1
Reactive Power Management in Distributed
Generation
Danial Saleem, Deputy Manager NTDC Lahore, Rehan Majeed, Deputy Manager NTDC Lahore.
Abstract—Distributed Generation offers environmental and
economic benefits over centralized generation. Renewable energy
sources are inherently distributed in nature and the most
important source to meet the future energy demands. Most
generators in distributed generation are asynchronous and are
affected by the problem of reactive power. They cannot produce
reactive power but actually draws it from the power system. It
can cause voltage drop which is not acceptable for the customers
due to narrow operating range of voltages for appliances. This
problem can be overcome by using reactive power management
techniques. Power factor control is most commonly used
technique for reactive power compensation. Many such devices
used for reactive power management are explained in this paper.
Moreover, one of the many advantages of FACTS devices, i.e.,
voltage regulation is simulated in MATLAB.
Index Terms—Distributed Generation, Reactive Power,
Renewable Energy, D-STATCOM, etc.
I. INTRODUCTION
T O meet the ever growing energy demand of the world,
renewable energy sources are the best solution. The
renewable energy sources are distributed by their nature, so in
addition to their everlasting fuel-free and green energy
benefits, they can help reducing heavy power flows on
transmission lines. In result, infrastructure costs to build new
transmission facilities and the costs associated with
transmission losses can be avoided. So, Distributed Generation
(DG), either renewable or non-renewable can be used to obtain
this economic benefit.
Most of the generators in DG are renewable and due to their
inherent characteristics, they cannot supply reactive power to
the load. Reactive power is required along with active power
for majority of the loads like inductive loads. Renewable
energy generators require reactive power for their excitation to
generate active power. Furthermore, without reactive power,
active power cannot be transferred to load [3]. If not properly
handled, this can cause low voltage problems on the customer
end.
This opens a new arena of research and development and a
lot of ongoing research has been conducted in this domain to
overcome this problem efficiently. There is a large number of
devices which can be used to perform reactive power
compensation. Each of these devices is different from each
other in its characteristics and each one has its own advantages
and disadvantages. Many of these devices along with
motivation to use in DG has been discussed in [3]. The low
voltage problem acts in cascade form i.e., low voltage drives
the load to draw more reactive power and then shortage of
reactive power further reduces the voltage. This scenario is
called voltage collapse and technique to avoid it in DG
systems using reactive power resources has been discussed in
[5]. DG systems are normally operated in micro-grid system.
Three different strategies for Reactive Power Management in
DG systems operating within micro-grid are discussed in [11].
Most of the renewable energy sources nowadays are either
wind or solar. In [12], it only focusses on these sources for the
reactive power compensation.
As per above discussion, the performance of reactive power
compensation devices is most needed when the voltage is low
and is near to voltage collapse. However, most devices
including SVC do not perform well during this situation
because their reactive power generation is proportional to
square of the voltage. Contrary to this, Static Synchronous
Compensator’s (STATCOM’s) reactive power varies linearly
with the voltage and it holds a better solution for reactive
power compensation. The basic STATCOM model has been
presented in [6]. Further to fine-tune the STATCOM
performance for DG systems, PI controller based D-
STATCOM has been discussed in [8] and [9]. To overcome
the above discussed problem of poor performance in low
voltage, the improvement in Static VAR Compensator (SVC)
technology has been discussed in [10] called SVC-MERS
(Magnetic Energy Recovery Switch).
In this paper, overview regarding DG and their relation with
renewable energy has been presented. The driving factors for
using DG in future power systems has been discussed. The
inherent problem of reactive power with renewable energy
sources are highlighted along with the strategies to overcome
this problem. Finally, the most commonly used devices for
reactive power compensation are explained.
II. DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Distributed Generation (DG) is the electricity generation
where the generators are connected to the distribution level
near the load consumers. The capacity of these generators
normally ranges from several kilowatts (kW) to tens of
megawatts (MW) [3]. DG systems use multiple small-scale
generator units instead of few large-scale generator units near
to end user with very slight dependence on transmission and
distribution infrastructure [16]. DG can be of non-renewable

or renewable type like wind and photovoltaic, however, due to
recent technology advancements in renewable energy systems,
most DGs are of renewable type.
III. RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES – THE FUTURE
Renewable energy is a form of energy which is obtained
from natural processes (e.g. sunlight and wind) that are refilled
at a higher rate than they are spent. Solar, wind, geothermal,
hydropower, bioenergy and ocean power are sources of
renewable energy [17]. The total available potential of
electricity generation from renewable sources is much higher
than that from conventional resources. Only a potential from
solar energy is much greater than the sum of all resources on
earth. The rate of replenishment of fossil fuel sources is very
fast and it is believed that they cannot survive for more than
multiple decades. After the consumption of conventional
energy resources, the only way of generating energy would be
from renewable energy sources. At the advent of modern
renewable technology, it had somehow higher costs. But now,
considering levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), the rates of
renewable are quite comparable to that from some thermal
power plants. In addition to this, they have an added advantage
to environment.
European countries are far ahead as compared to the rest of
the world in inducting renewable energy sources into their
system. They have an agreement to generate 20% of its total
energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020
[3]. It is to be appreciated that renewable energy sources are
becoming the largest power generating type in the world as
shown in the Fig.1 [4].
Fig. 1. Electric Power Capacity Addition in the World [4].
IV. MOTIVATIONS FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
The main objectives behind the DG application are
economic, environmental and reliability benefits. For
conventional power plants, huge transmission and distribution
infrastructure is required to transmit power from distant
generators to load centres. In addition to expensive
infrastructure costs, the costs associated with transmission and
distribution losses are also included in end user electricity
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prices. Since most of the conventional power plants are
normally based on fossil fuel or nuclear technology, they cause
environmental issues [15]. Furthermore, the involvement of
many transmission lines, transformers and other equipment for
the electric power transfer makes the fault vulnerability factor
high and in result, decreases the reliability [15]. All of these
issues are well addressed and overcome using DG systems.
The main motivation of integrating DG in power system is
that most renewable energy sources are inherently distributed
and as described in Section III, they are the most suited option
to meet the ever-increasing energy demand of the world.
It is of worth mentioning here that the most expected design
of future power system involves both conventional power
plants as well as DG systems. DG systems actually helps
power transmission network by locally meeting the energy
demand at load centres during peak hours, thus reducing large
power flows on transmission and distribution network. Further,
they help to avoid investment costs associated with building
new transmission and distribution infrastructure [6]. However,
there are some problems like complex operational
requirements, reactive power control and power quality which
need to be focused for the advancement in DG technologies
[3].
V. REACTIVE POWER MANAGEMENT FOR DG SYSTEMS
Since most generators in DG systems are asynchronous
type, they draw reactive power for their excitation. If proper
reactive power compensation will not be applied to DG
systems, it can cause deficit of reactive power and result in
voltage drop. This voltage drop is not acceptable for
consumers as most of the devices has very narrow range of
voltage operation [3].
VI. STRATEGIES FOR REACTIVE POWER CONTROL IN DG
SYSTEMS
Reactive power management in DG systems can be
performed using three methods which are discussed below. For
controlling the reactive power, the quadrature axis current iq is
controlled using Proportional Integral (PI) controller
implementation. The controller diagrams for these strategies
are shown in the Fig. 2 [11].

Fig. 2. Methodologies for Reactive power control in DG. (a) Voltage Droop
Characteristic technique. (b) Voltage regulation technique. (c) Power Factor
Correction technique [11].
A. Voltage Droop Characteristics
Representative Q-V curves for two DG units have been
shown in the Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Voltage Droop Characteristics of two DG units [11].
The two DG units have different slopes of Q-V
characteristics depending upon the allowed ranges of operation
for the terminal voltage which are characterized by design
specifications. The root mean square (rms) voltage at Point of
Common Coupling (PCC) of DG along with inherent Q-V
characteristics are used to find the reference reactive power
output from DG unit as shown in the Fig. 3 [11]. In result, it
can control the bus voltage deviations using reactive power
control.
B. Voltage Regulation
The controller diagram for voltage regulation based
reactive power control is shown in the Fig. 2. Instead of giving
Q-V curve characteristics, the rms reference voltage is
specified to perform a required voltage regulation at PCC by
varying its reactive power. It is normally applied to the buses
where voltage sensitive loads are connected and very little
changes of voltage are allowed for them [11].
C. Power Factor Correction
Renewable energy sources like wind and PV power plants
mostly employ this technique. Capacitive devices are installed
near load bus with in DG module to improve power factor by
meeting the reactive power requirements of load. The
reference value of power factor is assigned to the controller
and the desired reactive power is injected through the DG unit.
The required power factor pfC is calculated using the following
relation [11]:
pf C
pf L (1)
pf L  (1  m pf )(1  pf L )
2 2
Where, pfC is the desired power factor, pfL corresponds to load
power factor and mpf is the factor for degree of compensation.
3
It is to be noted that mpf is 0 for no compensation and becomes
equal to 1 for full compensation [11].
VII. DEVICES FOR REACTIVE POWER MANAGEMENT
A. Shunt Capacitors
There are two types of shunt capacitors (connected in
parallel) used to supply reactive power, fixed and switched.
Fixed capacitors remain attached to the system irrespective of
the required compensation while switched capacitor can be
switched in and out of the system as per the requirement. This
method of compensation is not very desirable because it does
not provide continuous control of reactive power.
Furthermore, the output from the capacitors fall rapidly as the
voltage of the bus falls. However, they are economical way to
improve the power factor.
B. Synchronous Condensers
Synchronous condenser is a running synchronous motor in
over-excited state connected with the system drawing leading
reactive power. This in result, improves the power factor. It
does not get affected by the variation of voltage and can even
provide more reactive power during low voltage conditions. It
offers smooth control of reactive power unlike switched shunt
capacitors. However, its dynamic response is not very good
due to inertia constraints.
C. Static VAR Compensator (SVC)
SVC is a static device of reactive power generator (can also
absorb reactive power) which can continuously vary its output
current to regulate certain parameter of electric power system
like power factor. There are two types of SVC: Fixed
Capacitor-Thyristor Controlled Reactor (FC-TCR) and
Thyristor Switched Capacitor - Thyristor Controlled Reactor
(TSC-TCR). TSC-TCR is normally used in DG systems
because it causes lesser power quality problems and is more
flexible in operation range. The typical topology of TSC-TCR
is shown in the Fig. 4 [1].
Fig. 4. TSC-TCR Normal Configuration [1].
By varying the firing angle of TSC and TCR, the
susceptance ‘BSVC’ can be varied in the control range of SVC.
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The filters are to suppress the harmonics generated by its

operation. The range of voltage control for SVC will be given
by [1]:
Vref
% VSVC %
Vref (2)
1  X s Bmax 1  X s Bmin
Here in the above equation, Bmin and Bmax are inductive
capacitive susceptance limits respectively. XS is equal to XSVC
for control range. Between these limits, there lies the control
range of operation for SVC. Mechanically switched reactor
and capacitor can be added to above configuration to improve
the working of SVC.
Since its reactive power control depends on firing angle, it
can be used to get very fast response for voltage control.
However, the inherent problem has been caused by using
capacitors in its configuration i.e. it does not provide much Fig. 6. STATCOM Single phase configuration [1].
reactive power injection when it is most needed from it (during
low voltage conditions) [3]. Here, VPN waveform will be positive and negative square
wave for each half of the full cycle. The rms value of the
D. STATCOM fundamental component E1 can be easily found and it will be
STATCOM working principle is based on voltage-source given by [1]:
converter (VSC) and its operation is similar to that of S
2 Vdc 2 (3)
S ³0 2
synchronous condenser, however it does not have any moving E1 sin TdT Vdc
S
part which have inertia. This lack of inertial requirement cause
it to be faster and having superior dynamic response [3]. If E1>V (the source voltage), STATCOM will draw
STATCOM has many advantages over SVC like ease of capacitive current while it will draw inductive current for
connecting to real power systems, faster response, less E1<V. The No load, capacitive and inductive operation of the
requirement of space due to absence of large passive reactor in STATCOM is depicted in the Fig. 7.
the circuitry etc. [1]. The Basic model of STATCOM is
shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7. Explanation for Operation of STACOM [3].

E. Distribution STATCOM (D-STATCOM)

Fig. 5. Basic STATCOM Model [6].
The biggest advantage of STATCOM is its performance
during low voltages. Unlike capacitor dependent devices, the
reactive power output from STATCOM drops linearly with the
voltages instead of square of voltage. This factor makes
STATCOM more reliable during low voltage conditions as
compared to other devices [3]. To understand the operation
principle, consider single phase STATCOM as shown in Fig. 6
[1].
The power quality and reliability can be further improved
in DG systems by employing new customized devices like D-
STACOM, Dynamic Voltage Regulator (DVR) and Unified
Power Quality Control (UPQC) [9].
The block diagram for DSTATCOM control for WTIG
(Wind Turbine Induction Generator) is shown in Fig. 8,
though it applies for any DG system in general other than
WTIG. D-STATCOM uses STATCOM with Voltage Source
Inverter (VSI) getting feedback of reference reactive power
through PI Controller. This reference signal is used to

generate firing angle command to be compared with phase.
The actual information about the phase at that particular time
instant is gathered using phase locked loop (PLL). In this way,
Vdc (the input capacitor voltage) of STATCOM changes
according to the firing angle. Therefore, reactive power
becomes proportional to the difference of source voltage and
output voltage [8].
Fig. 8. Block diagram for D-STATCOM control [8].
F. SVC-MERS
Due to limitations in operation of SVC and high cost of
STATCOM, a new methodology has been proposed for
voltage control of induction generator [10]. The principle of
phase angle control is used and Magnetic Energy Recovery
Switch (MERS) is connected in shunt with induction
generator. The configuration and equivalent circuit of SVC-
MERS is shown in Fig. 9. The equivalent capacitance of SVC-
MERS can be varied from 0 to infinity by controlling the
switching of force commutated switches. In discontinuous
conduction mode, greater reactive power compensation has
been obtained using SVC-MERS [10].
Fig. 9. SVC-MERS – Configuration and Equivalent Circuit [10].
VIII. SIMULATION IN MATLAB
In this simulation, only one of the many advantages of
FACTS devices has been observed, i.e., the function of voltage
regulation by D-STATCOM. A power system is modelled in
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MATLAB with distributed generation sources. A conventional
power source along with Renewable energy sources like Solar
PV and Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) Wind
Turbines are connected with the network. The micro grid with
distributed generation is feeding the community loads having
fixed active power and reactive power demand as shown in
Fig.10.
Fig. 10. Simulation in MATLAB – Distributed Renewable Resources with
D-STATCOM
The variation in voltage at load bus has been monitored in
the load switchings, i.e., sudden load addition and sudden load
removal in case of fault. Two cases are analyzed, microgrid
with D-STATCOM named as Case A and without D-
STATCOM termed as Case B.
Firstly the cases without D-STATCOM are simulated for
large community load switched in and switched out as shown
in fig. 10 and 11 respectively. For Case A1, the modelled
community load having significant reactive power demand is
switched in at 0.15sec. It can be observed that there is huge
voltage drop to 0.9 p.u. due to deficiency of reactive power
supply from generation sources. Similarly for Case A2, the
load is switched out at 0.15sec. It can be observed that there is
large voltage increase to 1.13 p.u. due to excess of reactive
power from generation sources.
Fig. 10. Case A1: Large community load switched in at 0.15sec

Fig. 11. Case A2: Large community load switched out due to 3-phase
fault at 0.15sec
Now the D-STATCOM is added in the same microgrid and
above-mentioned switchings are analyzed named as Case B1
and B2 as shown in fig. 12 and 13 respectively. The voltage
regulation using reactive power control is monitored. For Case
B1, the modelled community load having significant reactive
power demand is switched out at 0.15sec.
Fig. 12. Case B1: Large community load switched in at 0.15sec
As can be observed, initially the system voltage is such that
the D-STATCOM is not operative and does not absorb or
provide reactive power to the power network. At the instant of
large load switching in at 0.15 sec, there is resulting reactive
power deficiency, the D-STATCOM responds to this voltage
decrease by supplying reactive power to the network, as seen
in fig.12. Similarly, for Case B2, the load is switched out at
0.15sec and resulting reactive power excess, the D-
STATCOM responds to this voltage increase by absorbing
reactive power from the network, as seen in fig.13.
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Fig. 13. Case B2: Large community load switched out due to 3-phase fault
at 0.15sec
IX. CONCLUSION
Motivations to use Distributed Generation in the power
system along with benefits of renewable energy has been
discussed. Reactive power compensation problem in DG is
highlighted and different solutions are discussed for it. Many
reactive power compensation devices are explained in the end
section. Finally, one of the many advantages of FACTS
devices (D-STATCOM here), i.e., voltage regulation is
simulated in MATLAB. In the domain of reactive power
compensation, it can be expected that there are lot of
composite devices to come in near future utilizing advantages
of all above-discussed devices having lesser number of
drawbacks.
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