Article

Transactions of the Institute of

Measurement and Control
Real time assessment of power quality 1–18
Ó The Author(s) 2020

issues in 11 kV/440 V distribution Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/0142331220913009
feeder using distribution static journals.sagepub.com/home/tim

synchronous compensator

Suresh Srinivasan1 , Murugaperumal Krishnamoorthy2,

RK Pongiannan3 and S Jeyasudha4

Abstract
The effects of power quality (PQ) issues in a distribution feeder occur due to abnormal load condition. In this paper, first, the real time PQ issues in an
11 kV/440 V distribution feeder are measured and analyzed by PQ analyzers. The sudden load fluctuations in the distribution system result in different
PQ issues such as voltage sag/swell, transient, flicker and harmonics. Then, an improved interactive distribution static synchronous compensator (D-
STATCOM) is installed in distribution feeder to mitigate the PQ issues. A novel control algorithm will operate the interactive D-STATCOM in voltage
control mode (VCM) or current control mode (CCM). At normal operating conditions, the D-STATCOM operates in CCM, during abnormal condition
the D-STATCOM will operates in VCM to mitigates the PQ issues. The D-STATCOM is modeled and simulated in MATLAB-SIMULINK environment.
The field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based laboratory prototype D-STATCOM has been developed to validate the function of the controller.

Keywords
Power quality, distribution static synchronous compensator, adjustable speed drive, point of common coupling, voltage control mode, current control
mode, total harmonic distortion, short-term flicker

Introduction
The power quality (PQ) issues are induced in distribution sys-
tem due to the sudden varying load like electric arc furnaces,
resistance welding, and induction motor and so on. Also,
adjustable speed drive (ASD) alters the load current consist-
ing of harmonics, reactive power component, neutral current,
unbalanced currents, direct current (DC) offset. These PQ
issues affect the performance of distribution system as well as
the protection and control devices. To mitigate these power
quality issues in distribution system dynamic voltage restorer
(DVR), unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) and
D-STATCOM are utilized. Generally, the DSTATCOM can
mitigate the PQ issues such as harmonic elimination, load
balancing, power factor correction, and voltage regulation
based on the load requirement. In the past decade, the D-
STATCOM-based PQ mitigation system has been developed
by many researchers.
In the distributed generation system, micro grid system,
PQ issues exists due to light emitting diode (LED) lamp,
underground cables, and waveform distortion within the
ranges of 2KHz to 150KHz (Ronnberg and Bollen, 2016).
The D-STATCOM is for the mitigation of unbalances in dis-
tribution system with microgrid application. A controller
design based on the mathematical model helps to find positive
and negative sequence component errors (Wang et al., 2018).
The PQ issues evaluation schemes, an optimal solution, and
case studies are carried out to classify effective custom power
devices (CPD) for distribution generation system. Based on
the analysis, it is identified that D-STATCOM can be the
potential choice (Hossain et al., 2018). The control strategies
have been addressed for the operation of D-STATCOM, and
mitigation methods only for the limited PQ issue (Khoshooei
et al., 2018).
The design of D-STATCOM controller to regulate its DC-
side capacitor voltage and feeder reactive power is discussed.
A control technique is developed to reduce the inverter switch-
ing losses and harmonics. The technique addressed is applica-
ble during normal condition and its dynamic performance
1
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Annamacharya
Institute of Technology & Science, India
2
Research Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Pondicherry
Engineering College, Pondicherry University, India
3
Department of Electrical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and
Technology, India
4
Department of Electrical Engineering, K. Ramakrishnan College of
Technology, India
Corresponding author:
Suresh Srinivasan, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering,
Annamacharya Institute of Technology & Science, New Boyanapalli,
Rajampet, Andhra Pradesh, 516126 India.
Email: sureshsrinivasan0719@gmail.com
2 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)
gets affected during abnormal condition (Ziaeinejad and
Mehrizi-Sani, 2018). A hybrid modulation (HB) technique is
implemented for cascaded H-bridge converter that is utilized
in D-STATCOM application. This proposed topology with
self-voltage balancing mechanism has the advantage of swap-
ping laid off switching states and free from additional control-
ler. By increasing the number of switches the switching and
conduction losses gets increase which in turn reduces the per-
formance of the system (Vural, 2016).
A novel coifletfraclet classifier is addressed to extract
the characteristics feature of events for applied voltage sag.
To obtain the maximum classification accuracy, affair
information is derived from time and frequency domain.
Comparisons were made between the various types of clarifier
to find quickly the detection and classification of voltage sag
with higher accuracy and causes of such events (Saini et al.,
2019). The design and implementation of a Mamdani fuzzy
proportional, integral, derivative power system stability con-
troller to achieve the stability of the system are discussed. The
hybrid controller provides the robust control during distur-
bances and recovers the steady-state condition in short dura-
tion by adopting the switch control approach. The stability
analysis of a system for certain power system issues are dis-
cussed (Gao et al., 2019). The harmonic estimation technique
of numerous measured parameters for a time varying signal is
discussed. This proposes iterative observer algorithm trade-
off between the accuracy and change in amplitude (Ujile
et al., 2015). The advancement of power electronics compo-
nents provides solution to voltage fluctuation. The D-
STATCOM with control technique has the ability to compen-
sate the reactive power and PQ control in distributing
systems.
The PQ measurements were carried out in wind generator
to analyze the quality of power. The measured PQ events, har-
monics are mitigated along with power factor correction by
using shunt compensator. The distribution system paved way
to have a steep increase in PQ issues. One of the main non-
linear loads is which will induce voltage disturbances results
in degraded quality of power (Madhulingam et al., 2017). The
arc furnace operation induces high flicker level in the distribu-
tion system (Maksi et al., 2016). To compensate the reactive
power absorption and to reduce the harmonics, smart loads
were used to correct the power factor (Murugaperumal et al.,
2017). For analyzing the PQ of a network, simultaneous mea-
surements of several quantities at the point of common cou-
pling (PCC) are needed (Cristaldi et al., 2003). To reduce the
PQ problems, a digital signal processing based implementa-
tion was proposed (Faifer et al., 2011). To improve the PQ
and to have a constant output voltage, for a variable fre-
quency drive with power factor correction was developed
(Gonzalez-Ramirez and Cruz-villar, 2017). The automatic
power factor correction (APFC) with booster circuits was
proposed for power measurement and to reduce the PQ issues
in the network.
Flicker meter is an instrument designed to measure the
obnoxiousness of flicker. The most predominant and com-
monly accepted standards for flicker are IEC641000-4-15&
IEC 61000-4-15 2010. The flicker meter output is a value of
short-term flicker (Pst) severity indicator describes the numer-
ical simulations that construct the processing of flicker meter
in frequency domain with the standard test signal. The char-
acteristics of flicker meter were determined for amplitude and
frequency modulation of the input signal also with harmonics
components (Majchrzak and Wiczynski, 2012).
Implementations of a digital flicker meter for a voltage
sample input to a software-based algorithm calculate the
short-term flicker (Pst). The flicker meter proposed algorithm
performs accurately for fluctuation having low frequency
(Geiger and Halpin, 2017). Measurement of voltage variation
in distribution feeder has been carryout in two types as Pst
indicator and voltage fluctuations indices. Current variation
correlated with the voltage and frequency fluctuation is
observed from the time plot of Pst indicator (Wiczy’nski,
2008). The method of converting voltage fluctuating indices
into Pst indicator and possibilities of recalculating the Pst
measurement into voltage fluctuating indices is detailed.
(Wiczynski, 2017).
The measured value that includes the perception of short-
term flicker (Pst) with period of severe voltage fluctuations
were noted and marked. The existence of the second harmo-
nic components can directly increase severity of voltage
flicker. Simulation of semi-converter has been done to acquire
one even harmonic for justification with the experiment.
Results illustrate the proportional relationship between the
Pst and percentage of second order harmonics (Goh and
Radzi, 2017). Numerous topologies for D-STATCOM are
presented as a comprehensive study (Singh et al., 2014).
Several control techniques and topology of D-STATCOM
were presented for PQ enhancement in the three-phase, three-
wire and four-wire distribution networks (Mahela and Shaik,
2015; Zaveri et al., 2012). Different inverter topologies for D-
STATCOM have been demonstrated and compared based on
the performance (Arindam Ghosh and Joshi, 2005).
The novel mitigating strategy using a Kalman Filter-based
algorithm for the extraction and tracking of voltage distur-
bances with fast response and accuracy is presented. The vol-
tage flicker due to an arc furnace is mitigated (Elnady and
Salama, 2005). The PQ improvement to mitigate the voltage
disturbances at a weak node using D-STATCOM is developed
to eliminate the voltage distortion based on moving half-cycle
average filter (Ghosh and Ledwich, 2003). Space vector mod-
ulation method to reduce the switching harmonics, capacitor
voltage control to damp LC resonance and to regulate grid
current is discussed (Wang et al., 2012). A control algorithm
to generate reference load voltage to enhance the performance
of voltage-controlled D-STATCOM is presented (Kumar
and Mishra, 2014a). The multifunctional D-STATCOM with
control algorithm having the ability to mitigate voltage and
current related PQ issues is addressed (Kumar and Mishra,
2014b).
From the literature reported, the control algorithm is
implemented using digital signal processor (DSP) based
(Pongiannan et al, 2010) realization. Due to the advancement
in very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, the field
programmable gate array (FPGA) has been used as a digital
controller implementation (Pongiannan et al, 2006, 2011a,
2011b & 2013). Hence, in this paper D-STATCOM for 11kV/
440V distribution system is modeled and implemented to
mitigate the PQ issues. This article is organized as follows.
Chapter 2 discuss about the measurement of PQ issues in
Srinivasan et al. 3

Table 1. Feeder parameters in PEC distribution system.

S. no. Total Real power/ Reactive power/ Voltage (VL) Phase current Power factor
power phase (kw) phase (kVAr) (Volts) (Amps) (cosV)
(kw)

Tr-1 120 40 10 440 280 0.98

Tr-2 120 40 10 440 210 0.9
Tr-3 120 40 10 440 235 0.82

Figure 1. Power quality parameters. (a) Phasor measurement, (b) Phase voltage in RMS value obtained from transformer-1.

11kV/440V distribution feeder. Chapter 3 discuss about the
PQ assessment and mitigation using D-STATCOM. Chapter
4 discusses the experimental verification of a FPGA-based
prototype D-STATCOM. Finally, the conclusions are sum-
marized in Chapter 5.
Measurement of PQ issues in 11kV/440V
distribution feeder
The distribution system is energized by 3F, three wire system,
which is connected through three step-down distribution
transformers, each having a power capacity of 200kVA; the
connected load details of the transformer are given in Table 1.
The power qualities issues like unbalance in voltage magni-
tude, sag/swell, transients, flicker and harmonics are mea-
sured and analyzed.
Figure 1(a) shows the phasor measurement obtained
from transformer-1. It indicates that the voltage and current
phasor quantity of each phase has the phase shift of exactly
120° and the current magnitude of each phase gets varied.
Figure 1(b) shows the instantaneous phase voltage wave-
form is obtained from the measurement point of transfor-
mer-1; it is maintained almost constant at balancing load.
Figures 2(a) and (b) show the phasor measurement and
phase voltage magnitude in root main square (RMS) value
obtained from transformer-1.
Figure 2(a) shows the voltage phasor angle is displaced
exactly by 120° and the magnitude changed due to load
unbalances. The 3F load connection is rescheduled; the repla-
cing of the power cable is done to obtain balance load condi-
tion and reduce such high neutral current. This issue is
rectified by proper load sharing and replacing the cable. The
neutral current gets reduced from 87.3Amps to 0.9Amps,
shown in Figures 3(a) and (b).
Voltage Disturbances
The PQ analyzer is designed as per the standard specified
by international electrotechnical commission (Moreno-Garcia
et al., 2017) to detect the PQ disturbances. The PQ events such
as voltage sag, in-rush current, voltage distortion, unbalances,
flicker and interruptions are determined and demonstrated
successfully. The detection of voltage sag by PQ disturbance
detection system and the changes in the magnitude from 421V
to 409V values are illustrated in Figure 4.
Current unbalances
The three-phase unbalanced system induces serious PQ issues.
Heavy single-phase load, improper distribution of single-
phase loads in three-phase distribution system is the major
reason for imbalance. Ratio of negative sequence component
and positive sequence component is termed as unbalance.
Unbalance may be voltage or current components that are
usually expressed in percentage. This unbalanced system car-
ries the existence of a negative sequence that will be adverse
4 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)

Figure 2. Power quality parameter measurement (a) & (b) Phasor phase voltage magnitude in RMS value and instantaneous phase voltage waveform
obtained from transformer-1.

Figure 3. Amplitude of neutral current from transformer-1. (a) & (b) Comparison of neutral current for unbalanced and balanced condition.

to all three phase loads, effecting the power factor. A concern
with power system is if unbalance increases then the cost of
energy increases, which is caused by voltage asymmetry,
which may be harmful to the consumer’s load, reducing the
performance of the distribution system. Industrial drives and
power electronics equipment are sensitive to the asymmetric
supply voltage and ultimate deterioration of PQ.
Figure 5(a) illustrates the variation of phase currents when
the motor is operated. The measurements of phase currents
An, Bn, and Cn are carried with 600 samples in the time span
of 15 minutes. Fig. 5(b) illustrates the unbalances in the phase
current An, Bn, Cn. It is observed that, the unbalance is 8.5,
9.2 and 11.2% for 500 samples with the measurement time
span of seven-minute. It is also observed, the that this unba-
lance is more than the specified value in the power quality
IEEE-519 standard.
Transients
Transients are disturbances, relatively than steady state varia-
tions such as harmonic distortions or unbalances. Transients
are categorized into two types: impulsive and oscillatory tran-
sients. Abrupt non-fundamental frequency change in steady
state condition with unidirectional polarity of voltage, cur-
rent, or both on a power line is known to be impulsive transi-
ent. This transient is generated during starting and
disconnecting of heavy loads, switching on/off of a power fac-
tor improvement capacitor or lighting. An oscillatory transi-
ent is bidirectional variation in voltage, current, or both on a
power line, which occurs due to resonances during switching.
Notching is also a PQ event that occurs during commutation
in single or three phase rectifiers. Figure 6(a) illustrates the
comparison of phase voltage and phase current with respect
to time in minutes for a 12-pulse three-phase rectifier load.
The generated notches that create undesirable harmonics to
the load voltage, increases the neutral current and decreases
the average load voltage.
Figures 6(b) & (c) illustrate the comparison of phase cur-
rent and phase voltage with respect to time in minutes for a
12-pulse three-phase rectifier load. The generated notches that
create undesirable harmonics to the load voltage increases the
neutral current and decreases the average load voltage. It is
observed that the phase voltage An,,Bn, are lesser in
Srinivasan et al.
Figure 4. Voltage sag obtained in transformer-1.
Figure 5. The variation of phase currents when the motor is operated. (a) Three Phase current in RMS values, for 600 samples with respect to time
period in minutes. (b) Three phase current unbalances in % for 500 samples with respect to time period in minutes.
magnitude and the phase voltage Cn has higher magnitude
with spike due to heavy loads that come into operation, where
a different phenomenon is observed with phase current. Air-
conditioning (AC) loads are connected in two phases An and
Bn, respectively, and by switching-on these devices in a
sequence creates transient.
Voltage flicker
A series of voltage changes or a continuous variation of the
RMS or peak value of the voltage or the common effects of
voltage variation is recognized as flicker. The impact of vol-
tage fluctuation (flicker) on lighting intensity due to large
loads that have rapidly changing active and reactive power
demands is generally termed as flicker. The variations range
from 0.1% to 7% of nominal voltage with frequencies less
than 25Hz causes voltage fluctuations. The three-phase
motors above 35 HP or a three-phase motor over 10 HP
5
served from single-phase or double-phase systems, adjustable
speed drives, single-phase motor more than 3HP, fluctuating
loads such as (elevators, arc furnaces, rolling mill drives, arc
welding loads and wind turbines) generates voltage fluctua-
tions in distribution system. This causes nuisance tripping,
mis-operation of relays, contactors and unwanted triggering
of uninterruptible power source (UPS) control units. The vol-
tage flicker creates harmonics in the network causing various
PQ issues. To demonstrate the flicker analysis, the measure-
ment was taken from two-phase electric resistance welding
such as single phase welding machine with a capacity of
5KVA fluctuating load.
The line current in RMS value when the welding machine
is switched on and comparison of line voltage (VAB) and line
current in (RMS) value taken are illustrated in Figures 7(a)
and (b). From this figure, it is observed that the line currents
magnitude is 4.5, 4.7, 4.2Amps and the line voltage of
425Volts during on condition. Comparison of line voltage
6 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)

Figure 6. Transient measurement (a) Comparison of Phase voltage, phase current and neutral current with respect to time in minutes.
(b) & (c) Phase current and Phase voltage deviations for 600 samples with respect to time in minutes.

(VCA) and line current magnitude in RMS value without and
with welding operation is illustrated in Figures 7(c) and (d).
During the welding operation, the line current in phase B and
C that increases suddenly from 4.5Amps to 37Amps is
observed from Figure 7(d). The phase A remains the same as
4.5Amps, since the load is connected between the line B and
C. The line voltage VBC, VCA, gets reduced whereas the line
current of B and C increases due to increase in arc load that
is illustrated in Figures 8(a) and (b). The effects of voltage
and current variations induce harmonics and flicker exists.
Measurement of harmonics with respect to fundamental is an
important constraint in distribution system applications.
Harmonics
Harmonics are classified as integer harmonics, inter harmo-
nics, sub harmonics and supra harmonics. Integer harmonics
are the integer multiples of fundamental frequency, inter har-
monics have their frequencies greater than fundamental fre-
quency and sub harmonics have their frequencies lesser then
fundamental frequency. Highly fluctuation loads can produce
supra harmonics along with other harmonics within the
ranges of 2KHz to 150KHz.
From Figure 9, it is observed that the current total harmo-
nics distortion (THD)% during arc-load condition is very
high of 65%, where the harmonic frequencies are in the ranges
of 150 Hz to 2.5 KHz. It is inferred that the arc load is capable
of producing supra harmonics with relevant THD%. These
effects of harmonics produce unbalances and frequency varia-
tions are illustrated in Figure 10. By providing a filter capaci-
tor across the point of common coupling (PCC), the higher
order frequency components get restricted into the source
side.
Perception of instantaneous flicker (Pins) response is in
‘‘perception unit’’ one per unit defined as threshold of percep-
tion, illustrated in Figure 11. From this, it is inferred that the
input voltage fluctuation of% is very high.
The perception of short-term flicker (Pst) can be expressed
as
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Pst = k1 P1 + k2 P2 +    kn Pn ð1Þ
Srinivasan et al. 7

Figure 7. Flicker measurement during welding operation. (a) & (b) shows the three-phase current and comparison of line voltage (VAB), current while
switching on the welding machine. Fig. 7(c) & (d) shows the comparison of three line voltage (VCA) and current before and during the welding operation.

Figure 8. Flicker measurement during welding operation. (a) & (b) shows the comparison of three line voltage and three line current in RMS value
for 1400 samples with respect to time in 12-minute intervals.

where Kn are the weighting coefficients and Pn are level corre- is 1 unit according to IEC 61000-4-15. Figure 12 illustrates
sponding to the percentiles. the perception of short-term flicker (Pst) for line voltage AB,
The measure of flicker severity based on an observation BC, CA with respect to time for 1300 samples. From this fig-
period of short term (1–10 minute) duration. The limit for Pst ure, it is observed that the Pst indicator value is beyond the
8 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)

Figure 9. % THD of current during arc-load.

Figure 10. Unbalances in % and frequency variations during arc load.

Figure 11. Perception of instantaneous flicker sensation (Pins) for line voltage AB with respect to time.

IEC regulatory norms. Hence, this kind of voltage distur-
bances is mitigated through connecting custom power devices.
From the real time PQ measurements, it is observed that the
THD is above the recommended values, sag/swell, transients
are presented in the test system. To mitigate these PQ issues,
D-STATCOM is designed and implemented.
PQ assessment and mitigation using
D-STATCOM
Distribution system comprises of utility system and step-
down transformer to decrease the voltage level in distribution
side. This system consists of loads like industrial, commercial
and sensitive loads. They are connected to the point of com-
mon coupling (PCC). The block diagram of 11kV/440V dis-
tribution system with D-STATCOM is illustrated in
Figure 13. It is realized by a three-phase, four-wire voltage
source inverter (VSI) connected in parallel to feeder through
LC filter. The filter capacitor (Cfc ), connected in across the
feeder to suppress the higher frequency component and pro-
hibits them from entering into the feeder. Voltages across
both capacitors Cdc1 = Cdc2 = Cdc are maintain at a constant
value Vdc1 = Vdc2 = Vdc . Source voltage, PCC voltage, source
current, load current and filter currents are vsj, vtj, isj, ilj, and
iftj, with j = a, b, c as three phases.
Srinivasan et al. 9

Figure 12. Perception of short-term flicker (Pst) for line voltage AB, BC, CA with respect to time.

Sensitive loads

PCC

a Current varying loads

A like arc furnace,
b rolling mills
B c
C n
B2
Three-phase B1 11kV/440V
ac source T/F

+
-
n
+
-

Figure 13. General block diagram of D-STATCOM.

Several reference generations scheme have proposed for
compensation (Goh and Radzi, 2017; Mahela and Shaik,
2015; Ronnberg and Bollen, 2016; Singh et al., 2014). In this
work, instantaneous symmetrical component theory is used
to generate the source current and terminal voltage reference
for compensation. The control algorithm decides the D-
STATCOM to operate in current control mode (CCM) or
voltage control mode (VCM). In CCM, the DC-link voltage
is decreased to compensate the power losses in voltage source
inverter (VSI). Regulation of DC-link voltage is obtained
through closed loop PI controller from Section 3.2.
Generation of filter current reference from Section 3.3 in
CCM contributes to the performance of the D-STATCOM.
During voltage disturbances the mode is changed to VCM
for compensation. Moving average filter is utilized to com-
pute the average load power (Pavg). This Pavg is used for com-
puting the reference filter current. Predictive control
generates the voltage or current control laws. Finally, this law
is changed into ON/OFF switching command to operate the
VSI switches through deadbeat hysteresis controller.
Generation of current control law
This research provides an independent control of each leg of
VSI. Single phase modelling is done to explain the operation.
Output voltage of the VSI is represented by uVdc. The term,
u, is the switching control variable with value + 1or -1. State
space equation for this circuit is given as follows
x_ = Ax + Bz
ð2Þ
= ½ vfc ifi is t , z = ½ u ift vs  t
Equation (2), given in continuous form, represented in a dis-
crete form as
10 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)

Figure 14. Control block diagram of D-STATCOM.

xðk + 1Þ = Gxðk Þ + Hzðk Þ ð3Þ For second order extrapolation, n = 2 in the above equation
and a linear prediction is given below
The filter current at ðk + 1Þ sampling instant, as of equation
(3), is given ifi ðk + 1Þ = 3ifi ðk Þ  3ifi ðk  1Þ + ifi ðk  2Þ ð8Þ

ifi ðk + 1Þ = G21 Vfc ðk Þ + G22 ifi ðk Þ + H21 ui ðk Þ + H22 ift ðk Þ ð4Þ By substituting the above equation in (4), the substitution
yields the deadbeat current control law. The reference current
When equation (4) is implemented, each switching state gives control law obtained from equations (4),(6) and (8) is given as
a different current estimation. In other words, each switching
strategy needs a future current through the switching device, ifi ðk + 1Þ  G21 vfc (k)  G22 ifi (k)  H21 ift (k)
which is unknown at the k th sampling. Hence, the cost func- ui ðk Þ = ð9Þ
H22
tion (J) is defined as
h i2
J = ifi ðk + 1Þ  ifi ðk + 1Þ ð5Þ Generation of voltage control law
where From equation (3), the voltage across filter capacitor at the
future sampling instant is
ifi ðk + 1Þ is reference current;
vfc ðk + 1Þ = G11 ifi ðk Þ + H11 uv ðk Þ + H12 ift ðk Þ ð10Þ
ui (k) reference for current control law;
uv (k) is reference for voltage control law. The procedure for obtaining uv (k) is followed to obtain the
reference voltage control law
To minimize cost function, it is differentiated with respect
to ui ðk Þ and equated to zero. Then, J is minimum at vfc ðk + 1Þ  G11 vfc (k)  G12 ifi (k)  H12 ift (k)
ui ðk Þ = ð11Þ
H11
ifi ðk + 1Þ = ifi ðk + 1Þ ð6Þ
Similarly
Reference current control law is obtained after replacing
equation (6) in (4). It can be noticed that equation (4) com- vt ðk + 1Þ = 3vt ðk Þ  3vt ðk  1Þ + vt ðk  2Þ ð12Þ
prises future reference current ifi ðk + 1Þ that is unknown. To
identify the future value of any signal in discrete domain with The reference control law is transformed into correspond-
constant sampling time, extrapolation is used to guesses the ing switching commands using deadbeat current and voltage
future value using known values of past sampling instants. controller. Control block diagram of D-STATCOM is shown
Order of extrapolation depends upon the sampling period. in Figure 14.
The future current reference can be obtained from
Lagrange’s extrapolation formula as follows
Control of DC link voltage
Xn  
n+1  The DC link voltage gradually decreases because of the losses
ifi (k + 1) = nn1 ifi (k + 1  n) ð7Þ
l=0 l in the inverter. Consequently, a control loop is needed to
Srinivasan et al. 11

maintain the capacitor voltage in the desired value by com- where

pensating the losses. It is achieved by taking small real power
from the source. Control of capacitor voltage in CCM and ifta reference filter current;
VCM is achieved as follows. v+ ta1 positive sequence component
cfc shunt capacitor.
Control of DC link voltage in CCM. The deviation of capacitor
voltage from reference voltage represents power losses (Ploss) The reference currents of the inverter for VSI is given as
in the VSI. The desired DC link voltage is obtained by com- 2 3 2  3 2  3
pensating the Ploss drawn from source. Compensation of Ploss ifia ifta ifca
4 ifib 5 = 4 iftb 5 + 4 ifcb 5

ð18Þ
is done through a proportional-integral (PI) controller, as
shown in Figure 14. It supports in maintaining the DC link ific iftc ifcc
voltage ðvdc1 + vdc2 Þ at a predefined reference value (2 Vdcref )
by taken a set of balanced currents from the source given as Deadbeat current predictive control is used to realize these
currents using the VSI.
ð
Ploss = Kpc evdc + Kic evdc dt ð13Þ
Generation of reference load voltages. The load voltages are
where Kpc , Kic and evdc = 2Vdcref  ðvdc1 + vdc2 Þ are propor- maintained at 0.9 -1.1 p.u. during sag and swell respectively
tional gain, integral gain and voltage error of PI controller. for the improvement of voltage regulation ability. The refer-
ence voltage magnitude (vt ), load angle d are computed from
(14); the three-phase reference load voltages are given as
Control
 of DC link voltage in VCM. The real power at pffiffiffi  
PCC Ppcc is sum of load power Plavg and VSI losses. The vta = 2vt sin vt  vta d ð19Þ
total power at PCC Ppcc , is taken from the source depend-
ing upon the load angle d. During VCM, DC link voltage is Similarly, vtb , vtc . This voltage is realized by the VSI using
regulated by selecting a suitable value of load angle. For sta- deadbeat predictive control law.
ble operating condition the load angle lies between 0 to 908
ð
d = Kpv evdc + Kiv evdc dt ð14Þ Transfer of modes in D-STATCOM
During normal condition, the D-STATCOM is operated in
CCM for reactive power compensation, load harmonics,
unbalances and unity power factor. However, the load vol-
Generation of reference quantities tage can change at any instant because of the voltage distur-
Generation of reference filter current. D-STATCOM perfor- bances. It will be affected the performance of sensitive load
mance in CCM mainly depends on the generation of reference connected in the distribution system. In this circumstance, D-
currents. In this research, reference filter current (ifta , iftb , iftc ) is STATCOM must switch to VCM from CCM to maintain
generated using instantaneous symmetrical components the- constant voltage at the load terminal. If Vs is lesser than 0.923
ory represented as p.u. and greater than 1.1 p.u. then the D-STATCOM can
operate in VCM to regulate load voltage. If Vs is between
v+ 0.93 and 1.1 p.u then the D-STATCOM can operate in CCM.
ifta = ila  ila = ila  taI
(Plavg + Ploss ) ð15Þ
D+I

Similarly, iftb = ilb  ilb , iftc = ilc  ilc , where D+

1 =
Development of DSTACOM uning MATLAB-
P + 2 SIMULINK
j = a, b, c (vtjI ) ,
are the instantaneous fundamental positive-
sequence component. Ploss , are calculated in PI controller, The D-STATCOM has been modeled using MATLAB and is
given in equation (13). The average load power is estimated an experimental model is developed and tested. A proposed
using moving average filter is represented as control algorithm and interactive D-STATCOM make the
ð t1 source currents balanced, sinusoid and maintain unity power
1 factor at the PCC, within the acceptable voltage range. In
Plavg = ðvta ila + vtb ilb + vtc itc Þ ð16Þ
T t1 T addition, reactive current components and load harmonics
are provided through the distribution static synchronous
where T and t1 are the time period and arbitrary time instant. compensator (D-STATCOM). Validation of the proposed
The reference current through capacitor leads the terminal control algorithm and implementation of three- phase D-
voltage by 908 . Therefore, reference current in capacitor is STATCOM was carried out through MATLAB/Simulation
estimated as follows platform. 440V RMS value per phase is considered as (1.0
2 3 2 +3 p.u.). The 3MVAr compensator contains a pulse width modu-
ifca vtaI lation (PWM) six-pulse inverter, with filter parameters of Lf
4 ifcb 5 = jvCfc 4 v+ 5 ð17Þ
tbI = 30 mH, Cf = 15mF,Vdc = 3400 V, Cdc = 5800mF and
ifcc v+
tcI PWM with switching frequency of 3kHz.
12
Case 1 (voltage flickering): Initially, a three-phase unba-
lanced load of 4MW and a constant current load with a
modulating frequency of 8.8 Hz is connected during the
time period from t = 0.1 to 0.6 sec. The corresponding
phase voltage in p.u, line current, real and reactive power
and the flicker meter output of weighting filter and Pins
values are shown in Figures 15(a) to (e). It is inferior that
the constant current load with low frequency component
Figure 15. Continued
Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)
produces voltage and current oscillation during the time
period t = 0.1 to 0.6 sec.
This results in fluctuations of real and reactive power that
changes rapidly leads to flickering are illustrated in Figures
15(a) to (c). The severity of the flicker is identified and mea-
sured by flickermeter are illustrated in Figures 15(d) and (e).
The magnitude of weighting filter fluctuating voltage is 10
Srinivasan et al. 13

Figure 15. Simulation results without compensation. (a) Terminal voltage in p.u. (b) load current. (c) Real and reactive power. (d) Weighting filter
output p.u. (e) perception of instantaneous value (Pins).

Figure 16. Comparison of FFT alysis for ITHDin % without and with compensation.
(a) ITHDin % without compensation. (b) ITHD in % with compensation.

Figure 17. Comparison of flickermeter output Van p.u. for without and with compensation.
(a) Flickermeter output Van in p.u. without compensation. (b) Flickermeter output Van in p.u. with compensation.
14 Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)

Figure 18. Simulation results of CCM.

(a) Terminal voltage and current in p.u. (b) Real and reactive power. (c) Weighting filter output p.u. (d) Perception of instantaneous value (Pins).(e) DC-
bus Voltage (Vdc). (f) Amplitude modulation index.

Figure 19. Simulation results of VCM. (a) Van average value in p.u without compensation. (b) Van average value in p.u with compensation.
Srinivasan et al.
Figure 20. Experimental setups for the proposed D-STATCOM.
Figure 21. Spartan-6-based FPGA, driver circuit and 5 level C-MLI.
p.u., Pins value is about 300 % and percentage of line current
total harmonics distortion (ITHD) is of 15% and that causes
severe fluctuations in the feeder. Compensation performance
of novel multifunction D-STATCOM operation is shown in
Figure 16. Comparison of % ITHD value for without and with
compensation obtained from fast Fourier transform (FFT)
analysis is shown in Figure 16. It is observed that the com-
pensator can suppress the %ITHD from 15% to 1.3%.
Figure 17 illustrates the comparison of flickermeter output
VanRMS value p.u. without and with compensation. It is
inferior that the low frequency carrier signal is completely
suppressed, as shown in Figure 17. The D-STATCOM oper-
ates in CCM to compensate the voltage flicker by supplying
reactive current, which makes the terminal voltage and cur-
rent inphase, with each other at PCC is illustrated in Figure
18(a). Real power and reactive power at PCC are illustrated
in Figure 18 (b). It is observed that the PQ gets disturbed dur-
ing transients and attains steady state because of compensa-
tor. The flickermeter output from weighting filter fluctuating
voltage is nearly 0.02 p.u during flicker and Pins value is about
10 %, illustrated in Figures 18(c) and (d). These parameters
are limited according to the IEEE-519 PQ standards by con-
necting compensator. The DC bus voltage is observed in
Figure 18(e) and is preserved at 3400V during the CCM using
15
Figure 22. Phase voltage, current, compensator injecting current and
voltage for linear load.
the PI controller. Figure 18(f) shows that the VSI amplitude
modulation index (ma) gets varied from (0.1–0.6 sec) and
attains the steady state at 0.8 sec.
Case 2 (voltage dip): To illustrate the voltage regulation
ability of D-STATCOM, at t= 0.1 sec, sag is generated
by an inflexible source by 15%, as shown in Figure 19(a).
Once sag is detected, the mode of operation is changed to
VCM and a constant voltage of 0.98 p.u. is maintained at
the load terminal. The source current increases during sag
period owing to reactive current supplied by the compen-
sator, illustrated in Figure 19(b). Voltage sag is cleared at
t = 0.6 sec, then the load voltage starts following the
source voltage. Hence, the operational mode of the D-
STATCOM is shifted to CCM. The inner and outer loop
PI controller are used to regulate the DC-link capacitor
voltage under CCM and VCM of operation. Error
between the reference and actual DC-Link capacitor is fed
as input for both the PI controller. The inner loop control-
ler produces output proportional to power loss (Ploss). The
outer loop PI controller generates load angle (d). During
the normal operating condition from 0–0.1 sec the load
angle remains constant as 68 , at sag condition from 0.1–
0.6 sec the load angle increases and reaches a peak value
of 148 , Beyond the time period of 0.6 Sec, it remains at a
constant value of 68 . Once the sag disappears, the control-
ler transfers from VCM to CCM. Controller gain values
are Kpv = 9  106 , Kiv = 10  106 , Kpc = 20, Kic = 0:8:
Experimental verification of a FPGA-
based prototype D-STATCOM
A laboratory prototype of FPGA-based D-STATCOM con-
troller has been developed and tested. The photograph of the
experiments set is shown in Figure 20. And the FPGA con-
troller and MLI module is shown in Figure 21. The D-
STATCOM consists of a 2-stage, 5-level cascade multilevel
inverter controlled by a FPGA-based controller. The closed-
loop controller for D-STATCOM has been implemented
using the Spartan-6 field programmable gated array (FPGA).
16
Figure 23. Single phase voltage, current, compensator injecting current and voltage for non-linear load.
Figure 24. Three-phase voltage, current, compensator injecting current and voltage for rectifier load.
The proposed system utilized the MATLAB/Simulink library
specifically designed for Xilinx ISE, which supports model-
based system design of FPGA based control systems.
Additionally, Simulink library enables model analysis for sys-
tem diagnostics and fast prototyping, by identifying system
issues prior to hardware implementation.
Experiment results
Experimentations have been carried out for variety of distur-
bances like voltage sag/swell, transient and harmonics in
power system. The D-STATCOM is tested initially, through a
supply phase voltage of 150Vfor linear loading conditions and
the corresponding waveform is shown in Figure 22. Figure 22
shows that the supply phase current distortion gets compen-
sated through 2-stage, 5-level cascade multilevel inverter injec-
tion (C-MLI) of compensating current and the corresponding
voltage from D-STATCOM are obtained for time duration
from 0–0.2 sec.The phase current and voltage are measured
using the digital storage oscilloscope. The phase voltage and
current measurement for a single phase is shown in Figure 23.
It can be observed that the waveform consists of two distinct
phases. Initially, the presence of the non-linear load injects
harmonics into the system, which in turn distorts the line
current.
In the second phase at time period of 80 msec the D-
STATCOM comes into operation, injecting voltage and cur-
rent into the system, which could be observed from the
Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control 00(0)
sudden changes in the supply voltage and current waveforms.
As a result, the line current and voltage disturbances get miti-
gated and the system behavior is restored to normalcy, illu-
strated in Figure 23.
In the second stage, the D-STATCOM has been tested for
a three-phase system. The system feeds power to an uncon-
trolled rectifier. The voltage and current waveforms of the
power system after the compensation is shown Figure 24. At
time period of 20 msec, the D-STATCOM is compensating
voltage and current. Figure 25 shows the THD value of cur-
rent harmonics content in the D-STATCOM. It is observed
that the current THD value is 18.2% without compensation
and it has reduced to 3.9% with compensation.
Conclusion
The real-time PQ measurement in a 11kV/440V power system
has been carried out, and the PQ issues are analyzed. The
measured data have been utilized to evaluate the occurrences
of PQ disturbance in the system. Then, a D-STATCOM is
designed to mitigate the system disturbances. The D-
STATCOM has been developed in MATLAB/Simulink envi-
ronment, and the simulation results are presented to mitigate
the PQ issues. The functionality of the D-STATCOM is
experimentally verified using a FPGA-based prototype con-
troller. The D-STATCOM has been tested for difference dis-
turbances such as voltage sag/swell, flicker and harmonics.
Srinivasan et al.
Figure 25. Current total harmonics distortion measurement. (a) & (b) Comparison of three-phase % ITHD without and with DSTATCOM.
The D-STATCOM is effectively compensating the distur-
bances in the distribution system to meet the PQ standards.
Authors’ Note
Murugaperumal Krishnamoorthy is now affiliated to
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BIET
Mangalpalli, Hyderabad, India.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Suresh Srinivasan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6491-9310
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