Active Control for Power Quality Improvement in

Hybrid Power Systems

1
Walid Frangieh, Student, 2Maged B. Najjar, IEEE member
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Balamand
North Tripoli, Lebanon
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

AbstractRenewable energy has made a stunning entrance to power quality [5], [6], [7] and [8]. The issue of power quality is
the market. In Lebanon there are some projects taking place of great importance to the wind turbine [6]. Theres a need to
such as Hawa Akkar and Beirut River Solar Snake (BRSS). They find solutions to these problems, using different technologies
are used to reduce the reliance on hydrocarbons (petrol-based) such as smart meters, monitoring system, controllers, remote
generation. The integration of these systems (wind energy, hydro ability. The integration of wind energy into a weak system is a
energy, solar power etc.) created different kinds of problems in challenge; voltage fluctuation, voltage dips, swells and swags
the grid. Whether system stability problems or Power Quality are created due to the uncontrollable resource and the nature of
issues, these issues need solving. Classically passive filters were the DWIG (Distributed Wind Induction Generators) on the
used but nowadays active filters such as Static Synchronous
already weak system. This causes stability issues, reliability
Compensator (STATCOM) and Dynamic Voltage Restorer
and power quality issues which need to be solved [9].
(DVR) are chosen for the task. STATCOM is a device that
regulates the voltage level or the reactive power in the system. It
is used to maintain voltage stability, enlargement of critical A. Power Quality
clearing time. DVR is a voltage restorer that can solve the voltage 1) International Electro Technical Commission Guidelines
power quality issues. This paper will integrate the STATCOM The International Electro-technical Commission (IEC)
and the DVR for voltage control and harmonics filtering. The gives the procedures for determining the power quality
simulation has been done by MATLAB/SIMULINK and shows characteristics when a wind turbine is involved [10].
the work of the STATCOM and the DVR combined.
2) Voltage Variation
KeywordsWind Turbine, STATCOM, Active Filters, DVR, Wind speed and induction generator torque are the main
Harmonics, Power Quality cause of voltage variations. These voltage variations are
directly related to real and reactive power variations. Voltage
I. INTRODUCTION Sag/Dips/Swell, Short Interruptions and Long duration voltage
variation are common voltage variation issues. The amplitude
In the last couple of decades, the creation, implementation of voltage fluctuation depends on grid strength, network
and perfection of renewable energy has occurred. It has impedance, phase-angle and power factor of the wind turbines
progressed through time with increasing reliability. The [5].
integration of renewable energy such as wind, photovoltaic,
fuel cell, and tidal to the grid solved many problems and 3) Harmonics
replenished the exceeding and ascending need for electrical Harmonics are created due to power electronic switching
energy but created plenty more. In Europe 2012 renewable devices in the system. The harmonic content in a voltage or
energies covered 14% of gross final energy consumption current should be under the limit at the Point of Common
compared to 12.9% in 2011. The European Union has over a Coupling (PCC). The IEC-61400-21 establishes a guideline to
100-GW of renewable energy installed capacity at the end of base the study of harmonics on [10]. The filtering by rapid
2012 [1]. In Lebanon the renewable energy sector is being switching largely reduces the lower order harmonic current, but
created and trying to enlarge. The Lebanese government plan the remaining current will have higher order frequency content
to install 200 MW of solar farms by 2020. The Beirut River which can be easily filtered-out.
Solar Snake (BRSS) projects goal to install 10 MW of
photovoltaic farms along the Beirut River [2]. Hawa Akkar is 4) Consequences of the Issues
another project installed in Akkar Lebanon. This wind farm The power quality issues damage equipment such as
will generate 60 MW which is enough power to supply 60,000 Microprocessors, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs),
households a year and its aim is to reduce the rationing periods Variable Speed Drives (VSDs) and delicate control systems. It
in Lebanon [3], [4]. This leads to a more complex electrical may cause the tripping of Contactors and protection devices. It
network or Grid. This enlargement and enrichment in can lead to stopping sensitive equipment such as PCs, and
equipment has caused problems such as stability, reliability and even stop the process of plants.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE 218

B. Wind Turbine Induction Generator Then the reference currents will be as in (3):
The wind turbine needs a relatively large amount of
reactive power to operate. This power must be fed externally
whether from a capacitor bank, or a controlled inverter, or from (3)
the electrical synchronous grid. The reactive power absorbed
by the WTIG causes the voltage on the bus where the generator This creates a fixed sinusoidal reference current
is connected to drop, and the system build up will raise the synchronized with the grid without using a Phase Locked Loop
voltage again to the nominal voltage of the grid [6]. (PLL). This method is simple, robust and favorable as
compared with other methods [13].
C. Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM)
3) Hysteresis (also called Bang-Bang)
1) STATCOM Model The actual currents are detected subtracted from the
The STATCOM has been reported to improve the power reference current and obtain current error. This error is
quality in power systems with DG integration of wind type just compared by a relay that gives an ON OFF signal for the IGBT
as in [5], [8] and [11]. STATCOM can be implemented to switching if the error is higher or lower than a previously set
regulate the voltage as a shunt compensator for the WTIG. It is band.
a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) connected to a DC
link capacitor which itself connected to a Voltage Source
Converter (VSC).
The STATCOM is shunt connected and uses in this paper a
Hysteresis current control method to inject a current in the
system to counter the harmonics created by the non-linear load
and the WTIG. The basic STATCOM model is shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 2. Generation of switching signals [8]

For phase A we have the following switching logic:

if Isa - Isa <hb , then we need to inject a current
and Sa =1
if Isa - Isa >hb , then we need to absorb current
then Sa=0.
Phase B and phase C work in the same way; hb is the
hysteresis band. The wider the hysteresis band is the larger the
error, the smaller the hysteresis band the smaller the error but
this means the need for very fast switching and higher rating
Fig. 1. Basic STATCOM Model [12] devices [7].
Because the hysteresis current controller takes
2) Reference current generation measurements of the current signal and compares it to a
To get a reference current to use in the STATCOM control reference sinusoidal signal coming from the voltage of the grid,
we need a topology for grid coordination. This paper uses these it is blind to the load changes and thinks that the load increase
formulas to synchronize the reference currents to the grid is a Power Quality fault. The STATCOM works to correct that
voltage of the infinite bus, which is a bus with theoretical work and in return injects higher current to render the current at
voltage of 1 per unit (p.u.) with infinite stability. If we take the a 1 p.u. reference. This means that the STATCOM is supplying
3 phase RMS voltages (Vsa,Vsb,Vsc) and is expressed, as the load increase instead of the grid. To solve this issue a load
sample template Vsm, sampled peak voltage, as in (1). tracking technique is required.
When a load is increased the complex power magnitude is
increased. Taking that magnitude of the complex power ad
dividing it by a base power we per unitize it. This gives us a
(1) factor to multiply the reference current as in (4).

Then the unit vectors are generated from the sourceare

shown in (2).
(4)

That method makes the STATCOM correct the Power

quality issue alone without supplying any real power to the
(2) load.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE 219

D. Dynamic Voltage Regulator (DVR)
1) DVR Model
The DVR is used to protect critical or sensitive loads by
mitigating the effects of voltage sags or swells on the
distribution feeder due to faults in the system by maintaining
constant voltage magnitude. It is basically a BESS connected to
an inverter which itself is connected to an injection transformer
that is mounted in series with the 3 phase sensitive load.

Fig. 4. Control of SVPWM switching pulses [16]

II. SYSTEM IN STUDY

A. Proposed system in study

The system of study is shown in Fig. 5:

Fig. 3. Basic DVR topology [14]

The DVR can compensate voltage sags by injecting

reactive power or real and reactive power. This depends on the
depth and width of the sag or swell.
2) DVR control
As for the control of the DVR many techniques exist to
control the voltage injection, the chosen one is the Space
Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) which is proven
very effective and gives a better result than conventional PWM
in terms of THD and power quality.
The reference phasor consists of: phase, frequency and
magnitude components. All will vary to some point during
normal network operation [15].
The block diagram of the control system used is shown in
Fig. 4. The control system of a DVR plays an important role,
with the requirements of fast response in the face of voltage
sags and variations in the connected load. This paper uses an
open loop control for the DVR system using PLL. The PLL is
to synchronize the DVR with the power system by generating a Fig. 5. Proposed system in study
reference voltage to be compared with the actual one.
We have to study our system at the PCC, which is the
To do so the control system takes the abc components of interest of this kind of research. Studying at the PCC will give
the load voltage transforms them into the synchronous an idea of the system behavior at any other Bus. Fig. 5 shows
reference frame dq0 and compares it to the reference voltage the grid or the infinite bus connected to the PCC, it shows the
Vref of the system. With Vdref relative to the system and Vqref WTIG, a non-linear load for harmonics generation. The DVR
is equal to 0. They are passed by a PI controller and then the and STATCOM are used for Active filtering. They cancel the
reference voltage injected is generated. This voltage is input to effect of voltage sags and swells by injecting a voltage into the
the SVPWM. system, and remove the harmonics by injecting a current into
The SVPWM method is an advanced PWM method and the system.
possibly the best among all the PWM techniques. The output Fig. 6 will show the system model in
voltages of the inverter are composed by eight switch states. MATLAB/SIMULINK.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE 220

Fig. 6. MATLAB/SIMULINK modeled system

In Fig. 7 the system is shown in details. Fig. 7a shows the

STATCOM composed from a rectifier a DC link and an III. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
inverter. The STATCOM control is shown and the hysteresis
current controller is present. Fig. 7b shows the DVR composed A. System operation
from two DC batteries with an inverter connected to an 1) DVR operation
injection transformer and with the relative control. When a wind turbine is initially connected to the grid, it
needs reactive power for the induction generator to start
producing electric power. This causes the voltage to drop at the
PCC. At this instant the DVR should start its operation and
compensate for the voltage drop at the critical load. Fig. 8a
shows the voltage drop at the PCC; Fig. 8b shows the voltage
on the critical load and it shows the DVR compensation. Fig.
8c shows the injected voltage by the DVR at the coupling
transformer.

(a)
(a)

(b)

(c)

(b)
Fig. 8. a) Voltage drop at PCC when wind turbine is starting, b) Voltage at
Fig. 7. MATLAB/SIMULINK model of (a) STATCOM, (b)DVR Critical load Bus (with DVR compensation), c) Injected voltage by DVR

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE 221

 2) STATCOM operation
After the wind turbine is initialized and running and after
the Non-Linear load is connected to the system, the voltage and
current at the PCC will be distorted and need to be filtered.
Here the STATCOM (Active filter) is activated and will inject
the exact current into the system needed to cancel the effect of
the harmonics. This reference injected current is generated by
the hysteresis control technique. Fig. 9 shows the current at the
PCC with STATCOM being OFF. Fig. 10 shows the current
after turning ON the STATCOM, it is shown in the plot that
the current follows a perfect sine wave with small jumps in the
current related to the fast switching and hysteresis band. Fig.
11 shows the injected current from the STATCOM which is
highly distorted current that cancels the effect of the harmonics
present at the PCC.
Fig. 13. Current THD after STATCOM

The STATCOM injects the current that has the needed

content to mitigate the power quality issues, the Fourier
analysis in Fig. 12 and 13 shows that the current THD has
Fig. 9. Current at PCC before STATCOM dropped from an unacceptable 8.84% to an acceptable 4.05%.
In Fig. 14 shows an 80% load increases the PCC current
and the injected current without STATCOM load tracking
technique.

Fig. 10. Current at PCC after STATCOM

Fig. 11. Injected current by STATCOM

Fig. 14. PCC characteristics without Load Tracking a) Load power, b)PCC
current, c) Injected current

In Fig. 15 shows an 80% load increases the PCC current

and the injected current with STATCOM load tracking
technique.

Fig. 12. Current THD before STATCOM

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE 222

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