Comparative analysis of optimal damped and undamped passive filters using MIDACO-solver

Harmonic pollution is one of the challenging problems facing power networks recently due to the widespread non-linear loads and inverter-based renewables. In this regard, this work presents the optimal design of damped and undamped passive filters using a solver called Mixed-Integer Distributed Ant Colony Optimisation (MIDACO). This solver is employed to obtain an optimal design strategy for single-tuned passive power filters by investigating three primary criteria - minimisation of active power losses of the Thevenin's resistor, maximisation of the true power factor, and maximisation of the transmission efficiency. Several constrictions associated with the designed filters have been considered, in which the global maximum or minimum criterion was attained by retaining the quality factors of the designed filters within a particular range, damping harmonic resonance, achieving a permissible range of the power factor, limiting voltage harmonic distortion by complying with IEEE Std. 519-2014 restrictions. Besides, the performance limits of capacitors operating in distorted systems have been met while complying with IEEE Std. 18-2012. Further, the results obtained using the MIDACO solver in four different case studies are compared to those obtained using particle swarm optimisation and genetic algorithm. In addition, this work depicts the damping resistor of the inductance in the single-tuned filters. The benefits and drawbacks of damping over an undamped filter are discussed. Finally, the results validate the effectiveness of the MIDACO solver employed in this paper.(c) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Harmonic pollution has become a significant problem in power networks, and this paper presents an optimal design strategy for passive power filters using the MIDACO solver. The design criteria include minimizing active power losses, maximizing the true power factor, and maximizing the transmission efficiency. Constraints such as quality factors, harmonic resonance damping, power factor range, and voltage harmonic distortion are considered. The effectiveness of the MIDACO solver is validated through comparison with other optimization algorithms.