Analysis of the Harmonic Performance of Power Converters and Electrical Drives

Power converters have progressively become the most efficient and attractive solution in

recent decades in many industrial sectors, ranging from electric mobility, aerospace

applications to attain better electric aircra¿¿¿¿ concepts, vast renewable energy resource

integration in the transmission and distribution grid, the design of smart and efficient

energy management systems, the usage of energy storage systems, and the achievement

of smart grid paradigm development, among others.

In order to achieve efficient solutions in this wide energy scenario, over the past few

decades, considerable attention has been paid by the academia and industry in order to

develop new methods to achieve power systems with maximum harmonic

performance aiming for two main targets. On the one hand, the high-performance

harmonic performance of power systems would lead to improvements in their power

density, size and weight. This becomes critical in applications such as aerospace or

electric mobility, where the power converters are on-board systems. On the other hand,

current standards are becoming more and more strict in order to reduce the EMI and EMC

noise, as well as meeting minimum power quality requirements (i.e., grid code standards

for grid-tied power systems).