Indirect Control Techniques for Cascaded

Multilevel Inverter(CMLI) STATCOM:A Review

Ravinder Kumar
Electrical Engineering Department
PEC University Of Technology
Chandigarh, India.
Abstract- Power system oscillation is one of the major problems in
power system operation. If not damped, these oscillations can
grow and decrease transmission capacity of the lines which may
cause interruption in energy supply. Traditionally, these
oscillations have been damped by power system stabilizers. An
adaptive tuning of parameters of a power oscillation damping
(POD) controller for FACTS devices. The FACTS device
considered here is STATCOM. The optimal location of
STATCOM in IEEE 30 bus system is done through various
optimization techniques. It should be noted that, the objective of
STATCOM is to regulate voltage at its terminal by changing the
amount of reactive power exchanges with the power system.
Keywords-Power system oscillations, STATCOM, Power
Oscillator Damper, IEEE 30 BUS system, particle swarm
optimization.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Power System Oscillations deals with the analysis and control

of low frequency oscillations in the 0.2-3 Hz range, which are
a characteristic of interconnected power systems. Small
variations in system load excite the oscillations, which must be
damped effectively to maintain secure and stable system
operation. No warning is given for the occurrence of growing
oscillations caused by oscillatory instability, since a change in
the system's operating condition may cause the transition from
stable to unstable. If not limited by nonlinearities, unstable
oscillations may lead to rapid system collapse. It follows that
it is important to analyze a system's oscillatory behavior in
order to understand the system's limits. If the limits imposed
by oscillatory instability are too low, they may be increased by
the installation of special stabilizing controls. Power system
stabilizers (PSSs) are one of the most common controls used
to damp out power system oscillations in local area usually in
the range between 1to 2 Hz.While for the inter area
oscillations FACTS devices became very common in modern
power systems and the number of installed devices is
continuously increasing. Reasons for this development are
among others the increasing number of renewable generation
sources and their connection to the grid, the need to transmit
increased power on existing network paths, and also the
request to operate power systems with a higher degree of
flexibility.[2]
FACTS devices help to maintain transient stability and also
provide one of the important factor of the system i.e. reactive
power. FACTS devices play an important role in controlling

Puneet Arora
Electrical Engineering Department
PEC University Of Technology
Chandigarh, India.
the reactive power flow to the power network and, hence, the
system voltage fluctuations and stability. Static synchronous
compensator (STATCOM) is member of FACTS family that is
connected in shunt with the system. STATCOM is Voltage
Source Converter(VSC) based controller to regulate the
voltage by varying the reactive power in a long transmission
line. When a STATCOM is present in a power system to
support the bus voltage, a supplementary damping controller
could be designed to modulate the STATCOM bus voltage in
order to improve damping of system oscillations
A comphrensive review on STATCOM technology and
optimal location are carried out in this paper. The paper
includes (i) working Principle of STATCOM (ii) STATCOM
topologies and configuration
(iii) optimal location
optimization (iv) IEEE 30 bus system
II WORKING PRINCIPLE OF STATCOM
It is a combination of self-commutating solid-state turn-off
devices (viz. GTO, IGBT, IGCT and so on) with a reverse
diode connected in parallel to them. The solid-state switches
are operated either in square-wave mode with switching once
per cycle or in PWM mode employing high switching
frequencies in a cycle of operation or selective harmonic
elimination modulation employing low switching frequencies.
A DC voltage source on the input side of VSC, which is
generally achieved by a DC capacitor and output, is a multistepped AC voltage waveform, almost a sinusoidal waveform.
The turn-off device makes the converter action, whereas diode
handles rectifier action. STATCOM is essentially consisting of
six-pulse VSC units, DC side of which is connected to a DC
capacitor to be used as an energy storage device, interfacing
magnetic (main coupling transformer and/or intermediate/inter-phase transformers) that form the electrical
coupling between converter AC output voltage (Vc) and
system voltage (Vs) and a controller. The primary objective of
STATCOM is to obtain almost harmonic neutralized and
controllable three-phase AC output voltage waveforms at the
point of common coupling (PCC) to regulate reactive current
flow by generation and absorption of controllable reactive
power by the solid-state switching algorithm. As STATCOM
has inherent characteristics for real power exchange with a
support of proper energy storage system, operation of such

controller is possible in all four quadrants of QP plane and it

is governed by the following power flow.
2

V V
V
j 3( s c cos S )=P jQ(3)
XL
XL
V V
S=3 s c sin
XL
where S is the apparent power flow, P the active power flow, Q
the reactive power flow, Vs the main AC phase voltage to
neutral (rms), Vc the STATCOM fundamental output AC
phase voltage (rms), X the leakage reactance, L the leakage
inductance, f the system frequency and the phase angle
between Vs and Vc.
Active power flow is influenced by the variation of and
reactive power flow is greatly varied with the magnitude of the
voltage variation between Vc and Vs. Q is derived from (1) as
follows:

Q=

VS
(V V S )( 4)
XL C

which consists of three legs (phases) with two valves per leg
and an electrostatic capacitor on the DC bus is illustrated in
Fig. 1. Each valve consists of a self-commutating switch with
a reverse diode connected in parallel. In square-wave mode,
eight possible switching states are possible with respect to the
polarity of DC voltage source. A set of three quasi square
waveforms at its AC terminals, displaced successively by 120
degree, is obtained using fundamental frequency switching
modulation. The phase to neutral and line-to-line voltage of
the converter shown in Fig. 1 contain an unacceptable current
harmonics causing severe harmonic interference to electrical
system. To reduce THD, multi-pulse converter topology
derived from the combination of multiple number (Nnumbers) of elementary six-pulse converter units to be
triggered at specific displacement angle(s), is widely adopted,
and output AC voltage waveforms from each unit is electromagnetically added with an appropriate phase shift by interphase transformer(s) to produce a multi- pulse (6* N pulses)
waveform close to sinusoidal wave.

Converter fundamental phase terminal voltage(rms)=

2
V c = V dc (5)

nth harmonic voltage(rms) =

2
V c =V c = V dc

dc

(iv)

Converter fundamental reactive current(rms)=

Iq =
1

V sV c
jwL

STATCOMs are typically applied in long distance

transmission systems, power substations and heavy industries
where voltage stability is the primary concern.
In addition, static synchronous compensators are installed in
select points in the power system to perform the following:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.

Voltage support and control

Voltage fluctuation and flicker mitigation
Unsymmetrical load balancing
Power factor correction
Active harmonics cancellation
Improve transient stability of the power system

III STATCOM TOPOLOGIES AND

CONFIGURATIONS
Many VSC-based topologies and configurations are adopted in
the state-of-the-art STATCOM controllers and significantly,
multi-pulse and/or multi-level topologies are widely accepted
in the design of compensators. An elementary six-pulse VSC

Fig, 1 basic two level six pulse VSC bridge and its output voltage waveform
in square wave mode of operation

IV OPTIMAL LOCATION OPTIMISATION

TECHNIQUE
[1] Residue method approach is used for finding the optimal
location of STATCOM in IEEE 14 bus system. Eigen values of
the test system were computed in order to find poorly damped
oscillatory mode. A supplementary controller called POD was
designed for STATCOM to damp the oscillations.
[2] Particle swarm optimization(PSO) technique is applied to
determine the optimal location and controller parameters of
STATCOM. A systematic procedure to determine the optimal
location of STATCOM for transient stability improvement
following a severe disturbance is proposed. The proposed
algorithm is applied to find the optimal location of STATCOM

in a two-area system employing PSO. A STATCOM-based

damping controller is proposed and the parameter of the
proposed controller and PSSs are coordinately determined
using PSO.
[3] A simple adaptive tuning method based on residue
approach, applied to TCSC and SVC. It is shown that in some
cases the set of FACTS POD parameters cannot stabilize the
power system under all admissible operating conditions. In
this case, a re-tuning is necessary. An algorithm for detection
of oscillation has been utilized to automate this procedure.
[4] A global tuning procedure for FACTS power oscillation
damping (POD) and power system stabilizers (PSSs) in a
multi-machine power system using real coded genetic
algorithm. The stabilizers gains are obtained through the
minimization of an objective function based on the damping
ratio. The proposed controllers were simultaneously designed
and they have provided a coordinated control action and a
satisfactory performance for the power system.
[5] STATCOM with a supplementary power oscillation
damping control function to damp a critical inter area
oscillation mode. The controller parameters were tuned using
an optimization technique. Considerable improvement to the
transient stability and the dynamic performance of the power
system was achieved with a properly tuned power oscillation
damping controller with optimized parameters.
[6]The Performance Evaluation of PSS and STATCOM in
damping oscillations of the case study network has been
discussed in this paper. STATCOM have improved the active
power profile of the system, reduced active power losses and
restored the system stability from instability better than PSS.
STATCOM has been proven to be of better ability in damping
oscillations when compared to PSS.
[7]STATCOM is the latest in a line of static equipment
available to a transmission or distribution power system to
regulate voltage. STATCOM adds some new elements to the
vital service of ensuring stability and reliability in a power
system. STATCOM brings a quicker and a greater contribution
in reactive power provision than do alternative means.
[8] An optimization algorithm based on Harmony Search is
used to obtain optimal number and location for STATCOM
devices on IEEE 30 bus system. The results showed that the
HS technique is able to find the best number, location and size
of STATCOM devices. The voltage values on the buses to
which the STATCOMs are connected and marginally sufficient
to keep all other voltages within the ranges.
[9] The necessity for the coordination of FACTS controls with
regard to power modulations has been discussed. a global
tuning procedure for FACTS controls has been

proposed, based
minimization.

on

nonlinear

analysis

and

function

[10] Residue factor method to obtain the optimal location of

the Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) device to
damp out the inter-area mode of oscillations. The residue
method is based on the fact that it is the product of the modes
Observability and controllability index of TCSC controllers to
the critical mode. The placements of TCSC controllers have
been obtained for the base case and for the dynamic critical
contingences.

V FACTS POD CONTROLLER DESIGN

Fig. 2 represents a power system including STATCOM unit
and POD controller. POD is used as a feedback controller.
Active power flow deviation which is local signal has been
used as the feedback signal for STATCOM supplementary
controller (POD). When applying the feedback control,
eigenvalues of the system are changed. The change of the
eigenvalues must be directed towards the left half complex
plane for damping improvement. The movement can be
achieved with a transfer function consisting of an
amplification block, a wash-out block, and stage of lead-lag
blocks[1].

Fig. 2. Power system with POD control

Fig.3. Structure of STATCOM based controller

The commonly used leadlag structure is chosen in this study

as STATCOM-based controller as shown in Fig. 3. The
structure consists of: a gain block, a signal washout block and
two-stage phase-compensation block. The phase-compensation
block provides the appropriate phase-lead characteristics to
compensate for the phase lag between exciter input and the
generator electrical torque. The signal washout block serves as
a high-pass filter which allows signals associated with
oscillations in input signal to pass unchanged. Its time constant
is large. Without it steady changes in input would modify the
output. The gain block should be computed at the frequency of

oscillations and should be enough to make damping

coefficient positive.
VI IEEE 30 BUS SYSTEM

Fig.4 IEEE 30 bus system

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Damping
of
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