seen by the SVC is not fixed, but it
changes as the loads connected to the feeder change.
Also it is important to use ANN as a predictor and
controller because the feeder may have a power elec-
tronic device, such as adjustable speed drive and the
harmonic pattern may become unpredictable in
advance.
Acknowledgements
New England Power Service under a contract man-
aged by Dr John Bzura supported this work.
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