Proceedings of 2015 IEEE
International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
August 2 - 5, Beijing, China
A Review of STATCOM On The Electric Power System
Youjie Ma, Ahui Huang and Xuesong Zhou
Key Research Laboratory for Control Theory & Applications in Complicated Systems
Tianjin University of Technology
391, Binshui Xidao, Xiqing District, Tianjin, 300384, China
yeyinxiluo@163.com
Abstract - Along with the increasing of electricity load
type and capacity, the problems of the power quality , especially
reactive power and harmonic, are a serious threat to the safe
operation of power grid. Static synchronous compensator
(STATCOM), as an important member of the FACT, has been
widely used as the state-of the-art dynamic shunt compensator
for controlling reactive power in transmission and distribution.It
has attracted an extensive attention in domestic and foreign
scientific and engineering fields with excellent performances of
its smooth reactive power regulation and fast dynamic
characteristics.comparing with the traditional synchronous
condenser.Static var compensator SVC, STATCOM which has a
small size, a faster speed ,a wide operation range has a great
advantage in performance and can effectively compensate the
reactive power, suppress harmonic current and provide voltage
support for transmission system, it will be more and more widely
used. This paper introduces the background , application status,
challenges and development trend of STATCOM, pointing out
that with the development of new technology and new power
electronic devices and STATCOM in distribution network,
STATCOM will occupy a very important position in the grid.
Key words: STATCOM; main circuit; control strategy; current
detection; inverter
I. INTRODUCTION
The load of grid is unlikely to be a load of pure
resistance ,the majority of which is inductive load.At
present ,in a great deal of industrial fields,the load which can
generate reactive current is classified three types:inductive
load such as transformers and motors ,when such a load is
given an access to the electricity grid for working ,due to the
presence of inductive load ,it will inevitably exist a certain
phase difference between current and voltage ,resulting in a
power factor of less than 1.power electronic devices such as
crystal tube rectifier bridge and transverter .when such
equipment is given an access to the electricity grid for
working ,it also exist a certain phase difference between
fundamental wave current and voltage .When it consumes
active power ,it also produces a certain reactive power ,so the
power factor is less than 1.when this type of work load
connect to the grid ,it need to consume reactive power more
than formers ,and reactive power may fluctuate within a wide
range.
Thanks to the development of power electronic
technology, the application of various nonlinear loads (such as
electric arc furnace, electric locomotive, variable frequency
speed of controlling high voltage large motor, GTO,IGBT and
978-1-4799-7098-8/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
other large high-power full controlled devices, etc.) makes the
grid voltage fluctuate frequently and power quality
deterioration, it also effects the normal operation of certain
equipment .So grid reactive power compensation can improve
the grid power factor, stable voltage effectively, reduce
voltage fluctuation, improve the long-distance transmission
capacity and reduce power loss [1].STATCOM which is one of
the core part of Flexible AC Transmission system can not only
be used for reactive power compensation system, but also
improve the system stability and support key nodes to voltage
transmission system[2]. Therefore, STATCOM is an important
development direction of dynamic reactive power
compensation device, playing an important role in the aspect
of power quality. Static synchronous compensator
(STATCOM) can be seen as a controllable reactive power,
which can change voltage and current waveform of the inverte
r through power electronic means,and which emitting or
absorbing require no power and also can suppress the voltage
flicker and voltage to drop and to improve the power
quality .it have a vital significance. In practical application,
with high technology and sophisticated equipment into the
production in the national economy, the power users of power
quality care that promotes the power quality controlling
technology development. Therefore, as a device for reactive
power compensation equipment which is the most advanced,
the development of STATCOM has been a widespread
concern.
II.THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.The basic structure and working principle of STATCOM
cThe basic structure of STATCOM
According to the different circuits,STATCOM can be
divided into two types: voltage-bridge circuit and current -
bridge circuit; The rate of voltage-bridge circuit is higher than
that of the current -bridge circuit, so that the application
of STATCOM often utilizes voltage-bridge circuit in general.
The simulation model also uses the voltage-bridge circuit. As
shown in figure,STATCOM main circuit is composed
of voltage-bridge circuit and the structure is composed of the
following parts: the DC side capacitor,it plays a role in
providing support of voltage; Voltage source inverter (VSC),
which is constituted by the high-power electric Electronic
switching devices (GTO or IGBT), and it use a pulse width
modulation Technology (PWM) to control the power
electronic switch,Reversing DC voltage of the capacitors
into AC voltage with a certain amplitude and
frequency; Coupling combined transformer and reactor, not
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only has the high power converter and the coupling of power
system, but also can filter Harmonic of the output voltage of
the inverter, making the output voltage waveform similar to
the sine wave [3].

Fig.3 STATCOM range of four-quadrant operation

In the ideal operating conditions, the device does not

Fig.1 The basic structure of STATCOM absorb the active power which means that the exchange
between the converter and the energy of the system is a pure
dThe basic working principle of STATCOM reactive power. When Ug>US, current I advances system
According to figure1,we can get the equivalent circuit of voltage 90D , STATCOM issues to the system of inductive
the STATCOM as shown in figure2,Four quadrant reactive power.At the same time the STATCOM is equal
operation range of STATCOM As shown in Figure 3;By capacitance; When Ug<US,The current I lag voltage
figure2 and figure3 shows the STATCOM device, the 。
90 ,STATCOM issues to the system capacitive reactive
absorption current power, at this point,STATCOM equivalent inductance[4].
Us − Ug Through PWM technology to control the inductance of power
I = (1) electronic switch, Ug can be from positive to negative,
jX regulating system in quick succession can absorb Reactive
Apparent power power Q.Reactive power is realized by the connection
S = U I* (2) between the inductive to capacitive continuous adjustment.In
actual operation, taking into account that the converter and
Active power
connecting the reactor itself are the loss of grid components, It
need grid to provide the necessary active power to supplement
U SU g sin δ the some loss,otherwise it deplete the ministry from the DC
P= (3)
side capacitor energy consumption.This will make the DC
X
voltage decreasing. Relative voltage to US,Current I contain a
Reactive power certain amount of the active ingredients. When δ >0, active
power P>0,STATCOM absorbs active power from the grid
when δ <0,Active power P<0, namely ,STATCOM issue
U S (U S − U g cos δ )
Q= (4) active power to grid. Among the control strategies,many is
X through regulating δ to maintain the DC capacitor voltage
stability. In a word, changing the amplitude and phase can
Output voltage adjust the reactive power of the size and direction of
flow.eStable operation of voltage and reactive power
3
Ug = λU dc sin( wt + δ ) (5) relationship The following is a simple system to illustrate
2 relationship of the operating voltage and reactive power. As
shown in figure4.Figure4(a) is a simple network
In the above formula, U represents output voltage of
g system;Figure4(b) is an equivalent circuit, X is the total
the AC side of STATCOM; U represents system S
impedance of each component, E is stand for the
Electromotive force, P+jQ is stand for the user’s power . In
voltage; δ represents the phase difference between U and g
figure 4 (c);According to the vector:
U ; λ represents PWM of modulation coefficient .
S
EU
P = UI cos φ = sin δ (6)
X
U S U g EU U2
Q = UI sin φ = cos φ − (7)
jX dispel δ
X X

Fig.2 The equivalent circuit of STATCOM

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 2
⎛ EU ⎞ 2 U2
Q= ⎜ ⎟ − p − (8)
⎝ X ⎠ X
By the formula (6) shows that when P and E are set fixed
value, the relationship between Q and U as figure 4 curve
shown in Figure 1, The reactive power voltage and load static
characteristic curve Line 2 intersects a of the reactive power
balance point , the load voltage is Ua.When the load increases,
The curve2 moves up to the curve 2’; If the electric Potential
E and system supply reactive power Q constant, The
equilibrium point of the reactive power will be moved to a’.
Obviously Ua' <Ua, Reactive power supply can not meet the
voltage at the Ua reactive power balance demand, only can be
by reducing the voltage to run in order to obtain the balance of
reactive power at the low voltage.If the balance of reactive
power supply adequate spare capacity and transmit load the
reactive power, the static characteristics of voltage and
reactive power to curve1’; The operating voltage is up to Ua,
So when the system reactive power is sufficient, it can support
the higher operating voltage level .When the reactive power
supply is insufficient, it need to install reactive power
compensation device necessary and stable operation of
voltage[5],[6].Through the STATCOM to compensate the
reactive power system rate, so that to make the operating
voltage to maintain stability.
Fig. 4 (a)
Fig. 4 (b)
Fig. 4(c)
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Fig.5 P-U
Ⅲ. RESEARCH STATUS
The reactive power compensation technology at home and
abroad have experienced two stages:traditional reactive power
generator and static reactive power generator.The traditional
reactive power compensation device includes shunt
capacitors,phase-modulation machines and the synchronous
generators and so on; Owing to the impedance of fixed
parallel capacitor, it can not track dynamical changes of the
load reactive power. Adjustable compensation equipment such
as synchronous compensator and a synchronous generator are
rotating equipment, it is not only noise but also of great losses,
so it unsuited too big or too small reactive
compensation,what’s more ,these devices have became
increasingly unsuited to the needs of the development of
electric power system.with the further deepening of the
study .there is a static var compensation technology which has
experienced a continuous innovation after 20 years of
development.The so-called static var compensator refers static
switching or reactor,which has an ability to absorb and emit
reactive current for improving the power factor of the
system,stabling voltage system and suppressing the system
oscillation.namely,The current static switch is mainly divided
into two types:circuit breakers and power electronic switch.if
we use a circuit breaker as a contactor switch whose switching
speed is slow about 10 to 30 minutes,it can not track load
reactive power changes fast and switching capacitors often
cause more serious impact inrush current and over-voltage
operation and suffer stress heavily .Not only it could easily
lead to the point of contact welding ,but also can it make the
internal compensation capacitor breakdown and make the
maintenance large.Because of the development of the power
electronics technology and its application,the AC power
system without any contact switch such as
SCR ,GTR,GTO,IGBT, IGCT and so on appear .As a
switching switch ,whose speed can be increased 500 times.For
system parameters Reactive power compensation can also be
completed within one cycle and can be adjusted a single-
phase.Today static reactive power compensation device is a
reactive power compensation equipment that use thyristor.It is
mainly in the following three types:first category is a reactive
power compensation device with a saturated reactor(SR).the
second category is thyristor controlled reactor (TeR) and
thyrister switched capacitor(Tse),these two types of devices
can be referred collectively to as static var compensator .The
third category is static reactive power compensation device
which use self-converter technology as a new meaning -
ASVG(Advanced static var generator ),it also known as static
synchronous compensator (STATCOM).
At present ,there are several large-capacity STATCOM
devices putting into operation in the world,In1979,The
world’s first 20Mvar capacity of SVG produced successfully
from Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation.after then,static
synchronous compensator Installed capacity have come out
which can reach 10Mvar ,80Mvar,1000Mvar.In 2011,China
Electric Power Research Institute had successfully
developed.STATCOM of industrial prototype stage which is
based on IGBT can be flexibly configured dynamic reactive
power compensation device which provides a new technology
options for large-capacity national backbone grid
applications.These devices used in the main circuit devices
which are serially multiplexed transformer reduces the voltage
method,at the same time power level also improved.In recent
years,STATCOM has the structure of a variety of complex
structures,there are several representative types:one is a
STATCOM of cascaded multi-level topology avoiding
transformer diverse[7],[8],at a lower switching frequency ,it will
also be given a good compensation effect.A STATCOM of
hybrid cascade multi-level inverter technology[9].A
STATCOM based on asymmetric multi-level cascade 3H
bridge technology,focusing on asymmetric cascade chain
structures which were expanded[10].Based around the Z-source
inverter technology research ,which were carried out of the
stability of the DC side of the power supply voltage[11].In
order to improve the utilization efficiency of STATCOM,it
were proposed hybrid compensation mode,which used STC
with a large capacity and small capacity STATCOM[12],[13].In
addition ,a new integrated structure of distribution
transformer-static var compensator appears ,improving the
overall coordination and control of the distribution network[14].
Control system is the core part of the STATCOM ,along
with a high degree of use of information processing
technology and computer technology,the new control theory
and optimization method is introduced to the control[15] and
illustrating the voltage control design method uses PI
regulator[16].The use of modern control theory,though the
establishment of the state equation that ease the difficult
problem of PI design[17].Through the zero-pole configuration
method to improve voltage control[18].Analyzing the
decoupling control static synchronous compensator DC
capacitor voltage and the common connection point[19].
STATCOM requires the compensation current fast tracking
that have no static error of compensation of the current,The
current application of relatively mature tracking technology is
the hysteresis control and two triangular ware comparison
method[20-22].
The technology of static synchronous compensator
(STATCOM) has been developed rapidly since its inception,
The large capacity STATCOM has been successfully
developed in recent years, and has been widely used in many
fields. First, the application of STATCOM in the transmission.
power transmission system is a weak damping and an
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interconnected system,When load and the running state of
system are changing, the system constantly is being disturbed,
so it is prone to oscillate. By virtue of its excellent dynamic
characteristics, STATCOM can significantly improve the
dynamic performance of the transmission system, which is
the system disturbance resistance. According to the
requirement of different systems, STATCOM can realize the
functions of node voltage controlling, suppres power
oscillation and improve the static and transient stability limit
of the system. Secondly, application of STATCOM in wind
farm, wind energy has a great prospect for development,
nearly 20 years, development of the wind power technology
has a great progress, wind power in all kinds of new energy
development is in the fastest growing, large-scale wind farms
have been established, and transmission network is directly
connected, so for electricity the quality requirement can be
very high. Wind energy is a kind of intermittent energy, and
there are some errors in the wind speed forecast. So the wind
power can't provide the stable power and the stability of the
power generation is poor. In addition, the power fluctuation of
the wind power can affect the power quality of the local power
network.Therefore, improving the stability of the wind power
generation and restraining the voltage fluctuation and flicker
caused by wind power are essential.Finally, application of
STATCOM in distribution system, distribution network
without power demand is often large and changeable,
moreover the grid operators hoped for at least the reactive
power in power grid which propagate to reduce the loss of the
grid, and application of STATCOM in distribution network to
the fast regulation of voltage and absorb the power grid
reactive power, it also can inhibit voltage flash variable and so
on. to improve the power quality has a considerable effect. It
can be seen that the reactive power compensation in power
system is very important.With the development of power
electronic technology, as well as in-depth research on facts
technology, STATCOM has become a new field of the electric
control system and the application of STATCOM can greatly
improve the reliability and stability of the power system,which
will make with huge benefits.
IV.THE KEY CHALLENGE
Overall,the performance and the detection of STATCOM
mainly consist of main circuits,control circuit,detection
circuits and modulation method. Function of each part will
determine the regulatory capacity of the power system,
nonlinear,time-invariant and nonlinear network parameters
equation of state,a variety of control methods need to be
improved,linear PID is difficult to meet in the large
interference to improve system voltage stability.The optimal
control effect is not good in the strongly nonlinear power
system.Adaptive control parameter in the parameter
identification of complex degree is higher, the control
response lag influence the control accuracy differential
geometry control requirement of system parameters are known
with certainty,BP calculation of neural network has a fast
speed and has a good robustness,If applying in
STATCOM,Controller will have a better future[23]. Secondly,
in the main circuit,transformer has multiple structures.
Restricted main voltage switching devices,it requires multiple
of the transformer,However,The transformer is large and
expensive. At the same time Inverters have a high cost and
multi-level equalization is difficult and complex.For
example:a diode clamp,cascaded,modular,multi-level, Mixed -
level, inverter. static synchronous compensator with battery
energy storage device[24].Finally ,in the detection of reactive
current ,most of the current detection methods requires high
precision of the circuit components,sometimes there is phase
and frequency drift problems such as transient errors[25].If
improving the low-pass filter,the detection of the current will
go to a great progress[26].
V.TREND
In recent years, the research and application of
STATCOM relevant to worldwide have made great progress
and developments.Throughout recent years,the development
trend of STATCOM is as follow:
(1)The main circuit of STATCOM which is regarded the
multiple of the square wave converter as the main form in the
early period is based on the development of the PWM
converter as the main form. Most multi-technology and multi-
level PWM converters combine to reduce the effect of
coupling voltage.
(2)power semiconductor devices used in current
transformers of STATCOM ,which mainly used GTO in the
early period, is gradually moving to the use of IGBT and
IGCT. Currently based on the IGBT ,there is a new generation
of high-power devices -IEGT (electronic injection enhanced
gate transistor) has entered the practical stage. IEGT with a
working frequency of the high turn-pressure drop is ideally
used for STATCOM power electronic devices.
(3)The goal of STATCOM compensation which
compensates for transmission-based system in early period,
expand to compensate the distribution system or even at all
levels of load compensation.
(4)The modulation method of STATCOM emerge CPS-
SPWM,STS-SVM method instead of conventional square
ware modulation ,SPWM,SVPWM,to reduce the output
current harmonic content.
(5)In the control strategies of STATCOM ,a number of
advanced control strategies such as fuzzy control , robust
adaptive control and artificial neural network control method,
applying to STATCOM in order to meet all system
requirements.
(6)Application of new technologies and materials in the
STATCOM. At present, as the current type inverter efficiency
is lower than the voltage source inverter whose research is less.
Development and application of high-temperature
superconducting technology will solve energy storage
efficiency of the current inverter inductor . Power SMES
system have a storage coil with a current source characteristics,
thus the current inverter will have a wider range of
applications. In addition , the current inverter efficiency is low,
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there are still difficulties in eliminating shortcomings of
harmonic current , the chemical deposition gas graphite
transistor which is studying will solve this problem. I believe
that in the future high-temperature superconducting
technology and chemical deposition gas graphite will be
widely used in the transistor current source inverter in
STATCOM.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the
reviewers for their very helpful comments and
suggestions which have improved the
presentation of the paper.The work of Ahui
Huang is supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China(50877053)
and Tianjin Science and Technology Program of
China(12ZCZDGX04300).
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