Analysis and Operation of STATCOM in Unbalanced Systems

1 1 1, 2
Carlos A.C. Cavaliere , Edson H. Watanabe , Maurício Aredes
1 2
Laboratório de Eletrôncia de Potência Departmento de Eletrotécnica
Programa de Engenharia Elétrica Escola de Engenharia
COPPE / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Caixa Postal 68504 Caixa Postal 68504
21945-970 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 21945-970 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
carreiro@coe.ufrj.br, watanabe@coe.ufrj.br, aredes@coe.ufrj.br

o
Abstract – This work shows a study of the STATCOM produces a current lagging the voltage by 90 (see Fig.2
operating in unbalanced systems with negative se- (b)), and the compensator behaves as an inductive load,
quence components. It describes the basic operation of which reactive value depends on the voltage amplitude.
the STATCOM and its control method. The simulation Making the STATCOM voltage higher than the AC
o
of a 48 pulse STATCOM based on the electromagnetic- system voltage the current will lead the voltage by 90 ,
transients program, ATP-EMTP, is presented to show System Bus
its good performance under balanced conditions. Then, Measured Measured
based on an analytical analysis it is shown how nega- Voltages Currents
tive sequence components disturb the control method
used in the STATCOM studied. At last, solutions to Control
solve this problem are presented. Step-up Coupling
Transformer Transformers
Lead / Lag Angle Control + PLL

Keywords: STATCOM, FACTS, reactive power, invert- DC Capacitor

ers for reactive power control, PWM control

I. INTRODUCTION

The STATCOM is a static compensator used to regu-

late voltage and to improve dynamic stability [1-3]. There
are some variations of the STATCOM, but the composi-
tion of it is basically the same [4]. It is composed of
inverters with a capacitor in its dc side, coupling trans-
formers, and a control system. The inverters are, in
conventional STATCOMs, switched with a single pulse
per period and the transformers are connected in order to
provide harmonic minimization. The equipment action is
made through the continuous and quick control of capaci-
tive or inductive reactive power. Its output voltage is a Inverters
waveform composed of pulses that approaches a sinusoidal Fig. 1. 48-Pulses STATCOM diagram.
wave. To obtain voltage harmonic content, that clearly
agrees with strict standards, without the necessity of System Voltage 48-Pulses
Zero var Mode

Voltage
filters, it is necessary at least a set of eight inverters and
transformers to produce a 48-pulse voltage waveform. STATCOM
Fig.1 shows one example of such a STATCOM and Fig. 2 Generated
Current
shows its voltage. However, there are examples with more (a)
complex transformer connection (e.g. [4]).
Inductive Mode

System Voltage

II. STATCOM CONTROL

STATCOM
Lagging
Current 48-Pulses Voltage
The interaction between the AC system voltage and (b)
the inverter-composed voltage provides the control of the
Capacitive Mode

48-Pulses Voltage
STATCOM var output [3,4]. When these two voltages are
synchronized and have the same amplitude, the active and
STATCOM
reactive power output are zero. Fig.2 (a) shows this Leading
System Voltage
situation. However, if the amplitude of the STATCOM Current
(c)
voltage is smaller than that of the system voltage, it
Fig. 2.STATCOM 48-pulses voltage and compensating current.
(see Fig.2(c)), and the compensator behaves as a variable
capacitive load. As in the previous case, the reactive
power depends on the voltage amplitude. This amplitude
control is done through the control of the voltage on the
dc capacitor. This voltage is related to the energy stored at
the dc capacitor. By lagging or leading the STATCOM
voltage, it is possible to charge or discharge the dc ca-
pacitor, as a consequence, change the value of the dc
voltage and the STATCOM’s operational characteristics.
The control used for this model of STATCOM is a very Fig. 3. Control diagram.
simple one. It uses measurements of voltages and currents
at the point where the STATCOM is connected to the AC
system bus. These measured signals are worked in two
ways as shown in Fig.3. In one way, the voltages are fed to
the PLL (phase locked loop) block in order to detect the
frequency and phase angle and to generate the synchro-
nizing signal to the switching logic [5]. In the second way
of the control, the voltage is fed together with the meas-
ured currents to the “Instantaneous Power Theory” block
[6-8], in order to calculate the instantaneous imaginary
power q. This imaginary power q is compared with a
*
reference q and the error observed is fed to proportional- Fig.4. dc capacitor voltage (pu).
integral controller block. The proportional-integral con-
troller outputs a signal that gives the leading or lagging
phase angle δ necessary to adjust the voltage on the dc
side capacitor, thus controlling the energy flow in or out
of it. The leading or lagging signal δ is added to the PLL
synchronism signal output and delivered to the switch
logic control block.

III. MODEL SIMULATIONS

A model of a STATCOM, including its control, was

simulated using the electromagnetic transients program, Fig.5. Instantaneous reactive power (pu).
ATP-EMTP. The model simulated was a 48-pulses
STATCOM, rated at 50MVA and 18kV. The transformers
are wye-delta connected with 20% reactance. The dc side
capacitance is 4045µF which corresponds to a capacitor
time constant [9], or unit capacitance constant, UCC, [10],
of 0.35ms. This STATCOM is connected to an 18kV AC
system. Fig.4 shows the dc capacitor voltage, Fig.5 the
instantaneous imaginary power q and Fig.6 the voltages
and current responses for a changes from inductive to
capacitive characteristics in the imaginary power refer-
ence. These figures show that this equipment has a good
performance under balanced conditions, and that it is able Fig.6. System and 48-pulses voltages (pu),
to have quick transient response (about ½ cycle). compensating current (pu).

IV. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

A. Simulations with negative sequence components

Introducing a negative sequence component in the AC

system voltages, it is possible to see that the STATCOM
does not have the same performance as before. To show
this fact, a simulation study was performed introducing
negative sequence components of voltage, at 10% of the
positive sequence rated value. This simulation is shown in
Fig.7, where it is observed an increase of oscillations into Fig.7. dc capacitor voltage (pu).
 D C V oltage Harm onic Content - Balanced System
1

Amplitude (pu)
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
H arm onic order
DC V oltage H arm onic C ontent - U nbalanced System
1

Amplitude (pu)
0.8

0.6
2 nd
0.4

0.2

0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
H arm onic order

Fig. 10. DC Voltage harmonic content.

Fig.8. Instantaneous reactive power (pu).
V o lta g e H a rm o n ic C o n te n t - B a la n c e d S y s te m
1 .2

Amplitude (pu)
1
0 .8
0 .6
11 th
0 .4 1 3th
2 3th 2 5
th
4 7 th 4 9 th
0 .2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
H a rm o nic or d er
V o lta g e H a rm o n ic C o n te n t - U n b a la n c e d S y s te m
1 .2
1
Amplitude (pu)

0 .8
0 .6
1 1 th
0 .4 3 rd 1 3 th
4 3 th 4 5 t h 47 th 49 t h
0 .2 5 th
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
H a rm o nic or d er

Fig.9. System and 48-pulses voltages (pu), Fig. 11. 48-pulses voltage harmonic content.
compensating current (pu).
Curren t H arm onic Content - Balanced System
the dc voltage, when the negative sequence component is 1.2
Induc tive
1.2
C apacitive
1 1
Amplitude (pu)

introduced at t = 1.25 seconds. In Fig.8, it is seen an

Amplitude (pu)
Mode Mode
0.8 0.8
increase of oscillations in the instantaneous imaginary 0.6 0.6
power q. A higher distortion is observed in the 48-pulse 0.4 0.4

voltage, shown in Fig. 9, as a result of the oscillations of 0.2 0.2

0 0
the dc voltage. In Fig. 10, it is shown that when the 0 5 10
H arm onic order
15 20 0 5 10
Harm onic order
15 20
nd
system is unbalanced there is a 2 order oscillation
present in the dc capacitor voltage. This oscillation dis- Current Harm onic Co ntent - Un balanced System
1.2 1.2
rd th
turbs the 48-pulse voltage introducing 3 and 5 order 1 Induc tive 1 C apacitive
Amplitude (pu)

Amplitude (pu)

Mode Mode
harmonics, shown in Fig.11. These harmonics are, conse- 0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
quently, propagated to the currents, as shown in Fig. 12, 0.4 0.4
3 rd 3 rd
for the cases of inductive and capacitive compensation. 0.2 6 th 0.2 5 th

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
B. Power flow study with negative sequence components Harm onic order H arm onic order
Fig. 12. Compensating current harmonic content.
A simplified system is made for the positive and STATCOM
System Bus
negative components, shown in Fig.13, including the AC Vsi
system voltage (Vs) and the STATCOM fundamental
Q
component of the generated voltage (Vi ). These voltage Vs +
P
sources are linked through an equivalent reactance. Based Vi +
I
on this simplified model, it is possible to find the source of Vdc
Equivalent
the problems due to unbalances caused by negative se- Reactance
quence components.
Considering first only positive sequence components, Vs - Vi -
the active and the reactive power are given by:
V .V
P = s + i+ . sin δ , (1) Fig. 13. Simplified system diagram with positive and negative
XL sequence components.
 Vi + Vi - V s + 2 V s + .Vi + 
ς  − . cos δ + 
δ  XL XL 
Vs + Vs -  2 
 V V .V 
Q = + s − + 2. s + s − . cos φ s + s − +  . (6)
 X L X L 
 V s − .Vi + 
Vs - φ s+s− Vi - φ s+i− Vi + φ s−i+ − . cos φ s −i + 
 XL 
Vs + Vs + Vs -
For the case where only reactive power is desired, so
the angle δ is zero, (5) and (6) become:
V .V
Fig. 14.Voltage angle relations. P = s − i + . sin φ s −i + , (7)
XL

Vs + 2 − V s + .Vi + . cos δ
Q= . (2) V s + 2 V s + .Vi + 
XL  − + 
 XL XL 
 
In (1) and (2), δ , is the angle between the positive  V
2
V .V 
Q = + s − + 2. s + s − . cos φ s + s − + . (8)
sequence voltages in the AC system V s + and in the
 XL XL 
STATCOM V i + , as shown in Fig.14, X L is the equiva-  V s − .Vi + 
− . cos φ s −i + 
lent reactance considering that resistive losses are negligi-  XL 
ble. The STATCOM control can also be described through
(1) and (2). If the angle δ is zero, the AC system and
STATCOM voltages are in phase and there is only reac- Since the phase angles between the positive and
tive power, and by variations in the phase angle δ , it is negative sources: φ s −i + , φ s +s − , φ s +i − , can be seen as
possible to allow an active power flow. functions of 2ωt , these results show that when negative
Considering the negative sequence components sequence components are present, an uncontrolled power
sources shown in Fig.13, and the angle relations shown in flow goes through the inverter direct to the dc capacitor
Fig.14, it is possible to write the power flow between the causing oscillations in the STATCOM.
sources as: If the STATCOM could generate negative sequence
components with the same amplitude, frequency and
 Vs + .Vi + V .V  phase angle as the one that disturbs the system, the result
+ X . sin δ + s − i − . sin ζ +  would be ideally a reduction of the oscillations. Applying
 X 
P= L L
, (3) the necessary conditions to obtain the zero var compensa-
V .V
+ s + i − . sin φ V .
V
s +i − +
s− i+
. sin φ s −i +  tion into (3) and (4) the results are:
 XL XL 
 V .V V .V 
P = + s + i − . sin φ s +i − + s − i + . sin φ s −i +  , (9)
Vs + 2 Vs + .Vi + 
 − . cos δ +   XL XL 
 XL XL 
 2   V s + .Vs − 
V V .
V
+ s − − s − i− . cos ζ +  . cos φ s + s − +
 2. X 
 XL X   
Q= L
. (4) Q= L
. (10)
 Vs + .Vs −  V .V
− s + i − . cos φ V .
V
s− i+
. cos φ s −i + 
 + 2. X . cos φ s +s − +  s +i − −
 XL XL 
 L 
 Vs + .Vi− Vs− .Vi+ 
− X . cos φ s +i − − . cos φ s−i +  Equations (9) and (10) show the existence of a com-
 L XL 
plex interaction between the positive and negative se-
quence voltage sources and based in these equations, it
Equation (3) and (4) show that the inclusion of nega- would be very difficult to obtain a control able to set the
tive sequence components results in many more terms into necessary conditions desired.
the power flow equations. But, since there is not a nega-
tive sequence source in the STATCOM, (3) and (4) are V. PROPOSED SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM
reduced to (5) and (6):
The equations have shown how negative sequence
V .V V .V
P = s + i+ . sin δ + s − i + .sin φ s −i+ , (5) components disturb the operation of the STATCOM but it
XL XL does not contribute to an easy control method. Moreover,
it is not desirable to use the conventional methods applied
to solve this problem caused by the negative sequence
unbalances: power derating or STATCOM temporary
disconnection [3].
If the negative sequence component appears only
during transient period, high frequency switching PWM
technique may be a solution. In this case, the control
algorithm should be temporarily changed to the one that is
shown in Fig.15. This PWM control is done measuring
the system voltages and separating the positive compo-
nents of them using the PLL and the instantaneous power
Fig. 15. Instantaneous power theory control diagram.
theory [5]. These positive sequence component voltages
are transformed to the αβ 0 reference frame by (11), and System Bus
the results are used in (12) to obtain the compensating Measured Measured
Voltages Currents
αβ currents. Through (13) the reference currents are Balanced
Negative
Unbalanced
System System
transformed back to the abc frame. Sequence
Detector
1 1 1 
 vo   2 2 2  v a 
  2 −1 − 1 .vb  ,
 vα  = 3 . 1 2 2  
(11) Control PWM
v β      Control
− 3  c
  3 v Step-up Coupling
0

Lead / Lag Angle
2 2 Transformer Transformers Control + PLL

iα  1 vα vβ   p *  DC
PWM Inverter

 = 2 . .  , (12) Capacitors

i β  vα + v β v β
2 − vα   q * 

 
i a   1 0 
  2 − 1 3 .iα  .
ib  = .
3 2 2  i β 
(13)
ic  − 1 3  
 2 − 2 

In equation (12) it is introduced the references for the

instantaneous active power (p*), in order to control the
voltage over the dc capacitor, and the instantaneous Inverters
imaginary power q*. Fig. 16. STATCOM with PWM negative sequence control.
The PWM switching technique used is the adaptative
current control. It compares the measured current with the
reference currents and from that generates the gate signals
to the switches.

A. Simulations with PWM adaptative current control

To test this possibility an extra inverter was introduced

into the STATCOM system as shown in Fig. 16.
The feasibility of the proposed technique was tested
connecting an extra inverter in parallel to the conven-
tional STATCOM shown in Fig.16. Naturally, in actual Fig.17. Instantaneous reactive power (pu).
systems it will not be possible to add an inverter just for
PWM control, due to high costs. However, it is possible to
develop a PWM control using the existent inverter struc-
ture of the proposed STATCOM.
This inverter worked with the control shown in Fig. 15
and was linked to bus system through a 1:1, wye-wye
connected transformer with a 10% reactance. A negative
sequence detector was implemented in order to switch the
STATCOM controls from multipulse to PWM when
needed. The references for the PWM control, as shown in
Fig. 15, are the instantaneous reactive power and the dc Fig.18. System voltage and compensating current (pu).
 C u r r e n t H a r m o n ic C o n t e n t The scholarship granted to C.A.C. Cavaliere by
U n b a la n c e d S y s t e m P W M ELETROBRÁS - Centrais Elétricas S.A. is acknowledged.
1 .2

1 VIII. REFERENCES
Amplitude (pu)

0 .8
[1] N. G. Hingorani, L. Gyugyi, “Understanding FACTS –
0 .6 Concepts and Technology of Flexible AC Transmis-
0 .4 sion Systems”, IEEE Press, New York, 1999.
0 .2
[2] L. Gyugyi, “Solid-State Synchronous Voltage Sources
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
for Dynamic Compensation and Real-Time Control of
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Technology, IEEE-Transmission Lines, IEEE Stan-
Fig. 19. Current harmonic content.
dards Press, Piscatway, USA, 1993.

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VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT pensator Using Quad-Series Voltage-Source Invert-
ers”, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 32,
This project was supported by FINEP/CNPq/PRONEX No. 4, July/August 1996.
(Programa de Apoio a Núcleos de Excelência do Ministé-
rio da Ciência e Tecnologia).