Detection and Compensation of Current Harmonics in a Microgrid Using an Active Power Filter Supported by an IoT Sensor Network

This paper proposes a method for estimating the harmonic content of the current demanded by the loads present in a microgrid (MG) through the use of the current injected by an active power filter (APF). The main goal of this approach is to complement the benefits of adding IoT measurements in an MG by speeding up the estimation of the amplitudes of the harmonic distortion caused by the loads. For this purpose, a fast method for the online calculation of the APF reference current is proposed as well as a procedure for monitoring its spectral content. With the aim of demonstrating the validity of the proposed approach, simulation results obtained from a model developed in MATLAB Simulink are shown. As a result, the estimation of the harmonic content is achieved in less than one cycle and its use as an early detection system is demonstrated.