2013 International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems, Oct.

26-29, 2013, Busan, Korea

PR Controller Designed for NPC Three-level

STATCOM in Rural Grid
Hui Chen, Haiyang Sun, Yonghong Huang, Yukun Sun, Duo Zhang
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract — Proportion resonant (PR) control is presented for which introduces an infinite gain at the resonant frequency.
neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level static synchronous Compared with VOC method, the proposed strategy for
compensator (STATCOM). Compared with proportional and STATCOM improves the tracking accuracy for reference
integral (PI) controller, PR controller overcomes the drawbacks
such as steady-state error for ac signal and poor disturbance
current and the capability of compensating harmonics when
rejection capability. Meanwhile, the proposed strategy has a less the grid voltage distortion happens. A dual loop control is
complexity of the control structure and a better capability to designed to stabilize the DC voltage and compensate reactive
compensate low order harmonics than voltage oriented vector power. And the voltage value difference between the upper
control (VOC) which needs coordinate transformation and and lower capacitors is fed back to achieve three-level neutral
decoupling network. A dual loop control is designed to stabilize
point balance, which is more simple and effective than
the DC voltage and compensate reactive power. Furthermore, the
voltage value difference between the upper and lower capacitors traditional methods based on space vector pulse width
is fed back to achieve neutral point balance. Simulations are done modulation (SVPWM). Simulation results prove the validity
in MATLAB/SIMULINK. And the results are satisfactory. and superiority of the novel control strategy.

I. INTRODUCTION II. THE MATHEMATICAL MODE OF NPC THREE-LEVEL

With the reactive loads are increasingly used in STATCOM
distribution network of power system, in some remote rural The topology of three-phase NPC three-level STATCOM
areas, the quality of power supply may be deteriorated by is shown in Fig. 1:
these loads. In order to improve the power utilization and p
guarantee the normal operation of other equipment, static Sa1 Sb1 Sc1
synchronous compensator (STATCOM) has been proved as a
C1 U dc1 Sa 2 Sb 2 Sc 2 L ica ea
successful solution to ensure supply voltage quality [1]. Hence,
ua L icb eb
study on development of STATCOM with excellent U dc o N
ub L icc ec
performance is a hot topic for rural grid.
As the basic structure of STATCOM, the gird-connected uc
C2 U dc 2
inverter changes the DC voltage into AC output voltage, both Sa 3 Sb3 Sc3
amplitude and phase of which can be controlled. Compared
with traditional two-level inverter, three-level inverter has n Sa 4 Sb4 Sc 4
smaller dv/dt and lower switching frequency. Therefore this Fig. 1. Topology of NPC three-level STATCOM
paper focus on the improvement of STATCOM with neutral Where, ea, eb, ec are the three-phase grid voltage, ica, icb, icc
point clamped (NPC) three-level technique. By accurately are the three-phase grid current, L is used to suppress the
tracking the given reactive power, STATCOM can effectively switching ripple, Udc1, Udc2 represent the voltage value of DC
improve the power factor of the grid. bus capacitor C1, C2, Udc is the DC bus voltage. UoN is the
In the research of STATCOM, the control strategies are voltage of node o referring to neutral point N.
the emphasis. The conventional proportional and integral (PI) The switching function Si (i=a, b, c) is defined as follows:
controller has steady-state tracking error for AC signal and if Si1, Si2 switch on, Si3, Si4 switch off, Si=1, if Si2, Si3 switch
poor disturbance rejection capability to the grid distortion. So on, Si1, Si4 switch off, Si=0, if Si3, Si4 switch on, Si1, Si2 switch
some literatures propose the voltage oriented vector control off, Si=-1.
(VOC) strategy. In reference [2], the VOC operated with PI In the steady state, Udc1, Udc2 is almost equal, then there is
controller achieves zero steady-state error under synchronous Udc1=Udc2=Udc/2. According to the Kirchhoff law, the
rotating frame. The disadvantage of VOC is the complex mathematical model of STATCOM under abc stationary
control structure with coordinate transformation and feed- frame can be gotten as (1):
forward decoupling. What’s more, when the harmonic currents
exist in the grid, the capability of compensating harmonics by
VOC is poor and the complexity is enormous.
Therefore, proportion resonant (PR) controller with
multiple resonant frequencies is presented in this paper [3-4],

978-1-4799-1447-0/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

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 ⎧ dica 1 In the control of STATCOM, the resonant frequency is set
⎪ L dt = 2 SaU dc + U oN − ea as the grid frequency. Then the zero steady-state error can be
⎪ realized. The control block diagram of inner current loop
⎪ dicb 1
⎨L = SbU dc + U oN − eb (1) based on PR controller is shown in Fig. 3.
⎪ dt 2
⎪ dicc 1
= ScU dc + U oN − ec
e(s)
⎪L i c*(s) ic (s)
⎩ dt 2
G f ( s)
GPR ( s ) KPWM (s)
Through coordinate transformation, the mathematical
model of STATCOM under dq rotating frame is given by the
following relation:
Fig. 3. Block diagram based on PR controller
⎧ did Where, KPWM(s)=Kpwm/(Tpwms+1), it represents the first-
⎪⎪ L dt = ω Liq + ed − ud
(2) order inertia link of PWM module, Gf(s)=1/(Ls). Then the
⎨
⎪ L diq = −ω Li + e − u transfer function between ic*(s) and ic(s) in Fig. 3 is:
⎩⎪ dt
d q q
i (s) 1
Ti1 ( s ) = c = (4)
Where, id, iq are the components of grid current in the d ic ( s ) Ls (T pwm s + 1)
*
and q axis, ed, eq are the components of grid voltage in the d +1
K pwm GPR ( s )
and q axis, and ud, uq are the components of output voltage of
inverter in the d and q axis. At resonance frequency, that is, when s=jω0, the amplitude
In many research methods such as VOC, independent of GPR(s) tends to be infinite. For a finite input AC reference
control for id, iq is achieved based on (2). Obviously, signal ic*(s), there is Ti1(jω0)=1. It means zero steady-state
coordinate transformation and decoupling control are tracking error for AC signal.
inevitable, which brings complexity to control algorithm. Similarly, the transfer function between e(s) and ic(s) can
Therefore, through the introduction of PR controller which has be expressed as:
an infinite gain at its resonant frequency, this paper achieves i (s) −1
Ti 2 ( s ) = c = (5)
zero steady-state error for AC current based on (1). This e(s) K pwm
greatly simplifies the system control structure. Ls + GPR ( s )
T pwm s + 1

III. PROPORTION RESONANT CONTROL Since e(s) has the same frequency as ic(s), then Ti2(s) is
equal to zero when s=jω0. It indicates that the impact of grid
PR controller is a kind of controller based on internal
voltage is greatly reduced by the PR controller. Compared
model principle, the typical transfer function of PR controller
with the traditional PI controller, there is no need for voltage
is illustrated in equation 3:
feed-forward compensation, which enhances the robustness of
Ki s
GPR ( s ) = K p + (3) the system.
s +ω02
2

Where, Kp, Ki are the proportional and integral coefficient IV. SYSTEM DESIGN FOR NPC THREE-LEVEL STATCOM
respectively, ω0 is the resonant frequency. A. Control structure and principle
When Kp=1, Ki=100, ω0=314rad/s, the bode plots of PR
The control structure of NPC three-level STATCOM based
controller is shown in Fig. 2.
on traditional VOC is shown in Fig. 4. It consists of an outer
Bode Diagram voltage-loop and an inner current-loop. The outer voltage-loop
150
is aimed to stabilize the DC voltage, and the inner current-loop
Magnitude (dB)

100 is responsible for independent control of active power and

reactive power. Through coordinate transformation, the ac
50 variables are converted to DC components under stationary
frame. So zero steady-state error for reference current can be
0
90 achieved by PI controller. However, VOC has complex
control structure because of coordinate transformation and
Phase (deg)

0 feed-forward decoupling. And the actual performance and

control effect are limited by the system parameters. What’s
-90 1 2
more, when the harmonics exist in the grid, the harmonic
10
Frequency (HZ)
10
compensating structure by VOC is enormous.
Fig. 2. Bode plots of PR controller So this paper puts forward a novel control structure with
In Fig. 2, when angular frequency is equal to resonant PR controller which is illustrated in Fig. 5. As the inner loop
frequency, that is ω=ω0, the PR controller introduces an current regulator, PR controller can achieve zero steady-state
infinite gain so as to realize the zero steady-state error for the error for reference current under stationary frame. Thus
given AC signal. coordinate transformation and feed-forward decoupling are

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eliminated, which simplifies the control structure. At the same ⎡ 1 1 ⎤
1 − − ⎥
time, the robustness of the system is improved. 2⎢ 2 2 ⎡ sin θ − cos θ ⎤
ea isa ila C3s /2 s = ⎢ ⎥ , C2 s /2 r = ⎢ ⎥
eb isb ilb 3⎢ 3 3⎥ ⎣ − cos θ − sin θ ⎦
ec isc ilc ⎢⎣0 2 − 2 ⎥⎦
U dc1
ica L ⎡ ⎤
⎢ 1 0 ⎥
S a1 S b1 Sc1

C1 Sa2 Sb 2 Sc2 icb

U dc 2
icc ⎢ 1 3 ⎥
2 ⎢−
C2 Sa3 S b3 S c3

Sa4 Sb 4 Sc4

⎥ ⎡ sin θ − cos θ ⎤
C2 s /3s = 2 2 , C2 r /2 s = ⎢ ⎥
abc/dq
⎢ ⎥
io 3 ⎣ − cos θ − sin θ ⎦
PLL
iq θ
U dc
θ ⎢ 1 3⎥
⎢− 2 − 2 ⎥
ΔUdc ωL

U dc* uα uq PI
iq*
PI
dq/αβ eq ωL
id θ ⎢⎣ ⎥⎦
abc/dq
uβ ud ed
θ ed
PI
The proposed ip-iq method can detect the reactive current
id* eq
accurately even when the grid voltage distortion happens. In
Fig. 4. System control structure based on VOC addition, this method has no time delay during the detecting
ea isa ila process.
eb isb ilb
load
ec isc ilc C. PR control with harmonic compensation
ica L reactive To reach the power quality standards, the low order
U dc1 S a1 S b1 Sc1

C1 icb current
harmonics in the current waveform have to be compensated.
Sa2 Sb 2 Sc2

U dc 2
icc detecting
In the VOC method, an additional control part should be
Sa3 Sb 3 S c3
C2
Sa4 Sb4 S c4
i* i* i*
aq bq cq

SPWM
added. For example, if the 5th harmonic current exists in the
U dc
grid current, the 5th harmonic compensation in VOC is shown
ua ica* iap*
U dc* ub PR
icb* *
ibp in Fig. 7.
PI
uc
PR
i*
cc icp*
PLL
ica icb icc
PR
k
I *p
Fig. 5. Proposed control structure diagram θ abc/dq
5θ
i*
p5 =0
5θ
B. Reactive current detecting i
i
p
HP dq /dq5 LP PI dq5/dq ud5
There are a lot of methods to detect the reactive current
[5]. Based on the instantaneous reactive power theory, ip-iq
q
HP dq /dq5 LP PI dq5/dq uq5

method is adopted to detect the load reactive current in this 5θ i *

=0 5θ
q5
paper. The detecting block diagram is shown in Fig. 6. The Fig. 7. 5th harmonic compensation based on VOC
basic principle is described as follows: Firstly, the three phase In Fig. 7, firstly, ip, iq are filtered with a high-pass filter so
instantaneous load currents under stationary frame ila, ilb, ilc that the DC-offset is damped. In order to compensate the
are converted to components under dq rotating frame ip, iq. In harmonics with an additional PI controller, the output from the
order to obtain the load reactive current, iq is filtered with a high-pass filter has to be available as DC variables. Therefore,
low-pass filter, then iq* is obtained. Through the inverse the harmonics are transformed into a reference frame which
coordinate transformation, thus the three phase instantaneous rotates with a 5 times higher frequency than the fundamental
load reactive current components iaq*, ibq*, icq*can be detected. system. Then the signals are filtered by a low-pass filter so as
eA sin to damp all other amounts of frequency. After that the signals
PLL − cos are PI-controlled and transformed back into the fundamental
dq system. The outputs are fed back to original control signals.
i la i α
i p
i *p iαq
*
i *
For each harmonic distortion, such a harmonic compensation
i 0 aq

lb C3s/2s i C2s/2r i i *
C2r /2s i*
C2 s /3 s i *
bq
structure has to be designed. Obviously, the complexity of the
control structure is enormous. What’s more, when the grid is
i β βq
i
q q
LPF *
lc cq
unbalanced, the positive and negative sequence harmonics
Fig. 6. Detecting block diagram of reactive current should also be compensated. The poor capability of
Where, C3s/2s is the coordinate transformation matrix from compensating harmonics is a major drawback of VOC strategy.
abc stationary frame to αβ stationary frame, C2s/2r is the So PR controller is introduced in this paper, the novel
coordinate transformation matrix from αβ stationary frame to strategy overcomes the drawbacks of VOC strategy. The
dq rotating frame. C2s/3s, C2r/2s are the inverse matrixes of C3s/2s, harmonic compensation items based on PR control principle is
C2s/2r, respectively. designed as shown in (6):
s
GHPR ( s ) = K hi (6)
2
s + ( hω0 )
2

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 Where, Khi is the integral coefficient of the respective 400
harmonic compensation items. The PR controller with the 3rd, grid voltage
grid current
5th and 7th harmonic compensation items is shown in Fig. 8.

Voltage(V) / Current(A)
200

Kp
0
i∗ ( s) s u ( s)
Ki 2
s + ω02 -200

s
K3i
i ( s) s 2 + 32 ω02 -400
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time(s)
s (a) Before reactive power compensation
K5i
s 2 + 52 ω02 400
grid voltage
s grid current

Voltage(V) / Current(A)
K 7i 2 200
s + 72 ω02
Fig. 8. PR controller with harmonic compensation
These harmonic compensation items do not influence the 0

performance of the fundamental frequency controller, and they

only compensate the frequencies at the selected resonant -200

frequencies. An advantage of harmonic compensation with PR

controller is that one harmonic compensation item works on -400
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
the positive and negative sequence of each harmonic Time(s)
(b) After reactive power compensation
frequency, which is superior to the harmonic compensation
method based on VOC strategy. 700
Udc
D. Neutral point balance strategy 600 Udc1
Since this paper researches three-level inverter, it’s
Voltages(V)

500
inevitable to control the voltage balance of capacitor C1 and
400
C2. Otherwise, some accidents may happen due to the
unbalanced voltage stress on the switching devices. As shown 300

in Fig. 4, in the traditional control strategy based on three- 200

level SVPWM, the commonly used method is to adjust the 100
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
time of positive and negative small vectors in every new Time(s)
switching cycle [6]. But this control method is cumbersome. (c) DC-side voltage waveforms
The novel strategy proposed in this paper is shown in Fig. 5. 800
Based on original double close-loop control, the voltage 600
difference between the upper and lower capacitors is fed back 400
through proportion coefficient k to achieve neutral point
Voltage(V)

200
balance, which is simple and effective [7]. 0
-200
V. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS -400

In order to verify the feasibility and superiority of the -600

proposed control strategy for NPC three-level STATCOM. -800

0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
Time(s)
Simulation models are built in MATLAB/SIMULINK. (d) Line voltage uab waveform
The simulation parameters are as follows: the RMS value 15
of grid voltage is E=220V with the frequency f=50Hz, the AC- ica*
side filter inductance of STATCOM is L=5mH. The DC 10 ica

voltage Udc is controlled at 700V, the DC-side capacitor is 5

Currents(A)

C1=C2 =5000uF. The switching frequency is 5000Hz. To show

0
the reactive power compensation capability, the active power
of the load is set as 9000W, and the inductive reactive power -5

is 3500var. -10
The simulation results are as follows:
-15
0.15 0.2 0.25
Time(s)
(e) Tracking waveforms of phase current ica*
Fig. 9. Simulation waveforms with the novel strategy

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 In Fig. 9(a), the grid voltage and grid current do not satisfy addition, the three-level neutral point balance strategy
the unit-power-factor condition before the reactive power proposed in this paper is feasible and simple. The performance
compensation. With the application of the proposed of the novel strategy is verified via MATLAB/SIMULINK
STATCOM, Fig. 9(b) shows that the grid voltage and grid simulation model. The result shows the practical value and
current have the same phase, that is mean the reactive power is application potential of the proposed strategy.
fully compensated. In Fig. 9(c), the DC voltage Udc and Udc1
maintain at 700V and 350V respectively, which proves the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
validity of the adopted neutral point balance strategy. Fig. 9(e) This work is supported by the National natural science
is the tracking waveforms of the reference current ica*. It Foundation of China under Grant No. 61074019, a Project
shows that zero steady-state error can be achieved perfectly Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of
with the proposed strategy. Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the research project
The proposed strategy has not only a less complexity of Funded by Nanjing Institute of Technology for introducing
the control structure, but also a better capability of talents under Grant No. YKJ201215.
compensating harmonics. When the grid voltage distortion
happens, the harmonic content of grid current will be high. REFERENCES
Fig. 10 shows the FFT analysis diagram of phase current isa
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60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Harmonic order
(b) FFT analysis diagram of phase current isa based on PR control
Fig. 10. Simulation waveforms when the gird voltage distortion happens
As shown in Fig. 10(a), when the system is controlled by
traditional VOC strategy, the harmonic content in phase
current isa is high. While the harmonic current are greatly
reduced when the proposed PR controller is adopted.
Obviously, compared with VOC method, the proposed
strategy has better harmonic suppression ability.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, PR controller is proposed for NPC three-
level STATCOM. Through the comparison and analysis, the
novel strategy achieves zero steady-state error for AC signals
without coordinate transformation, which simplifies the
control structure. And the PR controller has a better capability
of compensating harmonics than traditional VOC method. In

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