How to Fix DIRTY POWER on the Grid

Description

What is dirty power, where do electrical harmonics come from, and how do we stop them getting onto the electricity grid?

I'm at an LCC HVDC converter station taking a close look at the enormous harmonic filters used to clean up the AC waveform produced by the converter.

We look at what harmonics actually are, why higher-frequency currents can cause additional heating and losses, and how capacitor banks, air-core reactors and damping resistors are combined to create passive harmonic filters.

I'll explain why different frequencies see different impedances, how LC resonance lets us make a filter "attractive" to particular harmonics, and the difference between single, double, triple-tuned and C-type filters.

We'll also look at some of the less obvious engineering around these enormous filters, including why metallic structures around air-core reactors need careful consideration and why harmonic filters are particularly important at an LCC HVDC converter station.

Finally, there's a useful bit of engineering synergy: LCC converters consume large amounts of reactive power, while the enormous capacitor banks needed for harmonic filtering can also provide reactive power to the AC system.

⚡ In this video:
• What dirty power and harmonics are
• Fundamental frequency and harmonic orders
• Why harmonics cause additional losses and heating
• Skin effect and eddy-current losses
• How passive harmonic filters work
• Capacitors, reactors and damping resistors
• LC resonance and filter tuning
• Single, double and triple-tuned filters
• C-type harmonic filters
• Air-core reactors
• LCC HVDC characteristic harmonics
• Reactive power and LCC converters
• Why converter stations need such enormous filter banks