J.Faiz A.

Zafari

J. Electrical Systems 6-2 (2010): xx-xx

Regular paper A Novel Algorithm for Determination of Reactive Currents in STATCOM for Voltage Flicker Mitigation
Voltage flicker is one of the tormenter disturbance factors in electrical power distribution systems. The reason for this disturbance is mainly intensive non-linear loads such as electric arc furnaces (EAF). Synchronous static compensator (STATCOM) is accounted for as a proper technique for mitigation of voltage flicker. Applying a proper reference current to its control loop is an interfering factor in the quality enhancement of this compensator. In this paper, a novel algorithm is introduced to determine the reference current which is more precise than the available algorithms; and it leads to a better mitigation of the oscillations in the system buses particularly PCC bus. Implementation of this algorithm is compared with that of the others and the optimal performance of the proposed algorithm is emphasized. Finally, inserting a bank of three-phase capacitors in the power system is recommended in order to compensate the amplitude of voltage reduction in the PCC bus due to non-linear loads.

Keywords: Voltage flicker, mitigation, STATCOM, novel algorithm.

1. Nomenclature Uacs voltage of the ac system Uvsi voltage of the voltage source inverter X leakage reactance of the transformer I0 zero sequence currents Ip1 positive sequence active current Iq1 positive sequence of reactive current I2 negative sequence of current Ih harmonic current Ip , Iq the two-orthogonal components of Iabc Vp,Vq the two-orthogonal components of Vabc Cpq Park conversion P electrical power
_ _ _ _

i p , i q , v p , v q dc part of two orthogonal voltage and current components

2. Introduction In recent years, power quality in power systems becomes very important due to grow of industrial plants, rising energy consumption and variety of the electrical loads [1]. Voltage flicker is one of the common problems that has negative effect on the power quality. Electric arc furnace (EAF) consumes very large active and reactive time varying powers during the melting and refining processes which causes irregular voltage oscillation in PCC [2]. This leads to an undesirable effect on the electric light sources, performance of electronic components in the protective relays and shortening their lifetime [3]. The
Corresponding author : A. Zafari School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Department of Electrical Engineering , Neka branch , Islamic Azad University-Neka-Iran Copyright JES 2010 on-line : journal.esrgroups.org/jes

IEEE519-1992 standard indicates that 0.5% change in the voltage amplitude with frequency 2 to 10 Hz can harm the human eyes [4, 5]. Therefore, voltage mitigation is an essential factor in enhancement of power quality.. So far, various techniques for reduction of the voltage oscillations of buses under standard limit have been introduced. These techniques considered the problem from different point of views. For instance, one optimizes the compensator using an optimum algorithm and another one achieves the goal by a novel compensator, such as neural compensator. However, taking into account the nature of the flicker phenomenon, which is normally irregular, rapid and unpredictable, a compensator must operate fast in order to respond quickly to the oscillations and variations. Other factors that must be considered are: non-bulky compensator (SVC drawback), suitable harmonic behavior, unlimited kVar (drawback of active filters) [6], disuse of expensive tools (drawback of smarttrafo) [7], DG algorithm [3, 8], UPFC [9] and unlimited line commutation (drawback of dynamic phase controlling method) [10]. Among compensators that so far have been introduced, STATCOM has the abovementioned features and it is a proper technique for voltage flicker mitigation [11]. It refers to the very positive properties of the FACTS devices such as fast response, very low harmonic
pollution in synchronous static compensator (STATCOM). For example

One of the factors that influences the STATCOM performance quality is applying a proper and precise reference current to the loop control. A few theories have been so far introduced for reference reactive current generation and they often useable as reference current in the loop control of STATCOM and some have acceptable results, such as that reported in [12]. However, in the above-mentioned cases only positive sequence reactive current has been used to generate the reference current. This assumption is very ideal and impracticable. In some cases, such as EAF loads, unbalanced voltage or current leads to negative and zero sequences current and some harmonic currents which are harmful and ineffective. Therefore, including these currents in the applied reference current to STATCOM leads to a more precise performance and consequently oscillations of buses voltage and current is largely mitigated. This has been accounted for in the algorithm introduced in [13] in which all harmful currents of the system are identified. In The present paper, we want to precede this case actually and practically. Therefore, a very accurate algorithm for reference current will be used. The results will show that the compensation operates well and its optimum aspects will be shown by comparing it with other available algorithms. When a nonlinear load such as EAF is supplied by a power system, a considerable voltage drop occurs. This voltage drop must be compensated completely and accurately. Here, a bank of three-phase capacitors is inserted in the power system to compensate the voltage drop. Simulation results will show this feature. This paper consists of 6 sections. Section 2 discusses the basis of the STATCOM operation and gives the major equations. The algorithm used for reference current determination is introduced in section 3. In section 4, the introduced reference current is applied to the flicker mitigation control loop and simulation results are given. The simulation results in section 4 are compared with simulation results obtained from other available algorithms in section 5 and the optimal aspects of the proposed system are shown. Finally section 6 summarizes the overall conclusions of this paper. 3. Principle of STATCOM Operation STATCOM consists of two basic elements: voltage source inverter and adaptive transformer. The latter element is interface between the system and inverter. This compensator is connected in parallel with the EAF furnace or other non-linear loads via the

furnace bus (as proposed in [14]), or PCC bus (as proposed in [12]) and this depends on the control strategy and network topology. A general scheme of a STATCOM connected to the system has been presented in Fig. 1. If the primary voltage of the transformer (inverter side) becomes larger than that of the secondary voltage (system side), the current passes the AC system through interface reactance in the inverter, and inverter generates reactive power for system (capacitive case). If the transformer secondary voltage (inverter side) becomes larger than the primary voltage (system side), the reactive current from AC system passes to the inverter and inverter observes reactive power (inductive case).This current is calculated as follows:

I=

U acs U vsi X

(1)

where Uacs and Uvst are the voltage of the ac system and voltage source inverter(VSI) respectively and X is the leakage reactance of the transformer. In is clear that in the case of equal secondary and primary voltage of transformer, interchange of the reactive power is equal to zero. The exchanged reactive power Q is as follows::

1 Q=

U vsi U acs 2 U acs X

(2)

Therefore, the STATCOM helps the network to provide the reactive power loss or does not inject more reactive power to the system. As a result, this prevents the voltage and consequently current oscillations in buses. 4. Reference Current Detection Strategy A new based strategy algorithm which generates the reference currents is similar to that described in [13]. The

Fig. 1. A general scheme of a STATCOM connected to an AC system

Fig. 2. Block diagram of STATCOM control loop

basis of this algorithm is that there is only positive sequence active current (Ip1) in the nondisturbance, balanced and healthy system. Subtracting this current (ip1) from the total current of the system (i) gives a harmful and ineffective current that consists of positive sequence of reactive currents (Iq1), negative sequence of currents (I2), zero sequence currents (I0) and harmonic currents (Ih), which is considered as reference current. Therefore: (3) i * = i i p = i q + i 2 + ih + i0
1 1

where i , the generated reference, is current passing the control loop of STATCOM. Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of this loop. At any time, the reference currents are compared with the current generated by STATCOM and pulses are generated proportionally using PWM technique, a relevant suitable voltage inverter is then provided. This process continues until the reference current diminishes. It means that the only existing current in the system is the positive sequence active current and consequently the system is balanced and there is no disturbance.

Fig. 3. Block diagram of algorithm

Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the above-mentioned algorithm. In this algorithm, current, voltage and frequency of the system are received and the positive sequence active currents are mathematically estimated as described below.

First three-phase voltages and currents are transformed into the two-orthogonal components by transformation matrix C pq :

ia ip = C pq ib , i i q c va vp = C pq vb v v q c
where,
Sin t Sin (t 2 / 3) Sin (t + 2 / 3) C pq = 2 / 3 Cos t Cos (t 2 / 3) Cos (t + 2 / 3)
_ _ _ _

(4)

(5)

Then, the dc part of two orthogonal voltage and current components ( i p , i q , v p , v q ), required in the next stage of algorithm, are extracted from the low pass second-order Butterworth filter. The positive sequence of active currents is calculated as follows:

v v p i p1 = C v v 0
T

(6)

where, electrical power p is obtained as follows:

p = v p i p + vq i q
Based on the following definition of C:
1 1 1 2 2 C = 2 / 3 3 0 3 2 2

(7)

(8)

Fig. 4. Schematic of proposed system

Fig. 5. Model of EAF

and

va v = C vb v v c
Finally, if the total current of the system is subtracted from determined. 5. Application of Novel Algorithm

(9)

i p1 , the reference currents are

To validate the algorithm and its optimal performance compared with the similar algorithms, a system introduced in [12] is proposed studied. In [12], alternative algorithm has been used to calculate the reference current. The algorithm introduced in the present paper is applied to the same system in order to compare then in identical conditions. Fig. 4 shows the schematic of this system with numerical values and compensator. The time variant EAF model is identical with the non-linear resistance model shown in Fig. 5. All simulations have been carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK software. Fig. 6 shows the PCC bus voltage in three cases: no compensation, with compensation using the previous algorithm and compensation with the novel algorithm. As seen, voltage oscillations have been desirably compensated using both algorithms, however, these oscillations are considerably lower when the new algorithm is applied. This shows a better performance of the novel algorithm. Fig. 7 exhibits the rms voltage of the PCC bus in three cases. In the no compensation case, there is more than 2 kV voltage oscillations which are reduced in the two compensated cases, and the new compensation method leads to the best result. In order to be assured the optimal and correct performance of the new algorithm, the current of the EFA

(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 6. PCC bus voltage: (a) no compensation, (b) compensation using previous algorithm and (c) compensation using novel algorithm

(a)

(b) Fig. 7. Rms voltage of PCC bus: (a) no compensation, (b) compensation using previous algorithm and novel algorithm

bus in two cases are compared in Fig. 8. Also Table I shows that there are very low oscillations when the novel algorithm is used. In this table oscillation factor criterion has been used which defined as follows:

(a)

(b) Fig. 8. Current of EAFbus: (a) compensation using previous algorithm and (b) compensation using novel algorithm

Oscillation factor = [

(Vmax - Vmin ) ] 100 Vn

(10)

where Vmax and Vmin are the maximum and minimum of PCC voltage respectively and Vn is the rated voltage. As expected, applying a precise reference current to the STATCOM enhances the performance of the system. 6. Compensation of Voltage Level Reduction The nonlinear loads such as EAF result in voltage drop particularly in the PCC bus. Fig. 9 shows the PCC bus voltage when there is EAF in the system (with compensator) or out of the system. As seen there is more than 1 kV voltage drop in the PCC bus. By inserting a capacitor bank into the FEA bus, the amplitude of the voltage rises to a proper and permissible level. In the system, star-connected capacitor is capable to inject 100 MVar reactive power to the system. Fig. 10 shows the
TABLE I. COMPARISON OF COMPENSATION IN DIFFERENT CASES Compensation Compensation No Compensation using 2nd algorithm compensation using 1st algorithm algorithm Oscillations factor of PCC 6.8 0.471 0.005 bus voltage (%) Oscillations of rms voltage 2500 75 1 of PCC bus (V) Current oscillations of -----500 70 furnace bus

(a)

(b) Fig. 9. Voltage level of PCC: (a) no furnace and (b) with furnace in system

Fig. 10. PCC voltage level after inserting capacitors bank

PCC bus voltage under the same conditions (with EAF and compensator), in which capacitors have been inserted. It is clear that 1 kV PCC voltage level has been compensated. It is noted that the designer can calculate the required reactive power and insert the required capacitors in the suitable locations. 7. Conclusions In this paper it was indicated that the quality of the reference current passing the control loop of the STATCOM has considerable effect upon the compensating of the voltage flicker mitigation. Comparisons were shown that different reference current computation algorithms lead to different results. As expected a novel algorithm used in the STATCOM control loop leads to a lower voltage and current oscillations compared to the previous algorithms. Therefore, the power quality in the whole power system is enhanced. To compensate the drop of the buses voltage due to non-linear loads, such as EAF, it was recommended to insert three-phase star-connected bank in the EAF bus. It was indicated that this can improve the performance of the system considerably. The important problem (perhaps the most important) is that the accurate compensation leads to a costly system. It means that the proposed compensation system may be neat the accurate and consequently the expensive devices. Therefore, it can be deduced that the 9

accurate compensation increases the whole cost of the project. In this cases there must be a reasonable compromise between the accuracy and cost of the power system.

References

References
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