A study on the effects of voltage distortion on current harmonics generated by modern SMPS driven home appliances in Smart Grid network

This paper presents the measurement results and harmonic analysis of modern home appliances under various voltage distortions. Modern home appliances employ the latest switch-mode power supply (SMPS) with low current total harmonic distortion (THD). The impact of supply voltage distortion to these SMPS devices, including desktop computer, fluorescent luminaries and compact fluorescent lamps are investigated. The attenuation factor is used to characterize the effect of voltage distortion on current harmonics generated by these appliances. As Smart Grid technology relies on the intelligent control of distributed energy resources (DER) to meet both real and reactive power demand of electrical networks, the findings reported in this paper would provide valuable information for advising on the design and operational control of low-voltage electrical network incorporating distributed loads and DERs.