INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIRCUIT THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224

Published online 29 April 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/cta.629
Reactive power compensation in a multi-line system under
sinusoidal unbalanced conditions
Seong-Jeub Jeon
1, ,
and Jacques L. Willems
2
1
Department of Electronic Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan, South Korea
2
Faculty of Engineering, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
SUMMARY
A new generalized reactive power compensation algorithm applicable to a multi-line system under sinu-
soidal conditions is reviewed. This method does not require any decomposition of reactive power or
non-active current. It is shown that a realization of the compensator can be obtained by means of a simple
connection of reactive elements. Accordingly, it is concluded that to compensate the reactive power is a
simple circuit synthesis problem. The algorithm is illustrated by means of examples. Copyright 2010
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 29 March 2009; Revised 17 June 2009; Accepted 3 July 2009
KEY WORDS: reactive power; multi-line system; transmission loss; compensation
1. INTRODUCTION
Reactive power compensation at load side is very important because it minimizes the transmission
loss [18]. The denition and the concept of reactive power in a sinusoidal single-phase system
or a balanced sinusoidal three-phase system are clear. However, the generalization of the reactive
power denition and the concept to a non-sinusoidal and/or unbalanced multi-line system is not
straightforward and has been the subject of many discussions and proposals. Reactive power is
an indication of additional loss due to the non-optimality. In a sinusoidal single-phase system
or in a sinusoidal balanced three-phase system, the sign of the reactive power indicates how to
compensate the power system, i.e. by means of either capacitors or inductors. In a non-sinusoidal
and/or unbalanced system, the reactive power does not show how to compensate. Although the
decomposition of the reactive power into various components gives information about the reasons
why the power transmission is not optimal, it is not helpful with respect to compensation. Recently,
attention has turned to the current itself, which is a much more useful approach if the objective
is compensation. But here also, the decomposition of the non-active current is not very helpful
for compensation. In a non-sinusoidal power system, compensation requires an electronic power
converter. In a sinusoidal power system (even multi-line), compensation does not necessarily require
an electronic power converter, but can be achieved by an LC network.
In this paper, compensation in a multi-line system under sinusoidal conditions is dealt with.
Especially, it is shown that compensation in a three-phase system with sinusoidal voltages can be
realized by an LC network without using any decomposition of reactive power or current. The

Correspondence to: Seong-Jeub Jeon, Department of Electronic Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan,
South Korea.

E-mail: jeub@pknu.ac.kr
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
212 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
proposed compensation method is valid for a general m-line power system. The only necessary
condition for the compensation is that the compensation currents do not require average power.
Most recent papers on compensation deal with the use of power electronic converters and are
applicable in non-sinusoidal situations [516]. In a paper by Willems [1], it was shown that any
compensation in a three-phase power system in sinusoidal steady state can be realized by a reactive
network without requiring active elements; the only condition is that the active power injected by
the compensating element is zero. In the present paper this result is generalized as follows:
It is shown that this result can be generalized to multi-line systems with an arbitrary number
of phases.
It is shown that the reactive compensation element can be realized by a simple scheme. It
does not require elements between all pairs of phases (which would be the straightforward
generalization of the results of [1]); it is sufcient to have a star connected and a circular
connected part (that is a scheme with connections only between adjacent phases).
The computation of the reactive elements required for the compensation is explicitly discussed.
The algorithm is illustrated by means of a number of examples.
2. REVIEW OF POWER THEORY
The concept of reactive current and reactive power in single-phase and completely balanced three-
phase sinusoidal power systems is well known. The physical meaning of the reactive current is
that it is that part of the current which does not carry active power, but increases the losses in the
supply conductors. This leads to the concept of compensation. If at the load terminals a current
is injected by a compensating element, which is equal to the reactive current, then the supply
delivers the desired active power to the load with smaller line losses. Moreover, the compensating
element does not have to deliver active power and can be a lossless element, such as a capacitor,
an inductor or a power electronic component.
More recently, power theories have been developed to generalize the concepts of reactive power,
reactive current and their compensation to more general situations: non-sinusoidal situations,
polyphase systems, with more than three phases, not completely balanced loads, not completely
symmetric supply systems. The purpose of these theories is to identify that part of the supply
current which may be injected by a compensating element at the load terminals, without requiring
active power to be delivered by the compensator, but realizing the maximum possible reduction of
the losses in the supply lines.
In the power theory proposed in [24], it is assumed that transmission lines may have unequal
resistances in an m-line system, as shown in Figure 1(a). The line voltages are measured with
reference to the ctitious neutral point N, which is the point for voltage measurement satisfying
the following condition:
m

l=1
r
r
l
v
sl
=0, (1)
where r is the reference resistance chosen in such a way that the effective current causes the same
transmission loss in the equivalent dc system of Figure 1(b) as the actual currents in Figure 1(a).
The effective current is dened by
I
e

l=1
r
l
r
I
2
l
, (2)
where I
l
is the rms value of i
sl
. The effective voltage is dened by
V
e

l=1
r
r
l
V
2
sl
, (3)
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 213
Figure 1. Multi-line power system and its equivalent system: (a) multi-line power system and (b) its
equivalent dc system at optimal condition.
where V
sl
is the rms value of v
sl
(which is referred to the reference point given by Equation (1)).
The reference resistance r is in fact an arbitrary resistance, which can be seen as a normalization
factor. It does not affect the power values, but decreases the effective current and increases the
effective voltage with the same ratio, or vice versa. The apparent power is dened by
S V
e
I
e
(4)
When the average power is P, the reactive power is dened by
Q

S
2
P
2
. (5)
This reactive power is an indication of an avoidable transmission loss. The current set yielding the
average power P with minimum transmission loss is given by
i
sl
=
P
V
2
e
r
r
l
v
sl
for l =1, 2, . . . , m. (6)
The objective of compensation, as described above, is to inject a compensation current at the
load terminals, such that the supply current is equal to the current given by Equation (6), which
realizes minimal line losses. This is further discussed in the next section.
In a three-phase system, the average value of resistances of active lines can be used as the
reference resistance. Then this theory is fully compatible not only with Buchholzs theory but
also with the classical single-phase theory. This theory indeed lls the gap between the classical
single-phase theory and Buchholzs theory.
3. COMPENSATION OF POWER SYSTEM
As discussed in the previous section, to minimize transmission loss, a power system is compensated
as in Figure 2 by injecting compensating currents
i
Cl
=i
Ll
i
sl
for l =1, 2, . . . , m, (7)
where i
Ll
is the load current at the lth line and i
sl
is the optimal current minimizing transmission
loss. The power system with compensator is shown in Figure 2. An LC network or an electronic
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
214 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
Figure 2. Optimal compensation of multi-line power system.
power converter can be used as a compensator. In the present paper it is shown that a simple LC
network can be used and the elements computed by a straightforward algorithm.
The results of the analysis below are even more general. It will be shown that the method
described below is valid even if the compensation currents are not determined by Equation (6),
aimed at minimizing the transmission losses, but are determined to satisfy other requirements. The
only condition is that the compensation currents do not yield average (or, otherwise said, active)
power. This is indeed what one wants to realize: to supply the active power from the power system,
to supply the undesired non-active power by the compensator. The application of this idea will be
clear from the examples in Section 5.
Let us consider a power system with m lines in sinusoidal steady state. The compensating system
considered is an LC circuit. The reactive elements are denoted by their complex admittances
jB
ij
with B
ij
indicating the susceptances.
It is convenient to express the lth line voltage, line current, load current and compensation
current by their phasors V
l
, I
sl
, I
Ll
and I
Cl
for l =1, 2, . . . , m. Let us assume that all voltages have
different phases; in practice, this is no loss of generality. If it is not the case, the mathematical
analysis below should be modied. However, this would only be an academic exercise, which is
not pursued here.
It should be noticed that the m sinusoidal compensation currents are not independent. Indeed
the sum of the currents is obviously required to be zero. Moreover, the compensation currents
should not yield average or active power:
P
C
=
m

l=1
Re(V
l
I

Cl
) =0. (8a)
This means that the active source power P
s
is equal to the active load power P
L
:
P
s
=
m

l=1
Re(V
l
I

sl
), (8b)
P
L
=
m

l=1
Re(V
l
I

Ll
). (8c)
This implies that the compensator currents contain 2 m3 degrees of freedom and that the
compensating element should contain at least this number of reactive elements. We now show how
straightforward relatively simple circuits can achieve the desired compensation.
We rst consider the case of an m-conductor line system that corresponds to an (m1)-
phase system with neutral conductor. We show that the circuit in Figure 3(a) can be used for
compensation. The circuit is composed of two parts: a circular-connected and a star-connected
part. Each part consists of m1 reactive elements. The circular-connected part consists of the
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 215
Figure 3. Compensation circuits for multi-line power system: (a) for a system with neutral line and (b)
for a system without neutral line.
susceptances B
12
, B
23
. . . , B
m2,m1
, B
1,m1
and the star-connected part with susceptances B
1m
,
B
2m
, . . . , B
m1,m
. The reactive elements should satisfy the conditions:
jB
1m
V
1
+jB
1,m1
(V
1
V
m1
)+jB
12
(V
1
V
2
) =I
C1
jB
2m
V
2
+jB
12
(V
2
V
1
)+jB
23
(V
2
V
3
) =I
C2
jB
3m
V
3
+jB
23
(V
3
V
2
)jB
34
(V
3
V
4
) =I
C3
.
.
.
jB
m1,m
V
m1
+jB
m2,m1
(V
m1
V
m2
)+jB
1,m1
(V
m1
V
1
) =I
Cm1
.
(9)
This set of equations corresponds to m1 complex equations, hence 2(m1) real equations
with 2(m1) variables. However, the equations are not independent. Indeed, if the equations are
successively multiplied by the complex conjugates of V
1
, V
2
, . . . , V
m1
, then the sum of the real
parts on the left-hand sides is zero. On the other hand, the same is true for the right-hand sides,
as this expresses that the active power of the compensating element is required to be zero. It is
readily seen that the set of equations has a solution. Then the set of equations has an innity of
solutions. For example, we may take B
12
to be zero, which means that there is no connection
between phases 1 and 2 of the compensator. Then the above equations can be solved successively
to compute the other susceptances. Different solutions can be obtained for other choices of B
12
.
This degree of freedom can be used to optimize the compensating element, as will be illustrated
in one of the examples in Section 5.
A similar discussion can be given for the case of an m-line system that corresponds to an
m-phase system without neutral. Consider a compensating element with m susceptances from each
phase to an isolated star point and m susceptances between phases 1 and 2, 2 and 3, . . . , m and 1
as in Figure 3(b). In this case it can be shown, in a similar way as above, that the set of equations
has a solution with three degrees of freedom, provided the active compensator power is zero. Here
again this redundancy can be used to optimize the compensator with respect to some criteria.
Note that this analysis generalizes the results obtained by Willems [1] for the three-phase case.
It shows that the circular structure is sufcient, and that it is not necessary to connect all phases.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
216 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
Note also that the latter remark is not relevant in the three-phase situation, since it is well known
that a Y-structure can always be replaced by an equivalent delta-structure and vice versa [17]. The
same is not true for a higher number of phases.
If the voltages and/or the currents are non-sinusoidal, then the compensation cannot completely
be realized by means of circuits with branches containing only an inductor or a capacitor, but it
requires either more complex inductive elements [18] or power electronic converters. However,
the interesting result of this paper is that in the sinusoidal case the compensation can be achieved
by a simple connection of inductors and capacitors, and this for power systems with an arbitrary
number of phases and with unbalance. The degree of freedom which is available can be used to
simplify the design.
4. APPLICATION TO THREE-PHASE POWER SYSTEMS
In this section the particular, but practically most interesting case of three-phase systems is consid-
ered. The analysis of the previous section is applied to three-phase power systems with or without
neutral conductor. In that case explicit expressions of the solutions are readily obtained. The method
obtaining solutions can be applied to an arbitrary poly phase systems.
4.1. Three-phase three-wire system
For compensation of a three-phase three-wire system, three reactive elements are redundant in the
circuit shown in Figure 3(b). Either the circular-connected part (which in this case corresponds
to a delta connection) or the star-connected part can be removed, because a delta-structure can
always be replaced by an equivalent Y-structure at a given frequency and vice versa [17].
4.1.1. Compensation with delta-connected circuit. If the star-connected part is removed, a delta-
connected reactive circuit shown in Figure 4 is obtained. To nd appropriate susceptances for
compensation, the phasors of the line-to-line voltages are denoted as V
12
=V
1
V
2
, V
23
=V
2

V
3
and V
31
=V
3
V
1
, and the compensation currents as I
C1
, I
C2
and I
C3
=I
C1
I
C2
. The
compensation currents should correspond to zero active power:
P
C
=Re(V
13
I

C1
+V
23
I

C2
) =0. (10)
The objective of the compensation may be the minimization of the transmission loss, but this
is not necessary for the analysis. The compensation may correspond to other objectives, as long
as the active power is zero. The realization of three (complex) phasors of the compensation
currents constitutes a set of three complex equations or six real equations; however, as the sum
of the complex current phasors is zero, and the active power should vanish, there are only three
independent equations. Three susceptances are hence sufcient to realize the desired compensation.
Figure 4. Compensation with a delta-connected reactive circuit.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 217
Figure 5. Compensation with a Wye-connected reactive circuit.
There are four linearly independent orthogonal components in a three-phase three-wire system
as in Equation (9). The compensation currents, which do not yield average power, have one more
restriction (10). Therefore, three reactive components are uniquely given.
A straightforward analysis yields the solution. For example, the compensation current i
C2
is the
difference between the currents owing through jB
12
and jB
23
:
I
C2
=jB
12
V
12
jB
23
V
23
. (11)
Considering the real parts and the imaginary parts, four equations are obtained, from which one
can be omitted because of the fact that the active power is zero. To obtain the solution for B
12
,
we multiply both sides of Equation (11) by the complex conjugate of V
23
and take the real parts.
This immediately yields:
B
12
=
Re(V
23
I

C2
)
Im(V
23
V

12
)
. (12a)
Similarly,
B
23
=
Re(V
31
I

C3
)
Im(V
31
V

23
)
and B
13
=
Re(V
12
I

C1
)
Im(V
12
V

31
)
. (12b)
This solution includes the well-known Steinmetz scheme [6, 19]. The solution given here is more
general and obtained in a simpler way.
4.1.2. Compensation with Wye-connected circuit. If the delta-connected part is removed from
Figure 3(b), a Wye-connected reactive circuit as shown in Figure 5 is obtained. The appropriate
reactive elements can either be found by transforming the delta connection, obtained in the previous
analysis, to a Wye connection, or by a direct computation.
The elements of the Wye connection can be obtained by the direct computation from the
expression of the voltage difference between lines 1 and 2:
V
12
=
I
C1
jB
1
+
I
C2
jB
2
. (13)
Multiplying both sides of this expression by I

C2
and taking the real parts, we obtain
B
1
=
Im(I

C1
I
C2
)
Re(V
12
I

C2
)
. (14a)
Similarly,
B
2
=
Im(I

C2
I
C3
)
Re(V
23
I

C3
)
and B
3
=
Im(I

C3
I
C1
)
Re(V
31
I

C1
)
. (14b)
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
218 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
Figure 6. Compensation of three-phase four-wire power system.
4.2. Three-phase four-wire system
For a three-phase four-wire system, the compensation currents in the three phases correspond to six
real quantities, with one restriction, the zero value of the active power. Hence, we need 5 reactive
elements for the compensator. The Wye connection of Figure 5 with an additional reactive element
between the star point and the neutral conductor is hence not adequate. Therefore, we consider
the connection of Figure 6 from Figure 3(a), which contains 6 reactive elements such that there is
one degree of freedom; in other words, one of the reactive elements can be arbitrarily chosen.
To determine the reactive elements corresponding to a given set of compensation currents, we,
e.g. consider the equation for the current I
C1
I
C1
=jB
12
(V
2
V
1
)+jB
13
(V
3
V
1
)jB
14
V
1
, (15)
where voltages are referred to the voltage of the neutral. We can choose B
12
arbitrarily. Then B
13
can be determined in a straightforward way by multiplying both sides of Equation (15) by V

1
,
and taking the imaginary parts. Similarly, B
14
can be determined by multiplying both sides of
Equation (15) by (V
3
V
1
)

, and taking again the imaginary parts. We readily obtain:

B
13
=
Re(V
1
I

C1
)+B
12
Im(V
2
V

1
)
Im(V
1
V

3
)
, (16a)
B
14
=
Re((V
3
V
1
)I

C1
)+B
12
Im(V
2
V

3
V
2
V

1
V
1
V

3
)
Im(V
1
V

3
)
.
(16b)
In a similar way the other reactive elements in the delta and the Wye of the circuit in Figure 6
can be determined; the explicit expressions are not given. In these expressions B
12
is an arbitrary
quantity. The zero value may be an interesting choice, as this corresponds to no connection between
phases 1 and 2. However, the choice value of B
12
can be used to optimize the compensator with
respect to some other objective, as will be discussed in one of the examples in the next section.
5. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES
Three examples are given here. The rst example shows that the proposed method gives the same
result as the conventional method and can be applied to a case whose objective is quite different
from the usual. The second example shows that the proposed method can be applied to satisfy
various power theories. The third shows that the proposed method can be applied to systems seldom
discussed in other literature.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 219
Table I. Currents and voltages in Example A (minimal supply loss).
l 1 2 3
I
Ll
9j0.866 10.5j6.928 1.5+j7.794
V
sl
83.33j28.87 16.67j28.87 66.67+j57.74
I
sl
7.5j2.598 1.5j2.598 6+j5.196
I
CI
1.5+j1.732 9j4.330 7.5+j2.598
Figure 7. Compensation network: (a) delta connected and (b) star connected.
5.1. Three-phase three-wire system (Example A)
As a rst example, an asymmetric three-phase three-wire system is considered. The asymmetric
line-to-line voltages are given by
V
12
= 100, V
23
=50j50

3,
V
31
= 150+j50

3.
(17)
The load currents and the line-to-ctitious-neutral voltages are shown in Table I. The effective
voltage and the active power are given by
V
e
=

l=1
V
2
sl
=129.1V,
P
L
=
3

l=1
Re(V
sl
I

Ll
) =1500W.
(18)
In this expression the reference resistance is chosen equal to the resistance of each phase; as
the system is symmetric, the three phase resistances are indeed equal.
5.1.1. Compensation for minimal line loss. The source currents that correspond to the same active
power and minimal line losses, and the compensation currents are given in Table I.
The circuit parameters in a delta-connected compensation circuit are obtained according to
Equation (12) and the compensation circuit as in Figure 7(a); the circuit parameters are given for
a frequency of 60 Hz:
B
12
= 0.0087S, B
23
=0.1039S, and
B
13
= 0.0173S.
(19)
The circuit parameters in a star-connected compensation circuit are obtained according to Equation
(14) and the compensation circuit is as in Figure 7(b):
B
1
= 0.0101S, B
2
=0.0606S, and
B
3
= 0.1212S.
(20)
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
220 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
Table II. Currents in Example A (constant power).
l 1 2 3
I
sl
7.5+j4.330 7.5j12.990 j8.660
I
CI
1.5j5.196 3+j6.062 1.5j0.866
Table III. Currents and voltages in Example B (Case I).
l 1 2 3 4
I
Ll
18j2 21j16 3+j20 j2
V
sl
200 100j300 200+j300 0
I
sl
12 12j18 12+j18 12
I
CI
6j2 9+j2 15+j2 12j2
5.1.2. Compensation for constant instantaneous power Now we consider a different problem
statement. We want to compensate the load such that the instantaneous source power is constant
(and hence obviously equal to the active load power) with sinusoidal source currents. Then the
desired source currents should satisfy the following conditions [20]:

(V
12
I
1
)

(V
32
I
3
) =, |V
12
I
1
| =|V
32
I
3
|, (21)
where V
32
is V
23
. The line currents yielding constant instantaneous power of 1500 W, as well
as the required compensation currents are shown in Table II.
The circuit parameters in a delta-connected compensation circuit are obtained according to (12):
B
12
= 0.0779S, B
23
=0.0346S, and
B
13
= 0.0173S.
(22)
The circuit parameters in a star-connected compensation circuit are obtained according to (14):
B
1
= 0.0217S, B
2
=0.0433S, and
B
3
= 0.0096S.
(23)
From this example, it is clear that the proposed compensation method is applicable even when the
desired currents are not given by (6), and do not correspond to the minimization of the line losses,
but have a different objective.
5.2. Three-phase four-wire system (Example B)
In this example, a three-phase four-wire system with asymmetric voltages is dealt with. The
asymmetric line-to-neutral voltages are given by
V
1
=200, V
2
=200j300, V
3
=200+j300. (24)
The asymmetric load currents are given as in the second row of Table III. The active power is
given according to (8c)
P =
4

l=1
Re(V
l
I

Ll
) =18000W. (25)
We consider three different compensation strategies; for each of these strategies the compensation
circuit can be designed by means of the algorithms of Sections 3 and 4.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 221
5.2.1. Case I. In a rst case we want to compensate the load in order to obtain unity power factor
according to IEEE std. 100: In this standard, the unity power factor is dened as given when the
currents are proportional to the line-to-neutral voltages. The effective voltage is given by
V
e
=

l=1
V
2
sl
=547.7V. (26)
The source currents yielding unity power factor and the same active power are given by Equation
(6) with r
1
=r
2
=r
3
and r
4
=0 and shown in the fourth row of Table III. The compensation currents
are hence given as in the fth row of Table III. In general for any choice of B
12
the corresponding
expressions of the other susceptances are
B
13
= 0.02+B
12
, B
14
=0.054B
12
,
B
23
= 0.01+0.5B
12
, B
24
=0.012B
12
,
B
34
= 0.052B
12
.
(27)
The total kVA rating of the compensation circuit is given by
kVA=250(|B
12
|+|B
13
|)+360|B
23
|+40|B
14
|+130(|B
24
|+|B
34
|). (28)
The variation of the kVA rating as a function of B
12
is shown in Figure 8. The minimum rating is
equal to 15.9 kVA and is obtained for B
12
equal to 0.005 S. This analysis shows a practically inter-
esting result. The same compensation performance can be obtained by different capacitor/inductor
combinations. This degree of freedom can be used to design the least expensive compensator. In
fact, the costs of capacitors and inductors per kVA are different, hence changing weights according
to the sign of the susceptance is more reasonable. Also then, a least expensive compensator can
be derived.
5.2.2. Case II. Another approach to compensation corresponds to Buchholzs theory: In this
approach the line resistances of the phase conductors and the neutral conductor are assumed to
be equal. The source currents corresponding to minimum line losses are given by Equation (6)
with r
l
=r. The line-to-ctitious-neutral voltages are as in the third row of Table IV. The effective
voltage is given by
V
e
=

l=1
V
2
sl
=538.5V. (29)
The desired currents yielding the same average power and the compensation currents are obtained
as in the third and fourth rows of Table IV, respectively.
5.2.3. Case III. Another approach to compensation corresponds to the objective to obtain zero
neutral conductor current and minimal line losses. Then the currents should be proportional to
the voltages measured with respect to the articial neutral node with respect to the three-phase
conductors. The corresponding line-to-articial-neutral voltages are given as in the second row of
Table V. The effective voltage is given by
V
e
=

l=1
V
2
l
=535.4V. (30)
The optimal currents yielding the same average power and the compensation currents are obtained
as in the third and fourth rows of Table V, respectively.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
222 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
Figure 8. Variation of kVA rating according to B12.
Table IV. Currents and voltages in Example B (Case II).
l 1 2 3 4
V
sl
250 150j300 150+j300 50
I
sl
15.517 9.310j18.621 9.310+j18.621 3.103
I
CI
2.482j2 11.690+j2.621 12.310+j1.379 3.103j2
Table V. Currents and voltages in Example B (Case III).
l 1 2 3 4
V
sl
266.67 133.33j300 133.33+j300
I
sl
16.744 8.372j18.837 8.372+j18.837 0
I
CI
1.256j2 12.628+j2.837 11.372+j1.163 j 2
Table VI. Susceptances generating the compensation currents in Example B.
Case B
12
(mS) B
13
(mS) B
14
(mS) B
23
(mS) B
24
(mS) B
34
(mS)
I 5.0 15 30 12.5 0.0 40
II 6.6 1.7 0.2 16.2 0.0 10.3
III 4.6 0.4 0.0 16.2 5.0 5.0
The susceptances for three cases are given in Table VI, where the degree of freedom is used to
minimize the kVA ratings.
5.3. Six-phase seven-wire system (Example C)
In this last example, a six-phase seven-wire system is dealt with. The line-to-neutral voltages are
symmetric and are given by
V
1
= V
4
=200, V
2
=V
5
=100j100

3,
V
3
= V
6
=100j100

3.
(31)
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION 223
Table VII. Currents and voltages in Example C.
l 1 2 3 4 5 6
I
Ll
30+j51.961 30j51.961 0 0 0 0
V
sl
200 100j173.2 100j173.2 200 100+j173.2 100+j173.2
I
sl
10 5j8.660 5j8.660 10 5+j8.660 5+j8.660
I
CI
20+j51.961 35j43.301 5+j8.660 10 5j8.660 5j8.660
A load with conductance of 0.3S is connected between lines 1 and 2. The load currents are given
as in the second row of Table VII. The average power is given according to (8c)
P =
6

l=1
Re(V
l
I

Ll
) =12000W. (32)
The ctitious neutral point is the same as the actual neutral line. Therefore, the corresponding
line-to-articial-neutral voltages are given as in the third row of Table VII.
The effective voltage is given by
V
e
=

l=1
V
2
sl
=489.9V. (33)
The source currents yielding the same active power and minimal transmission losses are given
as in the fourth row of Table VII. The effective current is reduced from 84.85 A to 24.49 A. The
required compensation currents are hence given as in the fth row of Table VII.
The circuit parameters follow from the analysis of Section 3; The results are:
for the reactive elements between adjacent phases
B
12
= 0S, B
23
=0.1155S, B
34
=0.0577S, B
45
=0S,
B
56
= 0.0577S, B
16
=0.1155S
(34)
for the reactive elements between the phases and the neutral
B
17
= 0.2021S, B
27
=0.2021S, B
37
=0.0866S, B
47
=0.0289S,
B
57
= 0.0289S, B
67
=0.0866S.
(35)
Note that the susceptance B
12
is arbitrarily chosen equal to zero (open circuit) and that the
susceptance B
45
turns out to be zero. Positive values correspond to capacitors, and negative values
to inductors.
From this example it can be concluded that the proposed method can be applied to a power
system with an arbitrary number of phases.
6. CONCLUSION
Compensation of a power system is important in relation to the cost and efciency of power
transmission. In this paper a new approach to compensation in sinusoidal steady state of a multi-line
system has been outlined. The compensator can be designed without any decomposition of reactive
power or non-active currents. The only necessity is the knowledge of the required compensation
currents and the fact that the compensation currents correspond to zero active power.
The present paper generalizes a result of [1] for three-phase systems to an arbitrary number
of phases. It is shown that the reactive compensation element does not require elements between
any pair of phases, which would be the straightforward generalization of the results of [1]; it is
sufcient to have a star-connected and a circular-connected part. The computation of the reactive
elements required for the compensation was explicitly discussed and illustrated by means of a
number of examples.
Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta
224 S.-J. JEON AND J. L. WILLEMS
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Copyright 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:211224
DOI: 10.1002/cta