Power Quality Control in Smart Distribution Grids

using Power Electronic Converters

A Mini-project Report in
Power Electronics for Renewable Energy
TET 4190

Group Members:
1. Manisha Malla
2. Nabina Pradhan
3. Nebrom Berihu Araya
4. Tigist Atnafseged Adamu
Contact persons:
Astrid Petterteig, Senior Scientist, SINTEF
John Are Wold Suul, Electric Power Engineering Department

Lecturer:
Professor Tore M. Undeland,
Faculty of Information Technology, Mathematics & Electrical Engineering,
Norwegian University of Science & Technology
Abstract
The existing power grid faces many limitations and challenges in a world that is increasingly
dependent on electricity. As a result, some government agencies, utility companies,
researchers and engineers in the electric power industry have envisioned of transforming the
existing grid into Smart Grid. Although there is no global and precise definition of the
concept, there is consensus on its major features among most stakeholders. It is expected to be
an intelligent, sustainable, resilient and reliable power grid suitable for the 21 st century
economy. One of the advancements envisioned in smart grid is power quality control. As one
of the major enabling technologies of smart grid, power electronics will play an important role
in power quality control. In this paper, a brief theoretical background of smart grids and
power electronic devices for power quality control is presented. The advantage of
DSTATCOM (Distribution Synchronous Compensator) in mitigating voltage dip that occurs
in a distribution network is explained. Simulation of DSTATCOM for voltage dip mitigation
was done in PSCAD/EMTDC. The results are presented in this paper.

i
Contents

Abstract.i

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Smart Grid .................................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Power Quality................................................................................................................................ 3

1.2.1 Voltage Dip............................................................................................................................. 4

1.2.2 Voltage Dip Mitigation........................................................................................................... 4

2. Power Quality Controllers based on VSC ........................................................................................... 5

2.1 Volatge Source Converter.............................................................................................................. 5

2.2 Distribution Static Compensator ................................................................................................... 6

2.2.1 Basic Configuration and Operation of D-STATCOM............................................................ 6

2.3 Dynamic Voltage Restorer ............................................................................................................. 8

2.4 Unified Power Flow Controller .................................................................................................... 10

3. Simulations and Results..................................................................................................................... 11

3.1 Simulation circuit......................................................................................................................... 11

3.2 Control Circuit.............................................................................................................................. 11

3.3 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 14

4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 15

References ............................................................................................................................................. 16

ii
1. Introduction
The electric power grid can be defined as the entire apparatus of wires and machines that
connects the sources of electricity (i.e., the power plants) with customers and their myriad
needs. [1] Although it has been acclaimed as the most significant engineering achievement of
the 20th century, the existing power grid face various challenges.[5] The demand for
electricity has grown to an extent that transmission networks are being pushed ever closer to
their stability and thermal limits. Loss of system stability, high transmission losses and
voltage limit violations have become major issues. Moreover, it is not only simple supply
reliability that consumers want today they want high quality supply voltage. Automated
manufacturing processes, the IT industry, financial institutions, hospitals, electronic consumer
products are some major areas where high power quality is required. Last but not least, the
concern on climate change has caused a pressing demand for shifting from fossil fuels to
renewable energy sources. [2]

The traditional solutions of upgrading electric transmission system infrastructure in the form
of new power plants, new transmission lines, substations and associated equipment cannot
fully address these big challenges. It is very important more than ever to rethink the features,
components and organization of the whole grid system. The shift in the development of
transmission grids to be more intelligent has been summarized as smart grid, as well as
several other terminologies such as IntelliGrid, GridWise, FutureGrid, etc. [3]

The Smart Grids program, formed by the European Technology Platform (ETP) in 2005,
created a joint vision for the European networks of 2020 and beyond [4]. Its objective features
were identified for Europes electricity networks as flexible to customers requests, accessible
to network users and renewable power sources, reliable for security and quality of power
supply and economic to provide the best value and efficient energy management.

A Federal Smart Grid Task Force was established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)
under Title XIII of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. In its Grid 2030
vision, the objectives are to construct a 21st-century electric system to provide abundant,
affordable, clean, efficient, and reliable electric power anytime, anywhere [3].

1.1. Smart Grid

A smart grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the behavior and actions
of all users connected to it - generators, consumers and those that do both in order to
efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure electricity supplies. [1] Smart Grid
incorporates monitoring, analysis, control and communication capabilities into the electric
power grid in order to improve reliability, optimize asset utilization, improve security,
increase energy efficiency and allow diverse generation and storage options. Smart Grid also
allows homeowners and businesses to utilize electricity as efficiently and economically as
possible hence, reduces cost and increases reliability and transparency. [7]

In existing power grids, there is one way power flow from power stations, via transmission
and distribution systems, to customers. Customers are uninformed and non-participative in the
power system, which is dominated by central generation. A smart grid, on the other hand, is
designed for bidirectional communication between appliances and power grids, to use
electricity more efficiently than ever before which will give benefits to both consumers and

1
producers. It will have informed, involved, and active consumers together with demand
response and distributed energy resources.

The smart features of the envisaged transmission grid [3] are summarized below:

A) Digitalization: The smart transmission grid will employ a unique, digital platform for
fast and reliable sensing, measurement, communication, computation, control,
protection, visualization, and maintenance of the entire transmission system.
B) Flexibility: The flexibility for the future smart transmission grid is featured in its
expandability for future development with the penetration of innovative and diverse
generation technologies, adaptability to various geographical locations and climates,
and seamless compatibility with various market operations.
C) Intelligence: The smart grid will be capable of sensing system overloads, rerouting
power to prevent or minimize a potential outage, and working autonomously when
conditions require resolution faster than humans can respond.
D) Resiliency: A fast self-healing capability will enable the system to reconfigure itself
dynamically to recover from attacks, natural disasters, blackouts, or network
component failures.
E) Sustainability: The sustainability of the smart transmission grid is featured as
sufficiency, efficiency, and environment-friendly.
F) Customization: The design of the smart grid will be client-tailored for the operators
convenience without the loss of its functions and interoperability. It will also cater to
customers with more energy consumption options for a high quality/price ratio.

The major enabling technologies that will be used to achieve the aforementioned smart
characteristics are summarized as follows [3]:

1) Alternative clean energy sources and new materials. The development of renewable
energy sources will be very important to make the grid sustainable and
environmentally friendly. New materials will increase power transfer capabilities,
reduce energy losses and lower construction costs.
2) Advanced power electronics and devices. Advanced power electronics will greatly
improve the quality of power supply and flexibility of power flow control.
3) Sensing and measurement. Smart sensing and measurement will serve as the basis for
communications, computing, control, and intelligence in the grid.
4) Communications. A fast and accurate information exchange in different platforms will
improve the system resilience by the enhancement of system reliability and security,
and optimization of the transmission asset utilization.
5) Advanced computing, control methodologies and intelligent technologies. High-
performance computing and control technologies will enable real-time modeling and
simulation of complex power systems, and automation of the entire customer-centric
power delivery network. Intelligent technologies will enable fuzzy logic reasoning,
knowledge discovery, and self-learning.

2
 6) Mature power market regulation and policies. The mature regulation and policies
should improve the transparency, liberty, and competition of the power market. High
customer interaction with the electricity consumption will be enabled.

With the above enabling technologies in mind, power electronics will be increasingly
important in all major areas of tomorrows electric power system:

Generation: The use of distributed generation and renewable energy sources is

increasing from time to time. Power electronics is needed for integration of these to
the grid.

Transmission: The use of distributed and renewable energy resources requires power
flow and quality control. Power electronics devices known collectively as FACTS
(Flexible AC Transmission Systems) are being used for this purpose and their use will
continue to increase. Besides, the promising transmission system known as HVDC
(High Voltage DC Transmission) uses power electronics to a large extent.

Distribution: At the distribution level, power quality control, distributed generation

and energy storage systems will all be dependent on power electronics.

Consumption: The use of power electronics in industrial and home appliances has
recently increased. It is expected to rise even more as smart end-user devices become
part of the electric power system.

1.2 Power Quality

The term power quality is not universally agreed upon but the concept has become a very
important aspect of power delivery. Other terminology in use is quality of power supply and
voltage quality. [15]

Interest in power quality has recently increased mainly due to the following factors:
Equipment has become more sensitive to voltage disturbances.
Equipment causes voltage disturbances. The number of loads fed via power electronic
converters has recently increased. These present a challenge in ensuring power quality.
There is a growing need for standardization and performance criteria.
The power quality can be measured. Harmonic currents and voltage dips are no longer
difficult to measure.

The quality of electrical power supply is a set of parameters which describe the process of
electric power delivery to the user under normal operating conditions, determine the
continuity of supply (short and long supply interruptions) and characterize the supply voltage
(magnitude, asymmetry, frequency, and waveform shape). [15]

Power quality phenomena can be divided into two types.

3
 A characteristic of voltage or current (e.g., frequency or power factor) is never exactly
equal to its nominal and desired value. The small deviations are called voltage
variations or current variations
Occasionally the voltage or current deviates significantly from its normal or ideal
waveshape. These sudden deviations are called events.

Power quality events are the phenomena which can lead to tripping of equipment, to
interruption of the production or of plant operation, or endanger power system operation. This
includes interruptions, undervoltages, overvoltage, phase angle jumps and three phase
unbalance.

1.2.1 Voltage Dip

A voltage dip is a short time (10 ms to 1 minute) event during which a reduction in r.m.s
voltage magnitude occurs. It is often set only by two parameters, depth/magnitude and
duration. The voltage dip magnitude is ranged from 10% to 90% of nominal voltage (which
corresponds to 90% to 10% remaining voltage) and with a duration from half a cycle to 1 min.
Voltage dip in a three phase system affects both phase to phase(line voltage) and phase to
ground(phase voltage). A voltage dip is caused by a fault in the utility system, a fault within
the customers facility or a large increase of the load current, like starting a motor or
transformer energizing. The most common faults are single phase to ground or phase to phase
short circuit, which lead to high current. Due to this high current, a voltage drop occurs over
the network impedance. When the fault occurs the voltage in the faulted phase drops to close
to zero and non faulted phases remains more or less unchanged [8,9].

1.2.2 Voltage Dip Mitigation

Voltage dips in transmission and distribution systems can be mitigated in different ways. At
present, a wide range of very flexible controllers, which capitalize on newly available power
electronics components, are emerging for custom power applications [10, 11]. These devices
are used to control and stabilize voltage in the Power System. These devices consist of static
VAR generator or absorber and a suitable controlling power electronic device.

These devices provide fast-acting reactive power compensation to power system networks.
These devices are connected on transmission systems to improve voltage profile and system
stability during both normal and contingency system conditions. The use of these devices
helps to increase transmission capacity and stabilizes voltage in different buses over a wide
range of loads. These devices also compensate the reactive power demand of the widely
varying loads. If the load in the system is very high, the demand of reactive power is also very
high, so there will be high amount of reactive power flow in the system and it causes the
voltage drop in the line. Therefore, the voltage at the receiving end will decrease. Similarly, if
the load in the system is very low, voltage at the receiving end of the line increases due to
charging current (Ferranti effect). It means that if the generated reactive power is less than the
consumed reactive power in the system, the voltage drops and vice versa. Therefore, the
variation of voltage is because of imbalance in generation and consumption of reactive power
in the system.

4
2. Power Quality Controllers based on VSC
Power quality control will be one of the issues addressed in smart grids. Power electronics is
expected to be the main enabling technology in this area. The most widely used active power
quality controllers based on power electronics are FACTS devices.

FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission System) are a power electronic based system and other
static equipment that provide control of one or more AC transmission system parameters to
enhance controllability and increase power transfer capability. The FACTS devices like
Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC), Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC),
Distribution Synchronous Compensator (D-STATCOM), Dynamic Voltage Restorer are
expected to gain widespread use in smart distribution networks for power quality control
[2][5] .

Power quality controllers which are based on voltage source converter (VSC) are explained in
the following topics. These controllers are DSTATCOM, DVR and UPFC. The emphasis in
this paper is on the capability of these devices in mitigating voltage dips in a distribution
system.

2.1 Volatge Source Converter

A voltage-source converter is a power electronic device, which can generate a sinusoidal

voltage with any required magnitude, frequency and phase angle. The converter is normally
based on an energy storage device, which will supply the converter with a DC voltage. The
solid-state electronics in the converter is then switched to get the desired output voltage. The
controller generates the required switching pattern. The VSC is a basic component of devices
used for mitigation of voltage dips and harmonic distortion.[14]
1.0 [uF]

Vdc Three phase ac output

Controller

Fig. 1 Voltage Source Converter

5
2.2 Distribution Static Compensator

The Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) is a custom power device based on a

Voltage Source Converter (VSC) shunt connected to the distribution networks. A
DSTATCOM is normally used to precisely regulate system voltage, improve voltage profile,
reduce voltage harmonics and for load compensation. However, the D-STATCOM can also
mitigate voltage dips by injecting reactive power to the point of connection with the grid.
Active power will be needed if both magnitude and phase angle need to be compensated [12].
DSTATCOM uses power electronics converter to synthesize the reactive power output rather
than using conventional capacitors and inductors combined with fast switches. A
DSTACTOM converter is controlled using pulse width modulation (PWM). DSTATCOM has
lower rated power, and faster power electronics switches as compared to STATCOM , thus
the PWM carrier frequency used in distribution controller can be much higher than in a
transmission controller.

2.2.1 Basic Configuration and Operation of D-STATCOM

A D-STATCOM consists of a VSC, a dc energy storage device, a coupling transformer

connected in shunt with the ac system, and associated control circuits. Fig. 2 shows the basic
configuration of D-STATCOM.

Controller
Vs0

I
Vi
VDC

Coupling
Transformer Storage device
VSC
AC system bus

DSTATCOM
Load

Fig.2 Basic Buildings Blocks of the DSTATCOM

6
The VSC converts the dc voltage across the storage device into a set of three-phase ac output
voltages. These voltages are in phase and coupled with the ac system through the reactance of
the coupling transformer. Suitable adjustment of the phase and magnitude of the D-
STATCOM output voltages allows effective control of active and reactive power exchanges
between the D-STATCOM and the ac system. Such configuration allows the device to absorb
or generate controllable active and reactive power. The controller of the D-STATCOM is used
to operate the inverter in such a way that the phase angle between the inverter voltage and the
line voltage is dynamically adjusted so that the D-STATCOM generates or absorbs the
desired VAR at the point of connection.

The VSC connected in shunt with the ac system provides a multifunctional topology which
can be used for up to three quite distinct purposes: voltage regulation and compensation of
reactive power, correction of power factor, and elimination of current harmonics.
(DSTATCOM & DVAR Simulation)

Consider a DSTATCOM connected to the system using a Y-Y coupling transformer. The
system voltage is Vs and the output voltage of the DSTATCOM is Vi. The instantaneous
values of the system phase voltage are given by:
Vsa = 2 Vssint
Vsb = 2 Vssin(t - 2/3) (1)
Vsc = 2 Vssin(t + 2/3)
where Vs is the rms value of system phase voltage.

The rms line to line voltage output of the three phase inverter is (3/(22))Vdma, where Vd is
the voltage of the DC-link capacitor and ma is the amplitude modulation index. [16]
Therefore, the output voltages of the DSTATCOM referred to the primary side of the
transformer can then be given by:

Via = 3/2.n.maVd (sint + )

Vib = 3/2.n.maVd (sint + - 2/3) (2)
Vic = 3/2.n.maVd (sint + + 2/3)
where n is the transformer turns ratio.

To illustrate how a DSTATCOM mitigates voltage dip, consider a simple equivalent circuit
shown in Fig. 3.
VL

Source Load

Ish

Fig.3 Simple equivalent diagram illustrating voltage dip mitigation

7
Assume that the system voltage is 1 pu under normal conditions. Then, voltage dip occurs and
voltage of the system without the DSTATCOM is

Vdip = Vcos + jVsin (3)

By injecting current from the DSTATCOM, the voltage is brought back to 1 pu. The required
change in voltage from the DSTATCOM is

V = 1 - Vcos jVsin (4)

Current injected by the DSTATCOM is numerically equal to

Ish = P jQ (5)

where P is the active power flow from the DSTATCOM and Q is the reactive power flow
from the DSTATCOM to the system.

V = Ish.Z = (P jQ)(R+jX) (6)

where Z is the equivalent impedance seen by the DSTATCOM.

Combining equations (4) and (6), the active and reactive power injected by the DSTATCOM
are given by,

P = (R(1 Vcos) VXsin)/(R2 + X2) (7)

Q = (RVsin + X(1 Vcos))/(R2 + X2) (8)

2.3 Dynamic Voltage Restorer

Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) is a voltage controller having the same building blocks as a
DSTATCOM but its coupling transformer is connected in series with the ac system as shown
in figure 4. The resulting voltage at the load bus bar equals the sum of the grid voltage and the
injected voltage from the DVR. The converter generates the reactive power needed while the
active power is taken from the energy storage. The energy storage can be different depending
on the needs of compensation. [14]

Fig.4 Standard configuration of a DVR

8
 Vth
Vsh jXth
Rth Vdvr
Rsh jXsh

VL
Is
PL+jQL
Voltage source
converter DVR

Energy storage

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of a DVR

Figure 5 shows the schematic diagram of a DVR. The thevenin equivalent circuit of the
system is shown on the left side of the DVR. The system impedance Zth depends on the fault
level of the load bus. When the system voltage (V th) drops, the DVR injects a series voltage
VDVR through the coupling transformer so that the desired load voltage magnitude VL can be
maintained. The series injected voltage of the DVR can be written as,

VDVR = VL+ ZthIL - Vth (9)

where
VL is the desired load voltage magnitude,
Zth is the load impedance,
IL is the load current , and
Vth is the system voltage during fault condition.

The load current IL is given by,

IL= ((PL+jQL)/VL)* (10)

Considering VL as a reference, equation (1) can be written as

VDVR = VL0 + ZthIL ( -) - Vth (11)

Here , and are the angle of VDVR, Zth and Vth, respectively, and is the load power factor
angle, where
-1
= tan (QL/PL) (12)
The complex power injection of the DVR can be written as,
SDVR=VDVR IL*
(13)

9
If the injected voltage V DVR is kept in quadrature with IL, no active power injection by the
DVR is required to correct the voltage. It requires only the injection of reactive power which
is generated by the DVR itself. DVR can be kept in quadrature with IL only up to a certain
value of voltage dip and beyond which the quadrature relationship cannot be maintained to
correct the voltage dip. For such a case, injection of active power into the system is essential
which must be provided by the energy storage system of the DVR.[14]

2.4 Unified Power Flow Controller

The Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is used to control the power flow in a
transmission system by controlling the impedance, voltage magnitude and phase angle. The
basic structure of the UPFC consists of two voltage source converters (VSCs); where one
converter is connected in parallel to the transmission line through a shunt transformer while
the other is in series with the transmission line through a series transformer. Both VSCs are
connected to each other by a common dc link including a storage capacitor. The shunt inverter
is used for voltage regulation at the point of connection injecting reactive power into the line
and to balance the real power flow exchanged between the series inverter and the transmission
line. The series inverter can be used to control the real and reactive line power flow inserting
voltage with controllable magnitude and phase in series with the transmission line. Thereby,
the UPFC can fulfill functions of reactive shunt compensation, active and reactive series
compensation and phase shifting. [17]

Vs V1 V2 Vr
Xs Xr

Is Ir
3

VSC VSC
0
Shunt Series
converter converter

Fig.6 Basic Configuration of a UPFC

10
3. Simulations and Results

3.1 Simulation circuit

The simulation was done using PSCAD/EMTDC software. A simple distribution system is
shown connected to a DSTATCOM in Fig3.1. The supply side is represented by a Thevenin
equivalent circuit. The distribution voltage level is 11 kV. Two loads, which are designated as
load 1 and load 2 are connected to the distribution bus. The DSTATCOM is connected to the
secondary of a Y- coupling transformer. The transformer has a primary voltage of 11 kV and
a secondary voltage of 2 kV. The DSTATCOM circuit consists of a three phase inverter
circuit with six IGBTs and six diodes used for commutation. The sizing of the DC storage
capacitor is an important part of DSTATCOM design. In this project, the size of the DC
capacitor was not obtained mathematically. But a capacitor size of 300 F gave good results.

Load 1 DSTATCOM
150.0 [ohm] 0.5 [H]

System Bus
Load 2 1 3 5
BRK1 35.0 [ohm] 0.2 [H]
2 2 2
g1 g3 g5
RL

300.0 [uF]
0.1 [ohm]
A #1 #2
V
45.0 [ohm]

4 6 2
2 2 2
g4 g6 g2
Timed
0.16 [H]

Breaker
BRK1 Logic
Open@t0

Timed
Fault
ABC->G Logic

Fig.7 Simulation Circuit for DSTATCOM

3.2 Control Circuit

A control circuit that will generate the required firing pulses is needed so that the
DSTATCOM provides the necessary voltage support during voltage dip condition. The
voltage control circuit used is shown in figure 8.

The actual rms per unit voltage of the distribution bus is measured and provided to the control
circuit as Vpu. Then a maximum of Vpu and 0.1 is taken. i.e. if the voltage of the bus is too

11
low, a fixed value of 0.1 is taken. The low pass filter avoids unnecessary high frequency
components in the input. The reference voltage V ref is specified as the desired voltage of the
bus. For the first 0.1 s, it is actually a ramp voltage so that large error is not generated until the
supply voltage builds up to the nominal level. The error signal, which is the difference
between the measured and reference voltages, is fed into the lead lag circuit. The PI controller
then gives the required phase shift that will minimize the error. This is changed to degrees and
provided as the output Shft. The proportional gain and the integral time constant of the PI
controller need to be adjusted to obtain good results.

Max
Vpu D

E
0.1

Vref
F
- P
D 1 + sT1 *
TIME * + G
1 + sT2 57.29578 Shft
I

Vref PI parameters
1.5
Tconst Pgain
1 2
pu

0 Pgain Tconst
0.9 0 0
0.1 1.14

Fig.8 Voltage Control Circuit

Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation is used to generate the firing pulses that drive the IGBTs.
For SPWM, sinusoidal modulating signal and triangular carrier signal are required. The circuit
used to generate the sinusoidal signals is shown in fig. 9. The PLL gives six outputs, where
each output is a linear ramp varying between 0 and 360 degrees. These are shifted by the
angle obtained from the voltage control circuit (Shft) plus 30 degrees, which is the phase shift
between the primary and secondary of the transformer. Then, the sinusoidal signals for
turning on and off of the IGBTs are obtained using a standard trigonometric function. The
value of amplitude modulation ratio (ma) used is 1.0.

12
 SinOn
Sin

Va
Vna
PLL Shift:
Vb thetaY in(in-sh)

3 2 1 6 5 4
Six 1
Vnb 6 6 6
Pulse sh 2
Vc
3
Vnc
4
5
6
SinOff
Sin
Shft D + -

F 30.0

Fig.9 Sinusoidal waveform generator

Triangular carrier waveforms are generated from the circuit in figure 10.The value of
frequency modulation ratio (mf) used is 33.0. It was taken to be high enough to avoid
harmonics and it should be a multiple of 3. The proportional and integral gains of the PI
circuit inside the PLL have to be adjusted to get optimum results. The nonlinear transfer
characteristic component is used to generate the triangular waveforms needed for turning on
and off the IGBTs.

Vn 1 2 3
Vna Vnb Vnc
1
2
33.0 3
Va 4
Vna
PLL 5
Vb theta * Angle
Resolver 6
Vnb TrgOn
Vc
Vnc
1
2
3
4
PLL Cntrl
5
GpPLL GiPLL
100 1000 6
TrgOff
GpPLL GiPLL

0 0
50 500

Fig.10 Triangular Wave Generator

In the generation of the above waveforms, care should be taken so that IGBTs on the same leg
do not turn on or off at the same time. This is the reason for interchanging the signal wires in
figures 9 and 10. It can also be seen in the switching pulse diagrams of figure 13.

The interpolated firing pulses component takes the sinusoidal and triangular waveforms and
gives the required firing pulses. These are shown in figure 11. The DSTATCOM is blocked
initially for 0.1 s until the system reaches steady state operation.

13
 TIME 1

Dblck g1
(1)

SinOn 6 g2
H (2)
ON
TrgOn g3
L (3)
6
SinOff 6 g4
H (4)
OFF
TrgOff g5
L (5)
6
g6
(6)

Fig.11 Firing Pulse Generator

3.3 Results
First, simulation was carried out without connecting a DSTATCOM. Voltage dips occurring
due to short circuit fault and increase in the load were simulated. Initially load 1 is connected
to the bus while load 2 is not. Short circuit fault starts at 1 s and goes on for 1.5 s. After the
fault is cleared, the load of the system is increased by closing the breaker at 3.5 s and
connecting load 2. The resulting pu rms line to line voltage of the system is shown in figure
12. It can be clearly seen that both short circuit fault and load increase cause voltage dip. For
both cases the voltage goes down from 0.90 pu to 0.69 pu.

RMS Voltage
1.20
1.10
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
Voltage (pu)

0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 ...
...
...

Fig.12 System voltage during voltage dip (without DSTATCOM)

14
The DSATCOM was then connected to the system and simulation carried out using the same
settings. The firing pulses that drive the IGBTs were obtained from the control circuit and are,
partly, shown in figure 13.
Switching Pulses Switching Pulses
G1 G4
1.20 1.20
1.00 1.00
0.80 0.80
0.60
0.60
0.40
y

y
0.20 0.40
0.00 0.20
-0.20 0.00
G3 G6
1.20 1.20
1.00 1.00
0.80 0.80
0.60 0.60
0.40 0.40
y

y
0.20 0.20
0.00 0.00
-0.20 -0.20
G5 G2
1.20 1.20
1.00 1.00
0.80 0.80
0.60 0.60
0.40 0.40
y

0.20 y 0.20
0.00 0.00
-0.20 -0.20
0.900 0.925 0.950 0.975 1.000 1.025 1.050 1.075 1.100 ... 0.900 0.925 0.950 0.975 1.000 1.025 1.050 1.075 1.100 ...
... ...
... ...

Fig. 13 Switching pulses of the DSTATCOM

The per-unit rms voltage of the bus when the system is connected to a DSTATCOM is shown
in figure 14. The simulation shows that the DSTATCOM can successfully mitigate the
voltage dip within about 0.2s. Therefore, the voltage of the system bus is kept at the desired
level of 0.9 pu.

RMS Voltage Vref

1.20
1.10
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
Voltage (pu)

0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00 ...
...
...

Fig. 14 Voltage dip mitigation using DSTATCOM

15
4. Conclusion
In this project the concepts of smart grid and power quality have been studied and explained.
It has been found that there are currently numerous studies, researches and projects with the
emphasis of transforming the existing grids into more advanced smart grids. However, there is
no global standard as to what exactly a smart grid is and what its constituents and features are.

Power quality will be of major concern in smart grid of the future. Active power quality
controllers based on power electronic converters and advanced control circuits will be
indispensable in ensuring the quality of power supply in the near future. This report focused
on voltage dips, which are the most detrimental power quality problems. A DSTATCOM
circuit and its control were designed. While simulation, designing the control strategy for
DSTATCOM was an important aspect. The control of flow of reactive power to and from the
DC capacitor is done by PI controller. The control circuit includes Phase Lock Loop
components to generate switching signals i.e. triangular waves and sinusoidal waves. To
switch on and off the IGBTs PWM switching control is used. IGBTs are used because it is
easy to control the switch on and off of their gates. From the simulation results, the
DSTATCOM responded well in mitigating voltage dips caused by a three-phase balanced
fault and load fluctuation. This can be clearly seen by comparing figures 12 and 14. In
conclusion, by doing this project, we learned how to simulate the power electronics devices in
PSCAD. Though we have used this simulation tool for the first time and we had little
theoretical background in the subject matter, the results obtained are satisfactory.

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