An effective design method of surge protection circuits for an active EMI filter (AEF) is proposed. The overcurrent and overvoltage at the voltage-sense voltage-compensate type AEF due to a surge is analyzed, and protection circuits using the transient voltage suppression (TVS) diodes are designed. Effects of protection circuits are validated by a 2kV surge test. Performances of the AEF for the noise attenuation are also measured by a vector network analyzer (VNA), and the AEF performances after employing the protection circuits are compared.