Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy

Stochastic Harmonic Load Flow Analysis and

Distortion Mitigation of Mass Rapid Transit
Systems
H. J. Chuang, Member, IEEE, C. S. Chen, Member, IEEE, C. H. Lin, Member, IEEE, and H. M. Shiau

Abstract-- This paper is to investigate the stochastic harmonic

distortion of an mass rapid transit (MRT) system by considering
the dynamic load behavior of train sets. The mathematical model
of 12-pulse uncontrolled rectifiers without interphase
transformers has been used in the harmonic load flow analysis to
solve the power demand and harmonic current injection for each
time snapshot. The stochastic voltage harmonic distortion of each
bus is solved according to the speed profiles of all train sets along
the main line. Both the passive filters and hybrid filters are
designed to reduce the harmonic distortion. The nonlinear
programming is used to solve the optimal sizes and locations of
harmonic filters so that the harmonic distortion can be alleviated
within the specified tolerance.
Index Terms-- Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), AC/DC Load Flow,
Stochastic Harmonic Load Flow, 12 Pulse Uncontrolled Rectifier,
Interphase Transformer

I. INTRODUCTION

train sets, the traction substations along the main line is used
to step down the voltage level (22 kV/589 V) and 12-pulse
rectifiers are applied to generate 750Vdc for train operation as
shown in Fig. 2 [2].

Fig. 1. Control block diagram of VVVF inverters.

electrified mass rapid transit system provides a very

effective public transportation in the metropolitan areas

because of the high efficiency and environmental friendliness.
To ensure the efficiency and safety of MRT systems with very
short headway, the automatic train operation (ATO) is applied
to control the voltage and frequency of power source to the
induction traction motors so that the proper torque and
acceleration can be obtained. By this manner, the rain sets can
be operated according to the predefined speed profiles without
causing schedule delay. Fig. 1 shows the control block of car
borne VVVF inverters [1]. The requested voltage signal is
activated by the voltage/frequency control so that the desired
torque for the propulsion of the train set can be generated by
the induction motors. The motor output torque which is
determined by the input voltage, current and speed is used as
the feedback control signal. The inverter pole is activated by
the trigger signal so that the PWM, Quasi Six step and Six
step operation motors are applied during different stage of
train acceleration [1]. To provide the dc power source to the
H. J. Chuang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kao Yuan
Institute of Technology, Lu-Chu, Taiwan (e-mail: hjcuang@cc.kyit.edu.tw).
C. S. Chen is with Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun YatSen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (e-mail: cschen@mail.ee.nsysu.edu.tw).
C. H. Lin is with the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (e-mail: chlin@mail.ee.kuas.edu.tw).
H. M. Shiau is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun
Yat-Sen University, Taiwan.

0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE

Fig. 2. AC and DC network of an electrified railway power system.

Because the power demand of each train set along the main
line will be varied from time to time, the harmonic distortion
introduced will be very dynamic. To design the proper filters
for an MRT system, the stochastic load flow analysis has to be
considered to solve the harmonic distortion by statistic method
[3]-[5]. To calculate the harmonic current injection of each
traction substation, the train performance simulation is

executed to determine the power consumption, location of a

train set for each time snapshot by considering the ridership
and speed profile when it travels from the first station to the
last station. All the train sets are put on the main line
according to the headway. For each snapshot, each train set is
treated as a load bus and the dc network is then created based
on the train locations. By performing the AC/DC load flow
analysis, the power demand of each traction substation is
obtained [6], [7]. The fundamental component as well as the
harmonic components of the current injection at the traction
substation is solved by using the mathematical modeling of
parallel connected 12-pulse uncontrolled rectifiers [8][10].
The mean value and the standard deviation of current injection
for each harmonic order over the study period is determined
by statistic analysis. After performing the stochastic harmonic
load flow analysis with the corresponding admittance matrix,
the mean value and the standard deviation of voltage
harmonic distortion for each ac bus can therefore be obtained.
By considering the harmonic distortion constraint and the
reactive power compensation required, the components of
harmonic filters are designed to alleviate the harmonic
distortion and improve the power factor. The overall process
of stochastic harmonic load flow analysis and design of
harmonic filters are illustrated in Fig. 3.

II. MODELING OF 12-PULSE RECTIFIERS WITHOUT INTERPHASE

TRANSFORMER (IPT)
The 12-pulse uncontrolled rectifiers without an IPT is used
at the traction substation for AC/DC conversion to provide
750Vdc for the train sets. Fig. 4 shows the schematic diagram
of the rectifiers. The power demand of a rectifier will be
varied from no load to full load with the operation of train sets
from acceleration, coasting, deceleration and stop. Without the
IPT, there will be interaction between two rectifier bridges for
interbridge, interphase and overlapping commutation [8]. The
conduction angle of each diode is determined by the operation
modes. By performing the Fourier Analysis of the current
waveform, the current injection with harmonic distortion can
be obtained [9], [10]. Because of the dynamic load behavior of
each train set, the load demand of each traction substation is
time variant. By using the mathematical modeling of the
rectifiers with the load demand for each time snapshot, the
current injection of each harmonic order can therefore be
derived.

Train performance simulation to find power demand and

location of each train set for each snapshot

Build the impedance matrix for dc

network
Next
snapshot

Execute the AC/DC load flow analysis

with multiple train sets

Fig. 4. Diagram of a twelve-pulse parallel bridge rectifier.

Calulate the power demand, and harmonic current injection
of traction substations
No

Last
snapshot

After calculating the fundamental component and

harmonic components of injection current at each traction
substation, the mean value of harmonic voltage can be solved
by
1
T
T
(1)
Vn = Yn C 1 Yn Yn C 1 I n

Yes
Solve the mean value and standard deviation of harmonic currents
at traction stations

THDvi > Limit

No

Yes

Stop

Design the passive filters and active

filters
Perform the stochastic harmonic load
flow analysis

Fig. 3. Flowchart of stochastic harmonic load flow analysis and design of

harmonic filters.

and the standard deviation of the harmonic voltage is solved

as
1
T
(2)
V = diag Yn C 1 Yn
n

Execute the stochastic harmonic load flow analysis to find the

voltage harmonic distortion THDvi

III. DESIGN OF PASSIVE FILTERS

To alleviate the voltage harmonic distortion introduced by
rectifiers at the traction substations, the passive harmonic
filters have been installed in the power system of MRT
networks. Besides, the filters can also provide the reactive
power compensation for the ac power system. For the design
of passive filters [11], the objective function is to minimize
the investment cost with the constraints of harmonic distortion
and reactive power compensation as shown in Eq.(3).
m

min C F =

X in Cin

(3)

subject to Q Q i (1F) Q

(4)

i =1 n =1

THD Vi THD VLimit [12]

(5)

where Xin is variable for decision making of filter

installation with value equals to 1 or 0.
To further improve the harmonic distortion, an active filter
with smaller capacity is considered to be installed in parallel
with the above passive filters as shown in Fig. 5 [13], [14].
The control signal of the thyrister in the active filter is
generated by the diagram in Fig. 6 [15]. After subtracting the
fundamental component of the load current, the magnitude of
each harmonic order current is obtained. It is then
compensated by the thyrister with a reverse current to
eliminate the harmonic current injection to the ac power
system.
TPC

consume the power. By executing the load flow analysis, the

power demand and harmonic current injection of traction
substations are solved.

Fig. 7. Diagram of Taishui MRT line at a time snapshot.

Fig. 8 shows the current harmonic distortion of TSS 10

over a 2 minutes time interval for each 4 seconds time
snapshot. The stochastic harmonic distortion has been verified
by the computer simulation.

161KV
BSS
22.8KV

Ih

active filter
5 , 7 , 11 order
passive filter
Fig. 5. Diagram of a hybrid filter.
If
IL

fundamental
pass filter

AC/DC converter
voltage command

PWM

pole trigger
circuit

Ta+
TaTb+
TbTc+
Tc-

triangle carrier

Fig. 6. Control signal of thyristers in the active filter.

IV. CASE STUDY

In this paper, the Tamshui line of Taipei MRT system has
been selected for computer simulation of stochastic harmonic
load flow analysis and design of harmonic filters. By the
power demand and locations of each train set for each time
snapshot, the impedance martrix of dc network is determined
and adjusted with train movement. The power demand of each
traction substation is obtained by executing the AC/DC load
flow analysis. The power electronics modeling of 12-pulse
rectifiers without IPT is applied to solve the harmonic current
injection at the ac side of traction substations by considering
the commutation angles of the rectifiers.
Fig. 7 shows the single line diagram of the study system at
a time snapshot. There are two bulk power substations (BSS)
which are connected to Taipower system and to provide
power for 12 traction substations (TSS). With 2 minutes
headway, there are 34 train sets to be operated on the main
line. When a train sets approaches and makes stop at the next
station the power regeneration by induction generation is
applied to recover the kinetic energy. It is found that 7 train
sets are making the electric braking for deceleration and the
induction power generation is input to the power systems. On
the other hand, 27 train sets are making the acceleration to

Fig. 8. Total harmonic distortion for TSS10 for peak operation.

Based on the mean valves and standard deviation for each

order of harmonic current injection, the stochastic harmonic
load flow analysis has been executed. Fig. 9 shows the voltage
harmonic distortion of ac buses with 95% confidential interval.
It is found that the voltage harmonic distortion has exceeded
the specified limit with significant variation.

Fig. 9. The 95% confidential interval of voltage harmonic distortion.

A. Design of Passive Filters

To alleviate the harmonic distortion problem for the study
MRT system, the passive filters are first considered in this
paper. Fig. 10 shows the relationship between the magnitude
of impedance and the frequency at bus 7, which is the 22 kV
bus in the BSS1. The order of resonant frequency will be

shifted from 17.5 to 7.5 and 10.5 with the outage of BSS2 and
BSS1 respectively. It is suggested that the single tuned passive
filters with order of 5, 7 and 11 are considered. By Largrange
multipliers to solve the cost minimization in Eq. (3) with
desired reactive power compensation, the corresponding
inductors and capacitors of the harmonic filters in BSS1 and
BSS2 are determined as shown in Table 1.

Fig. 12. Voltage harmonic distortion at bus 7.

Fig. 10. The magnitude of impedance and the frequency at bus 7.

TABLE I
DESIGN OF PASSIVE FILTERS
Harmonic
order
5
7
11

Inductor
L
(mH)
108.526
95.446
15.456

Capacitor C
(uF)

Harmonic
order

2.596
1.506
3.766

5
7
11

Inductor
L
(mH)
92.01
70.43
10.44

Capacitor C
(uF)
3.062
2.041
5.103

Fig. 11 illustrates the voltage harmonic distortion after the

installation of passive filters. By comparing Fig. 9 and Fig. 11,
the harmonic distortion has been improved effectively by the
passive filters. Fig. 12 shows the harmonic distortion at bus 7
for the system with and without filters. The harmonic
distortion problem has been solved and the mean valve of
harmonic is reduced from 6.47% to 1.3% with the proposed
filters. To prevent the over compensation of reactive power
during off peak operation, the passive filter with order 11 as
the tuning frequency is disconnected. Fig. 13 shows that the
harmonic distortion of all ac buses have been improved for the
light load operation too.

Fig. 13. Voltage harmonic distortion of all ac buses (off peak).

B. Design of Hybrid Filters

To further alleviate the harmonic distortion, a hybrid filter
which consists of larger passive filters and an active filter with
smaller capacity is considered in the paper. According to the
computer simulation of the MRT system with passive filters, a
hybrid filter with 0.8 MVAR capacity will be required for
reactive power compensation at fundamental frequency and
mitigation of harmonic distortion. By using the PSIM software
package [16] with the control diagram of active filter in Fig. 6,
the current waveform of 22 kV bus at BSS can be derived. Fig.
14 shows the current waveform of BSS1 without filters.

Fig. 14. Current waveform of BSS1 without filters.

Fig. 11. Voltage harmonic distortion of the MRT system with passive filters.

After the implementation of passive filters, the harmonic

distortion has been improved as shown in Fig. 15. By
providing the reverse compensation of residual harmonic
current in Fig. 16, the current waveform of BSS1 has been
improved to be very close to a pure sinusoidal waveform as
shown in Fig. 17. Therefore, the harmonic distortion can be

completely solved by using the hybrid filters for the MRT

power system.

Fig. 15. Current waveform of BSS1 with passive filters.

standard deviation of voltage harmonic distortion of ac buses

by considering the dynamic load behavior of train sets and the
variation of harmonic current injection.
To alleviate the harmonic distortion of MRT power
systems, the Largrange multipliers has been applied for the
design of harmonic filters by minimizing the investment cost
and subject to the constraints of harmonic distortion and
reactive power compensation. It is found that the harmonic
distortion can be effectively reduced by applying the passive
filters. To further improve the distortion problem, the active
filter is considered to be operated in parallel with the passive
filter for current waveform compensation. Based on the
computer simulation of Taipei MRT system, the voltage
harmonic distortion is varied dramatically with the dynamic
load behavior of train sets. The stochastic harmonic load flow
analysis can investigate the power quality problem for an
electrified rapid transit system. The effectiveness of passive
and hybrid filters to improve the harmonic distortion can also
be evaluated more practically by considering the time variant
harmonic current injection of the rectifier stations.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to acknowledge the financial
support of National Science Council in Taiwan, R.O.C.
through its grant NSC 91-2213-E-110-051.
VII. REFERENCES
[1]

Fig. 16. Compensation of residual harmonic current by active filters.

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]

Fig. 17. Current waveform of BSS1 with hybrid filters.

V. CONCLUSION
The power demand of a train set to be operated along the
main line of an MRT system has been derived by considering
the ridership and speed profile to complete the journey. The
AC/DC load flow analysis has been performed to find the
power consumption of traction substations for each time
snapshot by considering each train set as a load bus and
adjusting the impedance matrix according to the train
locations. The fundamental component and harmonic current
injections of the traction substations are then solved by using
the mathematical models of uncontrolled rectifiers without
interphase transformers. The stochastic harmonic load flow
analysis has been performed to find the mean value and

[9]

[10]

[11]
[12]
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VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
H. J. Chuang received the B.S. and M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering
from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 1990 and
1992 respectively, and Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from National
Sun Yat-Sen University in 2002.
He is presently an Associate Professor at Kao Yuan Institute of Technology,
Lu Chu, Taiwan. His research interest is in the area of load flow and power
system analysis of mass rapid system.
C. S. Chen received the B.S. degree from National Taiwan University in 1976
and the M.S, Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of
Texas at Arlington in 1981 and 1984 respectively.
From 1984 to 1994 he was a professor of Electrical Engineering department
at National Sun Yat-Sen University. Since 1994, he works as the deputy
director general of Department of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit. From
Feb.1997 to July 1998, he was with the National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology as a professor. From August 1998, he is with the
National Sun Yat-Sen University as a full professor. His majors are computer
control of power systems and distribution automation.
C. H. Lin (S95-M98) received the B.S. degree from National Taiwan
Institute of Technology in 1991, M.S. degree from University of Pittsburgh in
1993, and Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at
Arlington in 1997.
He is presently an Associate Professor at National Kaohsiung University
of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His area of interest is distribution
automation
and
computer
applications
to
power
systems.

H. M. Shiau received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Kao

Yuan Institute of Technology in 2000 and now is working on his M.S. degree
at the National Sun Yat-Sen University. His research interest is in the area of
power system analysis of mass rapid system.