In this paper, the finite control set model predictive control is combined with the vector operation technique to be applied in the control of a three-phase active power filter. Typically, in the finite control set technique applied to three-phase power converters, eight different vectors are considered in order to obtain the optimum control signal by minimizing a cost function. On the other hand, the vector operation technique is based on dividing the grid voltage period into six different regions. The main advantage of combining both techniques is that for each region the number of possible voltage vectors to be considered can be reduced to a half, thus reducing the computational load employed by the control algorithm. Besides, in each region, only two phase-legs are switching at high frequency while the remaining phase-leg is maintained to a constant dc-voltage value during this interval. Accordingly, a reduction of the switching losses is obtained. Unlike the typical model predictive control methods which make use of the discrete differential equations of the converter, this method considers a Kalman filter in order to improve the behavior of the closed-loop system in noisy environments. Selected experimental results are exposed in order the demonstrate the validity of the control proposal