Control Strategy of Transformerless Connected Cascade STATCOM under Unbalance and Asymmetrical Condition

Hu Yinghong Jiajia Ren Jianze Wang Yanchao Ji

School of Electrical Engineering and Automation Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin, China E-mail: factshu@163.com
AbstractA cascaded STATCOM used in industrial and distribution network is designed and studied in this paper, which using the phase shift carrier pulse width modulation strategy. Based on the cascaded H-bridge structure, a new STATCOM control strategy under the conditions of unbalanced loads and asymmetric system voltage is proposed. Through analyzing the effects of the cascaded STATCOM to the dc-side voltage under the conditions of unbalanced loads and asymmetric system voltage, a method is proposed which injecting an appropriate zero sequence voltage into the reference waveform, making active power exchange among the three-phase clusters, making the active current of every phase maintain the modules dc-voltage balance, at the same time tracking the compensation reference current. This control strategy can be used to both the unbalanced loads and the asymmetric system voltage, avoiding the overcurrent of negative sequence current and the clusters dc-side voltage unbalance due. Simulation results proved the advantages and verified the validity of the proposed method. Keywords-cascaded STATCOM; unbalanced load; asymmetric voltage; zero sequence voltage; direct current control

condition of unbalanced voltage. Reference [9] makes a simulation of the STATCOM under the circumstance of asymmetric system, without considering the problem of the balance of dc-side voltage under the condition that the asymmetric voltage and unbalanced current. The dc-side capacitors of the cascaded H-bridge STATCOM are independent, active power cannot directly exchange among three clusters, so it is necessary to improve the existing control strategy which based on two level converter. As for the unbalance of dc-side voltage among the clusters, reference [10] adds a cluster balanced control loop to regulate the active current, making three clusters independent, equivalence to three single phases. This control method will introduce an unbalance current, and the unbalance current will increases with the compensation current. Reference [11] makes the source seem as a WYE power system, and elects the phase voltage to meet the require of the active current of STATCOM, firstly applying cascaded H-bridge STATCOM into the compensation of unbalanced conditions, but the algorithm and control strategy is complex and difficult to realize. The cascaded H-bridge STATCOM with phase shift carrier modulation PWM is easy to expand and not restricted by the number of the cascade module [12]. This paper proposes a control method for cascaded H-bridge STATCOM under the condition of unbalance, which is injecting appropriate zero sequence voltage into the reference voltage in order to eliminate influence of the unbalance compensated current and asymmetrical voltage, making the active power exchange among the three-phase clusters. Through the analysis of the result from compensated the unbalanced current, we can get a conclusion that when the same active power flow in to each cluster, the unbalance of dc-side voltage among the clusters will occur. In order to prove the feasibility of the proposed method, simulation is carried out by using MATLAB. II. IMPACT OF UNBALANCE

I.

INTRODUCTION

Cascaded STATCOM is a topical research in the area of the high voltage static reactive power compensation [1-2]. Through serial connecting many full-bridge modules, it is easy to increasing the number of the output level, making the output voltage waveform more closely to sine wave, with the advantages of fewer harmonics, less loss and a higher efficiency. Each full-bridge unit can be controlled independently, that the modularized structure is easier to expand, especially suitable for high voltage application [3]. The cascaded multilevel is an alternative structure of the diode clamped multilevel and the multi-pulse converter. Reference [4] uses STATCOM to compensate the unbalance of the system voltage, through outputting negative sequence voltage to make the negative sequence voltage of the point of common connection to be zero. Reference [5] adjusts the unbalanced load to be balanced, using the theory of instantaneous symmetrical components to obtain an algorithm to compute three phase reference currents. Reference [6] can compensate both unbalanced load current and symmetrical system voltage. References [7-8] build a model for the

A. Cascaded STATCOM and Direct Current Control Cascaded STATCOM has two ways of cluster connection, one is Delta connection, and another is WYE connection. The clusters using Delta connection can be injected zero sequence current and the one using WYE connection can be injected zero

978-1-4577-0547-2/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

sequence voltage, and each of the two ways has its own characteristics. This paper takes the WYE connection as an example to show how the cascaded STATCOM compensates the unbalanced current and voltage. The proposed method is suitable for both Delta and WYE connection, what to do is only change the injected zero sequence voltage to zero sequence current.
usa usb usc isa isb isc Rs ica uca Uda1 Ls ucb Udb1 icb Rs Ls icc Rs Ls ucc Udc1 ila ilb ilc
Load

B. Compensation of the Unbalanced Current The schematic diagram of single phase equivalent circuit is shown in figure 3, and ic = iu+ + iu .Its phasor diagram is shown in figure 4:

+ usp + u - sn

LS

RS

ic

+ ucp + ucn -

Figure 3. Schematic diagram of single phase

Udak

Udbk

Udck

I+

Vc+

Vc
Figure 1. Main structure of cascaded STATCOM

Vs

Vs+

The cascaded H-bridge STATCOM topology of clusters using WYE connection which is shown in figure 1, both the neutral-point of the system and load are not grounded. Assume that the switch devices work in ideal condition. The connection inductance of between STATCOM and system is Ls, and the resistance equivalent to the loss of STATCOM is Rs. The voltages of the system are usa, usb, usc, the currents of the system are isa, isb, isc, the currents of compensation are ica, icb, icc, and the currents of load are ila, ilb, ilc.
ica icb icc

Figure 4. Phasor diagram of current for compensation

ila ilb ilc

U dc 0

Take phase A as an example, the system voltage and the output current and voltage of STATCOM are expressed as positive sequence and negative sequence, in which Vs and Vc are the positive and the negative sequence voltage of system and STATCOM, and I + and I are the positive and negative sequence current of STATCOM. Assume that the angle between positive sequence voltage and negative sequence current of phase A is . The effect that the positive sequence voltage makes on the negative sequence current is shown as follows:
Papn = Vc+ I = Vc+ I cos Pbpn = Vc+ I = Vc+ I cos (120 ) Pcpn = V I = V I cos ( 240 )
+ c + c

Vref

vsa vsb vsc

(2-3)

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the direct current control

The schematic diagram of the direct current control is shown in figure 2. There are two control loops, one is innerloop controller and another is outer-loop controller in this control strategy, with the inner-loop making the output current of STATCOM track the reference current and the outer-loop maintaining the dc-side voltage stable. The modulation method is phase shift carrier modulation PWM. Among them

P pn = Papn + Pbpn + Pc pn = 0

(2-4)

U dc 0 =

1 U Da + U Db + U Dc 3

(2-1)

U Du =

1 N

U
k =1

Duk

, u = a, b, c

(2-2)

The conclusion accords with the condition in which that the system voltage is unbalanced. In the cascaded STATCOM, the capacitors of dc-side are independent with each other. As for a concerned phase, the effect that the positive sequence voltage on the negative sequence current is not equal to zero, whats more, the effect among the three phases are different. The effect that the negative sequence voltage on the positive sequence current cannot be neglected, which leads to the unbalance of active power in the three-phase clusters, and then results in the unbalance of dc-side capacitor voltage among the three-phase clusters, which threatening the safety of the equipment. What we can get from formula 2-3 and 2-4 is that the larger of the current for compensation, the stronger of the

effect that the negative sequence voltage on the positive sequence current. The result from this is that the degree of the unbalance of dc side voltage will become more serious, so it is necessary to solve the problem of the dc-side voltage unbalancing and to improve the existing algorithm applied to the cascaded H-bridge STATCOM.
The Proposed Control Strategy According to the basic principle of cascaded STATCOM, this paper proposes the method of injecting the zero sequence voltage. Using the principle that the effect of the three-phase compensation current on the zero sequence voltage in one cycle equals to zero ,but to certain phase is different to regulate the unbalance dc-side voltage which caused by the unbalanced current or asymmetrical system voltage, thus realizing the compensation of unbalance current and asymmetry. The basic principle of STATCOM is shown as 3-1 below:
usab = Ls usbc usca dia di + Rs ica + uca Ls b Rs icb ucb dt dt di di = Ls b + Rs icb + ucb Ls c Rs icc ucc dt dt dic dia = Ls + Rs icc + ucc Ls Rs ica uca dt dt

CU dc 0 U dca = I caU 0 m cos aTs CU dc 0 U dcb = I cbU 0 m cos bTs CU dc 0 U dcc = I ccU 0 m cos cTs
The formulas with zero sequence voltage magnitude and phase are: 1 CU dc 0 U dca = U 0 M I ram cos (0 ira ) Ts 2 1 CU dc 0 U dcb = U 0 M I rbm cos (0 irb ) Ts 2 1 CU dc 0 U dcc = U 0 M I rcm cos (0 irc ) Ts 2 Division of two sides, we get: (3-4)

C.

(3-5)

U dca I ram cos (0 ira ) . = U dcb I rbm cos (0 irb )

In order to simplify, define the index k pow =

cos (0 ira ) cos (0 irb )

(3-1)

and k pow =

U dca I rbm , then: U dcb I ram

Assume that the currents needed to be compensated are I ca = I cam ira I cb = I cbm irb and I cc = I ccm irc , in which r means reference. And the angles of these currents between the zero sequence voltage are a , b and c respectively. The amplitude of zero sequence voltage is U 0m , so the exchange of the active power caused by the zero sequence voltage is:
1 1 2 2 CU dca CU dc 0 = I caU 0 m cos aTs 2 2 1 1 2 2 CU dcb CU dc 0 = I cbU 0 m cos bTs 2 2 1 1 2 2 CU dcc CU dc 0 = I ccU 0 m cos c Ts 2 2

0 = tan 1

cos ira k pow cos irb sin k sin ira pow irb

(3-6)

If cos ira and cos irb are negative and the sign symbols of the equation are opposite, the phase should be added a :

0 = + tan 1

cos ira k pow cos irb sin k sin ira pow irb

(3-7)

The amplitude of the zero sequence voltage is:

(3-2)

U0M =

2CU d 0 U da Ts cos (0 ira ) I ram

(3-8)

Assume that the direction of the current flows into STATCOM is positive direction. The dc-side voltage differences between each cluster and the average voltage are U dca = U dca U dc 0 , U dcb = U dcb U dc 0 , U dcc = U dcc U dc 0 . In the range with little deviation these formulas can be simplified as: 1 2 CU dc 0 U dca + C U dca = I caU 0 m cos aTs 2 1 2 CU dc 0 U dcb + C U dcb = I cbU 0 m cos bTs 2 1 2 CU dc 0 U dcc + C U dcc = I ccU 0 m cos cTs 2

According to the control strategy proposed above, the strategy can be divided into three parts. They are control loop of current tracking, control loop of dc-side voltage control and control loop of the zero sequence voltages injection. The current loop and dc-side voltage loop remain unchanged. The control strategy of injecting zero sequence voltage proposed is shown in figure 5, which adopts the PI control.
V DA

1 1 + sT 1 1 + sT 1 1 + sT

VD 0
V0

(3-3)

V DB

VD 0

V DC

2 2 2 Neglecting the high order terms, U dca , U dcb and U dcc , the formulas are linear:

VD 0

Figure 5. Diagram of the principle of the proposed control strategy

III.

SIMULATION RESULTS

This paper uses simulation to verify the correctness of the analysis. The system voltage in simulation is 3800V, each cluster consists of 4 H-bridge modules, the capacitor is 5000uF, the output current is 300A, the switching frequency is 500Hz and the destined dc-side voltage is 1000V. This paper adopts the single polar modulation of carrier phase shifting and the method of direct current control. Three phase currents are showed in Fig.6. From figure we can observe that currents of the three phases are obviously unbalanced.
A 200 100 0 -100 -200 0 10 20 30 40 ms 50

the zero sequence voltage can compensate the influence due to the unbalanced current and asymmetric voltage. However, achieving a small amount of compensation for unbalance needs a large numbers of zero sequence voltages from cascaded STATCOM, which occupies large capacity of the equipment. IV. CONCLUSION

Through analyzing the cascaded STATCOM, this paper proposes a control strategy to compensate the unbalanced load and unbalanced system voltage. Through injecting appropriate zero sequence voltage to make active power exchange among the cluster of three-phase, meeting the tracking current and dcside voltage at the meantime on the assumption that the current control is not changed. The applicable range of this method is limited to the degree of the unbalance, the maximum voltage that the converter can output, the system voltage, and the current for compensation. The result given by the simulation proves that injecting appropriate zero sequence voltage in the reference voltage can achieve the goals of tracking the reference current and maintaining dc side voltage and the balance of clusters in dc side. REFERENCES
[1] Hingorani, N.G. and L. Gyugyi, Understanding FACTS, Concepts and Technology of Flexible AC Transmission Systems. 1999: Wiley-IEEE press. [2] Fang Zheng, P., et al., A multilevel voltage-source inverter with separate DC sources for static VAr generation, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 32, pp. 10.1109/28.536875, 1996. [3] Liang, Y. and C.O. Nwankpa, A New Type of STATCOM Based on Cascading Voltage-Source Inverters with Phase-Shifted Unipolar SPWM, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 35, pp. 118123, 1999. [4] Hochgraf, C. and R.H. Lasseter, Statcom controls for operation with unbalanced voltages, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 12, pp. 538-544, 1998. [5] Ghosh, A. and A. Joshi, A new approach to load balancing and power factor correction in power distribution system, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 15, pp. 417-422, 2000. [6] Blazic, B. and I. Papic, Improved D-StatCom control for operation with unbalanced currents and voltages, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 21, pp. 225-233, 2006. [7] Suh, Y. and T.A. Lipo, Modeling and analysis of instantaneous active and reactive power for PWM AC/DC converter under generalized unbalanced network, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 21, pp. 1530-1540, 2006. [8] Yazdani, A. and R. Iravani, A unified dynamic model and control for the voltage-sourced converter under unbalanced grid conditions, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 21, pp. 1620-1629, 2006. [9] Betz, R.E., T. Summers, and T. Furney, Symmetry Compensation using a H-Bridge Multilevel STATCOM with Zero Sequence Injection, 41st IAS Annual Meeting Conference, pp. 1724 1731, 2006. [10] Akagi, H., S. Inoue, and T. Yoshii, Control and performance of a transformerless cascade PWM STATCOM with star configuration, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.43, pp. 1041-1049, 2007. [11] Song, Q. and W.H. Liu, Control of a Cascade STATCOM With Star Configuration Under Unbalanced Conditions, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 24, pp. 45-58, 2009. [12] McGrath, B.P. and D.G. Holmes, Multicarrier PWM strategies for multilevel inverters, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 49, pp. 858-867, 2002.

Figure 6. Waveform of the output current

1050 V 1000 950 0 0.5 0 -0.5 0 2 0 -2 A 20 40 b 60 80 100 20 40 a 60 80 100 ms

20

40

60

80

100

Figure 7. Waveforms of the dc voltage, zero sequence voltage and the reference

The waveform of dc voltage, zero sequence voltage and the reference are showed in Fig.7.The first diagram reflects the dc voltage, from which we can get that the voltage fluctuations of the three-phases are different, but the voltages fluctuate round with the same voltage level. The second diagram reflects the per-unit value of the zero sequence voltage and the third diagram is the wave form of the reference after injecting zero sequence voltage. We can observe from figure 7 that injecting