Identification of harmonic sources in power distribution systems

Due to the increased use of power electronic converters, power system harmonics are becoming one of the major problems facing the electric utility industry. These serious problems have led to the development of many techniques for their analysis and evaluation. There are many computer programs for calculating harmonic propagation in a power system when the harmonic source is known. These computer techniques are completely ineffective when the source of the harmonics is not known. This paper presents a reverse power flow procedure to identify the sources of harmonic signals in electric power systems. A computer program called HARMFIND has been developed. This program helps the user to identify the source and type of harmonics in a given power system without performing much measurement. The results indicate that this program can be used to identify the type and location of harmonic sources in distribution systems. The accuracy of the program has been demonstrated and compared with harmonic power flow programs.