Comparison of IEEE and IEC harmonic standards

IEEE Standard 519-1992 is a mature document at this time and contains widely-adopted recommendations for harmonic control in electric power systems. Similarly, IEC Standard 61000-3-6 is also widely recognized. Both documents are presently in the final stages of a technical revision and it is appropriate to evaluate the similarities and differences in the two system-level harmonic control standards. This paper is a summary of the similarities and differences in the two standards including recommended limits in each and the processes by which equitable allocation of harmonic emissions is achieved. In this paper, it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the various caveats that apply to the various limit tables and the tables given here should not be used in lieu of the complete standard.