Investigation and mitigation of harmonics for variable speed drives: A case study for a soap manufacturing industry

The introduction of variable speed drives (VSD's) has become very popular in industrial operations, as it allows for smoother and more efficient operations of different processes. The installation of a VSD in an electrical system reduces the operational costs and if well implemented, it prolongs the life span of electrical equipment in the power system. Although the use of VSD's offers these benefits, the main disadvantage is that its operations produce harmonics. Harmonic filters can be used to act as a low impedance path at the harmonic frequency, which enables the filter to shunt most of these harmonics at their frequencies [1]. This paper presents an investigation of the harmonic distortion caused by the operation of variable speed drives in a soap manufacturing industry with the main aim to determine the best harmonic filter to mitigate these harmonics. For this reason, the use of single tuned, double-tuned, C-type, and high pass filters are considered to determine which filter would best mitigate the harmonic distortion.