SummaryThe design of a passivity‐based nonlinear controller for a shunt active power filter to be used for the compensation of harmonic currents consumed by nonlinear loads is presented in this paper. The main objective of designed controller is to inject the necessary compensation current into the system so that the grid current is sinusoidal and balanced, regardless of whether the grid voltage is unbalanced and/or distorted. The references for the compensation currents are obtained from applying thepqtheory. The controller is designed on the basis of a modified interconnection and damping assignment technique, which allows solving a tracking control problem. An integral action controller is added to the proposed controller using the same design technique, in order to eliminate the errors produced by parameter variations or uncertainties. The behavior of the proposed control strategy is validated through simulation using a realistic model, which includes converter switching and losses, grid distortion, and parameter variations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.