DC-Link Voltage Control and Performance Analysis of StatCom

Hanxiang Cheng
1,2
Xianggen Yin
1
Shaohua Chen
2

1.Huazhong University of Science and Technology,2 Guangdong University of Technology
ABSTRACT
The introduced control strategy in this paper is about the control of reactive-power, which flows through the transmission
line, and the DC-link voltage, which is regarded as inner control loop for a desired level to produce a stable output-voltage
magnitude and corresponding phase-angle of inverter. With this control strategy the control system can easy output
reactive-power to system or absorb reactive-power from system, and hence, stabilize terminal-voltage for a distribution
power system. The reactive dynamic characteristics are discussed as load-property varies abruptly from inductive to
capacitive, or put of and/or put on inductive load. Especially, the transition processes of voltage and current of power
elements are described in detail.
Key Words: Electronics; StatCom; Dynamic Process; FACTS
I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of flexible AC transmission system
(FACTS) more and more electrical apparatus have been
applied in power system based on electronics, such as GTO,
IGBT, IGCT and et al. The most advantage of this type
apparatus is its flexible, convenient control, and it
consumes smaller electrical driving energy. Static
Synchronous Compensator (StatCom) is usually adapted in
stabilizing node-voltage and reactive power compensation.
It could also effectively damp system surges or resonances
of higher frequencies, and improve power qualities. For
typical applications in distribution systems, StatCom was
used to mitigate flicker produced normally by arc furnace,
another application example is the compensation for
petroleum-oil pump-motor, because its power factor
cos and the current magnitude vary rapidly and sharply in
a mechanical period.
StatCom would be a better means to solve above quickly
changed reactive power compensation due to its compact
configuration and flexible control, its volume and weight
would be largely reduced compared with traditional
reactive power compensation. Using this type of
power-factor compensator is of flexible and quick control
characteristics
[1-2]
. The functional requirements of reactive
shunt compensators should meet the follows:
1. The compensator must stay in synchronous operation
with the ac system at the compensated bus under all
operation conditions including major disturbances. Should
the bus voltage be lost temporarily due to nearby faults, the
compensator must be able to recapture synchronism
immediately at fault clearing.
2. The compensator must be able to regulate the bus
voltage for voltage support and improved transient stability,
or control it for power oscillation damping and transient
stability enhancement, on a priority basis as system
conditions may require.
3. For a transmission line connecting two systems, the best
location for var compensation is in the middle, whereas for
a radial feed to a load the best location is at the load end.
. COMPENSATION DESCRIPTION OF STATCOM
For simplification of analyzing, the following ideal
conditions will be used:
1) No energy storage in rectifier and/or inverter.
2) All the system parameters (resistance, inductance in
transmission line, StatCom branch, and load) are linear.
3) All power elements (such as GTO, IGBT, IGCT et al.) in
rectifier and/or inverter could be regarded zero resistance
when they are tuned on; and all the power elements could
be regarded infinitive large when they are tuned off.
4) All the tune on and tune off time of power elements
should be regarded as zero, taking no account to the
effect of snubber.
5) All the capacitors and inductors in StatCom are of no
loss.
A simple radial system with feeder line reactance of X and
load impedance Z, is shown in Fig.1 together with the
normalized terminal voltage vector U versus load current
and StatCom branch currents vectors plot as in Fig. 2 with
inductive and capacitive characteristics ranging from
under- compensation to over-compensation under
assumption of inductive constant power factor.
As depicted in Fig.2, the angle between vector of
node-voltage and the branch current of StatCom is 90
0
if
the loss of StatCom branch is ignored. With the inductive
load as example, the electrical vector relation is shown as
in Fig.2 (a).
rg
Es
is rs
Ls
U
iL
L
Le
Lg
ig
Ug

Fig. 1 Simple power system configurations
Assuming that bus-voltage at the connected point is U,
equivalent voltage of StatCom is U
g
, load-current is i
L
,
power-factor of load is cos
L
, the effective voltage of
infinitive power system is E
s
, equivalent distributing
resistance and inductance of transmission line are r
s
and L
s

respectively, the equivalent resistance, inductance of
StatCom branch are r
g
and L
g
as shown in Fig.1, and
assuming that the reactive power of load is completely
compensated by StatCom, i.e. I
g
=I
L
sin
L
, in the mean time
r
g
0, so the bus-voltage U and equivalent voltage
magnitude U
g
of StatCom can be derived from vector
relationship in Fig.2 (a) as following:
E
s
U
I L
I
g
Ug

L
U
g
E
s
U
I L
I
g
Ug
U
g
(a) inductive load
(b) capacitive load

L

Fig. 2 Electrical vector relations under inductive and capacitive load
2 2
) cos ( ) cos cos (
cos ) ( cos
L L s L L s s
L L s s s
I L I r E
I L j r E U


+ =
+ =
(1)
U I L U
L L g g
+ sin
(2)
If the resistance r
g
of StatCom branch is not equal to
zero the equation (2) can be transformed as:
2 2
) sin ( ) sin (
sin ) (
L L g L L g
L L g g g
I r I L U
I L j r U U


+ + =
+ =
(3)
Under the state of equation (3) the vector
g
U
and U are
not at same direction, there is small angle between them.
With equation (1) and (2) or (1) and (3) the relationship
between U
g
and can be easy derived. In fact, equations
(1) (3) imply that StatCom plays a role of reactive
power-source. However, the needed excitation energy of
this reactive power comes not from another outside source,
but from power network itself. This is the basic conception
of the StatCom. For the capacitor load the minus symbol
must be taken before
L
in the equations above.
III. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE
THREE-POINT STATCOM
StatCom is commonly constructed with voltage-superposed
realizing manner in order to reduce harmonics to the power
network, especially at the higher voltage levels
[3,4]
. Dual
three-point StatCom consist of two inverters which are
directly connected to the two second windings of main
transformer respectively, one second winding is of
delta-formed connection, another is of star-formed
connection as shown in Fig.3. The two second-windings of
delta- and star-formed connections would produce 30
0

electrical angles between the two inputs of inverters in
order to obtain better output effect. The magnitude of
DC-link voltage should keep in certain range if StatCom is
demanded to work properly. As StatCom inputs reactive
power or outputs reactive power, the DC-link voltage
would be lower or higher referenced with the voltage level
of same configuration rectifier.
The three-point means there are three electrical
potentials in the DC-link circuit, i.e. +, - and 0
terminals. The terminal M in the Fig.3 is potential 0,
which is the neutral point potential of second winding of
star-form if the potential difference of these two points is
zero, i.e. common-mode voltage (the voltage between
neutral point of AC side and the neutral point of DC side)
is zero under this assumption. The total bridges of identical
configuration are 6 for this type of StatCom, any bridge has
4 GTOs; there are three bridges pertained to one second
windings linked to phase a, b, and c respectively, whilst the
remaining bridges are pertained to another windings.
Furthermore, any GTO is inversely connected a power
diode for protection and proper work of StatCom.
Y
M
T11
T12
T13
T14
T21
T22
T23
T24
E1
E2
ua1 ub1 uc1 ua2 ub2 uc2
D11
D12
D13
D14
D21
D22
D23
D24
D10
D20
D40
C
C
T
Ls iL
ig
Us
is
U

Fig. 3 Simple StatCom topology of dual three-point
For a given bridge the output-state can be easy controlled.
The top two power elements should be turned on if + is
needed to be outputted by the bridge; The lower two power
elements should be turned on if - is needed to be
outputted; The bridge outputs 0 if the middle two power
elements turned on.
Supporting that the voltages E
1
and E
2
crossing the two
condensers C respectively in Fig.3 are equal, i.e. E=E
1
=E
2
,
and the E is kept constant in operation. In order to get ideal
sine wave output, the control words of corresponding three
phase bridges should be produced as Fig.4 (a), (b) and (c).
Assuming that the neutral point of star-windings or the
virtual neutral point of delta-windings is represented as n,
the three-phase symmetry voltage should satisfy the
condition of V
an
+V
bn
+V
cn
=0. As V
an
, V
bn
and V
cn
are equal
respectively. The common-mode voltage u
M-n
can be
expressed as:
3 / ) (
1 1 1 M c M b M a n M
u u u u

+ + = (4)
The corresponding waves of u
M-n
and phase voltage of
star-connected winding are shown in Fig. 4(d) and (e). Fig.
(f) is the output voltage of phase b of inverter 1#. Curve (e)
subtracting curve (f) is curve (g), which is output
line-voltage u
a1b1
of inverter 1#.
With the similar operation manner of inverter 1#, the
output line-voltage u
a2b2
of inverter 2# which is linked to
delta-connected second windings of main transform is in
Fig.4 (h). It is clear that the later lags behind the former
with 30
0
. This is the reason of using delta- and star-
connected windings. The total induced voltage (i.e. the
primary side voltage induced by secondary windings of
main transformer) of phase a to the power system by
StatCom is shown in Fig.4 (i) which is the sum of (e) + (h).
Considering the realizing principle of Fig.4 the 24 output
states of dual three-point StatCom in Fig.4 (i) can be
depicted with 24 vectors of , coordinates axis in Fig.5
of a period. Clearly a circle track is nearly formed by the
vector top point of 24 states, this indicates that the total
output wave in the time domain is similar as sine wave,
and the harmonic pollution produced by StatCom to power
system would be small when the DC-link voltage were
maintained in constant under operation.
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 1 3
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 2
ua1_M
ub1_M
uc1_M
uM_n
ua2_b2
ua1n
ua
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
E
-E
E
-E
E
-E
E/3
-E/3
E
2E
2E/3
4E/3
E
ub1n
t
ua1b1
10E/3
3E
8E/3
5E/3
2E/3
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)

Fig. 4 Realizing principles of dual three-point StatCom

1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

Fig. 5 Corresponding vectors of 24 states
IV. INNER-NESTED VOLTAGE CONTROL
STRAGEGY
Inner-nested voltage control strategy implies that the
DC-link voltage acts as feedback quantity in the inner
control loop. If the control object is system reactive power
and node-voltage at the user input-terminal, the typical
control system of StatCom could be designed as Fig.6. The
basic principle of this control system could ensure minimal
reactive power flowing through the transmission line, and
obtain a proper and stable node voltage. As DC-link
voltage is placed in the inner control loop, so it can be
adjusted quickly to get a corresponding DC-link voltage E
d

for a given reactive power q
gd
. in Fig.6 is a control angle
of StatCom; it could be said to be the angle between the
vector of infinite power system voltage and equivalent
voltage-source vector of StatCom. The relation of with
other electrical quantities is shown in Fig.2.
According to Fig.6 the control equations based on ,
synchronous rotated coordinates are written as
( )
S S
i E q 5 . 1 =
(5)
( ) ( )

+ = dt q q k q q k u
gd qi gd qp gd
(6)
( )

+ = dt u u k u u k
gd d ui gd d up
) (
(7)
Where q
gd
is the desired value of reactive power flowing
through transmission line, it could be set to zero as an ideal
state; k
qp
, k
up
, k
qi
and k
ui
are proportional and integral
coefficients of PI controller for q and U
d
control loop
respectively. In the interesting of simulation, the equations
for the first state could be written also by using of the
equivalent topology neglecting the role of snubber:
+
+
-
+
+
-

Fig. 6 Control block-diagram of StatCom
CONTROL SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
Assuming that the voltage of infinite system is 400V,
capacitance C of DC-link is 1mF, the inductance sum L
g
of
distribution inductance and filter inductance in StatCom
branch is 0.85mH, equivalent resistance r
g
of StatCom
branch is 2.17m, equivalent resistance and inductance of
transmission line are 2.5m and 0.1758mH respectively,
equivalent load current is 200A power-factor of load is
cos
L
= cos60
0
, system frequency f =50Hz.
Through the modeling and calculating matrix of equation
(8) based on C, the stable simulation output of dual
three-point StatCom can be depicted in Fig. 7. Fig.7 (a)
shows node-voltage and system current flowing through
transmission line with and coordinates; while Fig.7 (b)
shows the DC-link voltage E
d
, reactive power q flowing
through transmission line and control angle in the same
period as Fig.7 (a).
Under above assumption of system parameters and with
proper control parameters of PI controller the reactive
power flowing through transmission line is very small for
such system, this means that the designed control system in
Fig.6 would at least reduce reactive power from power
system. The node-voltage is of a little distortion, but the
basic content of 50Hz takes over 99% of total effective
value, and the main 23
rd
and 25
th
harmonics are under the
allowable level (2.7% and 1.93% respectively). The
distorted max value of node-voltage is 329.3V. DC-link
voltage E
d
fluctuates with DC component plus 6
th
and 24
th

harmonics, the average DC-link voltage is 567V under the
operation conditions.
t/s
u
/
V
,

i
/
A
s u
u
329.3V
120.5A i
i

q
Ed

q
/
k
V
a
r
E
/
V
d

/
d
e
g
r
e
e
t/s
(a) stable U-i of StatCom
(b) E , q, and curves in the same time range as above d

Fig. 7 Stable output curves of StatCom
It is noted that the effective value of system current i
s
of
fundament content 50Hz, which takes over 98% of total
effective value (5
th
13.98%, 4
th
4.73%, 11
th
6.48%, 13
th

3.48%, 23rd 7.0%, 25
th
3.7%), is only 73.126A for the
200A load current with power-factor cos60
0
=0.5, this
implies that the StatCom could not only completely
compensate the reactive power needed by load, but also it
could compensate the reactive power needed by the
transmission line, so it does reduce the loss in the
transmission line and boost the node-voltage (effective
fundament value of phase voltage is 229.8V).
i
SVG i
load
is
t/s
c
u
r
r
e
n
t
/
A

Fig. 8 Instantaneous current waves under stable operation
With the currents of phase A as example, Fig.8 has given 3
waves together, i.e. the branch current i
SVG
of StatCom,
load current i
load
, and system current i
s
which flows through
transmission line. It is clear that the phase difference
between i
load
and i
SVG
is a little smaller than 180
0
. From the
figure above, the angle could be concluded that i
load
lags
behind i
SVG
nearly off 157
0
. Through the Fourier series
analysis the effective fundament value of i
SVG
is derived
nearly as 176A. As explained before, the effective
fundament value of i
s
is almost 73A, and the load current is
exact 200A as designed, these data almost completely meet
the results calculated with ideal circuit theory, this has
explained that the calculating model and the corresponding
equations above are feasible.
Fig. 9 shows the dynamic process for reducing inductive
load current from 200A down to 70A and the lag
power-factor is increased from cos60
0
up to cos30
0
at the
time 0.25s suddenly. It is clear that system reactive power
is a little smaller; the shift range of control angle is also
shrunken; the two variables and q change abruptly at the
moment of off-load, but the adjustable time lasts not long
(no exceeding 0.5ms). By all appearances, the inner-nested
control loop acts very rapidly, this is useful to stabilize
system voltage, avoid or decrease electric impulsion.
Furthermore, the average DC-link voltage E
d_avg
is reduced
from 567V down to 529V within 5ms setting time. This
change indicates that the stable DC-link voltage of
StatCom would be different as the reactive power of power
system varies. The vectors in Fig.2 could explain this,
because the direction and magnitude of voltage drop U
g

will change as that of load current. With the decrease of
load current magnitude the equivalent StatCom voltage
magnitude U
g
will decrease also, this means that DC-link
voltage E
d
will decrease as follow. Keeping the load factor
constant, the different fundamental contents of effective
terminal-voltage of U

and U

, and system output currents

of i

and i

are shown in the table 1 when changing the

magnitude of inductive load current.
q
/
k
v
a
r
Ed
t=5ms

/
d
e
g
r
e
e
E
/
V
d
q

t/s
E =567V d_avg
E =529V d_avg

Fig. 9 Dynamic process when put off inductive load
Table. 1 Fundamental components of terminal voltages and system
currents when inductive load changes (p.u.).
i
L
0
30 U

0.5. 1.41483 1.41559 0.531916 0.537633
1.0 1.41517 1.41589 1.07929 1.08059
1.5 1.41536 1.41642 1.62821 1.62502
2.0 1.41524 1.41758 2.18740 2.16604
2.5 1.41482 1.41900 2.80019 2.66406
If the impedance Z
s
over transmission line in Fig.1 is very
small compared with the load impedance, then the
voltage-drop of StatCom connected point at user-terminal
could be neglected. Through lots of simulations and the
analysis of fast-Fourier algorithm some results would be
summarized as follows:
1) Line current will be smaller when load current
includes only pure reactive content as the result of
StatCom compensation.
2) System output current will increase as leading angle of
load current decrease while keeping load current
magnitude constant.
3) DC-link voltage E
d
will be enhanced as load
characteristic is transferred from capacitive load to
inductive load.
4) DC-link voltage E
d
fluctuates mildly when load
presents inductive characteristic change; otherwise,
acute fluctuation of E
d
will appear when load
characteristic presents capacitive load.
5) There are compellable turnoffs of power elements
when StatCom acts like adjustable capacitor, whereas
there are only commutations of diodes when StatCom
acts like adjustable inductor.

Fig. 10 Dynamic curves of increasing inductive and capacitive load
Fig. 10 shows that, the DC-link voltage E
d
will be
increased appreciably from average value lag 2.28p.u up to
lag 2.32p.u.within 2ms, while the average value is down to
2.11p.u with load magnitude transferred from lag 1.5p.u to
lead 1.5p.u. At this point the DC-link voltage E
d
drops
down to 0.715p.u within 1ms. In the meantime, the reactive
power flowing through transmission line is a litter slow
regulated in stable state through a few up and down surges
within about 4 milliseconds, it is about 3ms slower
compared with the process of abruptly loaded on inductive
load.
Besides, the compensation currents i
SVG
can quickly
respond to the sharp transition of load characteristic and
magnitude, and can rapidly enter in a proper compensation
state in both dynamic processes.
It is necessary to note, how the power elements operate
during these transient periods under the control strategy
(Fig.6). For instance, the pulse series are originally
triggered as real line in Fig. 11(a). Supposing, at a give
time, load characteristic and its magnitude are quickly
changed from lead factor to lag factor. The corresponding
currents i
mn
are plotted with different type line under ideal
condition according to the control principle of Fig. 6.
Where subscript m represents phase a, b, or c; n=1 or 2, 1
indicates original current before transition, 2 the current
after transition. The operation states before and after
capacitive load abruptly put on are shown in Fig. 11(b) and
11(c) respectively.
Ua Ub Uc
t
Phase a pulse
Ua Ub Uc
t
t
t
t1
t2 t3 t4
0
t5 t6
t7 t8
t9 t10
t11
t12
(a) SVG operating currents shift from capacitive to inductive
ia1
ib1 ic1
ia2 ib2 ic2
T1 T3 T5
T4 T6 T2
C
Ua
Ub Uc
Ud
(b) t t 2 3
T1
T3 T5
T4 T6 T2
C
Ua
Ub
Uc
Ud
(c) t t 2 3
commutation of diods
Phase b pulse
Phase c pulse

Fig. 11 StatCom state transitions when load changes from capacitive to
inductive
CONCLUSION
Dual three-point StatCom could be applied in power
system used at least for reactive power compensation of
power system and node-voltage stabilization; the control
strategy of inner-nested DC-link voltage in Fig.6 could
quickly increase system stability and decrease electric
impulsion. The results through simulation nearly meet the
basic circuit theory; this verifies that the calculation
models and equations are feasible for a judgment to real
equipment under operation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. S. Bernet in
Berlin University of technology; he was continuously
supporting the research works during the researching
period of one of authors as visiting scholar in Germany. We
appreciate all his scientific cooperators of power electronic,
and the other members for their understanding and helping
in all the past activities.
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[3] Kincic, S. /Chandra, A. /Babic, S. Five level diode clamped voltage
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[4] Hanson, D.J./Horwill, C. /Gemmell, B.D./Monkhouse, D.R. A
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AUTHORS ADDRESS
The first author can be contacted at
College of Electrical Power & Electronics Engineering
Huazhong University of Science & Technology
1037, Luoyu Road
Wuhan, P.R.China
Postcode: 430074
Email: chenghanxiang@263.net