Cooperative operation of active power filters by instantaneous complex power control

The paper describes an approach to cooperative control of multiple active compensators acting in the same network. The goal is to take full advantage of the installed harmonic and reactive compensation capability to optimize the operation at the point of common coupling, even in presence of non-sinusoidal voltage supply and distorting loads. The cooperative operation is based on the conservation of instantaneous complex power, a quantity which envelopes power and energy information of the related electrical network. Based on the properties of instantaneous complex power, a synergistic control technique of thyristor-controlled reactive compensators and active power filters is derived, which sets the basis for cooperative operation.