IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO.
1, JANUARY 2000
A New Approach to Load Balancing and Power
Factor Correction in Power Distribution System
Arindam Ghosh, Senior Member, IEEE, and Avinash Joshi
Abstract—This paper presents a new approach for generating
reference currents for an active filter and/or a static compensator.
It is assumed that the compensator is connected to a load that may
either be connected in star or in delta. The load can be unbalanced
and may also draw harmonic currents. The purpose of the compen-
sating scheme is to balance the load, as well as make the supply side
power factor a desired value. We use the theory of instantaneous
symmetrical components to obtain an algorithm to compute three
phase reference currents which, when injected to the power system,
produce desired results. We also propose a suitable compensator
structure that will track the reference currents in a hysteresis band
control scheme. Finally, the feasibility of such a scheme is demon-
strated through simulation studies.
I. INTRODUCTION
V ARIABLE reactive power compensation of nonlinear
and/or poor power factor loads is an important issue in
the modern distribution system. Many techniques have been
proposed to improve the supply side power factor and to cancel
out the harmonics generated by power electronic loads. These
schemes usually employ single/three-phase voltage source in-
verters (VSI’s) that are supplied from a dc storage capacitor and
operate in current control mode to track a specified reference
current waveform. The single most important issue in such a
scheme is the generation of the reference current waveforms
that, when injected to the power system, cancel out the load
harmonics and/or improve the supply power factor.
Of the various methods that have been proposed for gener-
ating the reference current waveforms, the instantaneous –
theory [1]–[3] has gained considerable attention. This theory is
extremely versatile and can be utilized to compensate either the
fluctuating or constant part of the load reactive power as well as
the fluctuating part of the real power. Furthermore, any combi-
nation of the above three components can also be compensated.
The implication of compensating these components is given in
[4], while an alternative interpretation of this scheme is given in
[5].
The balancing of an unbalanced delta-connected load is a
classical problem. An excellent description of load balancing is
given in [6] in which any unbalanced reactive delta-connected
network is converted into a balanced resistive delta-connected
network by suitable introduction of admittance in parallel with
each branch. The solution proposed however only refers to si-
nusoidal steady-state conditions.
Manuscript received September 23, 1998.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Insti-
tute of Technology, Kanpur 208 016, India.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(00)00616-6.
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417
In this paper we utilize the theory of instantaneous symmet-
rical components for generating instantaneous reference current
waveforms to balance a given load. It has been observed that
the instantaneous power in an unbalanced system contains an
oscillating component that rides a dc value [7]. The objective
of the compensating system is to supply this zero-mean oscil-
lating power such that the dc component can be supplied by the
source. The structure of the compensating system depends on
the manner in which the load is connected. In the paper we shall
deal with both star and delta connected loads. We shall vali-
date the formulation through detailed digital computer simula-
tion studies.
II. COMPENSATING STAR CONNECTED LOADS
The basic scheme is shown in Fig. 1. In this scheme the
compensator is represented by current sources. The aim of the
scheme is to generate the three reference current waveforms
for , , and , denoted by, , , and , respectively,
from the measurements of source voltages and load currents
such that the supply sees a balanced load. No assumption
on the nature of the load is required. The compensator will
produce desired results as long as its bandwidth is sufficient to
follow the fluctuations in the load. The reference currents are
generated using the theory of the instantaneous symmetrical
components.
A. Definition of Instantaneous Symmetrical Components
Let any three phase instantaneous currents be defined by ,
, and . The power invariant instantaneous symmetrical com-
ponents are then defined by [8]
(1)
where . It is to be noted that the instantaneous vectors
and are complex conjugate of each other and is a real
quantity which is zero if the line currents are balanced.
In the scheme presented below, we assume that the supply
voltage is balanced. Furthermore, it can be shown that the angle
between vectors and is the power factor angle between
the balanced supply voltages and supply currents. In our algo-
rithm this angle can be explicitly set to any desired value. In
addition, we stipulate that the compensator is not required to
supply or sink average power.
418
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the compensation scheme for star connected load
and 3-wire supply.
B. Reference Current Generation Scheme
The compensation scheme presented here can be applied
to either a three-phase, three-wire system or a three-phase,
four-wire system. However, the objective in either case is to
provide balanced supply current such that its zero sequence
component is zero. We therefore have
(2)
From the power factor consideration, we assume that the
phase of the vector lags that of by an angle , i.e.,
(3)
where . Substituting the value of and as the supply
voltage is balanced, the above equation can be written as
(4)
where
and
Defining , and solving (4) we get
(5)
It is interesting to note the implication of (5). When the power
factor angle is assumed to be zero, (5) implies that the instan-
taneous reactive power supplied by the source is zero. On the
other hand, when this angle is nonzero, the source supplies a re-
active power that is equal to times instantaneous power.
The instantaneous power in a balanced three-phase circuit is
constant while for an unbalanced circuit it has a double fre-
quency component in addition to the dc value. The objective of
the compensator is to supply the double frequency component
such that the source supplies the dc value of the load power.
Therefore we obtain
(6)
The average load power ( ) may be computed by using a
moving average (MA) filter that has an averaging time of half
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000
a cycle. It is to be noted that any harmonic component in the
load does not require any real power from the source. The for-
mulation of (6) is thus valid even when the load current contains
harmonics or is nonperiodic.
Assuming that reference currents generated are accurately
tracked by the compensator, i.e., , etc., we get the
following from Fig. 1
and (7)
Combining (2), (5)– (7), we write the following vector–ma-
trix form
(8)
where , ,
, and the matrix is given by
We then get the following equations for generating reference
currents from the measured circuit variables. It is to be noted
(rms phase voltage)2
(9)
It can be shown by simplifying (9) that if the load is balanced and
is the same as of the phase of the load current, the compensator
currents become zero.
We now discuss one numerical example each for 3-phase,
3-wire and 3-phase, 4-wire system in which it is assumed that
compensator is made of ideal three current sources, i.e.,
, etc.
Example 1: We first consider a 3-phase, 3-wire system in
which the instantaneous voltage has a fundamental frequency
of 50 Hz. The phase- voltage is given by
V
The source is supplying in steady state an unbalanced - load
with , , , mH,
mH, and mH. The compensator is switched
on at the end of one cycle (20 ms). Further at the end of three
cycles, the load gets balanced suddenly when the resistance and
inductances of all three phases become equal to the values given
for phase- . We shall demonstrate the unity power factor oper-
ation here, i.e., in (9).
Three instantaneous powers and neutral voltage (see
Fig. 1) are shown in Fig. 2. Before the compensator is connected,
both the load power and source power have the same mag-
nitude and are oscillatory. The neutral voltage is also sinusoidal.
Note that the load power and the neutral voltage do not change
after the compensator is connected. The load power depends on
GHOSH AND JOSHI: A NEW APPROACH TO LOAD BALANCING AND POWER FACTOR CORRECTION IN POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM 419

the voltage differences between the source voltage and neutral

voltage. The average value of the load power is linearly depen-
dent on the neutral voltage. Since this is held constant by the
compensator as per (6), the neutral voltage remains unaltered.
Once the compensator is connected at , the source power be-
comes flat and the compensator supplies the oscillating compo-
nent . It is to be noted that the action of the compensator is
instantaneous as it is realized by ideal current sources.
Once the load is changed to balanced values at 0.06 s, the
source and load powers become flat and the compensator power
and the neutral voltage become zero. This does not mean that
the compensator currents go to zero. This is evident from Fig. 3,
which shows the three source voltages and currents and the com-
pensator currents. Also in Fig. 3(a)–(c), the source voltages are
scaled by a ratio of 1 : 25 such that its magnitude is comparable
to that of the currents. The unity power factor operation of the
source and balancing of source currents are evident from this Fig. 2. Power and neutral voltage for Example 1.
figure. It can be seen from Fig. 3(d) that the compensator cur-
rents become balanced when the load is balanced.
It is to be noted that the action of the compensator when it
is switched on at in 20 ms is instantaneous as it is con-
structed out of ideal current sources. In practice this is not fea-
sible and we shall discuss the practical compensator structure in
Section IV. Furthermore, when the load change occurs, the tran-
sients take about 2 cycles to die out due to the load inductances.
The compensator cannot influence the settling time required by
the load.
Example 2: In this we consider a 3-phase, 4-wire system.
This implies that the points and of Fig. 1 are joined together,
i.e., . The source voltages and the unbalanced loads are
the same as given in Example 1. The compensator is switched on
at the end one cycle with the configuration such that the source
supplies a current at a power factor angle of 30 (lagging). The
desired source power factor angle is changed suddenly to 75
at the end of the third cycle (0.06 s). The instantaneous load, Fig. 3. (a)–(c) (1 : 25) Source voltages (solid line) and currents (dashed line)
source and compensator powers are shown in Fig. 4(a), while and (d) three compensator currents for Example 1.
the neutral currents are shown in Fig. 4(b). In this figure, is
the current out of the load neutral , while is the current
into the source neutral . It can be seen that the three powers
are not influenced by the change in the power factor angle. Fur-
thermore, the source neutral current goes to zero as soon as the
compensator is connected as it balances the source currents im-
mediately. This also implies that the sum of the instantaneous
compensator currents is equal to load neutral current. The source
currents and (1 : 25) scaled source voltages for two phases are
shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that as the power factor angle
increases, the magnitude of the source currents also increases.
This implies that the source is supplying the same amount of
real power at a much higher magnitude of current.

III. COMPENSATING DELTA CONNECTED LOADS

Fig. 4. Power and neutral current for Example 2.
The basic scheme is shown in Fig. 6, which is similar to that
of Fig. 1 except that the compensator is connected between the , respectively, from the measurements of source voltages
phases in this scheme. The neutral point is irrelevant here. The and load currents such that the supply sees a balanced load.
aim of the scheme is to generate the three reference current The requirements for the compensating currents in this case
waveforms for , , and , denoted by, , , and are same as that of the previous case with star connected load.

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420 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000

Therefore (2)–(6) are valid in this case also. Now assuming that
the compensator tracks the reference currents perfectly, we can
write the following from Fig. 6

(10)

Combining (2), (5), (6), and using (10) and solving as before,
we obtain the following equation for reference currents

(11)

Fig. 5. (a), (b) (1 : 25) Source voltages (solid line) and currents (dashed line)
where , , for Example 2.
and is the determinant of the constituent matrix given by

(rms line-to-line voltage)

Let us consider the following example in which the compensator

is realized by ideal current sources.
Example 3: In this example an unbalanced – delta con-
nected load is connected to the source. Let us consider

mH
mH and mH

In addition to the unbalanced delta-connected load mentioned

above, three single-phase full-wave uncontrolled rectifiers are Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the compensation scheme for delta connected
load.
connected, one across each phase. The rectifiers are drawing
uneven square wave currents of amplitude 5, 6, and 4 A, respec-
tively, for phases , , and . The uncompensated load cur-
rents are shown in Fig. 7(a). The compensator is connected to the
system at the end of one cycle with a desired source phase angle
of 60 . This desired angle changed over to unity power factor
at the end of the third cycle. The three instantaneous powers
are shown in Fig. 7(b), while the scaled (1 : 5) source voltage
and current for the two phases are shown in Fig. 8. It is clearly
evident that magnitude the source current at unity power factor
becomes half that with an angle of 60 . It is seen from Fig. 8 that
the load currents have discontinuities due to rectifier switching.
They are not transferred to the source currents after the compen-
sator is switched on. This is because the compensator is realized
using ideal current sources.

IV. COMPENSATOR STRUCTURE

The examples in the previous two sections assume that the
compensator is realized by ideal current sources. In this sec-
tion we discuss the compensator structure in which the current
sources are realized by three voltage source inverters (VSI’s).
One phase of the compensator structure is shown in Fig. 9 and
three such VSI’s are connected to a common dc storage capac-
itor. In this figure each switch represents a power semiconductor
Fig. 7. (a) Load currents and (b) instantaneous powers in Example 3.
switch and an anti-parallel diode combination. Each VSI is con-
nected to the network though a transformer, and six output ter-
minals ( , , etc.) can be connected in star or delta. The pur-
pose of including the transformers is to provide isolation be-
tween the inverters. This prevents the dc storage capacitor from

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GHOSH AND JOSHI: A NEW APPROACH TO LOAD BALANCING AND POWER FACTOR CORRECTION IN POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM 421

being shorted through switches in different inverters. The in-

ductance in this figure represents the leakage inductance of
each transformer and additional external inductance, if any. The
switching losses of an inverter and the copper loss of the con-
necting transformer are represented by a resistance . The iron
losses of the transformer are neglected. For star connected load,
the neutral point of the three transformers is connected to the
load neutral. For delta connected load, each transformer is con-
nected in parallel with the corresponding load. The VSI’s are
operated in the hysteresis band current control mode to track
the reference currents generated.
The losses in the inverter and the transformer, modeled by
, must be replenished by drawing extra real power from the
source. We thus modify (9) by

Fig. 8. (a), (b) (1 : 5) Source voltages (solid line) and currents (dashed line)
for Example 3.
(12)

where represents the losses in the compensator. We now

have to generate through a suitable feedback control.
The average capacitor voltage is held constant when the av-
erage value of the dc capacitor current over a cycle is zero. Now
since , the deviation of from a refer-
ence value at the end of each cycle gives a good indication Fig. 9. Compensator realization using VSI’s and dc capacitor.
of the deviation of the average value of capacitor current,
from zero. We thus choose a simple proportional-plus-integral
(PI) controller of the form

(13)

where , being the value of the capacitor

voltage at the end of a cycle. We then substitute the value of
obtained from (13) in (12) to compute the reference currents.
The simulation results with proposed compensator scheme
are discussed next. The dynamics of each VSI are modeled by
solving differential equations governing two modes of the in-
verter. The switching of the inverter is done by monitoring the
reference and actual currents and comparison of error with the
hysteresis band.
Example 4: The source voltage and frequency are the same
as given in Examples 1 and 2. The compensator system data Fig. 10. (a) Controller output and (b) capacitor voltage for Example 4.
used for the simulation studies are (refer to Fig. 9):

F mH and
The turns ratio of the transformers is assumed to be 1 : 1. A
three-phase resistive load is connected across a 3-phase, 4-wire
source. The load resistances are , , and
. In addition to the above load, a three-phase con-
trolled rectifier is also connected to the load bus. The rectifier
is drawing square wave current with a magnitude of 5 A from
each phase and operating with an angle of 30 . The dc capac-
itor is precharged to 600 V before the compensator is connected
to the supply at time . Note that the capacitor can be
charged using the same power circuit. The hysteresis band is
chosen as 0.5 A. The controller parameters are: and
. It is desired that the system operates in unity
power factor mode.
Once the compensator is switched on at time , both the
controller output and capacitor voltage takes time to settle down
as shown in Fig. 10. The output currents of two phases along
with the corresponding scaled (1 : 20) phase voltages are shown
in Fig. 11. Both unity power factor and balanced operation is ev-
ident from this figure. The notches visible in the source currents
are due to sudden changes in the rectifier currents. Any sudden

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422 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000

[2] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, and A. Nabae, “Instantaneous reactive power

compensators comprising switching devices without energy storage
components,” IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. IA-20, no. 3, pp.
625–630, 1984.
[3] H. Akagi, A. Nabae, and S. Atoh, “Control strategy of active power fil-
ters using multiple voltage-source PWM converters,” IEEE Trans. In-
dustry Applications, vol. IA-22, no. 3, pp. 460–465, 1986.
[4] E. D. Watanabe, R. M. Stephan, and M. Aredes, “New concepts of in-
stantaneous active and reactive powers in electrical systems with generic
load,” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 697–703, 1993.
[5] F. Z. Peng and J. S. Lai, “Generalized instantaneous reactive power
theory for three-phase power systems,” IEEE Trans. Instrumentation
and Measurements, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 293–297, 1996.
[6] T. J. E. Miller, Ed., Reactive Power Control in Electric Systems, New
York: John Wiley, 1982.
[7] A. Ghosh and A. Joshi, “A new method for load balancing and power
factor correction using instantaneous symmetrical components,” IEEE
Power Engg. Review, to be published.
[8] W. A. Lyon, Transient Analysis of Alternating-Current Machinery, New
York: John Wiley, 1954, ch. 2.

Fig. 11. (a), (b) (1 : 20) Source voltages and currents for Example 4.

change in the compensator current is precluded due to the pres-

ence of the inductors in its path. Thus the sudden changes in the
load currents are momentarily supplied by the source.

V. CONCLUSIONS
Arindam Ghosh (S’80–M’83–SM’93) is a Professor of electrical engineering
The paper discusses a new concept of reactive power genera- at IIT Kanpur. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
tion in power distribution system for both balancing unbalanced University of Calgary, Canada. He has held visiting positions in Nanyang Tech-
nological University, Singapore and University of Queensland, Australia. His
loads and power factor correction. The scheme is versatile and interests are in areas of power systems, power electronics and controls.
can be applied to various kinds of loads and systems. One of the
major advantages of the scheme is that the desired source power
factor angle can be explicitly defined. Furthermore, it is easy to
implement online as the desired compensator currents are di-
rectly computed. The scheme also is computationally simple as
it does not require complicated transformations.

REFERENCES Avinash Joshi is a Professor of electrical engineering at IIT Kanpur. He re-

[1] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, K. Fujita, and A. Nabae, “Generalized theory ceived the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto,
of the instantaneous reactive power and its application,” Electrical En- Canada. He also has worked for General Electric Company in India. His inter-
gineering in Japan, vol. 103, no. 4, pp. 58–65, 1983. ests are in the areas of power electronic circuits and their applications.

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