National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

Modeling and Control of Current Source

Converter (CSC) Based STATCOM
Sanjay N. Patel1,

Chintan R. Patel2,

Dr. Axay J. Mehta3

I. INTRODUCTION

Abstract The static synchronous compensator

(STATCOM) is increasingly popular in power
system application. In general, power factor and
stability of the utility system can be improved by
STATCOM. Specifically, STATCOM can regulate
the voltage of connection point and compensate the
power factors of equipment serviced by that node.
STATCOM is a FACTS controller that is used in
power systems to regulate the line voltage, enhance
the power transmission capacity and extend the
transient
stability
margin.
STATCOM
is
conventionally realized by a voltage-source
converter; however, being a current injection device,
its performance can be improved when realized by a
current-source converter (CSC) that can generate a
controllable current directly at its output terminals.
In this paper, a STATCOM based on the currentsource converter topology is proposed. This model
acts as the basis for the design of a decoupled statefeedback controller. The proposed STATCOM has
been simulated using the MATLAB-SIMULINK
package. The simulation results show that a CSCbased STATCOM can result in excellent current and
voltage waveforms as well as very short response
time while operating at a low switching frequency.
This makes the proposed scheme suitable for high
power applications.
Key words: CSC, state-feedback control, FACTS,
linear model, STATCOM, VSC.

Sanjay N.Patel is pursuing M.E. in EPS from BVM Engg.

College, V.V. Nagar (e-mail: sanjaychaitali@yahoo.co.in).
2Chintan R. Patel is pursuing M.E. in EPS from BVM Engg.
College, V.V. Nagar (e-mail: k_chintani@yahoo.co.in).
3
Dr. Axay J. Mehta is with G.H.Patel College of Engg &
Tech., V.V.Nagar (e-mail: draxaymehta@gmail.com).

13-14 May 2011

AS an important member of the FACTS

controllersfamily, Static Synchronous Compensator
(STATCOM) has been at the center of attention and the
subject of active research for many years. STATCOM is
a shunt-connected device that is used to provide reactive
power compensation to a transmission line. Through
regulation of the line voltage at the point of connection,
STATCOM can enhance the power transmission
capability and thus extend the steady-state stability limit.
STATCOM can also be used to introduce damping
during power system transients and thus extend the
transient stability margin. Theoretically, FACTS
controllers can be realized by either a voltage-source
converter (VSC) or a current-source converter (CSC)
[1].
The reasons behind the choice of VSC over CSC are as
follows:
(1) A CSC is more complex than a VSC in both power
and control circuits. Filter capacitors are
used at
the ac terminals of a CSC to improve the quality
of the output ac current waveforms. This adds to the
overall cost of the converter.
Furthermore, filter capacitors resonate with the ac
side inductances. As a result, some of the harmonic
components present in the output current might be
amplified, causing high harmonic distortion in the
ac-side current. Besides, conventional bi-level
switching scheme cannot be used in CSC.
(2) Unless a switch of sufficient reverse voltage
withstanding capability such as Gate-Turn-Off
Thyristor (GTO) is used, a diode has to be placed in
series with each of the switches in CSC. This

almost doubles the conduction losses compared

with the case of VSC.
(3) Fast start-up, where no additional start-up
rectifier is needed. In addition, unlike the VSC

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National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

STATCOM, the CSC STATCOM injects no

harmonic into the A.C. network when it is operating
at zero.

Converter phase voltage

ii

Currents at the terminals of the CSC

Secondary-side currents of the transformer

(4) The dc-side energy-storage element in CSC

topology is an inductor, whereas that in VSC
topology is a capacitor. The power loss of an
inductor is expected to be larger than that of a
capacitor. Thus, the efficiency of a CSC is expected
to be lower than that of a VSC.

The vectors of line voltages

II. CSC BASED SYSTEM MODELING

The schematic diagram of a CSC-based STATCOM is
shown in Fig. 1 .The control objectives of the
STATCOM are to regulate the dc-side current and give
the required reactive power compensation to the
transmission line. In Fig. 1, the transformer T is
modeled as a combination of an ideal transformer and a
series R-L impedance.

[ e ] = [ e a e b e c ]T ,

[ i ] = [ ia ib i c ] T ,

[ v ] = [ va vb vc ]T , and

[ ii ] = [ iia iib iic ]T

Denote the vectors of line voltages , secondary-side

currents of the transformer, voltages across the filter
capacitors, and currents at the terminals of the CSC,
respectively.
After applying Parks transformation, with [e] chosen as
the reference voltage vector, the above current and
voltage vectors become, [E] = [ Ed 0 ]T, [ I ] = [ Id Iq
]T, [V] = [ Vd Vq ]T and [ Ii ] = [ Iid Iiq]T.
CSC is controlled using tri-level SPWM technique. In
this way, it behaves as a 3-phase linear power amplifier.
CSC under tri-level SPWM control can be
modeled as under,
iia = ma Idc
iib= mb Idc
iic = mc Idc

Where, ma , mb and mc are the modulating signals of the

3phases normalized to the peak of the triangular carrier
signal. The modulating signals can be transformed into
d-q axis, as well. Thus, Equ. (1) can be re-written as,
Iid = Md Idc
Iiq = Mq Idc

The dynamic equations from the converter to the

secondary-side of the transformer are,

Fig.-1 CSC based STATCOM.

Where:
C

Is the capacitance of the filter

Ldc

Is the smoothing inductor

Rdc d.c. side resistor for Conduction losses

Idc

Is the dc-side current

13-14 May 2011

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National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

In equ. (11), I2dc can be taken as the state variable,

instead of Idc , to make the dynamic equation linear.
Since Idc does not change direction, it does not cause any
technical problem to choose I2dc as the state variable.
The resulting improved dynamic model of the
STATCOM is as follows.

The input variables are Md and Mq .The output variables

are Idc and Iq , which are chosen according to the control
objectives of the STATCOM. The above system is
nonlinear. A common method to deal with the
nonlinearity is to linearize the system of equations
around a steady-state operating point. The drawback of
this approach is that the model and thus the controller
design are dependent on the operating point. But, in this
particular case, the nonlinearity can be avoided by
properly modeling the CSC.
From Equations (3) to (7), it is obvious that Idc is the
source of nonlinearity in the model of the CSC-based
STATCOM. An alternate method for describing the
dynamics of Idc is to use the active power balance
equation. The active power delivered by the ac source
(Pac ) and the active power absorbed by the dc-side
(Pdc ) can be expressed as,

Where, I2dc, Iq , Id , Vd and Vq are the state variables,

Iid and Iiq are the input variables, and I2dc and Iiq are the
output variables. R, L, C, Rdc , Ldc and are system
parameters and considered as constants. In the steadystate, the system voltage
Ed is close to 1 p.u. Thus,
there is no problem in considering it as a constant value.
In order to get a better accuracy, Ed can be considered as
the disturbance input in (13). This makes a variable.
The dynamic model in matrix form is,

The relationship between (P ac ) and (P dc ) is

Pac = Pdc + Ploss , where Ploss is the power loss in the
resistor R. The resistance R is always very small; hence,
it is practically reasonable to neglect its power loss
without noticeable loss of accuracy. From Pac = Pdc , the
following dynamic equation results ,

(17)
y = C. x

(18)

Where,
x = [I2dc

Id

Iq

Vd

V q ]T

u = [Iid Iiq]T
This can be written as,

13-14 May 2011

e = Ed

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National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

y = [I2dc

2 Rdc
Ldc

A= 0

Iq]T

3Ed
Ldc
R
L

In this particular case, it is possible to find a such that

the matrix is diagonal matrix, C(sI A +BK)-1B
implying a

R
L

1
C

1
C

0
1

L
F =
0

0
0

0
0

1
0
0

L
0

1
B=1
0

L
C

0
0

0
0

Fig.-2 Diagram of STATCOM Controller

1 0 0 0 0
C=

0 0 1 0 0

decoupled closed-loop system, and place the poles at the

desired locations.
IV. CONCLUSION

III. DECOUPLED STATE-FEEDBACK

CONTROLLER
For a linear system represented by (17) and (18), it is
easy to design a state-feedback controller so that the
output variables follow the reference input variables and
are not influenced by the disturbance input. The
controller (Fig.-2) can be in the form of,

Where,
is the reference input;
K = 2x5 constant state feedback gain matrix for
State variables;
T = 2 2 constant diagonal gain matrix for the
Reference input;
M = 21 constant gain vector for the disturbance
Input;
The closed-loop input-output relationship is,
y = C (sI A +BK)-1[B.T.yref + (B.M +F)e]

13-14 May 2011

(20)

In this paper, a CSC-based STATCOM is proposed. A

linear model for the STATCOM is derived from the
original nonlinear model by applying the power balance
equation and a nonlinear input transformation. The new
linear model is independent of the operating point. The
decoupled state-feedback control is formulated and
applied to the CSC-based STATCOM. The
performances of the STATCOM at steady-state and in
response to step changes in the reference values of the
system voltage and the dc-side current are evaluated
using the simulation results from MATLAB package.
V. REFERENCES
[1] N. G. Hingorani and L. Gyugyi, Understanding
FACTS: Concepts and Technology of Flexible
AC Transmission Systems. New York: IEEE
Press, 2000
[2] Dong Shen, Lehn P.W. Modeling, analysis, and
control of a current source inverter-based
STATCOM // IEEE Trans on Power Delivery.
2002. Vol. 17, No. 1. P. 248 253.
[3] C. D. Schauder and H. Mehta, Vector analysis
and control of advanced static VAR comp.,
IEE Proc. C, vol. 140, no. 4, July 1993.

B.V.M. Engineering College, V.V.Nagar,Gujarat,India

National Conference on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology

[4] Y. Ye and M. Kazerani, Decoupled statefeedback control of CSI based STATCOM, in

Proc. 32nd Annual North American Power
Symp., vol. 2, Oct. 2324, 2000, pp. 18.
[5] Current-Source Converter Based STATCOM:
Modeling and Control, Yang Ye, Member, IEEE,
Mehrdad Kazerani, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Victor H. Quintana, Fellow, IEEE.
[6] Modeling and State Feedback Controller for
Current Source Inverter Based STATCOM, A.
Ajami and M.Younesi, International Conference
on Control, Automation and Systems 2008.
[7] State-feedback Control of a Current Source
Inverter based STATCOM, Gang Yao , LiXue
Tao, LiDan Zhou, Chen Chen, ELECTRONICS
AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, ISSN
1392 1215, 2010.
[8] A Nonlinear Fuzzy PID Controller for CSI
STATCOM, A.Kazemi, A.Tofighi, and
B.MahdianIEEE-2006.
[9] Multivariable Nonlinear Control of Current
Source Inverter-based STATCQM for
Synchronous Generator Stabilization,
, Boniface H. K. Chia, Stella Morris,
P.K.Dash,, SICE Annual Conference
[10] A Hybrid, Current-Source/Voltage-Source
Power Inverter Circuit,, Andrzej M.
Rzynadlowski, , Niculina Patriciu, Frede
Blaabjerg, , and John K. Pedersen, IEEE
Transactionson Power Electronics, VOL. 16,
NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2001.
[11] Current source converter based STATCOM:
Operating principles, design and field
performance, H.F. Bilgin, M. Ermis,, Electric
Power Systems Research 81 (2011) 478487.
[12] System Modeling and Control Design for
FastVoltage Regulation Using STATCOMs,,
Amit K. Jain, Student Member, IEEE, Aman
Behal, and Ned Mohan, Fellow, IEEE..

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