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Single-tuned passive filters are considered one of the most effective and economical means of harmonic mitigation. One important factor to consider while designing passive filters is the source voltage harmonics. This article presents a novel approach based on a particle swarm technique to optimize the design of the single-tuned passive filters for industrial plants in distribution networks. The filter design problem is formulated as a non-linear programming problem, where the main objective is to minimize the load voltage total harmonic distortion, taking into account the source voltage harmonics. The optimal filter parameters are determined using particle swarm optimization with the static penalty constraint handling approach. The particle swarm optimization algorithm performance is tested on ten constrained non-linear programming benchmark cases and a previous filter design problem. Initial results show that single-tuned passive filters can fail to maintain harmonic levels within standard levels in the presence of voltage source harmonics. Thus, a new additional problem formulation is presented to determine the maximum allowable source voltage harmonics beyond which a single-tuned passive filter would fail to maintain voltage and current harmonics within the recommended levels. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the importance of taking into account source voltage harmonics in filter design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a method of reducing the expected value of the transmission loss for a specified range of source impedance values at different buses by using inductor-capacitor compensators where it is desired to maintain a given power factor at a specified value. The criterion is based on mean value estimation of source and load characteristics, which is enabled by sampling measurements performed on the examined electrical plant, as well as statistical analysis. The major attribute of the method is that, unlike conventional approaches, it guarantees convergence to the optimal solution. Finally, the contribution of the newly developed method is demonstrated in examples taken from previous publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]