A simplified method for the probabilistic evaluation of the economical damage due to harmonic losses

In this paper the economical damage due to the harmonic losses is quantified by means of the expected values of the operating costs and of the aging costs. To evaluate the above quantities a simplified approach based on closed form relations is proposed. It can be applied when only one group of nonlinear loads is the main cause of the harmonic pollution. The evaluation is easy and quick, since it requires the knowledge of only the mean value, the standard deviation and the covariance of the random variables on which the expected values depend. A numerical application to a test system is presented and discussed; it is shown that the results of the simplified method are not far from those obtained using an exact method.