Effectiveness analysis of determining the main harmonic source by harmonic active power direction method

Nowadays, harmonic active power direction method is the most widely applied method to judge the main harmonic source, but the power direction method is theoretically different from harmonic current superposition principle. In this paper, it has been got that the power direction method and harmonic current superposition principle are different through mathematical analysis, and the precise conditions which make harmonic active power direction method right has been got. On the basis of this, this paper analyzes the applicable area of the harmonic active power direction method. In practical engineering applications, this method does not require the exact values of the harmonic impedances of the two sides. Besides, the easy way to judge the location of the main harmonic source is obtained in this paper, which only depends on the measured angle value of the harmonic voltage and harmonic current at the PCC. It is convenient to the practical application in engineering.