Improved tracking of shunt active power filter by sliding mode control

•This paper has presented sliding mode based tracking error minimizing controller for shunt active power filter.•Even though PI controller provides required THD the dc link ripple and size of capacitor is higher than the sliding mode controller.•Feedback linearization based sliding mode control ensures desire THD with reduced values of capacitor and it is observe that THD is higher without feedback linearization based sliding mode control for greater chattering.

An improved tracking technique of the reference current waveform in a shunt type active power filter is proposed in this paper using sliding mode control and feedback linearization. Feedback linearization approach helps to reduce the complexity of the controller. Excellent tracking is achieved in both for steady state and dynamic performance. A three-phase four-wire system is considered. The proposed algorithm is simulated first in MATLAB/SIMULINK. An experimental prototype using a dspace1104 based controller is also produced in the laboratory. Results from simulation match well with the corresponding results from experimental prototype confirming the usefulness of the proposed technique.