ABSTRACT
Harmonic distortion is not new, and it constitutes at present one of the main concerns for engineers in the several stages of energy utilization within the power industry. The major concern was the effect that harmonic distortion could have on electric machines, telephone interference, and increased risk of faults from overvoltage conditions developed on power factor correction capacitors. The increasing use of nonlinear loads in industry is keeping harmonic distortion in distribution networks on the rise. Even the amounts of heat created by resistive linear loads like heating elements or incandescent lamps can easily be determined because they are proportional to the square of the current. A voltage and current waveform in a circuit with linear loads will show the two waveforms in phase with one another. Even linear loads like power transformers can act nonlinear under saturation conditions. Unbalanced voltage conditions are rare but possible to find in three-phase electric power systems.
