2010 IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA 2010), October 3-5, 2010, Penang, Malaysia

Indigenous Control of Augmented DC Voltage in D-Statcom

S. Srinath, Student Member IEEE, M.P. Selvan
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India srinaths_1976@yahoo.com Abstract This paper discusses the modelling and control of custom power device, D-Statcom applied to 11kV/415 V distribution systems. This power electronics based device enhances the quality and reliability of power flow in low voltage distribution networks thus improving the quality of power supplied. Graphical modelling approach is used instead of mathematical model involving state equations and transformations. A Distribution Static Compensator (D-Statcom) is simulated in this paper using PSCAD/EMTDC with an attempt to regulate the load voltage during sudden disturbances involving load changes and faults in the distribution system. Main emphasis is given on the increase in DC voltage which rises during these conditions to compensate the sag or swell in the load voltage. The DC voltage controls itself by the inverter switching which is indirectly controlled by the controller parameters. The response is faster since the control involves the measurement of a single quantity. No transformations are used, reducing the complexity. Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation is employed with a six pulse VSI connected to a 415V distribution system. Comprehensive results obtained clearly shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Keywords Custom power; Distribution Static Compensator (D-Statcom); Voltage Source Inverter (VSI); Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM); DC voltage. I. INTRODUCTION The aim of a distribution network company is to transport the energy in economic terms to enable transactions between customers. The technical aim of the power network is to supply the end user with an acceptable voltage. Different customers have different patterns of current variation, fluctuation and distortion, thus polluting the voltage for other customers in different ways. This leads to the problem of power quality i.e. a combination of voltage and current quality. The wide range of power quality disturbances covers sudden, short duration deviations, voltage dips, short interruptions, steady state deviations such as harmonic and flicker.
The authors would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India for providing financial support for this research work.

Voltage quality is worsened due to Voltage dips and interruptions caused by faults. These disturbances cause tripping of sensitive electronic equipments with disastrous consequences in industrial plants causing a complete stoppage of production. The current quality is getting affected by the low quality of current drawn by the loads. The harmonic producing loads, unbalanced currents drawn by unbalanced loads and flickers when supplied by a weak network causes interruption to the quality of current. Installation of mitigation equipments is the only solution to protect the loads against these disturbances. The mitigation equipments relies on the power electronic switches and the contribution of power electronic switches to power system has lead to vast developments in the area of power quality. Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) is one of the qualitatively superior FACTS devices used to control the power flow through an electrical transmission/distribution line [1], [2]. STATCOM is composed of a three phase VSI, shunt transformer and a capacitor as a DC source. It is one of the FACTS devices which can compensate the reactive power in an efficient and fast way in addition to its capability of voltage regulation [3]. The STATCOM can either absorb or supply reactive power relieving the burden of the source independent of the ac line voltage. D-Statcom is the STATCOM installed at the distribution level. The major attributes of D-Statcom are quick response time, less space requirement, optimum voltage platform, higher operational flexibility and excellent dynamic characteristics under various operating conditions [4]. At present, a wide range of very flexible controllers, which capitalize on newly available power electronic components are emerging for custom power applications. D-Statcom is mostly designed and validated for high voltages reduced to the level 11kV distribution systems [5], [6]. It has been a fact that during voltage sag mitigation in order to compensate the load voltage, there is a rise in DC voltage to about 250% than during normal operating conditions [7]. This sudden hike in DC voltage will either make the capacitor to get damaged causing a failure or a higher rating capacitor has to be installed.

978-1-4244-7647-3/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

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Fig.1 Test model implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC for D-Statcom simulation

This voltage rise leads to the need of higher rated inverter causing an increase in the cost of installation. The critical loads with the end user connected to 11kV/415V LV distributions systems are affected worse when sudden disturbances occur in the system. Whereas, the D-Statcom installed with the system will protect the critical loads. The augment in DC voltage can be brought down by appropriate selection of transformer leakage reactance, tuning of PI parameters and not much work has been contributed in this context. The proposed work concentrates on the sag/swell mitigation on LV distribution system with D-Statcom, during sudden load change and fault conditions keeping a limit on the DC voltage rise. In the proposed system, the parameters are tuned in such a way so that the rise in DC capacitor voltage does not exceed 25% increment even during initial overshoot, which reduces further and settles faster. This facilitates the selection of capacitor with reduced rating. This paper explains the modelling and analysis of such a D-Statcom controller designed for a 11kV/415V LV distribution system for sag and swell mitigation during sudden load change and fault conditions. PSCAD/EMTDC is an industry standard simulation tool for studying the transient behaviour of electrical networks. It is very simple to use and has many modelling capabilities and highly complex algorithms and methods which are transparent to user so that the analysis of results can be concentrated rather than

mathematical modelling [8]. The simple creation of subsystems makes the modelling much simpler and easily understandable. The use of large base built in components give more flexibility and enables all aspects of simulation to be conducted within a single integrated environment including circuit assembly, run time control, analysis of results and reporting. It provides a powerful resource for assessing the impact of new technologies in the power network. II. D-STATCOM Statcom is a promising technology being extensively used as the state of art dynamic shunt compensator for reactive power control in transmission and distribution system. It composed of a VSI, a dc energy storage capacitor and a coupling transformer connected in shunt with the ac system. It acts as a synchronous voltage source whose amplitude and phase are variable, allowing the correction of the power factor and also control of terminal voltage. It can replace conventional voltage and VAR control elements, and perform as an active filter too [9]. VSI and the associated control circuits are the backbone for the operation of D-Statcom. VSI is the combination of self commutating devices with a reverse diode connected in parallel to them. The control circuit determines the switching scheme for the triggering pulses to VSI. A DC voltage source on the input side of VSI is generally achieved by a DC capacitor. The

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Fig. 2 SPWM Control for VSI

size of the capacitor plays a vital role in the controller design and for the ripple in output. D-Statcom is mainly utilized to obtain an almost harmonic neutralised controllable three-phase AC output voltage at the point of common coupling. In the design of controller, the reactive power output from the D-Statcom is of major concern since it can be achieved only with a proper support of energy storage system. It regulates the reactive current flow by generation and absorption of controllable reactive power [10]. The active and reactive power exchanges between the D-Statcom and ac system can be adjusted by suitable selection of phase and magnitude of D-Statcom output voltage. D-Statcom, with the ac system provides multifunctional topology used for i. Voltage regulation and compensation of reactive power ii. Correction of power factor iii. Elimination of current harmonics The design and control approach of D-Statcom determines the functions developed. The proposed control for the D-Statcom regulates the load voltage at the point of common coupling and corrects the input power factor where main emphasis is given on the rise in DC voltage. III. CONTROL STRATEGY

IV.

SIMULATION PARAMETERS

A simple PI controller is used to control the load voltage. The PI controller applies phase angle control for the SPWM. The error signal obtained by comparing the reference voltage with the rms voltage measured at the load point is driven to zero. The system parameters of the model are given in Table I. The modulated signal is compared against a triangular carrier to generate the switching signals for the VSI. The control aims at maintaining constant voltage magnitude at the sensitive load point even under system disturbances. The control scheme is shown in Fig. 2. It requires only the load rms voltage measurement and the DC voltage measurement is not at all used for generating any references.

The 11kV/415V test system implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC to carry out the simulation for the proposed D-Statcom controller is shown in Fig. 1. R-L load is assumed to be supplied by the system. A three winding transformer connects the D-Statcom with the system and the leakage reactance is chosen to be very minimum. Choice of three winding transformer avoids the connection of another shunt transformer connected to the VSI. Various breaker combinations are used to simulate load change and fault conditions in the system. A 3 phase six pulse VSI employing six IGBTs are used and the controlling pulses are generated through sinusoidal pulse width modulation. TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS S.No. Parameter Value 1. Vinput 415V ; 50Hz 2. Three winding 30kVA, Transformer x = 0.05p.u. 3. DC Capacitor size 4000 F 4. Switching 1650 Hz frequency 5. PI controller P = 600 I = 0.1 sec 6. Capacitive load 3000 F in (Swell) each phase 7. Resistive load 0.3 in each (Sag) phase The control strategy for VSI is simple PI based, which processes the error between per unit load voltage and constant reference for generating the phase angle for the sinusoidal PWM. It is tuned in such a way that the load voltage is maintained constant. The required gate signals obtained are applied to the VSI to regulate the load voltage. The DC voltage controls itself by proper switching of the VSI switches which is indirectly controlled by tuning of PI. Reduction in the augmentation of DC voltage reduces the DC Capacitor size. In closed loop with controller, the system exhibits very good voltage regulation capability and the D-statcom delivers reactive power to the system improving the source power factor.

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V.

SIMULATION CONDITIONS

A11kV/415V distribution system feeding into the primary of a three winding transformer is taken as the test system. A varying load is connected to the tertiary winding and a 3-phase VSI is connected in shunt to the secondary winding as a Distribution Static Compensator. Various breaker switches shown in Fig. 1 are used to simulate different fault/load conditions. The proposed controller action is verified by comparing the results with and without D-Statcom in operation. The DC voltage variation with D-statcom in operation under different fault / load change conditions along with the reactive power injection is presented. With the proposed control, the DStatcom assists in providing continuous voltage regulation with indigenous DC voltage control. VI. SIMULATION RESULTS

Fig 4 shows the p.u. load voltage, phase voltage, capacitor voltage and reactive power. The D-Statcom is put into operation at 0.5sec. With the D-Stacom the sag and swell is mitigated and system recovers the load voltage within two cycles. D-Statcom absorbs the reactive power during voltage swell and delivers reactive power during sag conditions. The DC voltage rise clearly shows that the maximum increment is from 0.7kV to 1.2kV measuring only 71%. This shows the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy in maintaining load voltage as well as to keep the rise in DC voltage within limits. Case ii: Single Line to Ground (LG) Fault A Single Line to Ground Fault is simulated near the load end at t=1.0s to t=1.3s. The p.u. rms voltage drop and the phase voltage are shown in Fig. 5 without DStatcom.

Case i: Sudden Load Change A sudden load change is created by switching 3000F capacitor and 0.3 resistor in each phase in such a way to create voltage swell and sag from t= 0.9s to 1.1s and t=1.2s to 1.4s respectively. Fig. 3 shows the effect of load changes in the system without D-Statcom connected to the system.
Fig. 5. Phase Voltage and per unit rms load voltage without Dstatcom

Fig.3. Phase voltage and per unit r.m.s voltage without D-Statcom

Fig. 4. Per unit r.m.s voltage, phase voltage, dc link votlage and reactive power exchange with D-Statcom

Fig.7 Per unit load voltage, phase voltage, dc link voltage and Reactive power exchange with D-Statcom

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D-Statcom injects reactive power and regulates the load voltage during fault as shown in Fig. 7. There is an augment in DC capacitor voltage settling with an increment of 80% compared to normal conditions. The overshoot settles within five cycles. This will make the selection of less value capacitor compared to the capacitor which should withstand more than double the DC voltage during fault conditions. VII. CONCLUSION

voltage, decreasing the response time of system. The system regains its healthy condition within five cycles. REFERENCES
[1] Olimpo Anaya-Lara and E.Acha, Modeling and Analysis of Custom Power Systems by PSCAD/EMTDC, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol.12, No.1, January 2002. Hojat Hatami, Farhad Shahnia, Afshin Pashaei, S.H. Hosseini, Investigation on D-STATCOM and DVR operation for voltage control in Distribution Networks with a New Control Strategy, Proc. Power Tech, 2007, IEEE Lausanne, pp. 2207-2212. E.Acha, V.G. Agilidis, O.Anaya-Lara, T.J.E. Miller, Power Electronic Control in Electrical Systems, 1st ed., Newnes Power Engineering Series. Introduction to PSCAD/EMTDC, Manitoba HVDC Research Centre,March2000. Juan A. Martinez, Modeling of Custom Power Equipment Using Electromagnetic Transients Programs, in Proc.9th ICHQP 2000, Orlando, FL, Oct.2000, pp. 769-774. Ben-Sheng Chen and Yuan-Yih Hsu, An Analytical approach to harmonic analysis and controller design of a STATCOM, IEEE Transactions on power delivery, Vol.22, No.1, pp. 423-432, January 2007 M.H.J. Bollen, Review on What is power quality, Electric Power Systems Research 66, pp.5-14, 2003. Ambra Sannino, Jan Svensson, Tomsa Larsson, Power Electronic solutions to power quality problems, Electric Power Systems Research 66, pp.71-82, 2003. S.A. Al-Mawsawi, Comparing and evaluating the voltage regulation of a UPFC and STATCOM, Electrical power and energy systems, 25, 2003, pp.735-740. B.Singh, R.Saha, A.Chandra, K.Al-Haddad, Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM): a review, IET Power Electronics, Vol.2, Iss.4, pp. 297-324, 2009.

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The PSCAD/EMTDC simulated electromagnetic transient model of D-Statcom is developed. The proposed control of D-Statcom takes care of the load voltage regulation and the DC voltage rise. The simulations show that it is possible to mitigate the power quality problems without any feedback of DC voltage. It was observed that the capacity of D-Statcom for reactive power compensation and voltage regulation mainly depends on characteristics of the coupling transformer and proper tuning of the controller. These factors determine the maximum capacity of sag mitigation. The DC voltage rise plays a vital role in determining the size of the capacitor. With proper selection of capacitor and transformer rating it is possible to achieve indigenous DC voltage control in addition to the load voltage regulation. This completely avoids having a separate feedback loop for the DC

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