The active power filter (APF) is a popular electrical device to eliminate harmonics in power systems. The rational design and effective control of DC-link capacitor voltage are important for implementing APF functions. In this study, the influences from the DC-link voltage on the APF compensating current characteristic and compensation performance are analyzed, and the reason to maintain DC-link voltage at a minimum value is investigated. On this basis, a simplified minimum DC-link voltage control strategy for APF is proposed. Compared with the existing DC-link voltage control strategies, the minimum DC-link voltage value in proposed strategy is only determined by the grid voltage and modulation ratio, reducing the calculation burden and the implementation difficulty in application, avoiding the interference from external parameters on the compensation effect. Additionally, the reference DC-link voltage varies at different values according to the grid voltage and modulation ratio. A shunt APF prototype is established and the experimental results verify the correctness and effectiveness of the analysis and proposed strategy.
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