Neutral current compensation in three-phase, four-wire systems: A review

In many residential and office buildings, power is distributed through a three-phase, four-wire (3P4W) systems. The non-linear and unbalanced loads in these systems may result in excessive neutral currents, which may potentially damage the neutral conductor and distribution transformer while affecting the safety of the consumers. Several techniques have been reported in literature to overcome this problem. This paper presents a comprehensive review of neutral current compensation methods, their topologies, and their technical and economical limitations. Simulations are also carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment for comparing the existing methods.