A New Design Method of an LCL Filter Applied in Active DC-Traction Substations

This paper concentrates on the LCL filter with damping resistance intended to connect the shunt active power filter of an active dc-traction substation to the point of common coupling with the transmission grid. In order to find design conditions and conceive a design algorithm, attention is directed to the transfer functions related to currents and the associated frequency response. The mathematical foundation of the design method is based on meeting the requirements related to the significant attenuation of the high-frequency switching current, concurrently with the unalterated flow of the current that needs to be compensated by active filtering. It is pointed out that there are practical limitations and a compromise must be made between the two requirements. To quantify the extent to which the harmonics to be compensated are influenced by imposing the magnitude response at both highest harmonic frequency to be compensated and switching frequency, a performance indicator is defined. As an additional design criterion, the damping power losses are taken into consideration. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method are proved by simulation results and experimental tests on a laboratory test bench at small scale reproducing the specific conditions of a dc-traction substation with six-pulse diode rectifier.