www.ietdl.

org
Published in IET Power Electronics Received on 15th March 2010 Revised on 28th August 2010 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

ISSN 1755-4535

Cascade multilevel static synchronous compensator conguration for wind farms

S.D.G. Jayasingha1 D.M. Vilathgamuwa1 U.K. Madawala2
1 2

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand E-mail: shan0034@ntu.edu.sg

Abstract: Modulation and control of a cascade multilevel static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) conguration to improve the quality of voltage generated by wind power systems are presented. The proposed STATCOM conguration needs only four dc-link capacitors and 24 switches to synthesise nine-level operation. In addition to that, switching losses are further reduced by splitting the voltage source inverter of the STATCOM into two units called the bulk inverter and the conditioning inverter. The high-power bulk inverter is operated at low frequency whereas the low-power conditioning inverter is operated at high frequency to suppress harmonics produced by the bulk inverter. Fluctuations at the point of common coupling voltage, caused by sudden wind changes, are suppressed by controlling reactive power of the STATCOM. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the efcacy of the proposed modulation and control techniques used in the STATCOM.

Introduction

The static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) is a exible ac transmission system (FACTS) device that has been used to provide both VAR compensation and voltage regulation in power industry for the past three decades. Fast dynamic response of STATCOMs makes them suitable for mitigating potential short-term voltage uctuations that last for few hundreds of milliseconds, particularly in wind generation systems. Furthermore, in comparison to the conventional static var compensators, STATCOMs generate less harmonics and require a much smaller reactor. In the simplest form, STATCOMs employ two-level voltage source converters (VSCs) for power processing. However, a multilevel conguration is preferable to achieve higher ac-side voltage levels and improved waveforms with reduced harmonic distortion. Multilevel converter topologies such as diode-clamped converter, yingcapacitor converter and cascading converter have been successfully implemented in STATCOM [1 11]. Cascaded multilevel converter (CMC) topologies have recently become a popular choice for the implementation of high power STATCOM systems. Among these topologies, the CMC with separate dc sources can be regarded as the most popular owing to its modularity and exibility [12]. However, the need for large number of separate dc sources, which is usually supplied with capacitors in STATCOM applications, makes this STATCOM bulky and less reliable. To overcome this limitation, a STATCOM with the combined converter topology, which is formed by cascading two three-level diode clamped converters through a coupling transformer, is proposed in this paper. This cascaded topology needs only four dc-link
548 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

capacitors and 24 switches to synthesise the nine-level operation [13]. Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the proposed STATCOM in which the two inverters, bulk inverter and conditioning inverter are connected at the ends of a coupling transformer secondary winding. The bulk inverter operates at a low frequency producing square-wave output, whereas high-frequency low-power conditioning inverter is used to make the output waveform smooth and closer to sinusoidal in shape. As the high-power bulk inverter operates at a lower frequency, it can be constructed using devices like GTOs, ETOs or IGCTs to reduce switching losses. On the other hand, the conditioning inverter, which acts to compensate low-order harmonics produced by the bulk inverter, can be constructed using more commonly available devices like insulated gated bipolar transistors (IGBTs). This particular power and frequency splitting arrangement helps to reduce switching losses of the inverter [13 15]. The proposed STATCOM can support wind power generation in numerous ways [16 18]. As wind is random in nature, the power output of wind generators are expected to have short-term and long-term uctuations. In particular, short-term uctuations of the wind power output can cause voltage variations at the point of common coupling (PCC). Such voltage variations can effectively be compensated with the appropriate injection of reactive power from the STATCOM. Furthermore, if properly controlled, a storage element connected at the dc-link of the STATCOM in the form of battery or super capacitor can also help alleviating such short-term power oscillations. Section 2 of this paper presents a description and analysis on the modulation and control strategy of the proposed cascaded multilevel inverter. Dc-link capacitor voltage
IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548 556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

www.ietdl.org

Fig. 2 Cascade inverter space vector diagram for (Vdc:Vdcx 3:1)

Space vector plot of the inverter is shown in Fig. 2, which is obtained by transforming phase voltages of (3) into d q components using Parks transformation [K ] in (5). vds vqs V0
T

Fig. 1 Schematic of the proposed STATCOM

= [K] vas

vbs

vcs

(5)

balancing is discussed in Section 3. The STATCOM controller that is proposed to mitigate potential voltage variations in a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)-based wind energy conversion system is discussed in Section 4. The PMSG controller, used in simulations is explained in Section 5. Both simulation and experimental results are presented in Sections 6 and 7 to verify the practical viability of the proposed system, which, according to the results, is suitable for wind power generation systems.

Modulation and control of the inverter

For the cascade inverter shown in Fig. 1, line-to-ground voltages of the bulk and conditioning inverters can be derived from the switching states by (1) and (2), respectively. In (1), Sa , Sb and Sc are the switching states of the bulk inverter while Sax , Sbx and Scx of (2) represents switching states of the conditioning inverter. They can take values of 0, 1 or 2. It is assumed in (1) and (2) that the capacitor voltages in the inverter dc-links are balanced. vag vagx vbg vbgx vcg vcgx
T

= sa

sb sbx

sc

T vdc

= sax

scx

2 T vdc x 2

(1) (2)

Phase voltages of the coupling transformer secondary winding can be calculated using (3). However, on the primary side of the transformer that is connected to the PCC, the interest is on line voltages which are related to the primary phase voltages by (4). Here the transformer turns ratio is taken as 1:1. vas 2 1 vbs = 1 3 1 vcs vag vagx 1 1 2 1 vbg vbgx vcg vcgx 1 2 vas 1 0 1 1 vbs 0 1 vcs

(3)

vabn 1 vbcn = 0 1 vcan

(4)

Darker dots in the space vector diagram show the switching states of the bulk inverter and are known as bulk vectors. They can be categorised into ve groups. (i) Large vectors 200, 220, 020, 022, 002 and 202; (ii) Medium vectors 210, 120, 021, 012, 102 and 201; (iii) Negative small vectors 100, 110, 010 011, 001 and 101; (iv) Positive small vectors 211, 221, 121, 122, 112 and 212 and (v) Zero vectors 000, 111 and 222. Therefore altogether there are 27 bulk vectors marked by darker dots. Each darker dot is the origin of another smaller hexagonal pattern which represents the switching states of the conditioning inverter. They are the vectors of the conditioning inverter and are simply known as conditioning vectors. These small hexagons also have the same vector pattern as the bulk inverter. As a result of this, 27 27 different vectors can be identied for this cascade-3/ 3 inverter. But some of them overlap as shown in Fig. 2 reducing the number of effective vectors. The darker dots are marked with corresponding switching states. The switching state 2 means both upper switches of the corresponding inverter leg are turned on. Similarly, the switching state 1 means middle two switches are turned on and the switching state 0 means the lower two switches are turned on. A given reference voltage vector can be synthesised by combining a bulk vector and three conditioning vectors [19]. As mentioned in the introduction, the bulk inverter produces square-wave outputs by switching from one bulk vector to another slowly. In this process, depending on the amplitude of the reference voltage (0 , Am , 8), different bulk vector traversal patterns have to be used, as shown in Fig. 3. However, owing to operational limitations caused by the absence of an active power source at the conditioning inverter, the upper limit of Am for steady-state operation is reduced to 6. When Am . 4.58, the bulk vector traversal pattern consists of large and medium bulk vectors, as shown in Fig. 3a. Sub-hexagonal vector patterns are omitted in these diagrams as the focus at this point is only on bulk vectors. Bulk inverter output voltage for this range takes the shape as in Fig. 3b. For 3.60 , Am , 4.58, medium and small bulk vectors are alternatively used as in Fig. 3c and the corresponding bulk inverter output voltage waveform is shown in Fig. 3d. For the range 1.73 , Am , 3.60, only small bulk vectors are used as in Fig. 3e. In that case
549

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

www.ietdl.org

Fig. 3 Bulk vector traversal patterns

a Am . 4.58 b, d, f are corresponding bulk inverter output voltage waveforms c 3.60 , Am , 4.58 e 1.73 , Am , 3.60 g Bulk vector timing h Effect of the conditioning inverter

number of levels in the bulk inverter output voltage is reduced as seen in Fig. 3f. However, in the STATCOM operation this range is hardly used. When Am , 1.73, the bulk inverter is turned off and only the conditioning inverter continues its operation. This region is never used in the proposed STATCOM. The time spent on each bulk vector is a function of Am , which varies as depicted in Fig. 3g. As mentioned above, bulk inverter produces square-wave outputs, whereas the conditioning inverter is used to suppress its harmonics. Fig. 3h illustrates this combined operation where the conditioning inverter is purposely turned off until 30 ms. Harmonic distortion of the output voltage is quite high under this operation. After 30 ms, conditioning inverter is turned on and consequently the output voltage becomes smooth with a low harmonic distortion. Therefore one can consider the conditioning inverter as an active lter. In the case of harmonic lters, the given waveform is subtracted from the ideal waveform and then the difference is compensated. The same idea is used in the proposed modulation method. Fig. 4 shows the bulk inverter vector diagram with three axes va , vb and vc which correspond to relevant phase voltages vas , vbs and vcs . Available bulk inverter phase voltage levels are marked on the respective axes. For a given amplitude Am , corresponding bulk inverter phase voltage levels can be found in Table 1. A plot of these levels and the reference is shown in Fig. 5a. Difference between them varies as in Fig. 5b. This difference is the voltage which should be supplied by the conditioning
550 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

inverter as the compensation voltage. Subsequently, it is pulse-width modulated (PWM) using two triangular waveforms as shown in Fig. 5c. A low-frequency carrier is used here for clarity. The corresponding switching signal for the leg a of the conditioning inverter is shown in Fig. 5d. Fig. 6 shows the block diagram of the combined inverter controller, where the square-wave generator produces bulk inverter switching states Sa , Sb and Sc . Rest of the controller generates suitable conditioning inverter switching states Sax , Sbx and Scx based on the above harmonic ltering technique.

Fig. 4 Phase voltage levels of the bulk inverter

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548 556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

www.ietdl.org
Table 1
Bulk inverter phase voltage levels for different ranges of Am Bulk inverter phase voltage levels Vas, bulk 26 24.5 23 24.5 23 21.5 23 21.5 0 0 0 1.5 3 1.5 3 4.5 3 6 4.5 Range of Am 4.58 , Am , 6 3.60 , Am , 4.58 1.73 , Am , 3.60

Fig. 5 Modulation technique

a b c d Reference voltage and square wave output of the bulk inverter Difference between the square wave output and the reference PWM with two triangular carrier waveforms Switching signals for the leg a of the conditioning inverter

A proportional integral (PI) controller is used to regulate the conditioning inverter dc-link voltage to one-third of the bulk inverter dc-link voltage. This is required for the nine-level operation of the combined inverter. PI controller adds a small delay angle da to the conditioning inverter phase angle which in turn draws some active current from the bulk inverter to charge conditioning inverter dc-link capacitors [13]. Fig. 7 illustrates this lagging operation on the space vector diagram. The redundant state selection (RSS) algorithm, followed by the PWM process, is used to balance capacitor voltages. A detailed analysis on RSS and capacitor voltage balancing is given in the next section.

for a given constant amplitude Am , conditioning inverter capacitors get charged or discharged equally. In other words, they tend to maintain their initial conditions as long as Am is constant. Owing to this open-loop-like control, small ripples appear on capacitor voltages as shown in Fig. 8a. However, they are negligible in comparison to deviations which occur at transitions of Am . The sudden change of the amplitude at t 0.2 s, creates a short-term imbalance in the capacitor charging and discharging pattern.

Capacitor voltage balancing

The proposed modulation method equally generates both positive and negative small conditioning vectors. Therefore

Fig. 6 Conditioning inverter controller block diagram

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

Fig. 7 Delay angle da

551

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

www.ietdl.org

Fig. 8 Natural balancing of conditioning inverter capacitor voltages

a b Conditioning inverter capacitor voltage c Amplitude of the reference voltage vector

Fig. 10 Bulk inverter capacitor voltages with self-balancing

a b Bulk inverter capacitor voltages c Amplitude of the reference voltage vector

Consequently, one voltage goes up while the other goes down. But owing to the tight voltage regulation of the conditioning inverter dc-link voltage, their addition remains constant. As Fig. 8 illustrates, the proposed modulation method itself is not capable of balancing capacitor voltages, especially in dynamic situations. To overcome this issue, the authors have proposed a RSS-based capacitor voltage balancing method in [19]. Simulation results in Fig. 9 show the efcacy of the above method on capacitor voltage balancing, without ripples, even under dynamic situations. The same capacitor voltage balancing method can be applied for the bulk inverter by reversing current directions. However, it is valid only for the range of 1.73 , Am , 4.58, where small bulk vectors are available. For Am . 4.58, only medium and large bulk vectors are available; this makes capacitor voltage corrections impossible. Large bulk vectors do not change capacitor voltage, since they have no connection to the middle point. But medium bulk vectors do have a single connection to the midpoint, whereas the other two ends are connected to the upper and lower points. Because of that, signicant ripples can appear on capacitor voltages under unbalanced loads. Even for balanced loads, ripples occur as shown in Fig. 10. But usually they are negligible.

currents are measured and transferred to the synchronous reference frame in the form of direct and quadrature components. The direct component is related to the real power exchange, whereas the quadrature component is related to the reactive power exchange. Therefore the bulk inverter dc-link voltage Vdc can be regulated by controlling the direct component of the STATCOM current. To regulate the grid voltage, the quadrature component of the STATCOM current is controlled [20]. The current controller outputs, vds and vqs are the reference voltages for the inverter. With the above reference values, amplitude Am and the phase angle am of the STATCOM output voltage are calculated using (6) and (7). Consequently, the STATCOM inverter controller generates output voltages with the required amplitude and phase. The instantaneous angle u, of the phase voltage vector, is obtained through a phase locked loop. Am = 9 Vdc v2 + v2 qs ds v qs +u v ds (6)

am = tan1

(7)

STATCOM controller

Fig. 11 shows the controller block diagram of the STATCOM that controls the active and reactive power transfer between the grid and the STATCOM. The measured PCC voltage Vd in synchronous reference frame is compared with the reference Vd and the error signal produced is then fed into a PI controller that generates a current reference iq for the inner current controller loop. The STATCOMs ac-side

Fig. 9 Forced balancing of conditioning inverter capacitor voltages

a b Conditioning inverter capacitor voltages 552 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

Fig. 11 Schematic control diagram of the STATCOM connected in a wind generator system
IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548 556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

www.ietdl.org
calculated using (11). In (12), TLoad is the electric torque produced by the generator, Tf is the friction and J is the moment of inertia of the turbine.

Fig. 12 Equivalent circuit of the PMSG, rectier and inverter

PMSG controller

PMSGs have been gaining acceptance in direct-coupled lowspeed wind generation applications as they are highly efcient and relatively small in diameter [21]. Therefore to test the ability of the proposed STATCOM to mitigate potential voltage variations caused by sudden wind changes, a PMSG-based wind energy conversion system is used. Equations (8) (12) describe the mathematical model of the PMSG used in this study. TSR = rvm vw (8) (9) (10) (11) d vm dt (12)

vref =

TSRopt vw r

Pm = 0.5rACp v3 w Tm = Pm vm

Tm TLoad Tf = J

where r, vm and vw represent the turbine radius, mechanical angular frequency of the generator and wind speed, respectively. vref is the reference angular frequency generated by the turbine model. In (10), Pm denotes the output mechanical power of the wind turbine. r and A are air density and the area swept by the blades, respectively. For simulations, the optimum tip speed ratio (TSRopt) corresponding to maximum power point and power coefcient (Cp) were taken as TSRopt 5.09 and Cp 0.42. With these values, mechanical torque Tm can be

Fig. 14 Dynamic behaviour of the system for step changes in wind speed
a b c d e f g h Wind speed PCC voltage restoration in synchronous reference frame STATCOM active and reactive current components STATCOM current of phase a STATCOM output voltage vabn line voltage vab at PCC Bulk inverter capacitor voltages Conditioning inverter capacitor voltages 553

Fig. 13 PMSG controller block diagram

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

www.ietdl.org
Fig. 12 shows the per-phase equivalent circuit of the PMSG and the rectier is used to convert generated ac voltage to a dc voltage. The phase electromagnetic force E of a non-salient pole PMSG is proportional to the generator speed and can be expressed as E = Ke vm (13) regulator. As the speed is controlled by regulating the electrical torque, the currents of the grid interfacing inverter are controlled in a manner that the torque indirectly tracks the optimal speed of the PMSG.

Simulation results

where Ke is related to the magnetic ux linkage and can be considered as a constant. Voltage equations can be given as follows. E 2 = (Vs + Rp ip )2 + (Xp ip )2 3 3 2Vs Vdc = p (14) (15)

From (8) to (15), it can be seen that random uctuations of the wind speed can propagate through power conversion stages and can affect the voltage at PCC. According to (12), inertia of the turbine and blades can suppress highfrequency variations of the rotor speed caused by sudden wind changes. But still there can be variations which last for few hundred milliseconds causing voltage uctuations at the PCC [22]. Fig. 13 shows the controller block diagram of PMSG. For maximum power-point tracking, the wind turbine model in the controller generates a reference speed for the PMSG using the measured wind speed and the optimum tip speed ratio of the turbine. The difference of the actual speed and its reference is then fed into a speed

Fig. 14 shows the dynamic behaviour of a 5MVA STATCOM for two-step change in wind speed. As shown in Fig. 14a, wind speed is changed from 9.3 to 6.3 ms21 at t 300 ms and again it is changed to 8.1 ms21 at t 700 ms. These two sudden variations make the voltage at PCC to deviate from its set value as shown by the dashed line in Fig. 14b when the STATCOM is not connected. With the STATCOM connected, it detects those deviations and injects appropriate amount of reactive power to bring the voltage to the set value. The results of these voltage restoration attempts are shown in Fig. 14b by the continuous line. Without the STATCOM being connected, magnitude and duration of voltage variations would well exceed acceptable levels. Therefore it can be seen that fast acting STATCOMs can effectively mitigate voltage uctuations caused by sudden wind changes in wind generation systems. Fig. 14c shows the variation of the reactive current reference iq and the actual reactive current iq of the STATCOM. The reactive current iq follows the reference with a little delay. There is a small active current

Fig. 16 Dynamic response of the system for step changes in reactive power command Fig. 15 Experimental setup
a Schematic diagram b Photograph of the experimental setup 554 a b c d Reactive current command and the response Bulk inverter capacitor voltages Auxiliary inverter capacitor voltages Inverter output voltage of the a phase IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548 556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

www.ietdl.org
id drawn from the grid to compensate switching losses in the STATCOM and to maintain the bulk inverter dc-link voltage. Fig. 14d shows variation of the STATCOM phase a current. STATCOM output voltage and the line voltage at PCC are shown in Figs. 14e and f, respectively. The bulk inverter and conditioning inverter dc-link voltage regulation is shown in Figs. 14g and h, respectively. Note that the conditioning inverter voltage is maintained at one-third of the bulk inverter dc-link voltage for nine-level operation. The results show a good performance of the proposed PMSG and STATCOM control systems. performances of the overall system shown in Fig. 15b were tested and the corresponding results are given in the Sections 7.2 and 7.3, respectively. System parameters of the experimental setup and controller gains are given in the Appendix. 7.2 Reactive power control

7
7.1

Experimental results
Experimental setup

The schematic diagram and photograph of the experimental setup are shown in Figs. 15a and b, respectively. Exaggerated views of both bulk and conditioning inverter modules are also shown in the bottom right corner of the photograph in Fig. 15b. In this experiment both inverters were built using IGBTs. But in practice the bulk inverter can be built using slow devices, as mentioned in the introduction. The MATLAB/SIMULINK software platform and the dSPACE hardware interface are used to control the proposed STATCOM. A variable ac source is used to synthesise the PMSG-based wind energy conversion system. Reactive power control and voltage regulation

Three step changes were applied to the reactive current reference, iq , as shown in Fig. 16a. The corresponding dynamic response of the STATCOM reactive current is shown in the same gure with the graph marked as iq . Fig. 16b shows the bulk inverter dc-link capacitor voltages which are stable and equal in spite of transients in the STATCOM currents. Similarly, the controller regulates conditioning inverter dc-link capacitor voltages as shown in Fig. 16c. An expanded view of the inverter output voltage is shown in Fig. 16d. 7.3 Voltage regulation

The ac source is programmed to generate three step changes in the PCC voltage as shown in Fig. 17a. At the beginning of this process the system of Fig. 15 is at steady-state and the d-axis component of the PCC voltage Vd is at its nominal value. Therefore reactive power injection is not required. Once a change in voltage Vd is sensed the controller starts to inject reactive power as shown in

Fig. 17 Experimental results showing voltage regulation

a b c d e f g h PCC voltage without STATCOM PCC voltage with STATCOM Injected reactive current STATCOM output current of the a phase, ias Amplitude of the reference voltage vector, Am Power angle Active current drawn by the STATCOM, id Bulk and conditioning inverter dc-link voltages 555

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

www.ietdl.org
Fig. 17c to bring Vd back to the nominal value. The result of this voltage restoration attempt is shown in Fig. 17b. Corresponding variations of the STATCOM output currents is shown in Fig. 17d. The variation of modulation index Am and the power angle are shown in Figs. 17e and f, respectively. Apart from that, a small amount of active current, id , is drawn from the grid as shown in Fig. 17g to maintain capacitor voltages and replenish power loss due to switching and resistive components of the coupling transformer. The resulting dc-link capacitor voltage variations are shown in Fig. 17h. It can be seen from these results that the proposed cascade multilevel STATCOM and the controllers perform well in transient and steady-state conditions.
12 Sirisukprasert, S.: The modeling and control of a cascade multilevel converter based STATCOM. PhD thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, 2004 13 Lu, S., Corzine, K.A.: Advanced control and analysis of cascaded multilevel converters based on PQ compensation, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., 2007, 22, (4), pp. 1242 1252 14 Corzine, K.A., Wielebsk, W., Peng, F.Z., Wang, J.: Control of cascaded multilevel inverters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., 2004, 19, (3), pp. 732738 15 Corzine, K.A.: Operation and design of multilevel inverters, available at: http://www.motorlab.com, accessed August 2010 16 Qiao, W., Harley, R.G., Venayagamoorthy, G.K.: Effects of FACTS devices on a power system which includes a large wind farm. Proc. IEEE Power Systems Conf. and Exposition, November 2006, pp. 2070 2076 17 Han, C., Huang, A.Q., Baran, M.E., et al.: STATCOM impact study on the integration of a large wind farm into a weak loop power system, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., 2008, 23, (1), pp. 226 233 18 Saad-Saoud, Z., Lisboa, M.L., Ekanayake, J.B., Jenkins, N., Strbac, G.: Application of STATCOMs to wind farms, Proc. Gener. Transm. Distrib., 1998, 145, (5), pp. 511516 19 Vilathgamuwa, D.M., Jayasinghe, S.D.G., Madawala, U.K.: Space vector modulated cascade multi-level inverter for PMSG wind generation systems. Proc. Industrial Electronics Society Conf., November 2009, pp. 4636 4641 20 Schauder, C., Mehta, H.: Vector analysis and control of advanced static VAR compensators, Proc. Gener. Transm. Distrib., 1993, 140, (4), pp. 299306 21 Vilathgamuwa, D.M., Xiaoyu, W., Gajanayake, C.J.: Z-source converter based grid-interface for variable-speed permanent magnet wind turbine generators. Proc. Power Electronics Specialists Conf., PESC, 2008, pp. 45454550 22 Jayasinghe, S.D.G., Vilathgamuwa, D.M., Madawala, U.K.: A cascade multilevel STATCOM for wind generation systems. Proc. IEEE Power Electronics and Drive Systems Conf., November 2009, pp. 1323 1328

Conclusion

The proposed STATCOM conguration provides high voltage and power ratings. In addition to that, the hybrid structure of the VSC limits the dc-link capacitor count to 4. As a result, it has a high potential of being implemented in future high capacity wind farms for both active and reactive power compensation. The simulation and experimental results show good dynamic responses of the STATCOM for voltage variations caused by sudden wind changes. These results indicate that the proposed cascade multilevel STATCOM is capable of suppressing voltage uctuations at the PCC caused by random wind changes.

Acknowledgment 11 Appendix

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS), Taipei, Taiwan, 2 5 November 2009.

Parameters of the experimental setup and PI controllers are given in Tables 2 and 3.
Table 2
System parameters of the experimental setup f 50 Hz Rf 0.8 V Lf 3 mH Rn 1.1 V Ln 18 mH Rl 17 V Ll 11 mH Vdc 128 V C 2200 mF Vd 90 V 0.8 + j0.942

10

References
fundamental frequency STATCOM interfacing resistance STATCOM interfacing inductance line resistance line inductance load resistance load Inductance dc-link voltage dc-link capacitors C1 ,C2 ,CX1 ,CX2 nominal value of d-axis voltage short-circuit impedance of the STATCOM

1 Peng, F.Z., Lai, J.S., McKeever, J.W., VanCoevering, J.: A multilevel voltage-source inverter with separate DC sources for static Var generation, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., 1996, 32, (5), pp. 11301138 2 Singh, B., Saha, R., Chandra, A., Al-Haddad, K.: Static synchronous compensators (STATCOM): a review, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2009, 2, (4), pp. 297 324 3 Saeedifard, M., Iravani, R., Pou, J.: Control and DC-capacitor voltage balancing of a space vector-modulated ve-level STATCOM, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2009, 2, (3), pp. 203 215 4 Ronner, B., Maibach, P., Thurnherr, T.: Operational experiences of STATCOMs for wind parks, IET Trans. Renew. Power Gener., 2009, 3, (3), pp. 349 357 5 Kincic, S., Chandra, A., Babic, S.: Five level diode clamped voltage source inverter and its application in reactive power compensation. Proc. IEEE-LESCOPE, 2002, pp. 8692 6 Liu, Y., Luo, F.L.: Trinary hybrid multilevel inverter used in STATCOM with unbalanced voltages, Proc. IEE Electr. Power Appl., 2005, 152, (5), pp. 1203 1222 7 Saha, R., Singh, B.: Improved 48-pulse static synchronous compensator for high-voltage applications, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2010, 3, (3), pp. 355368 8 Chatterjee, K., Ghodke, D.V., Chandra, A., Al-Haddad, K.: Simple controller for STATCOM-based var generators, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2009, 2, (2), pp. 192 202 9 Saeedifard, M., Nikkhajoei, H., Iravani, R.: A space vector modulated STATCOM based on a three-level neutral point clamped converter, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2007, 22, (2), pp. 10291039 10 Figarado, S., Sivakumar, K., Ramchand, R., Das, A., Patel, C., Gopakumar, K.: Five-level inverter scheme for an open-end winding induction machine with less number of switches, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2010, 3, (4), pp. 637 647 11 Luo, A., Shuai, Z., Zhu, W., Shen, Z.J., Tu, C.: Design and application of a hybrid active power lter with injection circuit, IET Trans. Power Electron., 2010, 3, (1), pp. 5464

Table 3

Parameters of PI controllers Control Proportional gain (KP) variable id iq Vd Vdc Vdcx 15 45 20.1 20.2 20.01 Integral gain (KI) 500 200 28 20.2 20.01

PI controller

PI 1 PI 2 PI 3 PI 4 PI 5

556

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011

IET Power Electron., 2011, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 548 556 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2010.0095