1702

A Novel Transformer-less Series Voltage Sag

Compensator without Energy Storage Capacitors
and Its New Time Optimal Control Strategy
Zenglu Chen
1,2
Pei Zhan
2
Toshifumi Ise
3
Yanfang Li
2
Zhaoan Wang
1
1 Xian jiaotong university, School of Electrical Engineering, Xian, China
2 Xian Polytechnic university, Electronic and Information College, Xian, China
3 Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
AbstractVoltage sags are an important power quality
problem. Enhancing compensating capability is the key
technique in voltage sag compensators. In this paper, a
transformer-less series voltage sag topology without energy
storage capacitors is proposed first. This topology is
cost-effective by eliminating the large injection transformer
and energy storage capacitors that are used in conventional
series injection devices. This topology can both be used in
three-phase three-line and three-phase four-line systems, and
can compensate symmetrical three-phase voltage sags down to
37%, or one or two phase sags down to zero if other at least one
phase is rated. Secondly, this paper proposes and illustrates a
new compensation control strategy named as time optimal
control which aims to enlarging the compensating time during
sags. Using the proposed method, it can be shown that voltage
sags can be corrected for much longer time compared to that of
existing energy optimal method, and this advantages will be
more obvious when the maximum permissible DC link voltage
is smaller or in deeper sags. Especially the compensating time
during sags by using the proposed control strategy may be
several times longer than that of using energy optimal control
strategy in the case of lower DC link voltages, deeper sags, and
larger load impedance angles. Simulation and experiment
results demonstrate the good features.
Key wordspower quality, voltage sag, series compensation,
transformer-less, time optimal control
I. INTRODUCTION
Voltage sags are considered the important disturbances in
power quality. They are momentary voltage variations,
usually caused by a fault or circuit short in a power
distribution system. There are many statistic works shown
that voltage sags caused huge financial losses
[1][2]
.
A number of devices have been suggested to encounter the
effects of voltage sags for economic losses and the reliability
of power grid. Among these devices, series injection sag
compensators are much more. So far there are many
researches on series type sag compensators. The dynamic
voltage restorer (DVR) is typical
[3]
. But it needs a costly
injection transformer and energy storage capacitors. A
cascaded multilevel inverter is proposed to eliminate the
injection transformer in [4] and [5], But the control scheme
became more complex. A dynamic sag corrector (DySC) was
proposed by Brumisickle et al
[1]
.The scheme is also an
transformer-less topology without energy storage capacitors
and smaller in size. But the scheme can only be used in
three-phase four-line system. Then a DySC which can be
used in three-phase three-line system proposed in [6]. In this
paper, a new topology which has no transformer and energy
storage is proposed and illustrated.
The control strategy of a series injection sag compensator
is the most important in this paper. Widely used in present
devices control are pre-sag voltage injection and in-phase
voltage injection
[7]
. It is not necessary to be in-phase with the
pre-sag voltage for non-sensitive loads. And in-phase voltage
injection may cause large phase shift. But almost all voltage
disturbances are associated with some degree of phase shift
[8]
.
So it is not suitable to sensitive loads. An energy optimal
control strategy is proposed by Mahinda Vilathgamuwa
et.al
[9]
. It can draw a minimum amount of energy from the
compensator during the process of compensation. But this
method can cause a phase advance instantaneously. Based on
the energy optimal control, a progressive phase advance
method was proposed
[10]
. It can satisfactorily alleviate the
impact of phase advance. This paper proposed a novel
compensation control strategy, which have a maximum
persisting time for compensating. This time optimal control
strategy takes into account the characteristics of voltage sag
magnitude and periods. It aimed at the lasting compensating
time. At the same voltage sag situation; this control strategy
can use the storage energy more effectively than other
control strategies.
This paper is organized as follows. The general principles
of the proposed topology are presented in section II. In
section III , the time optimal control strategy was proposed
and its principles are presented. The new control strategy
used in the proposed topology with symmetrical voltage sags
are dealt with in detail. The simulation results of the
proposed topology along with the time optimal control is
presented in section IV. Finally, the experimental results are
given to show how symmetrical voltage sags can be
compensated by the device using the proposed time optimal
control strategy in section V. Section VI conclude this paper.
II. PROPOSED TOPOLOGY
A. The Proposed Topology
[11]
The proposed topology is as shown in Fig. 1. Only
phase-A is shown in detail. The phase B and C are
symmetrical with phase-A. Half bridge inverters are used in
series connection with the incoming source side lines. The
source side voltages are connected to the middle points of the
two capacitors respectively. Other source side voltages are
connected to the middle points of other two series diode legs,
respectively. It is obvious that the capacitors in the inverter
are charged by two line-to-line voltages. A bypass AC
electronic switch is connected with the inverter in parallel.
Two IGBTs are used in DC bus respectively to prevent the
DC bus voltages charging too high.
978-1-4244-1668-4/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
1703
B phase
C phase
bypass switch
LOADa
LOADb
LOADc
D3
D2
D4
D5
D6
L1
C3a
C3b
C3c
C1
C2
Pa
Qa
A
B
C
N
M1
M2

N
D1
N'

M3
M4
Figu1. Proposed voltage sag compensation Topology
During the normal voltages the bypass switches are
closed, delivering utility power directly to the load. When
voltage sags occur, the inverters operate; turning off the
bypass switches; the inverters supply the missing voltage and
help to maintain rated voltage at the terminals of the critical
load. During compensation, the inverter continuously draw
power from the incoming source lines, so the capacitors in
the inverters can be much smaller than other voltage
compensators such as DVR in which the compensating
energy is only supplied by energy storage devices. The
analysis of maximum compensation depth is below.
B. Maximum Compensation Depth
A phasor map is shown in Fig. 2 in the case of voltage
sags. In this figure, ijkabc i j k. U
i2
U
j2

U
k2
are the sagged incoming three phase voltages
(U
j2
>U
k2
>U
i2
), U
ij2
is the sagged line-to-line voltage between
phase i and j which charges the inverters capacitors in phase
i, U
iR
is the rated voltage in phase i, and N is the theoretical
neutral. Assume p
i
, p
j
and p
k
are the sagging factors of phase
i, j and k respectively, we have:

=
=
=
kR k k
jR j j
iR i i
U p U
U p U
U p U
2
2
2
(1)
2
2 2
2
2 2
6
sin
6
cos |
.
|

\
|
+ + |
.
|

\
|
=
i j j ij
U U U U
t t
(2)
Further more, take the capacitor voltage drops into
consideration. The capacitance of the capacitors in the
inverter need not be very large. Let q
e
(0,1) a factor of
filtering that denote the fluctuant degree of the voltage in the
capacitors. q is defined as the minimum ratio of the
Figu 2. Phasor map of the sagged voltages and its compensation
minimum voltage to the maximum voltage in the
capacitors during the just said dynamic balance condition.
We can obtain an approximate relation as following (3):
2 2 ij i iR
qU U U + = (3)
Solve the equations of (1), (2), (3), and consider U
iR
= U
jR
=
U
kR
, following result can be derived:
2
2 2
2
1 2
q
p p p p
p p
j j i i
i i
=
+ +
+
(4)
which is the relation of the allowable minimum and
maximum sagging factors and the filtering factor under
which the sags can be compensated.
If the capacitances are large enough; i.e. q~1; (4) becomes
0 1 2
2
= + +
i j i j
p p p p (5)
(4) and (5) is shown in graph chart as Fig.3, where p
i
and
p
j
are the minimum and maximum voltage sagging factors
respectively, case 1 is the case of p
j
=1 in which one of the
three-phase voltage is normal, case 2 is the case of p
i
= p
j
=
p
k
in which the voltage sag is symmetrical. The up-left
shadowed area is not valid because p
i
p
j
.
Fig.3 shows that if at least one of the phase voltage is
maintained normal, the minimum sag voltage which can be
continuously compensated changes with the filtering factor q
as shown in the case 1. If the DC capacitor is large enough
and q=1, the minimum sag voltage can be 0. This means that
the compensator can compensate one or two-phase voltage
sags down to 0 continuously, if one of the phase voltage is
maintained normal and q=1. Symmetrical three-phase voltage
sag down to 37% of the normal voltage can be compensated
continuously, if q=1. The compensated sag voltage increases
with the decrease of filtering factor q as shown by the thick
line of case 2 in Fig.3.
III. TIME OPTIMAL CONTROL STRATEGY
Voltage injection capability is the main factor to consider.
There are two factors to determine the capability of voltage
injection. One is the good performance to compensate a
broaden range of voltage sags. The other is the capability to
persist compensating time during sag. In order to save
storage energy, the energy optimal control was proposed.
In this section, a time optimal control strategy is presented.
It is also compared with energy optimal control.
A. Energy Optimal Control
Fig. 4 is an equivalent circuit of the power system when
voltage sags, where, V
s
is supply voltage, V
1
is supply
voltage before compensation, V
2
is load voltage after
compensation, I is load current. When a fault occurs, V
1
drops and a series voltage V
inject
is injected into power
network, where:
Figu 3. The graph chart of (4).
U
ij2
U
iR
U
ij2
U
j2
U
k2
30
o
N
U
i2
U
i2
qU
ij2
1704
1 2
V V
inject
V = (6)
The corresponding phasor diagram of Fig. 4 is shown in
Fig. 5. Let o, |, o represent load voltage advance angle, load
power factor angle and supply voltage phase angle during
sags, respectively. P
in
, P
out
, P
inject
are the input real power
from the source ,the load real power and injected real power
respectively. P
in
, P
out
, P
inject
are described as:
) cos(
1
o o | + = I V
in
P
(7)
) cos(
2
| I V
out
P =
(8)
( ) o o | | + = cos
1
) cos(
2
I V I V
inject
P
(9)
The energy optimal control is depicted in Fig. 6. Fig. 6a
illustrate the case of that the magnitude of voltage sag is
shallow when inject real power is zero. Fig. 6b means the
level of voltage sag is deeper so that the injected real power
can not be zero, but can be minimized.
B. Proposed Time Optimal Control Strategy
Denote C is DC link capacitance, V
DCMAX
is the maximum
permissible DC link voltage before sags, V
DCMIN
is the
minimum needed DC link voltage to compensate the load
voltage to normal load voltage. During compensating, the
DC link capacitors can provide energy as following:
)
2 2
( *
2
1
DCMIN
V
DCMAX
V C
DC
W = A
(10)
In order to restore load voltage, the DC link voltage must
be larger than the peak magnitude of V
inject
. So,
inject
V
DCMIN
V 2 =
.
If there is no energy loss in converter, p= V
1
/ V
2
is the
voltage sag factor, following result comes out:
\
:
\
!
\
`u_t
\
?
'oud
'`u `mduu
T
:u')
Figu 4. Schematic diagram of a power distribution system when
voltage sags
o
|
o
I
\
?
\
!
\
`u_t
:u_ vo'tu_
Figu 5. Phasor diagram of power distribution system during sags
M
I
CV
I V I V
inject
V
DCMAX
V C
inject
P
DC
W
T
2
2
1
) cos(
1
cos
2
)
2
) 2 (
2
(
2
1
=
+

=
A
=
o o | |
(11)
Where:
) cos( * cos
2
) 2 (
2
o o | | +

=
p
inject
V
DCMAX
V
M (12)
For a given compensator topology, fixed load and a certain
fault, some parameters such as C, V
DCMAX
, V
2
, |, I , p, o are
fixed. So in (11), the compensating time T is only associated
with V
inject
and o.
The time optimal strategy is as shown in Fig. 7, where, let
| =o - o is the advanced angle from load voltage to sag
voltage. In Fig. 7a, T is when shallow sag. It is the same
with T in energy optimal control. In Fig. 7b, V
1,2
is the case in
energy optimal control, and V
1,1
is the case in time optimal
control. Although P
inject
in V
1,1
is larger than that in V
1,2
,
V
inject,1
in V
1,1
is smaller than V
inject,2
in V
1,2
. Which one of the
control strategy can give better performance in compensating
during sags is worth to study.
From (11), the maximum compensating time by using time
optimal control strategy will be:
( ) | o
o o | |
, 0 ,
) cos(
1
cos
2
)
2
) 2 (
2
( *
2
1
max
e
+

=
x
x
I V I V
inject
V
DCMAX
V C
T
For three-phase voltage sags with balance loads, the
compensating time factor M in time optimal control of
typical four-wire DVR ( the typical topology of four-wire
DVR is as show in [10]) is as following:
_
=
+

=
3
1
) cos( * cos 3
2
)]
_
2 [max(
2
y
y y y
p
y inject
V
DCMAX
V
M
o o | |
(13)
Denote T
a
, T
b
, T
c
are respectively the compensating time
of phase a, b and c. M
a
, M
b
, M
c
are respectively the
compensating time factors of phase a, b and c. In reference
[10], T
a
=T
b
=T
c
=T, M
a
=M
b
=M
c
=M. Especially, for
three-phase symmetrical sags, (9) becomes:
c b a y
y y y
p
y inject
V
DCMAX
V
y
M , , ,
) cos( * cos
2
)
_
2 (
2
=
+

=
o o | |
(14)
where, o
a
=o
b
=o
c
, V
inject_a
= V
inject_b
= V
inject_c
, p
a
=p
b
=p
c
and
M
a
=M
b
=M
c
.
|
T T
\
?
\
?
\
!
\
!
\
`u_t
\
`u_t
|
|
u
Figu 6. Phasor diagram of energy optimal control strategy a) zero
active power injection b) minimal active power injection
1705
T T
\
?
\
?
\
!
\
!,!
\
`u_t
\
`u_t,!
|
|
u |
| |
\
!,?
\
`u_t,?
Figu 7. Phasor diagram of time optimal control strategy
C. Time Optimal Control for the Proposed Topology
For the proposed topology in Fig. 1, The maximum lasting
compensating time factor of each phase is as the same as (14),
but where V
inject_k
, p
k
, o
k
, k=a, b, c may be different to
different phase, respectively:
c b a y
y y y
p
y inject
V
DCMAX
V
y
M , , ,
) cos( * cos
2
)
_
2 (
2
=
+

=
o o | |
(15)
The maximum compensating time of the device , that is
the optimal compensating time, will be:
T
max
=
I
C
*max (min (T
a
, T
b
, T
c
)), o
a
, o
b
, o
c
(0,|) (16)
When symmetrical sags occur, p
a
=p
b
=p
c
, o
a
=o
b
=o
c
, so
V
inject_a
=V
inject_b
=V
inject_c
, o
a
=o
b
=o
c
, (15) can be equal to (14).
So (14) is a special case in (15).
The way to realize the time optimal control is : for a fixed
set of parameters, to find a set of {o
a
-
, o
b
-
, o
c
-
} which can
get the maximum of (16).
IV. SIMULATION
Fig. 8 shows the advantages of time optimal control
compared to energy optimal control. The three phases are
symmetrical sags. The magnitude of rated load voltage is 1
p.u. The horizontal axis is V
DCMAX
in p.u, denoted as V
DCMAX
*
.
The vertical axis is the percent of At/T. T is the compensating
time by using energy optimal control. At =T
max
-T is the
excessive time by using the time optimal control than that of
energy optimal control. The other axis that is perpendicular
to both the horizontal axis and the vertical axis is the
magnitude of symmetrical voltage sags in p.u.
Fig. 8a shows the At/T when the load angle |=pi/6.
Definitely, the deeper the magnitude of voltage sags and the
lower the V
DCMAX
*
, the larger the percent of At/T is. Fig.8b
shows the percent of At/T when the load angle |=pi/3. In Fig.
8, V
DCMAX
*
is larger than 1 p.u. If V
DCMAX
*
becomes smaller
than 1 p.u, the At/T can be several times larger than that of
this case.
Fig. 9 gives simulated waveforms of using the time
optimal control and the energy optimal control in the
proposed topology, where the voltages symmetrical sags
down to 10% with balance loads, the V
DCMAX
*
is 1 p.u, the
load impedance angle is |=pi/3, p
i
= p
j
= p
k
=0.09and voltage
sags occurred at 0.1s. Fig. 9(a) is the compensating waves by
using the energy optimal control. E
a2
, E
b2
, E
c2
are supply
voltages. The peak magnitude of them are 0.157kV. E
a
, E
b
,
E
c
are the three-phase voltage in load. Consider the load
voltage in l p.u is normal. The load voltage went down at
about 0.24s. The compensating time T is about 0.19s. Fig.
9(b) is the compensating waves by using the time optimal
control. Consider the load voltage in l p.u is normal. The load
voltage went down at about 0.42s. The compensating time
T
max
is about 0.38s. Clearly, time optimal control is better in
compensating time than energy optimal control. In this
situation, At/T is 100%.
(a) load angle |=pi/6
(b) load angle |=pi/3
Figu 8. The advantage of time optimal control compared to energy
optimal control when symmetrical sags
(a) energy optimal control
At/T
p
a
=p
b
=p
c
V
DCMAX
*
At/T
V
DCMAX
*
p
a
=p
b
=p
c
1706
(b) time optimal control
Figu 9. Simulating comparison of the time optimal control and the
energy optimal control in the proposed compensating topology
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experimental circuit parameters are: C
1k
=C
2k
= 500F,
k=a, b, c. The loads are balanced resistances and inductances
that R
k
=180O, L
k
=0.8H, k=a, b, c. At this case | =54

. The
switch frequency is 20kHZ. The voltage sag duration is
300ms. The nominal load voltage is 110V (rms, line-neutral).
Three-phase voltage symmetrical sags down to 30% (rms,
33V). DC link voltage is controlled at V
DCMAX
*
=1.
In Fig.10. This Fig is one phase of the loads voltages
compensating with the energy optimal control. As shown in
Fig.10(a), the loads voltage can only be sustained at rated
nearly 80ms. As shown in Fig.10(b), At this case, the
operation mode is minimal active power injection, |=|
=54

.
In Fig.11. This Fig is one phase of the loads voltages
compensating with the time optimal control. As shown in
Fig.11(a), the loads voltage can be sustained at rated nearly
150ms. As shown in Fig.11(b), At this case | = 21.2

.
(a) loads voltage
(b) | when operation at the energy optimal control
Figu 10. One phase of the loads voltages compensating
with the energy optimal control.
(a) load s voltage
(b) | when operation at the time optimal control
Figu 11. One phase of the loads voltages compensating
with the time optimal control.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
A transformer-less series voltage sag compensator
without energy storage capacitors was proposed as a
cost-effective way of series sag compensation. Theoretical
analysis indicate that the proposed topology can compensate
symmetrical three-phase voltage sags down to 37%, or
asymmetrical one or two-phase voltage sags down to zero if
at least one phase is in normal. This topology can be used in
three-phase four-line system and three-phase line system too.
A new time optimal control strategy has been proposed for
the control of series voltage sag compensator. Analysis and
Time (50ms/div)
Time (50ms/div)
Time (50ms/div)
Time (50ms/div)
sag
sag sag end
sag end
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
5
0
V
/
d
i
v
)
/
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
5
0
V
/
d
i
v
)
/
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
5
0
V
/
d
i
v
)
/
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
5
0
V
/
d
i
v
)
/
1707
simulation results show that in deeper voltage sags using the
time optimal control strategy can compensate voltage during
sags much longer time than using energy optimal control.
Using the time optimal strategy to the proposed topology,
experiment results validated the good performance.
The unsymmetrical voltage sags is now under
investigation.
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