2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)

Application of D-STATCOM as Load Compensator

for Power Factor Correction
Sreejith.S, Upama Bose, K. Muni Divya Sree Vachana, Vallathur Jyothi,
School of Electrical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology,
Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
sreejith.s@vit.ac.in, upama16@gmail.co m, vachana252@gmail.com, vallathurjyothi@gmail.com

Abstract- In this paper, a D-S TATCOM is used for improving the
power factor at the load end. The degree of utilization of the power
depends on the power factor of the loads connected to the network.
Most of the loads in the distribution line, being inductive in nature,
consume much of the reactive power. As a result, the power factor
of the load deteriorates, leading to the limitation of the active power
flow in the line. Consequences of low power factor are higher
current, increased losses and voltage dip in the line. This
necessitates reactive power control for load compensation. This
paper aims at developing a D-S TATCOM, based on voltage-source
converter, to improve the power factor of the load locally by
injecting suitable reactive power in the power distribution line. The
amplitude of the output voltage of the D-S TATCOM is made
leading to the system voltage for the purpose of controlling the
VAR generation. Thus it can internally generate capacitive reactive
power to be used for shunt compensation. Hysteresis controller is
employed for controlling the D-S TATCOM. The implementation
of the D-S TATCOM and hysteresis controller is carried out in
MATLAB/ S imulink.
Keywords- D-S TATCOM, voltage source converter (VS C), power
factor, reactive power, load compensation
INTRODUCTION
Recently, the major area of research in power systems is to
develop systems that can compensate reactive current
dynamically under varying load conditions. Generally load
centres are located far away from power generation units, so
power transmission and distribution network is built to meet the
load demand. The overloaded transmission lines lead to
deterioration of voltage profile and decreases the system
stability. The degree of utilization of the power depends on the
power factor of the loads connected to the network. Most of the
loads in the distribution line, being inductive in nature, consume
much of the reactive power. As a result, the power factor of the
load deteriorates, leading to the limitation of the active power
flow in the line. This necessitates reactive power control for load
compensation to improve the power factor. D-STATCOM acts
as one of the most suitable equipment to mitigate this problem at
minimum cost in distribution systems. A VSC-based D-
STATCOM can be made to inject reactive power into the ac
supply system to improve the power factor and for reactive
power compensation by making the amplitude of its output
voltage exceed the ac supply system voltage. In the paper[3], a
three-phase voltage source converter with a dc bus capacitor is
employed as a D-STATCOM for balancing of source currents,
power factor correction and harmonic mitigation in three-phase,
three-wire distribution system supplying delta connected load
under various source voltage conditions. This will track the
reference currents in a hysteresis band scheme. The performance
of the proposed scheme has been evaluated under balanced
sinusoidal, unbalanced sinusoidal and unbalanced non -
sinusoidal source voltage conditions.
One of the major reasons to select D-STATCOM as load
compensator is its capability to generate reference compensator
currents. The compensator injects three-phase currents in the ac
system by tracking the reference currents to cancel out
disturbances caused by the load [2]-[5].Under the circumstances,
this paper presents the modelling of a D-STATCOM based on
three-phase VSC to improve the power factor at the load end.
There usage of PV solar farm as STATCOM during night time
is explained in [8-10].
The paper is organized as follows: In the first section, reactive
power compensation using capacitor connected in parallel to the
load is discussed. The second section analyses the performance
evaluation of the proposed D-STATCOM with hysteresis
controller, as load compensator for power factor improvement.
I. PROPOSED WORK
In this paper, A D-STATCOM, based on voltage-source
converter (VSC), has been proposed to improve the power factor
of the load locally by injecting suitable reactive power in the
power distribution line. The amplitude of the output voltage of
the D-STATCOM is made greater than the system voltage for
the purpose of controlling the VAR generation. Thus it can
internally generate capacitive reactive power to be used for
shunt compensation. The D-STATCOM is controlled using a
Hysteresis controller. The STATCOM is controlled such that it
tracks the power factor reference and maintains the same in the

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 2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)
line. The implementation of the D-STATCOM and its controller
is carried out in MATLAB/ Simulink.
A. Basic Model of D-STATCOM
STATCOM is the static counter-part of rotating
synchronous condenser, which generates or absorbs reactive
power at a faster rate by suitable control of the inverted voltage
with respect to the ac supply line voltage. When it is used in
distribution systems it is termed as D-STATCOM. It can
generate a sinusoidal voltage with any required magnitude,
frequency and phase angle. In addition, the converter is normally
based on some kind of energy storage, which will supply the
converter with a DC voltage. D-STATCOM mainly consists of a
dc capacitor, three phase inverter, coupling transformer and a
controller.
Fig.1 D-ST AT COM model
B. Voltage Source Converter (VSC):
The schematic diagram of a basic VSC is shown in fig.2.
Fig.2. Voltage Source Converter (VSC)
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The main part of a D-STATCOM is a three phase inverter which
is used to inject power to the line through a transformer. The
pulses are generated using a hystresis controller. The pulses are
generated by comparing the power factor in the line and the
reference given. MOSFET or IGBT is used as switches in
inverter. The inverter is switched in such the output frequency is
same as that of the frequency in the line, the phase and
magnitude of the output voltage varies DC source or capacitor
can be used in the input.
C. Operating Modes of D-STATCOM:
By the usage of capacitor only reactive power can be exchanged
between D-STATCOM and ac system in the steady state, where
as active power exchange can also takes place on using the
battery as dc source.
Capacitive Mode: When the output voltage of the VSC is greater
than the ac system voltage, the VSC injects reactive power into
the ac system. Thus, it acts in the capacitive mode as the ac
system, in this case, draws capacitive current which leads the
system voltage.
Inductive Mode: When the ac system voltage is greater than the
output voltage of the VSC, reactive power is absorbed by the
VSC from the ac system. Thus, here it acts in the inductive
mode.
Floating Mode: When the output voltage of VSC equals the ac
system voltage, the VSC neither generates nor absorbs any
reactive power, thereby, acting in floating mode.
D. D-STATCOM CONTROLLER:
The Hysteresis-band PWM is basically an instantaneous
feedback current control method of PWM where the actual
current continually tracks the command current with a hysteresis
band. The control circuit generates the sine reference current
wave of desired magnitude and frequency, and it is compared
with the actual phase current wave. As the current exceeds a
prescribed hysteresis band, the upper switch in the half-bridge is
turned OFF and the lower switch is turned ON. As the current
crosses the lower band limit, the lower switch is turned OFF and
the upper switch is turned ON. A lock-out time(td) is provided at
each transition to prevent a shoot-through fault. The actual
current wave is thus forced to track the sine reference wave
within the hysteresis band by back-and-forth switching of the
upper and lower switches. The inverter then essentially becomes
a current source with peak-to-peak current ripple, which is
controlled within the hysteresis band irrespective of Vd
fluctuation. The peak-to-peak ripple and switching frequency
are related to the width of the hysteresis band.
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 2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)

into the system. Based on the load current, the reactive current
required for the power factor correction is determined.

II. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Here , a MATLAB/Simulink model has been built with a
three-phase source and transmission line, feeding single R-L
load. For different values of inductive reactive power, the
corresponding power factor at the load end is measured as
shown in TABLE 1. It is observed that as inductive reactive
power is increased, the power factor of the load deteriorates. The
inductive load will make the phase angle between current and
voltage more lagging which reduces the power factor. As the
inductive load is further increased , it will consume lot of
reactive power , makes the angle to lag further and results in
very low power factor.

Fig.3. Principle of hysteresis control

E. PROPOSED HYSTERESIS CONTROLLER

Vds_ref Ia Ii,a

-
+
PI

Vdc
LPF
-
* - -

Sin(ᵠ
) Ii,b
Sin(ᵠ
-120) * Hysteresis
- Controller
Sin(ᵠ
+120)
* -
PLL -

cos(ᵠ
) *
Vs,a cos(ᵠ
- Ii,c
-120)
cos(ᵠ
+120) *
Inverter
-

Vs_ref
* -

Fourier
+
Ir
Fundamental PI
Extraction
-

+
Fourier
Fundamental * Fig.5. Simulation diagram with only R-L load
Extraction -

IL,a
sinᵠ
Next, a capacitance is added in parallel with the R-L load
ᵠ
and the capacitive reactive power is varied for a particular value
+
Angle
Calculation
ᵠ
* tan arccos PFref of inductive reactive power. It is observed that as capacitive
- t

reactive power is increased, the power factor at the load end is

cosᵠ
improved gradually, TABLE 1. Thus, capacitive reactive power
is compensating inductive reactive power. The capacitor will
*
make the current to lead the voltage so that the lagging angle
due to the inductive load is compensated by the leading angle by
the capacitor. The amount of reactive power required for
Fig.4. Hysteresis controller
compensation depends on the reactive power consumed by the
inductive load.
The proposed hysteresis controller is shown in Fig.4.which
regulates the voltage by injecting the reactive component current

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 2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)

Fig. 8. Real and reactive power respectively at the load end after adding
capacitor

The real and reactive power before and after adding capacitor is
show in Fig 7 and 8. The capacitor injects reactive power so that
the reactive power consumed from the line is reduced Here the
switching is done mechanically. The speed of response is slow,
Fig.6. Simulation diagram with capacitive compensation and only step variation in capacitance is possible. The
capacitance value cannot be varied continuously. This methods
TABLE 1 cannot be used for applications where high degree of
Power compensation is required. So, power electronics bas ed
Reactive PF Capacitive technology called FACTS is employed. D- STATCOM can
factor PF PF after
power for with reactive control the reactive power whenever required. Here precise
(PF) angle capacitive
R-L load R-L power control and fast response is obtained.
angle (deg) compensation
(var) load (var)
(deg)
0 -44.9 0.71
50 -43.5 0.73
100 -41.9 0.74
1000 -44.97 0.71 500 -26.5 0.89
800 -11.1 0.98

Fig. 7. Real and reactive power respectively at the load end before adding
capacitor

Fig.9. System with D-ST AT COM

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 2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)
Fig.10. Controller for D-ST AT COM
Fig. 11. Generation of pulses with Hysteresis band
The system employing D-STATCOM is shown in Fig .9. Here
instead of capacitive compensation, D- STATCOM is employed
to improve the power factor. The controller for D-STATCOM
consists of reference current generation, power factor
generation, calculation of current required to inject reactive
power and a hysteresis band controller for generating pulses .
The system current and voltages are measured and given to the
controller. The power factor which is to be maintained is given
as the reference. From the reactive power in the line, the
978-1-4799-4190-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE
reactive power required to maintain the reference power factor is
calculated. The current corresponding to this reactive power is
calculated next. This current is compared with the current
flowing in the system and the error is calculated. This error is
used to generate the pulses which will trigger the switches and
the reactive power is injected to the line. The generation pulses
is done through a hysteresis band. The generation of pulses is
show in Fig .11 and the power factor calculation is shown in
Fig.12
Fig. 12. Control of power factor
Fig. 13. Real and reactive power after adding D-ST AT COM
The real and reactive power in the line after the incorporation of
D-STATCOM is shown in Fig.13. The D-STATCOM supplies
the required reactive power demanded by the load and maintains
the power factor to the desired reference value.
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 2014 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT)

[5] Rajiv. K. Varma, Shriram. S. Rangarajan, Iurie Axente, Vinay

Sharma, “Novel Application of a PV Solar Plant as
ST AT COMduring Night and Day in a Distribution Utility Network”,
2011 IEEE PES Power Systems Conference & Exposition , March 20
- 23, 2011, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
[6] R.K. Varma, V. Khadkikar and R. Seethapathy, "Nighttime
Application of PV Solar Farm as ST AT COM to Regulate Grid
Voltage," IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion (Letters), vol.24,
no.4,2009, pp.983-985
[7] Rajiv K. Varma and Vinod Khadkikar, “Utilization Of Solar Farm
Inverter as ST ATCOM”, US Provisional Patent application filed 15
Sept. 2009.
[8] A new approach to load balancing and power factor correction in
power distribution system,” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 15,
2000,pp.417–422,
[9] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, and A. Nabae, “Instantaneous reactive
Fig. 14. Power factor correction power compensators comprising switching devices without energy
storage components,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-20, , 1984 ,
pp. 625–630.
The power factor after correction is shown in Fig. 14. Here
[10] S.Siva Kesava Reddy, A. R. Vijay Babu, S. Suman, K.Divya Manasa,
initiall the load was stitched on and the D-STATCOM is in off “Reactive Power Compensation Using DST ATCOM”, International
conditoin. The power factor is around 0.86. The D-STATCOM Journal of Engineering Research and Applications , pp: 1-6
is switched at 3 sec. The S-STATCOM injects reactive power as
required and improves the power factor of the system. The
power factor after compensation is 0.88

III. CONCLUSION
This paper demonstrates the simulative approach for the
implementation of D-STATCOM and its controller. The
hysteresis controller regulates the voltage regulation by injecting
the reactive component current into the system. And based on
the load current, the reactive current required for the power
factor correction is determined.The proposed approach improves
the power factor of the load locally by injecting suitable reactive
power in the power distribution line. This improved power
factor leads to the enhancement of the overall electrical system
performance by reducing the line losses.

REFERENCES
[1] K. Somsai and T . Kulworawanichpong,“Instantaneous Power Control
of D-ST ATCOM with Consideration of Power Factor Correction ”,,
Power System Research Unit, School of Elect rical Engineering,
Suranaree University of Technology Nakhon Ratchasima, T hailand
30000, April 3,2014.
[2] Sabha Raj Arya, Bhim Singh, Ambrish Chandra and Kamal Al-
Haddad, “ Power Factor Correction and Zero Voltage Regulation in
Distribution System Using DST AT COM”, IEEE International
Conference on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems
December16-19, 2012,
[3] Kolli Nageswar Rao, C. Hari Krishna, Kiran Kumar Kuthadi,
“ Implementation of D-ST ACT OM for Improvement of Power
Quality in Radial Distribution System”, International Journal of
Modern Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol. 2, Issue. 5, Sep.-Oct.
2012 pp-3548-3552
[4] T ejas Zaveri, B.R. Bhalja and Naimish Zaveri,“ Load compensation
using DST AT COM in three-phase, three-wire distribution system
under various source voltage and delta connected load
conditions,”Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems, vol. 41,
pp. 34–43, 2012.

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