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

Abstract—Currently, the quality of supplied power is important

to several customers. Power quality (PQ) is a service and many cus-
tomers are ready to pay for it. In the future, distribution system op-
erators 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 fulfill this role is the OPEN unified power-
quality conditioner (UPQC), composed of a power-electronic series
main unit installed in the medium-voltage/low-voltage (LV) sub-
station, 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 tra-
ditional 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 inter-
ruptions), 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 con-
sidered a test network to evaluate the steady-state performance and
functioning limits. The results obtained under steady-state con-
ditions justify the configuration chosen and good device perfor-
mance.
Index Terms—Active power conditioner, custom power, interface
devices, OPEN unified power-quality conditioner (UPQC), power
quality (PQ), unified power quality conditioner (UPQC).
I. INTRODUCTION
P OWER QUALITY (PQ) is very important to certain cus-
tomers. 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. Specif-
ically, it has been reported in a survey [1] that, in the South-
eastern 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 momen-
tary 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, Po-
litecnico 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 Mi-
lano, Milan 20133, Italy (e-mail: tironi@polimi.it).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2028791
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
Fig. 1. Chronology of voltage sags occurring in the Southeastern states of the
U.S. on December 4 and 5, 2002.
configure 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 distur-
bances. One solution involves increasing the short circuit level
of the distribution network, i.e., revamping all the LV distribu-
tion cables or raising the power of the MV/LV substation trans-
former, 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 interrup-
tions, 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. How-
ever, many cheaper solutions are available.
In particular, several electronic devices have been developed,
studied and proposed to the international scientific 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 pro-
tected 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.

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2108 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

Other studies have been carried out to consider combina-

tions of the previous single apparatus solutions (as UPS, UPLC,
UPQC, etc.). The unified power quality conditioner (UPQC)
compensator seems to be a particularly promising power con-
ditioner 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 distribu-
tors to guarantee different quality demand levels to the final cus-
tomers, because they improve power quality for all the supplied
end users. The installation investments are also quite high rela-
tive to the power quality level obtained. A solution that has sim-
ilar performances and advantages, but also makes cost reduction
possible, is the proposed OPEN UPQC.
This new solution, analyzed in [12], [13], starts from the
Fig. 2. Example of distribution of voltage disturbances reported in the EPRI
UPQC configuration, removes the common dc connection and event coordination chart.
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 sinu-
soidal and balanced as well.
The series main unit is installed in the MV/LV substation. In
a grid connected configuration, 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 simu-
lated, 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 configuration, nonactive Fig. 3. Multiwire power diagram of the new proposed solution.
power can be exchanged with the mains in order to enhance the
series unit performance and extend its working limits. Other-
wise, the users can disconnect themselves when the PCC voltage Each shunt unit is sized in relation to the supplied load power,
is out of the operating limits, and the load will be supplied in and can protect its sensitive load against interruptions. The shunt
back-up mode. unit’s function is similar to that of the UPS output stage [2],
[16], but is less expensive because it only has one conversion
II. THE OPEN UPQC stage and involves less power loss.
Most end user disturbances are characterized by short dura- Fig. 3 shows the multiwire power layout of the device in a
tion and small amplitude, though they can still cause interrup- three-phase, four-wire distribution network.
tions in production processes. As can be seen in Fig. 2, most The series unit consists of a coupling transformer (TR), with
voltage sags have small depth and short durations [14]. the primary circuit connected in series with the mains line and a
More than 95% of voltage sags can be compensated by in- secondary one supplying the reversible ac/dc power converter.
jecting a voltage of up to 60% of the nominal voltage, with a The output stage of the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) voltage
maximum duration of 30 cycles. This information is primarily controlled converter contains passive RC shunt filters, to com-
used to evaluate a suitable size for the OPEN UPQC. pensate for the harmonic currents at switching and multiple fre-
The series unit of the OPEN UPQC, sized to supply 60% quencies. Neglecting the active power to compensate the con-
of the LV network power and equipped with a small storage verter losses, the series unit is controlled to act as a purely re-
system, can compensate for most of the voltage disturbances active inductor when the supply voltage is within its operation
reported in Fig. 2. It has the same function as the DVR [6], [7], limits . This fact is of fundamental
[15]. importance, because in this range the loads must be supplied by

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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 three-
phase 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 gen-
erator, 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 influences the performance of the se-
ries unit, and therefore of the whole OPEN UPQC. Therefore,
when considering a particular set of load conditions, it is pos-
sible to find 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 dif-
ferent network buses.
It is important to emphasize that suitably coordinating the var-
ious units of the OPEN UPQC allows for a wide compensation
range, comparable with the UPS, but more economical. This co-
ordination 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 confirmed in situations when the
system voltage is near the contractual limits (normal opera-
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 oper-
ating to stabilize the voltage in the PCC at its nominal value
(100%), the load voltage value will be at least 95% of the nom-
inal 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
field of possible values
(1)

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2110 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009

The current is primarily composed of the current of unpro-

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

(2)
Therefore, the angle can oscillate between the upper
and lower limits and , obtained when
and respectively, in the area highlighted Fig. 5. Compensation limits of the OPEN UPQC: with nonactive power ex-
in Fig. 4. The angle can be calculated by the equation shown at change only (light gray) and with also active power exchange (dark gray) by the
shunt units.
the bottom of the page.
The current phasor can move along the black dotted line,
varying the reactive power of the shunt units. In case (a1) the OPEN UPQC to stabilize the voltage at the PCC, maxi-
in particular, it is possible to obtain a power factor equal to mizing the power factor in normal operation conditions and in-
1 in the section in low voltage situations, because the line creasing its compensation limits outside of normal operation.
intercepts the black dotted line. In case (a2), the Obviously, in the case of large disturbances in that the se-
power factor is always less than 1. ries unit cannot compensate, each shunt unit can supply the load
The quantities and can be obtained with (4) in back-up mode.
and (5), as shown at the bottom of the page.
Assuming that , the range am- B. Nonactive and and Active Power Exchange
plitude can be obtained with (6) In this case, the series converter produces only nonactive
power, but the shunt units can exchange active and nonactive
(6) power with the mains. This condition could be represented as
an active network into which dispersed generations are inserted.
It can be seen that the compensating range amplitude Fig. 5 depicts the new phasor diagram of the OPEN UPQC
depends on the value that the series under the above operating conditions.
unit can inject, and on the nonactive power . The nonactive In order to avoid active power injections by the series unit,
power is susceptible to exchanges by the shunt units (length the voltage and the mains current have to be in quadrature
of the black dotted line, proportional to the loads apparent with each other. In Fig. 5, the light grey areas indicate the field in
power) and to the power factors of the equivalent loads and which can lay without active power exchanges by the shunt
. units, and the dark gray areas indicate the possible values of
In normal operation mode, the compensation strategy can be with active power exchanges by shunt units. In this case, the
implemented in various ways. For example, power factor maxi- compensating range amplitude is greater than
mization in the s section (corresponding to minimization of the without active power exchanges, but it is important to note that
current ) is a compensation strategy that can be implemented the difference is small. The phasor current can move inside of
by coordinating the series unit and the shunt ones. Therefore, the gray dotted circle, varying the active and nonactive power
communication between all the units is required. The simplest of the shunt units (movement on the black dotted line regards
solution is to employ a slow communication system that allows only nonactive power exchange).

(3)

(4)

(5)

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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 se-
ries 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,
the strategy that maximizes the power factor (corre-
sponding to the current minimization) can be chosen. With
this choice, it is possible to minimize the apparent power re-
quired by the mains.
The mains current is reported in (2), and the compensated
voltage is
Fig. 6. Compensation limits of the OPEN UPQC: with nonactive power ex- (7)
change only (light gray) and with also active power exchange (dark gray) by the
series unit.
Neglecting power losses and considering that the voltage
C. Noncctive and and Active Power Exchange has to be in quadrature with the current , it is possible to write
the following relation:
In order to exchange active power with the mains, a storage
system connected to the dc section of the series unit is needed. (8)
The storage system size does not need to be very large, be-
cause little energy is required to compensate most of the dis- where is the equivalent reactance of the series unit, giving a
turbances For example, to compensate most of the voltage vari- voltage proportional to . Solving (7) and (8) is not mathemat-
ations reported in Fig. 2 (voltage sag 60% deep for 30 cycle) ically easy due to the nonlinearity of the problem, and imple-
for a 400-kW load, an energy equal to 120 kJ is needed, cor- menting them into a controller is not useful.
responding to a battery capacity of about 0.4 Ah at 96 V or a It is more convenient to implement two PI controllers: one to
capacitor or supercapacitor bank of about 1.5 F at 400 V. evaluate the voltage of the series unit, and another to evaluate
Given a storage system with twice the abovementioned ca- a signal related to the nonactive power that all of the
pacity, in order to allow bidirectional energy exchange with the shunt units have to inject.
mains, it is possible to compensate voltage disturbances in The conditions under which the series unit can exchange only
that are outside of the contractual limits. nonactive power can be obtained by applying the Park transform
In the case of mains interruptions lasting longer than 30 cy- to the three phase currents , and , and calculating
cles, the SS of the shunt units switch off, and the loads are sup- the two components and in a rotating reference frame,
plied in back-up mode. as reported in (9)
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 (9)
light gray areas, the series voltage and the mains current
have to be in quadrature with each other, because active power
exchanges by the series unit are not allowed. In these areas, the where the angle is equal to and is the mains
behavior of the OPEN UPQC is the same as that of the cases frequency. Consequently, the components of the injected
described previously. voltage have to be proportional to the components of
In the case of transient disturbances, the series unit can com- the current , as follows:
pensate the voltage over a very large range (the compensating
range amplitude is ) compared with all the
cases previously analyzed. Indeed, the series unit can exchange (10)
active power with the mains in the dark gray areas, but this is For the constant to be independent of the load condi-
only possible for transient disturbances due to the small size of tions, the previous expressions must be normalized with respect
the series unit storage system. to the load current module
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 perfor- (11)
mance.

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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.

TABLE II
The constant is obtained by a PI controller that keeps LV CABLE PARAMETERS
the voltage at the output of the series unit equal to the
rated value , as reported in the block diagram of Fig. 7.
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 ab-
sorption 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,
the injected nonactive power of the th shunt unit is equal
to

(12)
where is the unit’s 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 system’s performance, the power
losses and the voltage drops in the LV lines generally must in-
crease. However, if the power factor at the is kept high
( 0.8), these increments are negligible. Moreover, this incre-
ment can be reduced by sending a different signal to each
shunt unit. This allows the closest shunt units to be used to inject
more nonactive power, avoiding useless nonactive power flows.
V. TEST NETWORK AND EVALUATION OF OPERATION LIMITS
Fig. 8 shows a simplified 400-kVA LV grid, used to validate
the OPEN UPQC.
The protected loads are grouped into the equivalent load ,
so all of the shunt units are represented by means of an equiv-
alent 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
power factors and loads and , are reported in Table II.
In each analysis, the correct 200-m cable is chosen as a func-
tion 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 oper-
ation mode in the following. Therefore, the series unit cannot
exchange active power with the mains.
The following figures 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
fixed load power factor and , and is parametric in . This

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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 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. different  values. The maximum voltage of the series unit is equal to 0.6 p.u.

In the following, the maximum nonactive power injected by

parameter indicates the ratio between the apparent powers of
all the shunt units can reach the apparent power .
the total loads of shunt units and the total apparent power
In this case, if the control strategy can keep the voltage
of loads
equal to the nominal value, then these relations have to be true

(14) (16)

With a fixed , and therefore fixed , it is possible to calcu-

late as a function of the power factors of the loads
and
(17)

(15)
The reference current is expressed in per unit (p.u.), as the
ratio between the power reference and the voltage refer-
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
the voltage to be fixed at the nominal value, were obtained
by assuming the above hypothesis and that the maximum in-
jectable 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 figures reveal that:
1) the OPEN UPQC is well-adapted when the power factor
of the load is low. Fig. 9 shows the interval that can be
compensated by exchanging only nonactive power when
the power factor of the load is equal to 0.8. In this case,
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
factor of the load is high. Fig. 10 shows the interval
that can be compensated by exchanging only nonactive
power when the power factor of the load is equal to
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

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2114
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
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
p.u. when and as shown in Fig. 9). There-
fore, with slight over-sizing of the series unit, good stabilization
of the mains voltage is possible. The usual working conditions
present an interesting case, when the power factor of load is
between 0.9 and 1, and the mains voltage is inside of the con-
tractual limits (normal operation). The distribution power losses
should be estimated, in order to understand the energy cost as-
sociated 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
factor will always be greater than 0.8. When the power
factor of the load is equal to one, the power factor in the
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.
It was supposed that the line represents an equivalent line
in which all of the sensitive loads that make up the OPEN
UPQC are connected, while the line represents an equiva-
lent line that supplies only the nonsensitive loads . Therefore,
each load that belongs to the set needs to be protected against
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2009
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)
disturbances and network interruptions, while the ones that be-
long 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 first 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 distribu-
tion 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 rectifiers.
It is important to clarify that the storage systems cost for
UPS and OPEN UPQC solutions in this analysis is not consid-
ered, because it primarily depends on the technologies and au-
tonomies 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.
BRENNA et al.: NEW PROPOSAL FOR PQ AND CUSTOM POWER IMPROVEMENT: OPEN UPQC
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.
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 con-
venient than the proposed OPEN UPQC if the total power of the
sensitive loads is lower than about 80 kVA (20% of the total
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 stabi-
lization interval over which the OPEN UPQC can significantly
improve the power quality, especially if the load power factor
takes a high value. If the power factor of load is less than one,
the power factor in section increases, to avoid nonactive power
absorption from the mains.
For low values of the parameter, the OPEN UPQC be-
comes 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 compen-
sator 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 stan-
dards imposed by the authorities. Compensation improvement
for the sensitive end users can be achieved by installing a
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 investi-
gation. The dynamic behavior, considering changing operating
modes, of a 5 kW prototype shunt unit is developed and experi-
mental results are presented in [18]. As shown in Fig. 11, large
investments are needed to analyze the completed solution, and
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2115
TABLE V
OPEN UPQC UNITS ACTIONS
the P injection is possible only for few time and if necessary.
availability of electrical distribution operators for an infield test
will be required.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the referees for their useful
remarks, which helped to improve the paper.
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Conf. Electricity Distribution CIRED 2005, Turin, Italy, Jun. 6–9, litecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1972.
2005. He then joined the Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano,
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QC, Canada, Jun. 18–22, 2006. Electrical Association (AEI), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR)
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Morris Brenna (M’06) received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1999 and 2003, respec-
tively.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Energy, Po-
litecnico 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).

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