The paper includes a summary of long-time research conducted by a research team in the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Silesian University of Technology. The research work has principally been related to selected problems in the field of analysis and synthesis of systems aimed at symmetrisation and improvement of some power quality parameters. This paper constitutes the second part of the report on the research. It has been devoted to three-phase system symmetrisation as well as effective elimination of higher harmonics and substantial improvement of power quality by means of hybrid active power filters.

The paper includes a summary and a background of long-time research conducted by a research team in the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at SilesianUniversity of Technology. The researchwork has principally been related to selected problems in the field of analysis and synthesis of systems aimed at symmetrisation and improvement of some power quality parameters. This paper constitutes a first part of the report on the research. It has been devoted to effective elimination of higher harmonics and reactive power compensation by means of parallel active power filters. The other problem discussed in this paper is related to this issue and it is very important from the economic point of view; it addresses optimal sizing and placement of active power filters in investigated power networks.

This paper presents a concept of a shunt active power filter, which is able to provide more precise mapping of its input current drawn from a power line in a reference signal, as compared to a typical filter solution. It can be achieved by means of an interconnection of two separate power electronics converters making, as a whole, a controlled current source, which mainly determines the quality of the shunt active filter operation. One of these power devices, the “auxiliary converter”, corrects the total output current, being a sum of output currents of both converters, toward the reference signal. The rated output power of the auxiliary converter is much lower than the output power of the main one, while its frequency response is extended. Thanks to both these properties and the operation of the auxiliary converter in a continuous mode, pulse modulation components in the filter input current are minimized. Benefits of the filter are paid for by a relatively small increase in the complexity and cost of the system. The proposed solution can be especially attractive for devices with higher output power, where, due to dynamic power loss in power switches, a pulse modulation carrier frequency must be lowered, leading to the limitation of the “frequency response” of the converter. The concept of such a system was called the “hybrid converter topology”. In the first part of the paper, the rules of operation of the active filter based on this topology are presented. Also, the results of comparative studies of filter simulation models based on both typical, i.e. single converter, and hybrid converter topologies, are discussed.

The article presents selected static characteristics of a parallel active filter with voltage control in the supply line (VPAPF – Voltage-controlled Active Power Filter) as a function of parameters of the supply network. The tests were done on the basis of a simulation model of the supply network and an appropriate compensator. The test results showed that VPAPFs are most suitable for operation in weak networks, maintaining an almost constant level of voltage distortion, regardless of the value of the network impedance. In addition, the influence of the parameter G corresponding to the conductance value suppressing higher harmonics of the network voltage on the operation of the active power filter was determined.