Detection of reference currents for active filters using the Darrieus definition of reactive power

Various modern loads have a nonlinear character giving rise to nonsinusoidal currents circulating on the AC network. These nonsinusoidal currents produce some drawbacks reducing the power quality of the mains. To solve this problem several measures can be adopted. Active filters have been extensively studied to become a credible solution. This paper presents a new method for detecting the reference components that should be injected on the mains to compensate nonlinear loads. This method is based on an extension of the reactive power concept to nonsinusoidal conditions defined by George Darrieus in 1970. In comparison with the well-known pq method introduced by Akagi et al, this method presents better performances, producing less harmonics on the mains. To illustrate the performances of the method proposed, a comparison between these two methods is presented in this paper.