Impact of Non Linear Load on Power Quality

Abstract

Power quality is a major issue in today?s power system. This is mainly affected by the generation of harmonics. The growing use of electronic equipment produces a large amount of harmonics in distribution systems because of non-sinusoidal current consumed by non-linear loads. Along with the increasing demand on improving power quality i.e. generally defined as any change in voltage, current, or frequency that interferes with the normal operation of electrical equipment. Nowadays, nonlinear loads are widely used in industries. These loads mainly generate the harmonic into the power system. These harmonics cause a lot of disadvantages such as the erroneous measurement of electric meters, protective device failures, loss in transmission lines and electric devices, and short-life electronic equipments. Therefore, it is seriously to mitigate or eliminate the harmonic in the system. Harmonics not only increases the losses in the system but also produces unwanted disturbance to source voltage, source current etc. This has motivated the introduction of an filter for improving the power quality.