Abstract-- The control circuit of the active power filter used

for power quality improvement has several basic functional

blocks, out of which the reference current generator and the
switching pulses generator are considered as most important
blocks. This paper presents a novel switching technique for three
phase four wire shunt active power filter. The switching pulses
are derived by using the three dimensional space vector
modulation technique with null vector eliminated. The switching
algorithm presented here simplifies the switching strategy. The
focus is on the implementation of a pulse width modulation
scheme with less number of switch commutations per period and
maximum DC bus voltage utilisation. A digital controller is used
to provide dead beat current control. The combination of the
digital controller and the modulation scheme gives the four leg
active power filter the capability to independently track
reference current waveforms in three phases. This four leg active
power filter can be used for harmonic compensation, reactive
power compensation, and load balancing and neutral current
compensation. Simulation results are given to show the validity of
the proposed switching control strategy.

Index Terms--3-D SVM, Active power filter, Null Vector
I. INTRODUCTION
he extensive use of nonlinear loads is leading to a variety
of undesirable phenomena in the operation of power
systems. The harmonic components in current and voltage
waveforms are the most important among these.
Conventionally passive filters have been used to eliminate line
current harmonics. However, they introduced resonance in the
power system and tend to be bulky [1]. With the improved
performance of power and control circuits, active power filter
have gradually been recognized as a viable alternative to
passive filters [2, 3].
In many commercial and industrial installations power is
distributed through a there phase four wire system. This type
of system has unique problems. If nonlinear single phase loads
are present or the three phase load is unbalanced, line currents
are unbalanced and neutral currents flow. These neutral
currents contain both fundamental and triplen harmonic

Heli Golwala is with Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology,
Surat 395007, Gujarat, India (e-mail: heligolwala@yahoo.co.in).
R. Chudamani is with Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology,
Surat 395007, Gujarat, India (e-mail: rc@eed.svnit.ac.in).

978-1-4244-7781-4/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

components. In severe cases, the neutral currents are
potentially damaging to both the neutral conductor and the
transformer to which it is connected. Three phase three wire
shunt active power filters cannot effectively reduce or
eliminate line harmonics in this situation [4]. Three phase four
wire active power filters have been proposed by researchers as
an effective solution to these problems [2, 4].
While implementing three phase four wire active power
filter following factors are to be considered:
1. Reference current generation.
2. Generation of switching signals.
3. Selection of the correct topology for voltage source
converter.
For reference current generation popular methods like p-q-r
theory or d-q theory may be used. For power converters
voltage source converters are widely used. In three phase four
wire systems the neutral connection can be provided in two
ways.
1. Using split DC link capacitors and tying the neutral
point to the mid-point of the DC link capacitors;
2. Using a four-leg converter topology and connecting
the neutral point to the mid-point of the fourth neutral
leg.
With the split-capacitor approach the three-phase converter
essentially becomes three single-phase half-bridge converters;
thus, it suffers from an insufficient utilization of the DC link
voltage. In addition, large and expensive DC link capacitors
are needed to maintain an acceptable voltage ripple level
across the DC link capacitors in case of a large neutral current
due to unbalanced and/or nonlinear load [5]. In addition it is
not possible to improve DC bus utilization using space vector
pulse width modulation for these converters.
There is a growing interest in four-leg converters for three
phase four-wire applications. Some of the typical applications
are as follows.
1. Distributed power generators [5][8], such as micro-
turbine generators and fuel cell based generators,
which may run in either stand-alone or grid parallel
mode. These distributed power generators adopt four-
leg inverters to provide a three-phase output with a
neutral connection. Stimulated by utility
deregulation, this type of equipment is growing
rapidly and will have a larger market share [8,9];
2. Active power filters [9,10], where four-leg converters
are proposed for compensating the harmonic current
through the neutral point;
Simulation of Three-phase Four-wire Shunt
Active Power Filter using Novel Switching
Technique
Heli Golwala and R. Chudamani
T

3. Three-phase PWM rectifiers [9], where the additional
fourth leg provides flexibility to deal with the line
distortion and imbalance, as well as fault tolerant
capability.
4. Common mode noise reduction [10].
The four-leg topology needs an additional pair of
semiconductor switches and a driver circuit. However, the
fourth leg gives an additional degree of freedom to control and
compensate the neutral current in a three-phase four-wire
system. The 3-D space vector modulator (3D-SVM) has many
advantages such as low output distortion, suitability to digital
implementation and improvement in DC bus utilization by
15% compared to sinusoidal PWM [7, 8].
From the simulation studies it has been verified that the
proposed switching technique can give better switching
signals for three phase four wire shunt active power filter with
distinct advantages of low switching losses as compared to
traditional hysteresis current control and three dimensional
space vector modulation with null vector [2, 7, 11].
Hysteresis current controller generates PWM pulses for
each phase individually. In a four-leg active power filter, the
three-phase currents and the neutral current must be
controlled. In many papers four independent current
controllers are employed for the three phases and the neutral
current. Since only three of the four controlled currents are
linearly independent, the interaction among the controllers
results in the currents straying outside their tolerance band.
The problem is solved by a space-vector based current
controller in the - - 0 coordinate system, as proposed in [7,
8]. These controllers impose equal hysteresis errors in the
converter's four-wire currents, but with this technique also
devices in all four legs are controlled.
This paper presents a three-dimensional space-vector-
modulation scheme without considering null vector, for three-
phase four-wire shunt active power filters. The first two steps
for implementation of 3D-SVM like identification of prism
and tetrahedrons are well elaborated in [7] and [8]. The next
step is to choose an appropriate switching scheme and to
generate the four PWM waveforms for the top four inverter
switches. The most important step in 3D-SVM is to calculate
the duty cycle and to translate the information into four PWM
waveforms for the given sequencing scheme. This paper
proposes a new approach to implement the last step without
considering null vector in 3D-SVM for a four-leg active
power filter.
To perform appropriate compensation, it is essential to
accurately generate the reference current signals in the time
domain. These references are applied to a PWM current
controller to get the desired compensation. In general, the
active reactive power theory and the synchronous reference
frame theory are commonly used for three-phase three-wire
active filters control. The advantage of synchronous
reference frame method is that only the phase currents are
used to generate the reference signals. Therefore the
disturbances in the supply voltage do not influence the
generation of compensating signals, provided the estimation
of is correct. So in proposed switching scheme also the
synchronous reference frame theory is used (Given in
Appendix).
The performance of proposed switching control strategy for
three phase four wire active power filter is verified in
simulation studies using MATLAB and it is compared with
hysteresis current control and three dimensional space vector
modulation with null vector. The 3D-SVM without null vector
for the four-leg shunt active power filter is described in
Section II. The simulation to show the validity of the proposed
switching technique for three phase four wire shunt active
power filter is presented in Section III. Section IV gives the
results of the proposed switching technique in three phase four
wire shunt APF.
II. PROPOSED SWITCHING TECHNIQUE
The major advantage of a four-leg inverter is that the DC-
bus utilization can be improved by using a 3-D space vector
modulation. In 3D-SVM, there are 16 possible switching
vectors: fourteen active nonzero vectors and two null vectors.
In algorithm presented here to generate switching signals the
null vectors are eliminated and so 3 D space vector modulator
is realized using 14 active non zero vectors only. The entire 3-
D Space is divided into 6 prisms and 24 tetrahedrons. Each
prism consists of four tetrahedrons. An instantaneous
reference input vector may lie in any of these tetrahedrons at
any point of time. The proposed method is implemented in the
following sequence:
1. Identification of prism (Fig. 2);
2. Identification of tetrahedrons (Table I);
3. Duty cycle calculation;
4. Generation of PWM sequence for the switches
A. Prism Identification

Figure 1: Physical Position of Switching State Vectors
The prism identification is very similar to the sector
identification for 2-D SVM. Based on the projections of the
reference vector on the - plane, V

and V

, six prisms in the

3-D space can be identified and numbered as Prisms I through

VI. Within the selected prism, there are six non zero switching
state vectors and two zero switching state vectors which are
not considered in the proposed switching technique. Fig. 1
shows the physical positions of the switching state vectors in
0-- coordinate system.
The identification of prism is based on the value of the
switching vectors expressed in 0-- reference frame. An
algorithm for prism identification is explained with the help of
a flowchart. Fig. 2 shows the logic flow in prism
identification.


Figure 2: Prism Identification

B. Tetrahedron Identification
Once the prism information is obtained the next step is to
identify the tetrahedron in which the reference vector is
present. To do this each prism is further subdivided into four
tetrahedrons - thus leading to a total of 24 tetrahedrons. Each
tetrahedron is formed by three non-zero switching state
vectors. The line-to-neutral voltage polarities produced by
each non zero switching state vectors are indicated as + or
- or 0. It is important to notice that within each tetrahedron,
all the non zero switching state vectors produce nonconflicting
line-to-neutral voltages, and thus they are adjacent vectors.
Synthesizing the reference vector by using the adjacent non
zero switching state vectors of a tetrahedron leads to minimal
circulating energy and current ripple.
Table I shows how these tetrahedrons could be identified
based on the sign of required phase voltages at the output of
the inverter.

C. Duty Cycle Calculation and Waveform Generation
The computation of the duty cycles is based on calculation
of geometric projection of the reference vector along the three
non-zero switching state vectors which form the edges of the
given tetrahedron at a given instant. For each tetrahedron we
can find a 3x3 projection matrix: S
t
. The reference vector in
0-- reference frame at any given time is denoted by a 3x1
column matrix S
r
. Then at any given instant, the duty cycle
matrix D can be computed from the simple matrix equation:
D = _
u
1
u
2
u
3
_ = S
t
-1
* S
r
(1)


TABLE I
TETRAHEDRON IDENTIFICATION
PRISM TETRAHEDRON ACTIVE
VECTORS
CONDITION
1 P1_T1 V8,V9,V13 Vaf > 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P1_T2 V8,V12,V13 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf < 0
P1_T3 V1,V9,V13 Vaf < 0,Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P1_T4 V8,V12,V14 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
2 P2_T1 V4,V12,V13 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf < 0
P2_T2 V4,V5,V13 Vaf < 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf < 0
P2_T3 V1,V5,V13 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P2_T4 V4,V12,V14 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
3 P3_T1 V4,V5,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf < 0
P3_T2 V4,V6,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
P3_T3 V1,V5,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P3_T4 V4,V6,V14 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
4 P4_T1 V2,V6,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
P4_T2 V2,V3,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf > 0
P4_T3 V1,V3,V7 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P4_T4 V2,V6,V14 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
5 P5_T1 V2,V3,V11 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf > 0
P5_T2 V2,V10,V11 Vaf > 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf > 0
P5_T3 V1,V3,V11 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P5_T4 V2,V10,V14 Vaf f > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0
6 P6_T1 V8,V10,V11 Vaf > 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf > 0
P6_T2 V8,V9,V11 Vaf > 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P6_T3 V1,V9,V11 Vaf < 0, Vbf < 0, Vcf < 0
P6_T4 V8,V10,V14 Vaf > 0, Vbf > 0, Vcf > 0

As the null vector is eliminated the duration for each
switching period varies. The switching period is determined
by (d
1
+ d
2
+ d
3
) * T
s
where T
s
is the sampling period if the
null vectors were considered. This results in variable
switching frequency operation. Though the frequency of
operation is not constant it varies over a small range only.
This is evident from the plot of (d
1
+ d
2
+ d
3
) as a function of
time as shown in Fig. 3. It is observed from Fig. 3 that the
switching frequency varies from
1
0.7Ts
to
1
0.6Ts
i.e. 14 kHz to 16
kHz. This plot is obtained with a reference vector derived
from balanced three phase sinusoidal voltages.

Figure 3: Plot of (d1+d2+d3) with Reference vector derived from balanced
three phase sinusoidal voltages

The fourth step is to choose an appropriate switching
scheme and to generate the four PWM waveforms for the top
switches of the inverter. The three duty-cycle values d
1
, d
2
and
d
3
are already known prior to this step. The PWM waveforms
are generated by comparing the four signals X
a
, X
b
, X
c
, and X
f

with a triangular waveform of switching frequency equals to
the sampling frequency of the modulator, where sampling
frequency of modulator is given by (d
1
+d
2
+d
3
) * T
s
. Let X
1
,
0.052 0.054 0.056 0.058 0.06 0.062 0.064 0.066 0.068
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.7
0.8
1
Time (s)
d
1
+
d
2
+
d
3

X
2
, X
3
and X
4
are the four signals calculated from the duty
cycles d
1
, d
2
, and d
3
as given in the following matrix equation.

X
t
= _
X
1
X
2
X
3
X
4
_ = 2 * A
t

l
l
l
l
l
l
u
d
1
2
d
1
2
+
d
1
2
d
1
2
+
d
2
2
+
d
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
(2)

Fig. 4 shows the set of signals derived for tetrahedron
P4_T3. It is seen from the table that one device remains ON
and one device remains OFF throughout the switching
period.



Figure 4: Principle of PWM waveform Generation

In (2), A
t
is the peak value of the triangular waveform. The
period of this waveform is (d
1
+d
2
+d
3
) * T
s
, which decides the
switching frequency of the inverter. The relation between the
elements of matrix X
t
and the switching signals S
a
, S
b
, S
c
, and
S
f
would be different for different tetrahedrons. The
assignment of the pulses generated by the comparator is given
in table II.
Fig. 5 shows the switching pulses for top four switches of
inverter for all the phases with balanced three phase sinusoidal
voltages. From the Fig. it is observed that at a particular time
instant three out of four switches are to be controlled. One
switch remains either on or off. The particular switch remains
in uncontrolled mode for 120 in each cycle so the switching
losses are reduced.





TABLE II
PULSE ASSIGNMENT FOR EACH TETRAHEDRON
PRISM TETRAHEDRON
NON ZERO
SWITCHING
STATE
VECTORS
Sa Sb Sc Sf
1
P1_T1 V8,V9,V13 0 X3 1 X2
P1_T2 V8,V12,V13 0 X2 1 X3
P1_T3 V1,V9,V13 X2 X3 1 0
P1_T4 V8,V12,V14 0 X2 X3 1
2
P2_T1 V4,V12,V13 X2 0 1 X3
P2_T2 V4,V5,V13 X3 0 1 X2
P2_T3 V1,V5,V13 X3 X2 1 0
P2_T4 V4,V12,V14 X2 0 X3 1
3
P3_T1 V4,V5,V7 1 0 X3 X2
P3_T2 V4,V6,V7 1 0 X2 X3
P3_T3 V1,V5,V7 1 X2 X3 0
P3_T4 V4,V6,V14 X3 0 X2 1
4
P4_T1 V2,V6,V7 1 X2 0 X3
P4_T2 V2,V3,V7 1 X3 0 X2
P4_T3 V1,V3,V7 1 X3 X2 0
P4_T4 V2,V6,V14 X3 X2 0 1
5
P5_T1 V2,V3,V11 X3 1 0 X2
P5_T2 V2,V10,V11 X2 1 0 X3
P5_T3 V1,V3,V11 X3 1 X2 0
P5_T4 V2,V10,V14 X2 X3 0 1
6
P6_T1 V8,V10,V11 0 1 X2 X3
P6_T2 V8,V9,V11 0 1 X3 X2
P6_T3 V1,V9,V11 X2 1 X3 0
P6_T4 V8,V10,V14 0 X3 X2 1


Figure 5: Switching Pulses for all phases with balanced sinusoidal
voltages

III. SIMULATION OF SHUNT ACTIVE POWER
FILTER USING PROPOSED SWITCHING SCHEME
Fig. 6 shows a block diagram of the three phase four wire
shunt active power filter used here. It consists of a four-leg
inverter connected at the PCC to a three-phase four-wire grid
through the interface inductances. The power system neutral
wire is tied to the fourth leg of the inverter. The switch control
signals are derived from a proposed switching technique. The
active filter reference currents are calculated using
synchronous reference frame theory from the sensed load
currents drawn by nonlinear and unbalanced single-phase and
three-phase loads connected to the grid. The voltage
references for the 3D-SVM without null vector are derived
from a digital dead-beat current controller.
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
0
0.5
1
S
a
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
0
0.5
1
S
b
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
0
0.5
1
S
c
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
0
0.5
1
Time (s)
S
f
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)


Figure 6: Schematic Diagram of 3 - Phase 4 - Wire Shunt APF

A combination of linear and nonlinear; balanced and
unbalanced load is connected at the PCC. The nonlinear
balanced load is taken as a three-phase diode bridge rectifier.
The nonlinear unbalanced load is considered as two single-
phase diode bridge rectifiers. The load specifications are as
shown in Table III below:

TABLE III
LOAD SPECIFICATIONS
Non linear Balanced Load
Three phase diode bridge rectifier with RL =
30 connected across the DC terminals
Combination of balanced and
Unbalanced Load
Three phase diode bridge rectifier with RL =
10 and LL = 20mH and Two single phase
diode bridge rectifier With RL = 15 and LL
= 1mH C = 470F

A. Deadbeat Current Control
A digital dead-beat current controller is implemented in
discrete time to make the active power filter output current
track the current reference generated by the synchronous
reference frame theory. The deadbeat algorithm is
implemented in a-b-c frame. The system model of active
power filter can be given as:

d
c
dt
= -

]
L
]
+
1
L
]
( :
u
- :
su
) (3)
d
b
dt
= -

]
L
]
+
1
L
]
( :
b
- :
sb
) (4)
d
c
dt
= -

]
L
]
+
1
L
]
( :
c
- :
sc
) (5)
In digital implementation using a zero order hold model of
the system and trapezoid integration rule yields the system
equations:
:
u,k+1
= -:
u,k
+ 2:
su,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
u,k+2
- i
u,k
) +
r
]
(i
u,k+2
+ i
u,k
) (6)
:
b,k+1
= -:
b,k
+ 2:
sb,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
b,k+2
- i
b,k
) +
r
]
(i
b,k+2
+ i
b,k
) (7)
:
c,k+1
= -:
c,k
+ 2:
sc,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
c,k+2
- i
c,k
) +
r
]
(i
c,k+2
+ i
ck
) (8)


The current i
k
is the present current flowing in the circuit
and i
k+2
is the current flowing after two time steps. The current
i
k+2
is the function of the applied inverter voltage v
k
, v
k+1
and
the system voltage. The control therefore forces the current to
take on the value i
k+2
after two sampling time steps (equivalent
to one switching period). Thus i
k+2
may be viewed as the
reference command that the current will track. Therefore the
control law will be:
:
u,k+1
= -:
u,k
+ 2:
su,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
uc],k+1
- i
u,k
) +
r
]
(i
uc],k+1
+ i
u,k
) (9)

:
b,k+1
= -:
b,k
+ 2:
sb,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
bc],k+1
- i
b,k
) +
r
]
(i
bc],k+1
+ i
b,k
) (10)

:
c,k+1
= -:
c,k
+ 2:
sc,k
+
L
]
1
SDB
(i
cc],k+1
- i
c,k
) +
r
]
(i
cc],k+1
+ i
ck
) (11)

The sampling time is denoted as T
SDB
.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
To validate the performance of the three phase four wire
shunt active power filter, a computer simulation is done using
the proposed switching scheme in MATLAB / SIMULINK. A
combination of nonlinear balanced and unbalanced load is
connected at the PCC. The system parameters considered for
simulation are given in table IV:

TABLE IV
SYSTEM PARAMETERS FOR SIMULATION
Parameter Value
Source voltage 327 V
Source resistance 10 m
Source inductance 1.2 mH
Rn 20 m
Ln 3 mH
Vdc (for open loop) 800 V
Sampling Time Ts (3-D SVM) (d1+d2+d3)*100 s
Sampling Time (Deadbeat Current Control) TSDB 20 s
Ri 0.02
Li 2.4 mH
DC Link Capacitor 4700 F



Figure 7: Simulation results with proposed switching technique with balance
load (i) Voltage at PCC (ii) Source current after compensation (iii) Source
current before compensation (iv) Reference Current (v) Injected Current

The simulation results obtained with balanced nonlinear
load and balanced sinusoidal supply voltage is shown in Fig.
7. It is observed from Fig. 7 (ii) that source current is almost
sinusoidal.
Fig. 8 shows the load currents for unbalanced load
condition. It is observed from Fig. 8 that all three phases are
unbalanced and neutral current is of the magnitude 100A. Fig.
9 shows the simulations results obtained with unbalanced load
condition and sinusoidal supply voltages. It is clear from Fig.
9 (ii) that after compensation the source currents are balanced
and have become almost sinusoidal. Also the neutral current is
in the range of 5A which is 5% of the neutral current before
compensation.

Figure 8: Load Currents (Unbalanced Load)

Fig. 10 shows the magnitude spectrum for source currents
before and after compensation. It is observed from the Fig.10
that the harmonic components are reduced after compensation,
THD is 2.21% which is within prescribed IEEE standard and
load balancing is achieved.


Figure 9: Simulation results with proposed switching technique with
unbalanced Load (i) Voltages at PCC (ii) Phase Currents after compensation
(iii) Phase Currents before compensation (iv) Neutral Current after
compensation

Fig. 11 shows the switching signals to the top switch in all
four phases using proposed switching scheme in three phase
four wire shunt active power filter. It can be seen that in the
proposed switching scheme each device is gated for only 260
in a cycle unlike the traditional hysteresis current controller
and 3 D SVPWM with null vector. Thus switching losses gets
reduced in the proposed switching scheme. It is evident from
Fig. 11 that in proposed switching scheme in each cycle only
three switches are to be controlled instead of 4 in other
methods. The simulation results are tabulated in Table V.


Figure 10: Magnitude Spectrum of Source Currents before and after
compensation (Unbalanced Load)

TABLE V
SIMULATION RESULTS
Phases
Quantity
a Phase b Phase c - Phase
Vpcc (Fundamental, Peak) (V) 326.7 326 326.5
Vpcc (THD) (%) 1.55 1.47 1.73
I_source (Fundamental, Peak) (A) 73.24 73.41 72.95
I_source (THD) (%) 2.21 2.13 2.34
I_load (Fundamental, Peak) (A) 53.41 87.49 88.26
I_load (THD) (%) 18.65 50.18 36.23
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-500
0
500
V
s
a
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
i
S
a
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
i
L
a
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
i
R
e
f
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
Time (s)
i
I
n
j
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-50
0
50
i
L
a
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-200
0
200
i
L
b
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-200
0
200
i
L
c
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-200
0
200
Time (s)
i
L
n
(iv)
(iii)
(ii)
(i)
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-500
0
500
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-100
0
100
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-200
0
200
0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
Time (s)
i
n
s
(iv)
(iii)
(ii)
(i)
V
sc
V
sa
V
sb
i
sc
i
sa
i
sb
i
Lc
i
La
i
Lb
0 1000 2000
0
20
40
60
Magnitude Spectrum of Source Currents before Compensation
0 1000 2000
0
50
100
0 1000 2000
0
50
100
0 1000 2000
0
50
100
Magnitude Spectrum of Source Currents after Compensation
0 1000 2000
0
50
100
0 1000 2000
0
50
100


Figure 11: Switching Pulses for the proposed switching technique with Shunt
Active Power Filter
V. CONCLUSION
A novel switching scheme is proposed and verified through
simulation studies for three phase four wire shunt active
power filter. The switching losses are reduced in proposed
switching scheme as at any instant of time three out of four
switches are to be controlled. The simulation results are found
satisfactory for harmonic elimination, reactive power
compensation, load balancing in case of unbalanced load and
neutral current elimination for three phase four wire shunt
active power filter.

VI. APPENDIX
For generating the reference currents D-Q theory is used
for three phase four wire system. D-Q theory has proved its
advantages in three phase three wire systems; the same theory
is extended for three phase four wire systems. D-Q theory is
explained below:

l
l
l
l
i
d
i
q
i
qu
i
q[1
1
1
1
=_
u sin (t) -cos (t)
u cos (t) sin (t)
-cos (t) u u
-sin (t) u u
_ _
i
0
i
u
i
[
_ (12)

For harmonic elimination, reactive power compensation
and load balancing filtering the continuous component of id
we get the following reverse transformation equation.

i
d=
t
d
+ t
d
(13)

_
i
0
i
u
i
[
_=_
u u -cos (t)-sin (t)
sin (t) cos (t) u u
-cos (t)sin (t) u u
_
l
l
l
l
t
d

i
q
i
qu
i
q[1
1
1
1
(14)

Then from 0 co-ordinates transforming back in to a-
b-c co-ordinate we get the following equation:
_
i
uc]
i
bc]
i
cc]
_=_
2
3
l
l
l
l
l
1 u
1
2
-
1
2
3
2
1
2
-
1
2
-
3
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
_
i
u
i
[
i
0
_ (15)
and the neutral current is equal to:
i
nref
= i
aref
+ i
bref
+ i
cref
(16)

VII. REFERENCES

[1] Hirofumi Akagi, The State Of The Art of Active Filters for Power
Conditioning, EPE 2005.
[2] Mehmet Ucar, Engin Ozdemir, Control of a 3-Phase 4-leg active power
filter under non ideal mains voltage condition, Electric Power Systems
Research, vol. 78
[3] H. Akagi,Modern Active filters and traditional passive filters, Bulletin
of the polish academy of sciences, Vol. 54, No. 3, 2006
[4] S. Bhattacharya, T. M. Frank, D. M. Divan and B. Banerjee "Active
filter system implementation," IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol.4, pp.47-
64,Sept./Oct.,1998.
[5] F.Z. Peng, "Application issues of active power filters," IEEE Ind. Appl.
Mag., vol.4, pp.21 -30,Sept./Oct..1998.
[6] V T Ranganathan,Space vector pulse width modulation - A status
review, Sadhana, vol. 22,Part 6, December 1997. pp. 675-688.
[7] Perales, M.A., Prats, M.M., Portillo, R., Mora, J.L., Leon, J.I.,
Franquelo, L.G, "Three dimensional space vector modulation in abc
coordinates for four-leg voltage source converters", IEEE Power
Electronics Letters, volume 1, issue 4, Dec. 2003 Page(s):104 109
[8] Zhang, R., Prasad, V.H., Boroyevich, D., Lee, F.C., "Three-dimensional
space vector modulation for four-leg voltage-source converters",IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, volume 17, issue 3, Page(s):314-
326, May 2002.
[9] Abdelaziz Chaghi, Amor Guetta, Azzedine Benoudjit, Four legged
Active Power Filter Compensation For A Utility Distribution System,
Journal of Electrical Engineering, vol. 55, no. 1-2, 2004.
[10] L. Julian, T. A. Lipo, and G. Oriti, Elimination of common mode
voltage in three phase sinusoidal power converters,in Proc. IEEE-
PESC96 Conf., pp. 19681972, 1996.
[11] R. R. Sawant and M. C. Chandorkar, A multi-functional four leg grid
connected compensator, Power Conversion Conference - Nagoya,
2007. PCC '07, April 2007


VIII. BIOGRAPHIES

Heli Golwala completed her B.E in Electrical Engineering from Sardar
Vallabhbhai Institute of Technology, Vasad, India in 2003. She obtained her
M.E. (Automatic Control and Robotics) in Electrical Engineering from M. S.
University, Vadodara in 2005. Presently she is doing PhD under the guidance
of Dr. R. Chudamani, in the Department of Electrical Engg., SVNIT, Surat.

R. Chudamani completed her B.E in Electrical Engineering from National
Institute of Technology Surat, India in 1990. She obtained her M.Tech (Power
Electronics) in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Delhi in 1997 and the PhD
degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Madras in 2009. She is working as
an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, S.V.N.I.T.,
Surat, Gujarat, India. In this position she has been active in the areas of
teaching and research. Her research interests are in the areas of power
electronics and drives.

0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12
0
0.5
1
S
a
0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12
0
0.5
1
S
b
0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12
0
0.5
1
S
c
0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12
0
0.5
1
Time (s)
S
f
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)