The influence of harmonics on power losses in urban distribution networks

Today, the electricity distribution networks supply a significant number of nonlinear consumers which causes a distorted and unbalanced state. A negative effect of these states is represented by the increase of power losses in the network elements. Even if the symmetrical sinusoidal state is initially considered for the power losses, in reality this often leads to power lines overloading, especially for the neutral. The existing method for power losses in distribution networks with distorted operating state is very difficult to use. The paper investigates the additional power losses for a real distribution network that operates in such a state. The aim is to present a reasonably accurate approach for evaluating the effects of harmonics on the power losses. In order to validate the proposed methodology, a study case for a real low voltage distribution network is provided, in which the additional power losses due to the distorted state are computed.