The impact of harmonic current flow on additional power losses in low voltage distribution networks

The power distribution networks supply nonlinear consumers which causes a distorted and unbalanced state. A repercussion of these states is represented by the increase of active power losses. Even if the symmetrical sinusoidal state is initially considered for the power losses, in reality this often leads to power lines overloading, especially for the neutral. The existing method for power losses computation in distribution networks with distorted operating state is very difficult to use. The paper investigates the additional power losses for a real distribution network, considering three representative scenarios, close to real operation states. The aim is to present an accurate approach for evaluating the effects of harmonic current flows on the feeder power losses. In order to validate the proposed methodology, a study case is provided. The additional power losses due to the distorted state, for all conductor cross section of the Romanian low voltage power networks are computed.