Two-Level Control Method for DPFC Series Units

based on PLC Communication

Mengmeng Xiao, Shaorong Wang Yong Huang Chao Zheng
School of Electrical and Electronic SG HBEPC Economic & Technology School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering Research Institute Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Wuhan, China Huazhong University of Science and
Technology 1643535423@qq.com Technology
Wuhan, China Wuhan, China
xiaomengmeng@hust.edu.cn, 597621374@qq.com
wsrwy96@ vip.sina.com

Qiushi Xu, Hongsheng Zhao Aihong Tang Dichen Liu

SG HBEPC Economic & Technology School of Automation School of Electric Engineering
Research Institute Wuhan University of Technology Wuhan University
Wuhan, China Wuhan, China Wuhan,China
xu_qiushi@163.com, tah@whut.edu.cn dcliu@whu.edu.cn
183575350@qq.com

Abstract—Distributed Power Flow Controller (DPFC) is
expected to be used for improving the performance of power
flow control in AC transmission power system. In this paper, a
two-level control scheme for DPFC series units is proposed.
The two-level control system consists of an upper-level
controller, multiple lower-level series unit controllers and
unidirectional power line carrier (PLC) communication link.
The reference value of series compensated voltage is calculated
by the top-level controller according to the power flow ordered
by dispatch center and transferred to series units via PLC
communication link. A corresponding compensated voltage
will then be generated in series units. Comparing the reference
value of the compensated voltage with actual value, the
modulation signal of converter in series unit will be modified
through PI control. The model of an AC transmission system at
high-level voltage involved with DPFC is built in
PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulation results indicate that the
proposed two-level control method for DPFC series units is
flexible and effective.
Keywords—AC transmission, Distributed power flow
controller (DPFC), Two-level control, Series compensated
voltage
I. INTRODUCTION
Long distance power transmission with large capacity
cross-region transmission at high-voltage level has become
predominant in China [1]. The AC power transmission
capacity is limited, and the distribution and direction of
power flow are generally unexpected. To address above
limitations, the mechanically controlled AC power
transmission systems, including the use of high-power
electronics, advanced control centers, and communication
links, are proposed by Hingorani [2-4]. The conception of
unified power-flow controller (UPFC), the combination of
shunt and series FACTS linked by common dc, is proposed
by Dr. L.Gyugyi in 1992 [5]. In 2004, the concept of
distributed FACTS (D-FACTS) is introduced by Prof.
common dc link between the shunt and series converters.
The series unit of DPFC employs the distributed FACTS
(D-FACTS) concept, which is to use multiple small-size
single-phase converters [10-11]. Multiple series units of
DPFC are controlled by employing optical fiber
communications (OFC), wireless communication or power
line carrier (PLC) communication technology. The DPFC
series units are hung on the transmission lines, thus the
optical fiber cable need to be cut to access the units in.
Accordingly, it is not an efficient way when considering the
difficulty and high cost of equipment installation [12]. The
wireless communication is easy to be interfered and be
blocked by objects. Even more, the demand for real-time
performance and information security can’t be met [13].
PLC communication is proprietary to power system. Due to
its omnipresence, the power system offers an huge potential
for communication [14]. The current power line and carrier
equipment can be adopted to transmit the control signal at
high speed without rebuilding up the communication
network [15].
It is difficult for DPFC series unit to send the current and
voltage signal back due to the limited power of DPFC series
units (the single-turn transformer). To deal with this issue,
wide area measurement system (WAMS) is introduced to
transfer the voltage and current state variables of
transmission line back to the upper-level controller.
II. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF DPFC
DPFC is composed of a parallel FACTS device at the
sending-end of AC transmission line and many distributed
series FACTS devices along the transmission line. The
configuration of the DPFC is shown in Fig. 1[10].
…
 Y Y 
AC AC AC AC
DC DC DC DC

Deepak Divan [6-8], as a way to control the power flow High-pass

effectively by changing the line reactance. In 2007, the idea AC
DC
filter

of distributed power flow controller (DPFC) is proposed as

a new component within the FACTS family by Zhihui Yuan
from Delft University of Technology [9]. DPFC is derived Fig.1 DPFC configuration
from UPFC. DPFC can be considered as a UPFC without

978-1-5386-8549-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

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 The parallel unit of DPFC absorbs the active power from 
where V se is the integrated base-frequency compensated
the bus convert it to the third-harmonic active power by
voltage generated by all DPFC series units,  is the angle
back-to-back VSC. Then the third-harmonic active power is     
injected into the transmission line through the neutral point V 1 leads V 2 , and se is the angle V se leads V 2 . V 1 and
of the delta-star grounded (Δ-Yn) transformer. The third 

harmonic is selected to exchange the active power inner V 2 can be regarded as constant during a control period, so
DPFC due to its natural property [10]. In a three-phase the increment of active and reactive power flow at the
system, the 3rd harmonic is identical for different phases receiving-end can be written as following
and can be naturally blocked by Δ-Yn transformers, V V sin  se
P2  se 2 (1)
therefore the high-pass filter is not necessary. X
DPFC series unit has the task of absorbing 3 rd harmonic V V cosse
frequency active power to maintain the dc capacitor voltage Q2  se 2 (2)
X
and injecting a series base-frequency compensated voltage
where X  =X T1  X line  X T2 equals the total impedance of the
to the transmission line to regulate the active and reactive
AC transmission power system. By changing compensated
power flow of the AC transmission system.
voltage slightly, the power flow of transmission line can be
Considering that the two-level control method of DPFC
controlled efficiently.
series units is the main topic for this paper, the parallel unit
of DPFC is equivalent to a simple third-harmonic current III. TWO-LEVEL CONTROL SYSTEM OF DPFC
source. The equivalent circuit of the AC transmission
system including DPFC is presented in Fig.2. The two-level control system of DPFC series unit consists
    X line
of upper-level controller, multiple series unit controllers and
+V 1 - +V 2 - + V 3 - + V n -
…
PLC unidirectional communication link. The schematic
AC AC AC AC

V 1 P1 , Q1
DC DC DC DC 
P2 , Q2 V2 diagram of this system is depicted in Fig.4.
 
X T1 A     X line
A X T2 V1 V2
B +V 1 - +V 2 - + V 3 - … + V n - B
.
Trap 
Trap
I I
 Yn C AC AC AC AC C Yn 
 DC DC DC DC ...
I3 DPFC -S1 DPFC -S2 DPFC -S3 DPFC -Sn

C1 Ic C2
    X line
+V 1 - +V 2 - + V 3 - … + V n - M ref
K1 Carrier Upper-level Carrier K2
AC AC AC AC Device Controller Device
DC DC DC DC  ref
  

Fig.2 The equivalent transmission system involved DPFC Pset Qset V1 V 2 IL

Dispatch
  WAMS
Center
V 1 and V 2 represent the voltage at sending-end and
 Fig.4 The two-level control system of DPFC series units
receiving-end of transmission line, respectively. I is the In Fig.4, DPFC-S1, DPFC-S2, DPFC-S3 and DPFC-Sn are

rd series units of DPFC. Targeted active power flow Pset and
current of power line. I 3 is the equivalent 3 harmonic
current. P1 、Q1, P2 、Q2 indicates the power flow at the reactive power flow Qset is ordered by dispatch center.
sending-end and receiving-end of transmission line, WAMS is applied to attain the state variables of sending and
respectively. receiving end voltage and line current. The order of
At first, before starting the power flow controller, the 3 rd compensated voltage Mref and 𝜃ref are sent to DPFC series
harmonic power is absorbed for building up the dc voltage unit via PLC communication link.
of DPFC series units. Simultaneously, DPFC series units DPFC series unit has the task of absorbing 3 rd harmonic
will inject a small 3rd harmonic voltage to the transmission frequency active power to maintain the dc capacitor voltage
line. and injecting a corresponding base frequency compensated
To maintain the dc capacitor voltage, the 3rd harmonic voltage to the transmission line based on the reference
power must response quickly to balance the base-frequency signal. By comparing the targeted compensated voltage with
active power. Assuming an ideal converter, the active power actual compensated voltage, the modulation signal of base-
generated at fundamental frequency is equal to the power frequency compensated voltage will be modified until the
absorbed from the harmonic frequency. Under this condition, injected voltage is nearly same to the target value. The
DPFC series units will inject both a 3rd harmonic voltage lower-level control scheme for DPFC series unit is depicted
and a base-frequency compensated voltage to power line. in Fig.5.
The work principle of DPFC series unit is shown in Fig.3. CT
DSP
ADC
Edc
 I3  pll 3 dc-voltage
V se SPLL DC side
Filter ADC control

 se I1 + vmod 3
V3 SPWM AC
 
vmod Gnenerator DC
V1 V2 power-flow +v
SPLL mod1
 pll control AC side


PLC M ref  ref  M se se
ADC
Receiver

Fig.3 The work principle of DPFC series unit Fig.5 The lower-level control scheme for DPFC series unit

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 As shown in Fig.7, The measured value of the line current free space, S shows the cross-sectional of the coil and  is
is obtained by the current transformer (CT). The 3rd magnetic flux.
 
harmonic current I 3 and base-frequency current I 1 are
V. SIMULATION MODEL
separated by the filter and their phases can be attained by
single-phase locked loop (SPLL) in DPFC series unit. A. Simulation Model of DPFC system
The reference value of the compensated voltage Mref and The simulation model of the system is built in
𝜃ref are transferred to DPFC series unit via PLC PSCAD/EMTDC and shown in Fig.7.
communication link. The actual value of compensated T1 T2
voltage Mse and 𝜃se are acquired and conversed to digital X LINE1

signal by ADC unit and then sent to the DSP module. 

V1  Y X LINE 2 Y  
V2
DPFC-S
By comparing the reference value with actual value of N=100
A A
base-frequency compensated voltage, PI controller in the T1
B DPFC-S X LINE 2
B
T2

DSP module will generate a compensated phase e and a  Y C

N=100
C Y 
X LINE 2
magnitude correction factor kMe to modify the modulation 
DPFC-S
I3 N=100
signal vmod1 of base-frequency compensated voltage.
Based on the output of SPLL, the dc-voltage control loop
Fig.7 The simulation model of DPFC in PSCAD/EMTDC
will generate the modulation signal vmod 3 for 3-rd harmonic
The parameters of this system are listed in Table I .
frequency voltage. The power-flow control loop will
generate the modulation signal of base-frequency TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF THE TEST SYSTEM
voltage vmod1 . As a result, the output of AC/DC converter
Items Parameter
equals the general control effect of vmod1 and vmod 3 .
rd
The magnitude of 3 harmonic current I3 150A
IV. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM BASED ON PLC The number of DPFC series units N 100
The circuit of PLC device is described in Fig.6. Magnitude of V1 and V2 110kV
Bus1 Bus2

Line Trap Transmission Line Line Trap Phase angle of voltage at sending-end δ 3°
Phase angle of voltage at receiving-end 0°
PLC PLC PLC 110kV/220kV,240MVA
Receiver Receiver ... Receiver Transformer T1 ,T2
High Pass Tuner
C2
Coupling
Capacitor
Coupling
Capacitor
C2 0.1p.u, ∆-Yn
C1 20V/100V,100kVA,0.1p.
Coaxial
Single Turn Transformer of series unit
u
PLC Cable
Trans- 1.Drain Coil PLC
mitter L1 2 1 2 3 2.Protective Gap ... Trans-
3 2 1
3.Grounding Switch mitter
Reference value of dc capacitor voltage 200V
Value of dc capacitor of VSC in series unit 2200μF
Fig.6 The Circuit of PLC Communication System
The carrier signal of PLC is coupled to transmission line LC filter of VSC in series unit 1.33mH，100μF
through the capacitive voltage transformers (CVT). Switch frequency of IGBT 2100Hz
Capacitor C1 and inductor L1 form a high pass filter. The Xline1 R=3.4Ω,L=0.157H
combination of the high pass tuner, coupling capacitor and
the drain coil performs the function of coupling the carrier Xline2 R=5.1Ω,L=0.21 H
energy to the transmission line and blocking the power Setting value of active and reactive power 30.0MW, -1.0Mvar
frequency energy. Line trap is used to prevent the high- Mref for each series unit 16.37V
frequency carrier energy from flowing into the substation or
𝜃ref for each series unit in phase A -71.12°
other branches correlated with station bus.
The key component of the wireless PLC receiver is Initial phase angle φ 4.35°
electromagnetic induction coil, which can be described as Starting time for the breaker of series unit 0.05s
following
Starting time for the power flow control 1.2s
 Hdl  I sin（ t） (3)
s.t. B. Simulation Model of PLC communication system
l  2 R (3.1) The equivalent carrier signal transmission model which is
B  H (3.2) depicted in Fig.8 is emulated in PSCAD/EMTDC.
S   r2 (3.3) Since the carrier signal is coupled to phase A, the
equivalent voltage source of phase A is 10V, and 0V for
  BS (3.4)
phase B and phase C.
e=-Nd / dt (3.5)
where N represents the turns of the coil, I stands for the
current of power line,  indicates the carrier frequency, R
manifests the distance between the coil position and the wire,
r is the radius of the inducting coil, μ is the permittivity of

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 T1 C1 Cc1 Transmission Line Cc2 300
Carrier Coaxial
EV Cable 250
L1 K1 K2
200

150

(V)
Edc
100
Fig. 8 Topology of the PLC communication system. Edcref
50
The parameters of the test system are listed in Table II. 0
t/s
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
TABLE II. PARAMETERS OF PLC COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (c) dc-voltage of each series unit
200
Items Sub Items Value Et1
160
Carrier Equivalent voltage 10V Et3
Frequency 120
Source Equivalent impedance 0Ω (ideas)

(V)
80
Frequency 80kHz
Carrier cable Length 10m
40

t/s
Rated capacity 100kVA 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Transformer Ratio 10/1500 (d) the secondary voltage of STT for each series unit
20
Leak reactance 0.1 p.u.
16
High-pass C1 10mF
12 Mse
Filter L1, 1.56mH (kV)
Mref
8
Coupling
Cc1，Cc2 5000pF
capacitor
4
Rated frequency voltage 220kV
t/s
0
Length 200km 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Transmission Frequency
Line Model for T-line (e) the magnitude of compensated voltage for each series
domain Model unit
Horizon space
10m 120 PHse
between phases
Number of sub-conductors PHref
1
in a bundle 20
(W)

N 50
Receiver -80
of PLC R 0.05m
r 0.005m -180 t/s

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS (f) the phase angle of compensated voltage for each series unit
Fig.9 Simulation waveforms of two-level control system
A. Simulation Results of DPFC control system
Fig.9 (a) shows the power flow at the receiving end of the
The simulation results is shown in Fig.9. transmission system. At time t=2.5s, Pr and Qr are keeping
30
stable at 29.52MW, -1.05MVar, respectively. Considering
25 Pr
the setting value Pset=30.0MW and Qset=-1.0Mvar, the
20 Qr
(MW,MVar)

15
control for active and reactive power flow is effective.
10 Fig.9 (b) displays the exchange of 3-rd harmonic active
5 power flow Pse3 with base-frequency active power flow Pse1
0
for each series unit. From 0.5s to 1.0s, series unit absorbs
-5
t/s much 3rd harmonic power Pse3 to build up the dc capacitor
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 voltage until the voltage Edc=200V. From 1.0s to 1.2s, series
(a) 3-pahse power flow at receiving end
2 unit absorbs few Pse3 and Pse1 to balance the active power
1.5 Pse3 loss of VSC. At t=2.5s, the value of Pse3 absorbed from the
system by each series unit is 0.693kW while the value of
1 Pse
Pse1 injected from each series unit to the system is -
0.5
0.263kVar. It is worthy to be noticed that Pse3≠Pse1 for the
(kW)

0 reason that active power loss of VSC at 3rd harmonic and

-0.5 base frequency are not same to each other.
t/s
-1 Fig.9 (c) indicates the dc capacitor voltage Edc of VSC.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
(b)exchange of active power flow for each series unit From 0.5s to 1.2s, Edc grows quickly and keeps stable at the
reference value 200V. At t=1.2s, the power flow control

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program starts and then Edc is always being stable. This
result verifies the validity of dc-voltage control.
Fig.9 (d) represents the output voltage at 3 rd harmonic and
base frequency of VSC. At t=2.5s, the base-frequency
voltage Et1= 81.7V and the 3rd harmonic voltage Et3= 69.7V.
Fig.9 (e) and (f) indicates the magnitude and phase angle
of series base-frequency compensated voltage for each
DPFC series unit. At t=2.5s, Mse=16.31V, θse=-70.89°.
Comparing them with the setting value Mref=16.37V and 𝜃ref
=-71.12°, base-frequency series compensated voltage can be
controlled in high precision.
B. Simulation results of PLC Communication System
The RMS value of carrier current at the end of the
transmission line is 12mA. According to [16], the value of
induced electromotive force (EMF) sensitivity of the
induction coil is expected to be from 20 to 500μV in
practice. Based on Eq.(3) and Table2, the calculated result
of the EMF sensitivity is 375μV, which indicates that the
PLC communication system can meet the requirement for
voltage sensitivity greatly.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
(1) A two-level control architecture for DPFC series units
based on PLC has been proposed and introduced in
detail in this paper.
(2) To simplify the analysis of control for DPFC series
units, the parallel unit of DPFC is equivalent as a third
harmonic current source. The model of an AC
transmission system with DPFC devices has been built
in PSCAD/EMTDC. Simulation has verified the
correctness of the model.
(3) To control the series base-frequency compensated
voltage exactly, measures to modify the magnitude and
angle of the modulation signal through PI control have
been taken. Simulation in PSCAD/EMTDC has
indicated that the closed-loop control method for
compensated voltage is accurate.
(4) The number of DPFC series unit is set as 100 along the
transmission line. In addition, the reference value and
control parameters for all series units are same to each
other. Thus the control complexity for lots of
distributed controller can be reduced greatly.
(5) The simulation result has indicated that the proposed
two-level control method for DPFC series units based
on PLC communication is effective.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks for the sponsorship offered by State Grid Science
& Technology Project of China (52150016000Y).
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