2010 Sixth International Conference on Natural Computation (ICNC 2010)
Research and Application of Cascade D-STATCOM
for Impact Load Compensation
Fan Ruixiang
JXEPC Post-Doctoral Research Station
Jiangxi Electric Power Research Institute
Nanchang, China
Ricefan117@126.com
Abstract— The electric arc furnace and other impact loads not
only bring about serious impact of reactive power but also inject
numerous harmonic to power grid. Distribution static
synchronous compensator (D-STATCOM) has gradually earned
respect and application in reactive power and harmonic
compensation of impact load owing to its rapid response speed.
This paper analyzes the problem of power quality brought by
electric arc furnace load according to measured data and designs
cascade D-STATCOM compensation scheme, which can
compensate reactive current and simultaneously suppress low-
frequency harmonic current. And then, frequency dividing
detection method and current tracking control method based on
phase instantaneous value are proposed against the characteristic
of high capacity and low switching frequency of D-STATCOM.
Besides, electric arc furnace load model is established based on
the manner of scene recorded data playback and simulation of D-
STATCOM compensation effect is carried out. The proposed
scheme has successfully applied in the distribution network of
Jiangxi province and achieved good results.
Keywords- power quality, electric arc furnace, harmonic
compensation, D- STATCOM
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, analysis and management of distribution
network power quality problem have received more and more
emphasis [1]-[4]. As the existing major steel-making equipment,
electric arc furnace is a typical high-power impact load, and its
rapid reactive power variation could bring about serious
voltage fluctuation and flicker. Traditional compensation
scheme is adopting Static Var Compensator (SVC) based on
thyristor. However, response speed of SVC is not quick
enough so that its compensation effect against rapid reactive
power variation of impact load is poor, thus treatment effect of
voltage fluctuation and flicker is unsatisfactory. Distribution
static synchronous compensator (D-STATCOM) that bases on
full-controlled switching devices and voltage source converter
has the advantages of fast response speed and small volume,
and has gradually earned respect and application in reactive
power compensation of impact load [5]-[8].
The electric arc furnace and other impact loads could
generate a large number of harmonic currents and lead to
serious harmonic pollution to distribution network, so it must
be governed. Most of the current program is adopting passive
LC filter. However, on the one hand, passive LC filter covers a
large area, on the other hand, risky of LC resonant current
amplification is likely to exist. Actually, as a device based on
voltage source converter, D-STATCOM can compensate
reactive current and simultaneously suppress harmonic. If D-
978-1-4244-5961-2/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
Sun Min
General engineer department
Jiangxi Electric Power Research Institute
Nanchang, China
STATCOM can compensate a certain low-frequency harmonic
current, the overall compensation package design can omit
low LC filter and have greater advantages in terms of cost,
area and to avoid harmonic risk. However, D- STATCOM that
used to compensate electric arc furnace is mainly designed to
compensate reactive current, so it has the characteristic of
large capacity, complex inverter circuit configuration and low
switching frequency, which is different from conventional
low-voltage active power filter (APF) in the harmonic
detection and current control.
The cascade multi-level converter based on single-phase
bridge cascade has the advantages of easy to achieve high
voltage, can-be modular design and good output harmonic
performance etc [10][11], and it is one of the main program of
high-voltage large capacity STATCOM. This paper analyzes
the harmonic problem brought by electric arc furnace load
according to measured data and designs cascade D-
STATCOM compensation scheme, which can compensate
reactive current and simultaneously suppress low-frequency
harmonic current. And then, low-frequency harmonic current
crossover detection method and current tracking control
method based on phase instantaneous value are proposed
against the characteristic of high capacity and low switching
frequency of D-STATCOM. In order to reflect the load
characteristics of electric arc furnace more accurately, this
paper establishes load model of electric arc furnace based on
the manner of scene recorded data playback and simulation of
D-STATCOM compensation effect is carried out.
II. ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC ARC FURNACE LOAD POWER
QUALITY BASED ON MEASURED DATA
In order to effectively analyze the power quality problem
brought by electric arc furnace, this paper adopts scene
recorded data of actual steel mill. Figure.1 shows load current
waveform of a steel mill in furnace melting phase, the data is
obtained from 6-pulse rectifier power supply DC electric arc
furnace, and the bus bar voltage is 10KV. Obviously, the
frequent and radical change of load current will lead to serious
reactive impact and cause bus voltage fluctuation and flicker
to distribution network. On the other hand, rapidly changing
harmonic current is existed. Table.1 shows measured current
harmonic content of DC electric arc furnace and 10KV bus bar
voltage harmonic content. It can be seen from Table.1 that
harmonic current content far exceeds the national standard,
harmonic current also causes a harmonic voltage on the 10kV
bus bar, and 5th harmonic voltage and total harmonic
distortion are obviously beyond the national standard.
4204
 Each cascade converter bridge arm is composed of 12
cascaded single-phase bridges, and the rated voltage is 10KV.
For the governance of harmonic currents produced by
electric arc furnace load, traditional approach is to set
corresponding LC filters against major harmonics such as 5th,
7th, 11th and high-pass filter etc. In this paper, D-STATCOM
compensates reactive current and simultaneously suppresses
low-frequency harmonic current, thus it can replace low LC
filters so as to avoid the problem of resonant current
amplification and reduce the installation cost and the area.
It can be seen from the data of Table.1 that 5th harmonica
content of the electric arc furnace is 19.5%, yet 7th and 11th
Figure.1 Load current scene recorded waveform of a DC electric arc
harmonica content are separately 5.7 ％ and 4.1 ％ , the
furnace
Table.1 Measured current and voltage harmonic content of an electric remaining high-order harmonic content is smaller. So the main
arc furnace compensation target of large-capacity D-STATCOM is to
Harmonic Harmonic Harmonic Harmonic
filter out low-frequency harmonic current with large
Harmonic
current current voltage voltage amplitude, a small number of other higher-frequency
No. harmonics can be filtered out in conjunction with passive
RMS content RMS content
5
th
48 A 19.5% 0.47 kV 4.7% high-pass filter.
th After cascade D-STATCOM increases the function of
7 24 A 9.8% 0.26 kV 2.6%
th harmonic compensation, what engineering design concerns is
11 14 A 5.7% 0.12 kV 1.2% the capacity change when compared to the case that D-
th
13 10 A 4.1% 0.06 kV 0.6% STATCOM only compensates fundamental reactive power.
Assumed that load current is just as equation (1) shows,
N
il = ∑ I n cos(nωt + θ n ) （1）
n =1
Then the line current of cascade D-STATCOM when it
compensates fundamental reactive power is as shown in
equation (2),
i1c = I1 sin θ1 sin(ωt ) （2）
Where I1 is the load current fundamental amplitude, and θ1 is
the load current fundamental phase angle. If D-STATCOM
compensates harmonic at the same time, needed line current is
as shown in equation (3), where k represents the selected
harmonic Number that compensated.
N
i c = I1 sin θ1 sin(ωt ) + ∑ I k cos(kωt + θ k ) （3）
k
The definition of cascade D-STATCOM required capacity
is shown in equation (4), where Vdc represents DC capacitor
voltage of the inverter, and Icmax represents output current max
of the inverter.
c
Figure.2 Power distribution system wiring diagram for electric arc Vdc I max
furnace compensation based on cascade D-STATCOM
SVSC = 3 （4）
2 2
Figure.2 shows the power supply and distribution wiring
Capacitor voltage will not change when cascade D-
diagram of an electric arc furnace steel plant as well as the
STATCOM increases the function of harmonic compensation,
compensation system diagram adopting cascade D- therefore, its capacity is proportional to the maximum of
STATCOM, power supply system is divided into two voltage output compensation current, in practical application it can be
levels, 220kV（or 110kV）voltage V1 is transformed into V2 calculated according to equation (4). After D-STATCOM
through the power transformer T1, usually V2 is 35KV in increases the function of harmonic compensation, its capacity
large-capacity steel mills, while it is 10KV in smaller capacity needs to increase correspondently compared to the case that
steel mills. only compensating fundamental reactive power.
In order to compensate the system reactive impact brought
by electric arc furnace smelting process, this paper adopts
cascade D-STATCOM to compensate load reactive current.

4205
 III. DETECTION AND CONTROL METHOD
⎧ Ik
A. Harmonic current frequency dividing detection method
⎪⎪ M 1 = 2 cos(θ k )
⎨
For the low-voltage active power filter (APF), it is usual to ⎪ M = − I k sin(θ )
adopt harmonic current detection method based on ⎪⎩ 2 k
2 （6）
instantaneous reactive power theory, and the detected
harmonic current includes all the harmonic components of Multiply M1 and M2 with 2cos(kωt) and 2sin(kωt)
load. However, for large-capacity D-STATCOM, if the respectively then compensation reference current of the kth
harmonic compensation current includes all the harmonic harmonic can be obtained.
components, inverter should generate high-frequency ihc ( k ) = M 1 × 2 cos( kωt ) + M 2 × 2 sin( kωt )
harmonic compensation current, and high switching frequency （7）
is needed, which will lead to serious switching losses that
inverter can not bear. As a result, this paper designs harmonic B. Direct current control method of cascade D-STATCOM
current crossover detection method, which extracts different As the switching frequency is low, it is difficult to adopt
harmonic current separately according to the target of low- hysteresis current comparison method to control the output
frequency harmonic compensation. current to track the reference current in high-capacity cascade
D-STATCOM, therefore, in order to well track the harmonic
compensation current, this paper starts from the single-phase
equivalent circuit and designs phase instantaneous current
controller as well as its digital implementation based on
converter parameters.
The single-phase equivalent circuit of cascade D-
STATCOM is as shown in Figure.4, where ui is the inverter
output voltage, us is access point voltage of the inverter, L、R
Figure.3 Harmonic current crossover detection method
are inverter single-phase connecting reactance and equivalent
Similar to the detection method of fundamental reactive
resistance respectively.
current detection, harmonic current is measured trough
coordinate transformation method. Figure.3 shows the
detection implementation diagram of all the harmonic
components, sync ωt is obtained from system voltage through
phase-locked loop (PLL). Then nth harmonic current is
projected onto the rotating coordinate system whose rotation
frequency is n times of the fundamental frequency, and nth
harmonic current amplitude information can be obtained just
(a) Single-phase equivalent circuit
passes it through a low-pass filter, finally compounds it with
synchronous rotation angle and instantaneous harmonic
compensation reference current can be obtained.
The specific mathematical analysis process is as follows:
for a given phase load current, it can be expressed in the form
of various harmonic currents combinations as shown in
equation (1). If il needs to be extracted from kth harmonic (b) Phase instantaneous current controller
current, then load current il should be multiplied with cos(kωt) Figure.4 Inverter single-phase equivalent circuit and phase
and sin(kωt) separately, instantaneous current controller
According to the equivalent circuit, mathematical model of
⎧ N

⎪
⎪
cos( kωt )* i l = cos( kωt )* ∑n=1
I n cos(nωt + θn ) single-phase D-STATCOM can be obtained such as equation
(8):
⎨ N di
⎪sin(kωt )* i = sin(kωt )* I cos(nωt + θ )
⎪⎩ l ∑n =1
n n
ui = L
dt
+ Ri + uS
（8）
（5）
Among all the harmonic components, only the kth Transfer function between single-phase D-STATCOM
harmonic current multiplies with cos(kωt) and sin(kωt) output current I(s) and voltage difference of connecting
separately then DC component will appear, so through a low- reactance and equivalent resistance is:
pass filter, the harmonic information can be detected, that is I ( s) 1
G p (s) = =
U i ( s ) − U s ( s ) Ls + R（9）
Ignore the harmonic influence, assuming that the PWM
modulation result makes the output voltage Ui(s) and input

4206
voltage Uir(s) the same, then what can be obtained is as
follows:
I r ( s )Gc ( s )G p ( s ) = I ( s )
（11）
Current control target of cascade D-STATCOM is to make
output current I(s) well track reference current Ir(s), ideally,
the two can be considered the same, then what can be obtained
is as follows:
1 (b) Load current after compensation
Gc ( s ) = = Ls + R Figure.5 Simulation result of chain D-STATCOM for electric arc
G p (s) furnace compensation
（12）
Figure.5 shows the simulation result of chain D-
The above equation shows PWM voltage reference wave
STATCOM for electric arc furnace compensation. Load
calculation method after obtaining reference current, and
current changes dynamically, it increases from 0 to about
further, in order to achieve the process adopting digital
750A at the moment of 0.36s, bringing a dramatic impact, as is
processor, the above analysis can be replaced by discrete
shown in figure.5. Figure.5 (b) shows that sinusoidal degree of
domain representation. Supposing time interval Ts is sampling
system side current is improved after compensation, which
step length, using trapezoidal method to realize discretization
means that system harmonic currents are suppressed. As soon
and what can be obtained is as follows:
as the current is smooth, harmonic analysis shows that all
i ( k + 1) − Ai ( k ) harmonic components in the system decreases, and detailed
ui ( k ) = + us (k ) （13）
B data is as shown in Table.2.
Where, Table.2 Load side and system side harmonic value of DC electric arc
furnace after compensation
TS R T R T R T
A = (1 − )(1 + S ) −1 , B = (1 + S )−1 S Load current
System
2 L 2 L 2 L L Harmonic
RMS
harmonic
In the actual design of this article, step length Ts is elected No. current RMS
(A)
as 50us comprehensively consider the calculation volume and (A)
hardware speed. 5
th
59 10
th
IV. HARMONIC COMPENSATION EFFECT SIMULATION OF 7 31 8
CASCADE D-STATCOM th
11 16 8
In order to verify the reactive and harmonic current th
compensation effect of chain D-STATCOM for electric arc 13 17 9
furnace load, this article carries out simulation on the platform
of PSCAD / EMTDC. To reflect the characteristics of electric
arc furnace load more accurately, DC electric arc furnace load
model is established based on the manner of scene recorded
data playback in simulation. D-STATCOM adopts the manner
of 12H bridge connecting in series in Y rejoining method,
device switching frequency is 300Hz, connecting reactance is
12%, and equivalent value of R is 1.0%, ultimate objective of
D-STATCOM is to compensate fundamental reactive current
as well as 5th, 7th, 11th harmonic current of DC electric arc (a) Bus voltage waveform before compensation
furnace.

(b) Bus voltage waveform after compensation

Figure.6 Bus voltage distortion caused by harmonic current

(a) Load current before compensation It can be seen from the bus voltage waveform in Figure.6
that bus voltage exists larger distortion caused by load
harmonic current before compensation, while after

4207
compensation of chain D-STATCOM, bus voltage distortion
degree decreases, as is shown in Figure.6 (b).
Figure.7 shows that phases of system current and bus
voltage are the same after compensation, which means that
load power factor is improved.
Figure.7 Phases of system current and bus voltage after compensation
At present, this paper designed D-STATCOM has been
successfully applied to the electricity quality regulation in
Jiangxi Province electricity distribution network. Figure.8
shows the system reactive power test value before and after
compensation. Figure.9 shows the load power factor test value
before and after compensation, and compensation effect is
clearly desirable.
Figure.8 system reactive power test value before and after
compensation
Figure.9 load power factor test value before and after
compensation
V. CONCLUSION
As a typical high-power impact load, the electric arc furnace
brings about serious voltage flicker and harmonics and other
power quality problems to electric distribution network.
Compensation programs based on D-STATCOM are getting
4208
increasingly emphasis and application due to its fast response,
small footprint, etc. This paper designs the compensation
scheme based on chain D-STATCOM, which can not only
quickly compensate load reactive impact current, but also
actively compensate the major low-frequency harmonics to
avoid the problem of LC filters resonant current amplification
and so on. This paper analyzes the harmonic problem brought
by electric arc furnace load according to measured data, and
then proposes low-frequency harmonic current crossover
detection method and current tracking control method.
Besides, electric arc furnace load model is established based
on the manner of scene recorded data playback and simulation
of D-STATCOM compensation effect is carried out, practical
application shows that the designed chain D-STATCOM
compensation scheme has an obvious treatment effect for the
power quality problems caused by impact loads.
REFERENCES
[1] Sensarma P S, Padiyar, K R, Ramanarayanan V. Analysis and
performance evaluation of a distribution STATCOM for compensating
voltage fluctuations. IEEE transactions on power deliver, 2002,
16(2):259-264
[2] XU Shukai, SONG Qiang, LIU Wenhua et al. Research on the Power
Quality Problems and Compensation Scheme for Electric Arc Furnace in
Distribution Supply System. Proceedings of the Chinese Society for
Electrical Engineering, 2007,27(19):93-98.
[3] Anaya-Lara O, Acha E. Modeling and analysis of custom power systems
by PSCAD/EMTDC. IEEE transactions on power delivery, 2002,
17(1):266-272.
[4] Gu Danzhen, AI Qian, CHEN Chen et al. A General Modeling Method
for the Impact Load. Automation of Electric Power Systems,2006,30（
20）：10-14.
[5] Elnady A，Magdy M M A．Unified approach for mitigating voltage
sag and voltage flicker using the DSTATCOM. IEEE Transactions on
Power Delivery, 2005, 20(2):992-1000.
[6] Kansuke Fujii, Ken Kunomura, Kiyoichi Yoshida, Akio Suzuki, Shigeo
Konishi, Mitsuru Daiguji. STATCOM applying flat-packaged IGBTs
connected in series. IEEE transactions on power electronics, 2005,
20(5):1125-1132.
[7] Mienski R, Pawelek R, Wasiak I. Shunt compensation for power quality
improvement using a STATCOM controller: modelling and simulation.
IEE Proceedings-Generation, Transmission and Distribution, 2004,
151(2):274-280.
[8] Reed G F, Greaf J E, Matsumoto T. Application of a 5 MVA, 4.16 kV
D-STATCOM system for voltage flicker compensation at Seattle Iron
and Metals. Power Engineering Society Summer Meeting. Seattle WA
USA: IEEE, 2000, 13:1605-1611.
[9] Chen Z, Blaabjerg F, Pedersen J K. Harmonic resonance damping with a
hybrid compensation system in power systems with dispersed generation.
35th annual IEEE power electronics specialists conference. Aachen
Germany: IEEE, 2004.
[10] ZHANG Hongtao, SONG Qiang, LIU Zhongqi,et al. Real-time digital
simulation of a ±50 Mvar STATCOM. Automation of Electric Power
Systems,2006,30(17):19-23.
[11] Wei Wenhui, Liu Wenhua, Teng Letian et al. STEADY STATE STUDY
OF ±50 Mvar STATCOM WITH CHAIN -CIRCUIT TOPOLOGY.
Automation of Electric Power Systems, 2004, 28(3) :33-36.