Spectral correction-based method for interharmonics analysis of power signals with fundamental frequency deviation

In this paper, a spectral correction-based algorithm for interharmonic computation is proposed for especially highly fluctuating fundamental frequency cases in the power system. It has been observed and reported that fluctuating demands of some loads such as arc furnaces, or disturbances and subsequent system transients make the fundamental frequency of the power system deviate and this causes non-existing interharmonics to appear in the spectrum due to grid-effect when a standard window length is used for the entire FFT process. The proposed method uses a synthetic waveform produced at the fundamental frequency and amplitude to determine the amount of the leakage due to the grid-effect at each frequency. Then the leakage is subtracted from the original FFT of the signal to correct the frequency spectrum. It has been shown that the leakage effect caused by the fundamental frequency variation is avoided with a correction algorithm applied after FFT and the error in the first interharmonic computation due to frequency deviation is reduced to zero exactly if the fundamental frequency can be determined accurately. Both simulative and field data tests have been performed. The method does not require online sampling frequency or FFT window length adjustment and it is simple to implement. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved