Cost Benefit of Harmonic Filters

It is guaranteed that the amount of energy saved will not exceed the amount that is being wasted, the quantity of which you haven't stated.

The only way that you can be enlightened is by contacting the AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) in the state government of your choice, another thing that you have failed to share with us.

harmonics are harmless, forget themhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

Harmonic currents can damage electrical equipment on site (power factor correction capacitors for example). Your not going to see any energy savings eliminating them however (think electrical noise rather than lagging power factor).

What state? US, India, Mother Russia?

so what would be the benefit of using the harmonic filters? why do we need to invest money into that?

I am from India and here there is no penalty by any of the electricity regulators.

Well reducing maintenance due to poor power quality causing premature failure of electronic equipment in your workplace springs to mind.

Modern equipment generally has good harmonic filtering built in and so it generally isn't as big a problem as it used to be, but I am sure that in certain circumstances if poor quality equipment is installed in or near your workplace or certain large loads that produce large amounts of harmonics are present then separate harmonic filters could be of benefit.

For the average business owner, I don't see the need or point (although I am sure the people trying to sell you harmonic filters would say something different).

Look at the classical paper "Costs and Benefits of Harmonic Current Reduction for Switch-Mode Power Supplies in a Commercial Office Building", published on IEEE Transactions on Industry Aplications, Vol. 32, Nº. 5, Septembre/October, 1996, Thomas Key and Jih Sheng Lai.

Yes, it is a good idea for you to reread it. When you do you will note that the conclusion points to why the proper place for the filtering to take place is in the circuitry of the SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply); i.e., suppress the harmonics at their source, not after they have escaped into the power distribution of the office.

From the abstract of the article: "...Results show that an active-type harmonic elimination circuit, built into the common electronic equipment switch-mode power supply, is cost-effective based on energy loss considerations alone..."

One of the economic issues is capacity of equipment, primarily transformers. Harmonic current is typically not seen by revenue metering equipment, but it is nonetheless real. So if you have a supply transformer of 1MVA and your ITHD is 25%, effectively you can only use 750kVA out of that transformer, yet you pay for the fixed losses of a 1MVA transformer. The harmonic current doesn't show up directly on your bill, but the fact that you must have a larger transformer than you need definitely does. If you correct the harmonic current, you can either increase the use of your transformer, or use a smaller one and not pay for the extra losses.

A secondary issue is that although there may be no immediate tariffs on harmonics, there are usually requirements that you not create voltage distortion. Current distortion is what you pay for in your own facility, voltage distortion travels up stream and affects your neighbors bu causing current distortion in THEIR facility, even though they may not have caused it. That is why the IEEE519 specs call for controlling voltage distortion, and many people are unaware that it works both ways. YOU are not to cause more than 5% VTHD at the Point of Common Coupling, but conversely the UTILITY must guarantee to not allow more than 5% coming in. The only way the utility can do that is to require everyone nearby to limit it to 5%. How much authority they have to accomplish that varies by location, but at some point, they can always just refuse to deliver power to those who refuse to comply.

If you have your own generating capacity and don't buy from a utility, none of hat matters, but it will show up as extra fuel cost. Even if it is Hyde power, you will require more water flow PU of useable energy, which may have costs associated with it.

Bottom line, correction matters... The statement saying that it doesn't is just irresponsible.

Hi JRaef,

Could you explain to me, by way of expressing in mathematical formulas, what you have been taking into account linked to the effective use of 750 kVA for a 1 MVA transformer under 25% THDi, according the text below you have written before?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Harmonic current is typically not seen by revenue metering equipment, but it is nonetheless real. So if you have a supply transformer of 1MVA and your ITHD is 25%, effectively you can only use 750kVA out of that transformer, yet you pay for the fixed losses of a 1MVA transformer."

Aside from the Key and Lai article, published in 1997, according to the report "Installation of Compact Fluorescent Lamps Assessment of Benefits", prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff Associates in 2006 for the New Zealand Electricity Commission, "the initial incremental costs of installing high true power factor (HPF) compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) is approximately 10 times less than the cost of capacitive compensation equipment which migh become necessary to counteract the degradation in power factor cause by using low true power factor (LPF) CFL.

Hence, taking into account that harmonic filters as well as electronics equipment is linked to a global production, what is the cost difference between HPF and LPF CFL? How can we evaluate the incremental cost of HPF and LPF electronics equipment (TV, PC, etc.)?

Both studies reiterate my point that it is better to treat the problem at its source, rather than trying to remediate it at the system level. Evaluating the difference in the TCO (Total Cost of Operation/Ownership, etc.) will involve drilling down to the source costs, supply chain costs, installation costs, and operational costs, then comparing the results. Is your client prepared to fund such an involved study?