Networking harmonic pollution-review and discussion international and nation standards and recommendations

The problem of power network harmonics has been known since the 1930s, but until the 1960s little had been done to protect the power network and loads from their negative effects. In the last decade, the problem has increased due to the intensive use of power electronic converters. After several national and regional documents, the IEC issued the first harmonic limiting standard for household and similar appliances-IEC Publication 555. Around 50 national standards were later published in accordance with it. Other international organizations (CIGRE, UNIPEDE, IEEE), and also some national committees treated harmonics from industrial types of loads and recommended limiting values. The results are around 20 different national standards or recommendations. This paper gives a review of the existing international and national standards and recommendations related to power system harmonic limitation.