IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO.

4, OCTOBER 2009

2107

A New Proposal for Power Quality and Custom Power Improvement: OPEN UPQC
Morris Brenna, Member, IEEE, Roberto Faranda, Member, IEEE, and Enrico Tironi
AbstractCurrently, the quality of supplied power is important to several customers. Power quality (PQ) is a service and many customers are ready to pay for it. In the future, distribution system operators could decide, or could be obliged by authorities, to supply their customers with different PQ levels and at different prices. A new device that can fulll this role is the OPEN unied powerquality conditioner (UPQC), composed of a power-electronic series main unit installed in the medium-voltage/low-voltage (LV) substation, along with several power-electronic shunt units connected close to the end users. The series and parallel units do not have a common dc link, so their control strategies are different than traditional UPQC control techniques. This device can achieve general improvement in PQ, reducing the most common disturbances for all customers that are supplied by the mains (PQ) by using only the series unit. Additional increments in PQ (i.e., mains power interruptions), can be provided to the customers who need it (custom power) by the shunt units. Therefore, this new solution combines an improvement in PQ for all end users, with a cost reduction for those that need high quality power. The proposed solution has been analyzed and described, and a model of a 400-kVA LV grid is considered a test network to evaluate the steady-state performance and functioning limits. The results obtained under steady-state conditions justify the conguration chosen and good device performance. Index TermsActive power conditioner, custom power, interface devices, OPEN unied power-quality conditioner (UPQC), power quality (PQ), unied power quality conditioner (UPQC).

Fig. 1. Chronology of voltage sags occurring in the Southeastern states of the U.S. on December 4 and 5, 2002.

I. INTRODUCTION

OWER QUALITY (PQ) is very important to certain customers. For this reason, many utilities could sell electrical energy at different prices to their customers, depending on the quality of the delivered electric power. Since most end users are connected to secondary distribution networks, at low voltage (LV), it could be important to monitor and compensate the main disturbances on the LV grid. Specifically, it has been reported in a survey [1] that, in the Southeastern region of the U.S., most monitored industrial customers and main end users did not suffer long outages. Rather, they experienced numerous short duration voltage sags and momentary interruptions. Therefore, local utility companies had to re-

Manuscript received May 16, 2008; revised May 14, 2009. Current version published September 23, 2009. Paper no. TPWRD-00364-2008. M. Brenna and R. Faranda are with the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy (e-mail: morris.brenna@polimi.it; roberto.faranda@polimi.it). E. Tironi is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy (e-mail: tironi@polimi.it). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2028791

congure their systems to keep their most important customers on-line. Fig. 1 shows the chronology of voltage sags occurring in the Southeastern states of the U.S. on December 4 and 5, 2002. As can be seen, most sags take place around the 10%20% level. Various solutions are available to compensate for these disturbances. One solution involves increasing the short circuit level of the distribution network, i.e., revamping all the LV distribution cables or raising the power of the MV/LV substation transformer, thus increasing the power quality for all end users. In this way, an incoming disturbance from a load (i.e., harmonics) or from a fault in a line is reduced at the point of common coupling (PCC). Therefore, this solution effectively reduces the depth of the voltage variations, but does not protect the loads against transients and short interruptions. A second solution that can compensate any kind of disturbance, including interruptions, is installation [2] of on-line, off-line, line interactive and hybrid UPS systems. In all of these cases, only the end users that decide to install them are protected, while all of the other costumers do not receive any improvement in PQ. Often, these solutions cannot be adopted by the local utility companies or by the end users, because they are too expensive relative to the increase in power quality that they produce. However, many cheaper solutions are available. In particular, several electronic devices have been developed, studied and proposed to the international scientic community with the goal of improving supplied power quality. In [3][10], various single apparatus are analyzed. Different connection topologies (series or shunt types) are used to realize these devices. The series devices are connected upstream of the protected lines, while the shunt devices are connected in parallel to the sensitive loads. In general, both types of conditioning devices increase the power quality level at the loads, as reported in [3][7] for series devices and in [8][10] for shunt devices.

0885-8977/$26.00 2009 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

2108

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

Other studies have been carried out to consider combinations of the previous single apparatus solutions (as UPS, UPLC, UPQC, etc.). The unied power quality conditioner (UPQC) compensator seems to be a particularly promising power conditioner device. This apparatus is constituted of a series and a shunt unit, with a common dc section through which power can be exchanged. Its function is to improve the quality levels of the current absorbed at the mains and the load supply voltage [2], [11]. However, these devices do not allow local distributors to guarantee different quality demand levels to the nal customers, because they improve power quality for all the supplied end users. The installation investments are also quite high relative to the power quality level obtained. A solution that has similar performances and advantages, but also makes cost reduction possible, is the proposed OPEN UPQC. This new solution, analyzed in [12], [13], starts from the UPQC conguration, removes the common dc connection and splits the shunt unit into several shunted devices. Therefore, the control strategy is different than the traditional combined series and shunt converters, but the improvements to load voltage and network current quality are quite similar. Above all, the OPEN UPQC can stabilize load voltage, increase the network power factor, leading to keep load voltage and network current sinusoidal and balanced as well. The series main unit is installed in the MV/LV substation. In a grid connected conguration, it can stabilize load voltage at the LV busbar (PCC) as the series devices analyzed in [3][7]. The shunt units do not affect the dynamic behavior of the series unit, because their dynamic responses are very slow under these operating conditions. In [6] and [7], the transient behavior of a single dynamic voltage restorer) device was analyzed and simulated, and its working limits were determined. In particular, the device behavior in the presence of voltage sags (i.e. 10%20%) is described. The several shunt units are connected near the end users that need high power quality. If a storage system is present, they can exchange active power and nonactive power with the electrical system. Especially in a grid-connected conguration, nonactive power can be exchanged with the mains in order to enhance the series unit performance and extend its working limits. Otherwise, the users can disconnect themselves when the PCC voltage is out of the operating limits, and the load will be supplied in back-up mode. II. THE OPEN UPQC Most end user disturbances are characterized by short duration and small amplitude, though they can still cause interruptions in production processes. As can be seen in Fig. 2, most voltage sags have small depth and short durations [14]. More than 95% of voltage sags can be compensated by injecting a voltage of up to 60% of the nominal voltage, with a maximum duration of 30 cycles. This information is primarily used to evaluate a suitable size for the OPEN UPQC. The series unit of the OPEN UPQC, sized to supply 60% of the LV network power and equipped with a small storage system, can compensate for most of the voltage disturbances reported in Fig. 2. It has the same function as the DVR [6], [7], [15].

Fig. 2. Example of distribution of voltage disturbances reported in the EPRI event coordination chart.

Fig. 3. Multiwire power diagram of the new proposed solution.

Each shunt unit is sized in relation to the supplied load power, and can protect its sensitive load against interruptions. The shunt units function is similar to that of the UPS output stage [2], [16], but is less expensive because it only has one conversion stage and involves less power loss. Fig. 3 shows the multiwire power layout of the device in a three-phase, four-wire distribution network. The series unit consists of a coupling transformer (TR), with the primary circuit connected in series with the mains line and a secondary one supplying the reversible ac/dc power converter. The output stage of the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) voltage controlled converter contains passive RC shunt lters, to compensate for the harmonic currents at switching and multiple frequencies. Neglecting the active power to compensate the converter losses, the series unit is controlled to act as a purely reactive inductor when the supply voltage is within its operation . This fact is of fundamental limits importance, because in this range the loads must be supplied by

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

BRENNA et al.: NEW PROPOSAL FOR PQ AND CUSTOM POWER IMPROVEMENT: OPEN UPQC

2109

the mains 95% of the time, as established by the IEEE Std 1159 IEEE Recommended Practice for Monitoring Electric Power Quality and European EN50160; therefore, the storage system must not discharge itself. Outside of this range, active power can be used to compensate the disturbances, in the same way as the usual series compensation devices [6], [7], when a storage system is present. The shunt units consist of an ac/dc power converter, similar to the one used in the series unit, connected to an energy storage system and a set of static switches (SS) [17]. The shunt unit, depending on the state of the network voltage, can supply either the entire load, or a part of the load. There are two different modes of OPEN UPQC operation: compensator: when the PCC voltage is within its operation limits, the SS are closed, the series unit works as a threephase voltage generator and the shunt units work as current generators; back-up: when the PCC voltage is outside of its operation limits, the SS are open, decoupling the network and the load-compensator system. Each sensitive load is supplied by its shunt unit, which acts as a sinusoidal voltage generator, using the energy stored in the storage system as an energy source.

III. OPEN UPQC PERFORMANCE This section is focused on understanding the OPEN UPQC compensation limits. The analysis will be carried out under steady state conditions, to evaluate the compensation capacity of . the device in normal operation mode It is important to remember that the power absorbed by the loads and the shunt units inuences the performance of the series unit, and therefore of the whole OPEN UPQC. Therefore, when considering a particular set of load conditions, it is possible to nd operating conditions for the shunt units that increase the compensating limits of the series unit. Depending on whether or not storage systems are present, the series and shunt units can exchange only nonactive power or both nonactive power and active power with the mains. In the latter case, as will be shown in the following, the OPEN UPQC can better compensate for short duration disturbances. In the following cases, all of the solutions will be analyzed under the assumption that the voltages are sinusoidal and are constituted of only the positive sequence component in the different network buses. It is important to emphasize that suitably coordinating the various units of the OPEN UPQC allows for a wide compensation range, comparable with the UPS, but more economical. This coordination requires a communication system (i.e., based on the carrier waves) between the series unit and the shunt units, but this system cannot be very fast. Moreover, in transient analysis, the communication between the series unit and the shunt units cannot be included (the communication could be slow, could be out of order, etc.). Therefore, each unit necessarily works alone. The dynamic behavior of each individual device is described in [3][10], and [15].

Fig. 4. Voltage compensation, exchanging only nonactive power. Case (a1): it is possible to obtain a power factor equal to 1 in s section in low-voltage situations. Case (a2): the power factor is always less than 1.

A. Nonactive

and

Power Exchange

The conditions under which all of the converters exchange only nonactive power must be conrmed in situations when the is near the contractual limits (normal operasystem voltage tion mode). In normal operation mode, the maximum voltage drop in the LV lines of the network must be less than 5% to maintain low power loss. Therefore, if all the converter units are operating to stabilize the voltage in the PCC at its nominal value (100%), the load voltage value will be at least 95% of the nominal voltage. This result allows an improvement of one of the aspects of the supply quality, the stability of the real value of the supply voltage, for all customers. Therefore, the OPEN UPQC works to stabilize the nominal voltage at the PCC. The phasor diagram of the OPEN UPQC is shown in Fig. 4. In order to avoid active power injections, the series voltage has to be in quadrature with the mains current . The value is reported in (1), and the grey areas in Fig. 4 indicate the eld of possible values (1)

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

2110

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

The current is primarily composed of the current of unpro(whose phase difference with respect to tected loads cannot be varied) and the current of protected loads (whose phase difference with respect to can be changed by the and are the shunt units) as reported in (2), where , respecactive and reactive power of the equivalent load and are the active and reactive power lines tively, losses, respectively, and is the reactive power injected by all the shunt units

(2) can oscillate between the upper Therefore, the angle and , obtained when and lower limits and respectively, in the area highlighted in Fig. 4. The angle can be calculated by the equation shown at the bottom of the page. The current phasor can move along the black dotted line, of the shunt units. In case (a1) varying the reactive power in particular, it is possible to obtain a power factor equal to 1 in the section in low voltage situations, because the line intercepts the black dotted line. In case (a2), the power factor is always less than 1. and can be obtained with (4) The quantities and (5), as shown at the bottom of the page. , the range amAssuming that can be obtained with (6) plitude (6) It can be seen that the compensating range amplitude depends on the value that the series unit can inject, and on the nonactive power . The nonactive power is susceptible to exchanges by the shunt units (length apparent of the black dotted line, proportional to the loads and power) and to the power factors of the equivalent loads . In normal operation mode, the compensation strategy can be implemented in various ways. For example, power factor maximization in the s section (corresponding to minimization of the current ) is a compensation strategy that can be implemented by coordinating the series unit and the shunt ones. Therefore, communication between all the units is required. The simplest solution is to employ a slow communication system that allows

Fig. 5. Compensation limits of the OPEN UPQC: with nonactive power exchange only (light gray) and with also active power exchange (dark gray) by the shunt units.

the OPEN UPQC to stabilize the voltage at the PCC, maximizing the power factor in normal operation conditions and increasing its compensation limits outside of normal operation. that the seObviously, in the case of large disturbances in ries unit cannot compensate, each shunt unit can supply the load in back-up mode. B. Nonactive and and Active Power Exchange In this case, the series converter produces only nonactive power, but the shunt units can exchange active and nonactive power with the mains. This condition could be represented as an active network into which dispersed generations are inserted. Fig. 5 depicts the new phasor diagram of the OPEN UPQC under the above operating conditions. In order to avoid active power injections by the series unit, and the mains current have to be in quadrature the voltage with each other. In Fig. 5, the light grey areas indicate the eld in can lay without active power exchanges by the shunt which units, and the dark gray areas indicate the possible values of with active power exchanges by shunt units. In this case, the is greater than compensating range amplitude without active power exchanges, but it is important to note that the difference is small. The phasor current can move inside of the gray dotted circle, varying the active and nonactive power of the shunt units (movement on the black dotted line regards only nonactive power exchange).

(3)

(4) (5)

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

BRENNA et al.: NEW PROPOSAL FOR PQ AND CUSTOM POWER IMPROVEMENT: OPEN UPQC

2111

The dynamic response during transient events has not been considered in this work, because it is described in detail in [15], [17]. For example, considering the dynamic behavior of the series unit, it can be seen that the series unit cannot be affected by the shunt units during a transient event. This is due to the fact that the communication system between them is slow, and does not allow a fast coordinated control strategy. In order to compensate for the voltages in normal operation, (correthe strategy that maximizes the power factor minimization) can be chosen. With sponding to the current this choice, it is possible to minimize the apparent power required by the mains. The mains current is reported in (2), and the compensated is voltage
Fig. 6. Compensation limits of the OPEN UPQC: with nonactive power exchange only (light gray) and with also active power exchange (dark gray) by the series unit.

(7) Neglecting power losses and considering that the voltage has to be in quadrature with the current , it is possible to write the following relation: (8) where is the equivalent reactance of the series unit, giving a voltage proportional to . Solving (7) and (8) is not mathematically easy due to the nonlinearity of the problem, and implementing them into a controller is not useful. It is more convenient to implement two PI controllers: one to evaluate the voltage of the series unit, and another to evaluate related to the nonactive power that all of the a signal shunt units have to inject. The conditions under which the series unit can exchange only nonactive power can be obtained by applying the Park transform , and , and calculating to the three phase currents and in a rotating reference frame, the two components as reported in (9)

C. Noncctive

and

and Active

Power Exchange

In order to exchange active power with the mains, a storage system connected to the dc section of the series unit is needed. The storage system size does not need to be very large, because little energy is required to compensate most of the disturbances For example, to compensate most of the voltage variations reported in Fig. 2 (voltage sag 60% deep for 30 cycle) for a 400-kW load, an energy equal to 120 kJ is needed, corresponding to a battery capacity of about 0.4 Ah at 96 V or a capacitor or supercapacitor bank of about 1.5 F at 400 V. Given a storage system with twice the abovementioned capacity, in order to allow bidirectional energy exchange with the mains, it is possible to compensate voltage disturbances in that are outside of the contractual limits. In the case of mains interruptions lasting longer than 30 cycles, the SS of the shunt units switch off, and the loads are supplied in back-up mode. Considering compensation of transient disturbances, such as voltage sags, swells, etc., various compensation strategies are available for the OPEN UPQC, including minimizing the energy required by the storage system of the series unit. The new phasor diagram of the OPEN UPQC operation is shown in Fig. 6. In the and the mains current light gray areas, the series voltage have to be in quadrature with each other, because active power exchanges by the series unit are not allowed. In these areas, the behavior of the OPEN UPQC is the same as that of the cases described previously. In the case of transient disturbances, the series unit can compensate the voltage over a very large range (the compensating ) compared with all the range amplitude is cases previously analyzed. Indeed, the series unit can exchange active power with the mains in the dark gray areas, but this is only possible for transient disturbances due to the small size of the series unit storage system. IV. CONTROL STRATEGY The following describes a control strategy that can be em, ployed in normal operation mode under steady state conditions, and elucidates the device performance.

(9) where the angle is equal to and is the mains frequency. Consequently, the components of the injected have to be proportional to the components of voltage the current , as follows:

(10) For the constant to be independent of the load conditions, the previous expressions must be normalized with respect to the load current module

(11)

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

2112

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

Fig. 8. System compensation structure.

TABLE I MV/LV TRANSFORMER PARAMETERS Fig. 7. Voltage control loop of the series unit and nonactive power control loop of the shunt units in the OPEN UPQC system.

The constant is obtained by a PI controller that keeps equal to the the voltage at the output of the series unit , as reported in the block diagram of Fig. 7. rated value The second control loop acts to minimize the angle between the voltage and the current downstream of the MV/LV transformer, in order to maximize the power factor absorption in the section. In this case, the PI controller produces a signal , which varies from 0 to 1, and is equal to the ratio between the desired nonactive power injectable by the shunt units and the maximum injectable nonactive power. This signal is sent to all shunt units by the communication system. Thus, is equal the injected nonactive power of the th shunt unit to (12) where is the units rated power. The total nonactive power injected by all the shunt units is (13) Obviously, this compensation strategy, which is useful for its fast series unit response, requires nonactive power injection by the shunt units to be capable of achieving a wide compensation range. To enhance the entire systems performance, the power losses and the voltage drops in the LV lines generally must inis kept high crease. However, if the power factor at the ( 0.8), these increments are negligible. Moreover, this increto each ment can be reduced by sending a different signal shunt unit. This allows the closest shunt units to be used to inject more nonactive power, avoiding useless nonactive power ows. V. TEST NETWORK AND EVALUATION OF OPERATION LIMITS Fig. 8 shows a simplied 400-kVA LV grid, used to validate the OPEN UPQC.

TABLE II LV CABLE PARAMETERS

The protected loads are grouped into the equivalent load , so all of the shunt units are represented by means of an equivalent unit. In the same way, all of the unprotected loads are grouped in the equivalent load . All of the parameters of the three-phase MV/LV transformer used for the simulations are reported in Table I. The LV cables used for the following analysis, with different and , are reported in Table II. power factors and loads In each analysis, the correct 200-m cable is chosen as a function of the current needed to supply the equivalent load with a voltage drop of less than 3%, without considering the OPEN UPQC. In this way, it is possible to neglect power loss and the voltage drop on the LV grid. In this study, all of the converters are represented as ideal controlled voltage or current sources. Moreover, the series unit is not equipped with a storage system. For these reasons, the OPEN UPQC limits are evaluated mainly in the normal operation mode in the following. Therefore, the series unit cannot exchange active power with the mains. The following gures and tables report the power factor and the mains current in the section as functions of the network voltage . Each diagram is represented for a and , and is parametric in . This xed load power factor

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

BRENNA et al.: NEW PROPOSAL FOR PQ AND CUSTOM POWER IMPROVEMENT: OPEN UPQC

2113

Fig. 9. Power factors of the system and maximum line currents in case 1, for different  values. The maximum voltage of the series unit is equal to 0.6 p.u.

Fig. 10. Power factors of the system and maximum line currents in case 2 for different  values. The maximum voltage of the series unit is equal to 0.6 p.u.

parameter indicates the ratio between the apparent powers of and the total apparent power the total loads of shunt units of loads (14) With a xed , and therefore xed , it is possible to calculate as a function of the power factors of the loads and

In the following, the maximum nonactive power injected by can reach the apparent power . all the shunt units In this case, if the control strategy can keep the voltage equal to the nominal value, then these relations have to be true (16)

(17) (15) The reference current is expressed in per unit (p.u.), as the and the voltage referratio between the power reference ence. Since the network cables are correctly designed and their parameters are constant, the voltage drop variation when the OPEN UPQC is present can be neglected under maximum load conditions when the load power factor is equal to 0.9 and it is connected at the end of the line. The operation limits reported in Figs. 9 and 10, which allow to be xed at the nominal value, were obtained the voltage by assuming the above hypothesis and that the maximum injectable voltage by the series unit is equal to 0.6 p.u.. The following results for the proposed solution were obtained by converting the vector diagrams of Fig. 4 into geometrical equations. The operation limits given by (16) and (17) were obtained by using (3) and (15). The gures reveal that: 1) the OPEN UPQC is well-adapted when the power factor is low. Fig. 9 shows the interval that can be of the load compensated by exchanging only nonactive power when is equal to 0.8. In this case, the power factor of the load the OPEN UPQC produces excellent voltage stabilization, especially when the parameter is greater than 0.4; 2) the OPEN UPQC is not well-adapted when the power is high. Fig. 10 shows the interval factor of the load that can be compensated by exchanging only nonactive is equal to power when the power factor of the load 1. In this case, the OPEN UPQC does not produce good voltage stabilization, because it is too limited. It is possible to obtain voltage stabilization in normal operation mode

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

2114

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

TABLE III MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM MAINS VOLTAGE RANGE VARIATION THAT THE SYSTEM CAN COMPENSATE, AS A FUNCTION OF THE MAXIMUM NONACTIVE POWER THAT THE SHUNT UNIT CAN INJECT, WITHOUT CONSIDERING THE MAINS POWER FACTOR

TABLE IV MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM MAINS VOLTAGE RANGE VARIATION THAT THE SYSTEM CAN COMPENSATE, AS A FUNCTION OF THE MAXIMUM NONACTIVE POWER THAT THE SHUNT UNIT CAN INJECT TO KEEP THE MAINS POWER FACTOR BETWEEN 0.9 AND 1 (LIMITATIONS OF THE VOLTAGE DROP IN THE LINE)

range (between 0.9 p.u. and 1.1 p.u.) only with a high value. From Figs. 9 and 10, it is possible to estimate the power of the series unit, given the maximum current value. This value is equal to the product between the maximum injectable voltage (equal to 0.6 p.u.) and the maximum line current (equal to 1.1 and as shown in Fig. 9). Therep.u. when fore, with slight over-sizing of the series unit, good stabilization of the mains voltage is possible. The usual working conditions is present an interesting case, when the power factor of load between 0.9 and 1, and the mains voltage is inside of the contractual limits (normal operation). The distribution power losses should be estimated, in order to understand the energy cost associated with this solution. Under these conditions, it is always possible to compensate the voltage , without considering the power factor in section , if is greater than or equal to 0.5, as reported in Table III. In the case of smaller spread among the shunt units , it is always possible to compensate for the voltage by decreasing the power factor in the section. However, the power will always be greater than 0.8. When the power factor is equal to one, the power factor in the factor of the load section is always close to one, and the compensation limits previously mentioned can be maintained. The mains voltage limits reported in Table III change to those reported in Table IV when it is important to keep the mains power factor between 0.9 and 1. VI. COST EVALUATION To evaluate the costs of power quality improvement and the economic convenience of the proposed solution, an analysis of the 400-kVA LV distribution network has been carried out. represents an equivalent line It was supposed that the line that make up the OPEN in which all of the sensitive loads UPQC are connected, while the line represents an equivalent line that supplies only the nonsensitive loads . Therefore, needs to be protected against each load that belongs to the set

disturbances and network interruptions, while the ones that belong to set only require general improvement of the power quality. Several solutions are available for compensating each load . In the following description, only two possible solutions are considered. The rst solution consists of the installation of an UPS for each end user, while the second one is the installation of a shunt unit for each load. Instead, in order to obtain general power quality improvement for all loads, it is possible to rebuild the LV distribution system to increase the short circuit level in the load connection point or to install a series unit in the MV/LV substation. Therefore, three different methods for improving the power quality have been considered: installation of a UPS for each end user. In this case, it is not possible to improve the power quality of the distribution network. However, it is possible to compensate for all voltage disturbances for the end users; revamping of all of the LV distribution cables. In this case, it is not possible to compensate for all voltage disturbances; installation of an OPEN UPQC. In this case, it is possible to compensate for most of the voltage disturbances. The last solution consists of the installation of a series unit sized for 66% of the total power loads supplied (264 kVA), while each shunt unit has an assumed size of 5 kVA. Moreover, each UPS is assumed to have the same power, and the input stage of each UPS is composed of PFC rectiers. It is important to clarify that the storage systems cost for UPS and OPEN UPQC solutions in this analysis is not considered, because it primarily depends on the technologies and autonomies required. The revamping cost considered here can be found in the economical analysis carried out in [17]. The total cost for each solution is reported in Fig. 11. They include only the devices and various materials; the installation cost is assumed to be 50% of the device cost.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

BRENNA et al.: NEW PROPOSAL FOR PQ AND CUSTOM POWER IMPROVEMENT: OPEN UPQC

2115

TABLE V OPEN UPQC UNITS ACTIONS

the P injection is possible only for few time and if necessary. Fig. 11. Comparison between installation costs of a new line, of the OPEN UPQC and of the UPS, as functions of the compensated sensitive loads power.

availability of electrical distribution operators for an ineld test will be required. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the referees for their useful remarks, which helped to improve the paper. REFERENCES
[1] D. M. Divan, W. E. Brumsickle, G. A. Luckjiff, J. W. Freeborg, and R. L. Hayes, Realizing a nation-wide power quality and reliability monitoring system, 2003. [Online]. Available: http://www.softswitch. com/docs/Realizing%20a%20Nationwide%20System%202003.pdf [2] J. M. Guerrero, L. Garcia de Vicuna, and J. Uceda, Uninterruptible power supply systems provide protection, IEEE Ind. Electron. Mag., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 2838, Spring, 2007. [3] B. Wang, G. Venkataramanan, and M. Illindala, Operation and control of a dynamic voltage restorer using transformer coupled H-bridge converters, IEEE Trans. Power. Electron., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 10531061, Jul. 2006. [4] D. M. Vilathgamuwa, H. M. Wijekoon, and S. S. Choi, A novel technique to compensate voltage sags in multiline distribution systemThe interline dynamic voltage restorer, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 16031611, Oct. 2006. [5] C. N. M. Ho and H. S. H. Chung, Fast transient control of singlephase Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) without external DC source, in Proc. 37th IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conf., Jeju, Korea, Jun. 1822, 2006, pp. 21052111. [6] M. R. Banaei, S. H. Hosseini, and M. D. Khajee, Mitigation of voltage sag using adaptive neural network with dynamic voltage restorer, in Proc. 5th Int. CES/IEEE Power Electronics and Motion Control Conf., Shanghai, China, Aug. 1416, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 15. [7] A. Ghosh and G. Ledwich, Compensation of distribution system voltage using DVR, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 10301036, Oct. 2002. [8] M. K. Mishra, K. Karthikeyan, and P. K. Linash, A development and implementation of DSP based DSTATCOM to compensate unbalanced nonlinear loads, presented at the IEEE Power India Conf., New Delhi, India, Apr. 1012, 2006. [9] B. Singh, A. Adya, A. P. Mittal, and J. R. P. Gupta, Analysis, simulation and control of DSTATCOM in three-phase, four-wire isolated distribution systems, presented at the IEEE Power India Conf., New Delhi, India, Apr. 1012, 2006. [10] A. Ghosh and R. Gupta, Frequency-domain characterization of sliding mode control of an inverter used in DSTATCOM application, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 662676, Mar. 2006. [11] G. Jianjun, X. Dianguo, L. Hankui, and G. Maozhong, Unied power quality conditioner (UPQC): The principle, control and application, in Proc. Power Conversion Conf. (PCC), Osaka, Japan, 2002, vol. 1, pp. 8085. [12] R. Faranda, E. Tironi, I. Valad, and D. Zaninelli, Power quality improvement using series electronic reactor and shunt power conditioner, in Proc. Int. Symp. and Exhib. Electric Power Engineering at the Beginning of the Third Millennium, Capri, Italy, May 1218, 2000. [13] M. Brenna, R. Faranda, and E. Tironi, OPEN UPQC able to improve power quality of network and loads, in Proc. Int. Congr. Electricity Distribution, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 2729, 2006.

Fig. 11 shows that to compensate for most of the disturbances in the whole network, installing the series unit only is a better solution than revamping all of the LV distribution system. To compensate for the loads , it is necessary to install a UPS or a shunt unit close to them, which increases the total cost as a function of their power. Referring to Fig. 11, it can be seen that the UPSs are a good solution if only a few sensitive loads are present. However, if it is necessary to improve the power quality of the whole network, they become too expensive to use. They can only be more convenient than the proposed OPEN UPQC if the total power of the is lower than about 80 kVA (20% of the total sensitive loads load) when, and only when, it is not necessary to increase the PQ of the network. VII. CONCLUSION The OPEN UPQC apparatus is a good compensation system if wide installation of shunt units is needed. An increase in the percentage of the protected load enhances the voltage stabilization interval over which the OPEN UPQC can signicantly improve the power quality, especially if the load power factor is less than one, takes a high value. If the power factor of load the power factor in section increases, to avoid nonactive power absorption from the mains. For low values of the parameter, the OPEN UPQC becomes expensive if there are few shunt units. In this case, it is better to install other compensation device typologies (as UPS, UPQC, etc.) near the sensitive loads, and a nonactive compensator system near the nonsensitive loads if necessary. It is possible to conclude that installation of the series unit is a cost-effective way for distributors to improve the power quality level in the distribution networks in order to achieve the standards imposed by the authorities. Compensation improvement can be achieved by installing a for the sensitive end users shunt unit near them, instead of the more expensive UPS device. The OPEN UPQC working conditions are reported in Table V. At this moment, the OPEN UPQC study is still under investigation. The dynamic behavior, considering changing operating modes, of a 5 kW prototype shunt unit is developed and experimental results are presented in [18]. As shown in Fig. 11, large investments are needed to analyze the completed solution, and

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

2116

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

[14] M. Buschmann, G. Linhofer, P. Maibach, and O. Suter, Voltage source converter based power quality solutions, in Proc. Asia Pacic Regional Power Quality Seminar, Putrajaya, Malaysia, Mar. 2831, 2005. [15] F. Blaabjerg, M. Newman, H. Nielsen, and J. G. Nielsen, Control and testing of a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) at medium voltage level, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 806813, May 2004. [16] K. N. Choma and M. Etezadi-Amoli, The application of a DSTATCOM to an industrial facility, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, Jan. 2731, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 725728. [17] A. Agustoni, E. Borioli, M. Brenna, G. Simioli, E. Tironi, and G. Ubezio, LV DC distribution network with distributed energy resources: Analysis of possible structures, presented at the 18th Int. Conf. Electricity Distribution CIRED 2005, Turin, Italy, Jun. 69, 2005. [18] R. Faranda, F. Castelli Dezza, I. Mazzucco, P. Redi, and E. Tironi, An interface converter for DG/storage system able to improve power quality of the load, presented at the IEEE Power Eng. Soc., Montreal, QC, Canada, Jun. 1822, 2006. Morris Brenna (M06) received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano. His research interests include power electronics, distributed generation, traction systems, and electromagnetic compatibility. Dr. Brenna is a member of the Italian Electrical Association (AEIT) and Italian Railways Engineering Association (CIFI).

Roberto Faranda (M06) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1998. He is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano. His areas of research include power electronics, power system harmonics, power quality, power system analysis, and distributed generation. Dr. Faranda is a member of the Italian Standard Authority (CEI), the Italian Electrical Association (AEI), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) Group of the Electrical Power System.

Enrico Tironi received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1972. He then joined the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, where he is a Full Professor. His areas of research include power electronics, power quality, and distributed generation. Dr. Tironi is a member of the Italian Standard Authority (CEI), the Italian Electrical Association (AEI), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR) group of the Electrical Power System.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Abdul Shaik. Downloaded on October 10, 2009 at 03:57 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.