Filter increases safety and cuts neutral currents
An
ABB Power Technologies product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
May 22, 2002
ABB's new PQF-T active filter can reduce the risk of cables overheating and overloading, as well as increasing energy efficiency.
ABB's new PQF-T active filter can reduce the risk of cables overheating and overloading, as well as increasing energy efficiency by eliminating the triplen (third or its odd multiples) harmonic problem from the neutral conductor in three-phase low-voltage electrical power networks.
In recent years, many industrial and commercial three-phase networks have had to cope with growing single-phase loads from computer equipment, fluorescent lighting, switch mode power supplies and so on.
These loads generate third harmonics, which tend to collect in the neutral conductor of the low-voltage network.
It is not uncommon for the neutral current to exceed that in any of the phases giving rise to a possibility of overload in the neutral conductor.
As well as the danger of cables and transformers overheating the third harmonic can reduce energy efficiency and cause damage to sensitive control and other electronic equipment.
Most conventional passive filters are ineffective in dealing with this problem due to the low reactive power demand of the loads.
ABB has addressed the problem of harmonics in electrical networks by developing the PQF (power quality filter) range of active filters.
These advanced microprocessor controlled filters continuously monitor the current in real time to determine what harmonics are present and then inject harmonic currents with exactly the opposite phase.
The two harmonics effectively cancel each other out so that the feeding transformer sees a clean sine wave.
The PQF-T is a three-phase four-wire active filter designed specifically to eliminate the third harmonic and it is ideally suited for loads consisting of multiple single phase loads such as commercial offices and buildings and computer centres as well as UPS, HVAC, lighting and lift applications.
The PQF-T is easy to install, operate and maintain and comprises three ranges to suit various applications - 40, 70 and 100A RMS current at 50Hz (neutral compensation three times the RMS value).
It is fully programmable and options include PQF-Manager, a front panel module that offers direct control, programming and monitoring capability and PQF-Link, which enables the filter to interface directly with a PC.
Modular construction enables three slave units to be added to a master PQF-T to increase the power up to 380A RMS.
(This was Engineeringtalk's Top Story on 21 May 2002).
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