Simulation of Unified Series Shunt Compensator for Power Quality Improvement Abstract

The quality of the Electrical power is effected by many factors like harmonic contamination, due to non-linear loads such as large thyristor power converters, rectifiers, voltage and current flickering due to arc in arc furnaces, sag and swell due to the switching of the loads etc. Power quality in the distribution system is the important issue for industrial, commercial and residential applications. An increasing demand for high quality, reliable electrical power and an increasing number of distorting loads have led an increased awareness of power quality both by customers and utilities.

A traditional method to achieve improved power quality (PQ) is to use passive filters connected at the sensitive load terminals. However, this practice has some shortcomings: the effectiveness of the scheme could deteriorate as the source impedance or load condition changes; it can lead to resonance between the filter and the source impedance.

This paper deals with the simulation of a Unified Series Shunt Compensator (USSC) which is aimed at mitigating most of the Power Quality problems such as (i) Voltage Sag compensation, (ii) Voltage Unbalance mitigation (iii) Harmonics elimination. The modeling and simulation of the USSC has been carried out by using MATLAB/SIMULINK software. The USSC simulation model comprises of two 12-pulse inverters which are connected in series and in shunt to the system. A generalized sinusoidal pulse width modulation switching technique has been developed in the proposed controller design for fast control action of the USSC. The USSC has mitigated several Power Quality problems giving better performance.