A Practical Method to Identify Contributions of Harmonics in Power Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a practical method to quantify the contribution of harmonics between the utility and a customer at the point of common coupling (PCC). This approach is based on Thevenin’s equivalent circuit where the impedance and source characteristics of both the utility and customers’ sides are known. This paper describes the harmonic determination of the Thevenin equivalent of the utility and a customer that does not rely on injection or downtime. It is calculated using measured values of voltage and current occurring at different times when the load changes. With the Thevenin equivalent of the power system known, the individual harmonic contributions of the utility and a customer can be calculated.