This paper describes the development of a low cost shunt active power filter with digital control, which allows dynamic power factor correction and both harmonics and zero-sequence current compensation. The active filter controller is based on the instantaneous power theory (p-q theory) and was implemented using a standard 16 bits
microcontroller. The p-q theory is introduced followed by the presentation of some active power filters topologies. Then a brief description of the implemented solution is made, including references to software tools used for simulation and system development. Experimental results are also presented, showing the good performance of the developed active filter