Apparent power evaluation of Series Active Power Filter with recent definitions

The main purpose of this paper is the study of the series active power filter (APF) compensation capability for different unbalance perturbations of three-phase three wire AC power systems such as voltage unbalance, phase-shift unbalance,sags and swells. Indeed SAPF has been proved to be an effective solution to compensate for different voltage disturbances in the power system, so that the power system voltages are forced to be balanced and sinusoidal and in phase with the direct component of the power system voltage presented before compensation. The capability of the Series APF is determined by the maximum rate of the apparent power that can be delivered. The challenge now is how these equipments can be dimensioned, this leads to the evaluation of the rate of the apparent power required to achieve this compensations under such conditions. This study present a comparison based on the approaches presented by the definition of the effective apparent power as defined in IEEE 1459-2000, the European school approach and the apparent power classical approach. The two first approaches were proved to be the best methods for the calculation of the apparent power presenting the suitable amount to be concerned in the design process of different devices and allow a good estimation of the Series APF dimensions with low economic burden. This paper presents some application which may be occur in the AC power systems, mainly for three-phase, three-wire AC power systems without neutral wire which can be used for the design process of the Series APF.