Improved performance of a shunt hybrid active power filter by a robust exponential functional link network-based nonlinear adaptive filter control to enhance power quality

This research article details the design and implementation of a nonlinear adaptive filtering (NAF) technique using an exponential functional link network (EFLN) for a shunt hybrid active power filter (SHAPF) control to solve the current-associated power quality issues on the utility side at the distribution level of electrical power systems. Separation of the fundamental component from the harmonics, achieving unity power factor operation, reducing the reactive power drawn from the source, balancing the currents during transients, and reduction of total harmonic distortion (THD) of the source current are the issues considered to resolve. The proposed technique solves these issues by generating the sinusoidal reference current and separating the fundamental current from the harmonics. When compared to conventional and existing adaptive filtering techniques such as least mean square (LMS), least mean fourth (LMF), and variable step size LMS (VSS-LMS), the proposed EFLN-NAF method excels in terms of speedy convergence, adaptability in noise-specific environments and reduced steady-state coefficient error. MATLAB/Simulink software is utilized to perform the simulations to examine the suggested strategy for the chosen SHAPF topology both in static and dynamic scenarios. For a 15 kW and 3kVAr requirement of the nonlinear load, simulation results proved that the designed PPF for 2kVAr is able to share the reactive power with the APF, thereby reducing its rating and cost. The proposed method of filtering has been proven to be fast converging with 0.049 s, and the THD in steady state is brought to 1.32 % in steady-state and to 3.77 % during transient conditions, which are under standard limits. A hardware prototype of the experimental setup is constructed at the laboratory scale with OPAL-RT (OP4510) as the controller. With an active and reactive power demand of 1.1 kW and 210VAr, the designed PPF supplies 110 VAr, whereas the rest is supplied by the APF. The practical THD in source current is observed to be 2.081 %, which meets the standards. The results from both simulations and experiments are validated, and the efficacy of the proposed technique in mitigating the aforementioned power quality issues is proved.