Harmonic Distortion Analysis in North American Residential Power Distribution Systems

The increased adoption of energy-efficient power-electronics based appliances raises power quality concerns requiring further analysis. In this paper, first, we compare the harmonic distortions due to equivalent current source model and full rectifier based model of the home-level appliances. Then, we evaluate the system-level effects of nonlinear residential loads using the IEEE 13-bus system. The test system is modified to include the split-phase residential distribution system. The harmonic distortions observed on the primary feeder due to nonlinear loads are compared for a split-phase transformer model and the corresponding single-phase equivalent model. It is observed that the single phase equivalent model underestimates the current harmonic distortions and overestimates the voltage harmonic distortions during an unbalanced loading condition.