Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

A new configuration of two-level 48-pulse VSCs based STATCOM for voltage

regulation
Bhim Singh, Venkata Srinivas Kadagala ∗
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, a new configuration of STATCOM (Static Compensator) with constant DC link voltage is
Received 28 February 2011 proposed for the voltage regulation. The proposed STATCOM consists of eight sets of two-level double-
Received in revised form 29 May 2011 way Voltage Source Converters (VSCs). Each double-way VSC consists of two six-pulse VSCs connected
Accepted 18 August 2011
through an open winding transformer unit. The phase-angle difference between these two VSCs is varied
Available online 17 September 2011
for the reactive power control. The proposed STATCOM model is developed using MATLAB/Simulink,
SimPowerSystems (SPS) toolboxes and dynamic performance is studied for the change in the reference
Keywords:
reactive power, the terminal voltage reference and voltage control under switching on an inductive and
Voltage Source Converters (VSCs)
Static Compensator (STATCOM)
a capacitive loads. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the voltage regulation capability of
Flexible Alternating Current Transmission the STATCOM under these conditions.
System (FACTS) © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Voltage regulation
Multi-pulse
Fundamental frequency switching (FFS)

1. Introduction In FACTS controllers, multi-pulse VSC topologies [8,10–13] are

The electrical energy consumption is increasing all over the
world requiring enhanced power transmission from generating sta-
tions to load centers. This needs installation of new transmission
lines or better utilization of existing lines. As installation of new
lines is not economically feasible, the existing ones have to be
used in efficient manner using FACTS (flexible alternating current
transmission system) devices [1–3]. Static compensator (STAT-
COM) belonging to this family of FACTS devices is connected in
the shunt for absorbing or generating the required reactive power.
It can perform functions such as voltage regulation, power fac-
tor correction, sub synchronous resonance mitigation and power
oscillation damping, etc. [4–9].
The voltage source converter (VSC), a combination of the self
commutating device with an anti-parallel diode is the elementary
unit of the STATCOM for dynamic reactive power compensation.
The gate turn off thyristor (GTO) with high power handling capa-
bility is very well suited for the VSC in high voltage and high power
applications. In view of this, a reasonable literature is available on
the modeling, control and simulation techniques in FACTS devices
[6,7].
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: bhimsinghiitd@gmail.com (B. Singh),
srinivas.kadagala@gmail.com, sri.iitd@gmail.com (V.S. Kadagala).
popularly used in transmission and industrial applications because
of their low loss among all other available VSC topologies like pulse
width modulation (PWM) and multi-level converters. In PWM tech-
nique the converter losses are high as the devices switch on and off
several times during a cycle, and therefore is not a good choice in
high power utility applications. In multi-level VSC topologies, there
are several DC link capacitors and it is very difficult to regulate the
DC voltages of all the capacitors. A multi-pulse VSC topology with
finite pulse number produces a near sinusoidal voltage waveform
with acceptable harmonic content and low switching loss. In addi-
tion to multi-pulse VSC, several multi-phase configurations [14] are
available for minimizing the harmonics. In the literature available
so far on the multi-pulse VSC topologies for STATCOM application,
the DC link voltage is allowed to vary for the reactive power control
[15,16]. In these cases, the converter is underutilized when the DC
link voltage is low and converter devices are over stressed when
the DC link voltage is high.
In this paper, a 48-pulse VSC configuration for the STATCOM is
proposed with constant DC link voltage and low harmonic con-
tent. The proposed STATCOM consists of eight sets of two-level
double-way Voltage Source Converters (VSCs). Each double-way
VSC consists of two six-pulse VSCs connected through an open
winding transformer unit [17]. The phase-angle difference between
these two VSCs is varied for the reactive power control. A decou-
pled current control scheme is used for the control of the STATCOM.
The advantages of the proposed STATCOM are maximum utiliza-
tion of the converter as the DC link voltage is always held constant

0378-7796/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2011.08.014
12 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17
Fig. 1. (a) Configuration of the proposed STATCOM. (b) A double-way VSC.
and easy interface capability with energy storage devices with-
out major changes in design or control of the STATCOM as in case
STATCOM with variable DC link voltage. With the ever increas-
ing power demand, STATCOM’s have a vital role to play in the
operation of the power system. Moreover, the proposed STATCOM
configuration has same number of devices as three-level VSC based
48-pulse STATCOM. Performance of the proposed STATCOM is pre-
sented for the voltage regulation in a transmission line. Simulation
results demonstrate the steady state and dynamic performance of
the STATCOM.
2. Configuration of STATCOM
Fig. 1 shows a proposed configuration of the STATCOM. It con-
sists of 24 single-phase transformers and 16 six-pulse three-phase
VSCs. Each of 24 transformers has Y and  connected primary wind-
ings as shown in this figure in order to reduce the voltage and
current harmonics appearing at the utility grid and connected in
open winding between two VSCs on the secondary side to form a
48-pulse VSC waveform which lowest harmonic is 47th harmonic.
The leakage reactance of the transformer assembly is selected to be
0.2 pu [17]. The converters 1 to 8 (double-way VSC) are operated
in lagging mode and converters 9 to 16 are operated in leading
mode.
Converters (1, 9), (2, 10) and (8, 16) have single secondary
windings on their single-phase output transformers. In this config-
uration, each single-VSC bridge supplies one line-to-neutral voltage
of Y or  connected windings. The inverter voltage is controlled by
phase displacement of one half of each VSC bridge with respect to
the other half. The phase- shifted phase portion of each VSC bridge
is shifted the same amount, for a given output voltage, to maintain
the three-phase relationship for the complete circuit. The resultant
AC converter voltage waveform at one transformer primary wind-
ing is as shown in Fig. 2(a). At full output voltage the two square
voltages are out of phase by 180◦ . Any phase difference between
these two voltages produces a zero voltage period (quasi-square
wave); thereby controlling the voltage magnitude. By producing
eight identical quasi-square voltages which are phase shifted by
7.5◦ and addition of them produces a 48-pulse VSC voltage wave-
form of controllable magnitude. The net effect is as controlling the
phase angle between two 48-pulse VSC waveforms as shown in
Fig. 2(b).
 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17 13

Fig. 2. (a) Operation of single double-way VSC. (b) Voltage waveforms of lagging
and leading converters and their sum.
Fig. 3. (a) AC converter output voltage and its harmonic spectrum for ˇ = 30◦ . (b)
%THD variation of AC converter output voltage with ˇ.
Fig. 3(a) shows the AC converter output voltage waveform and
its harmonic spectrum for ˇ = 30◦ . Fig. 3(b) shows the variation of
the %THD with the angle ‘ˇ’. For ˇ = 0◦ to ˇ = 100◦ , the %THD of the
output voltage is always less than 4.5%. This range of ˇ is chosen Vlead = V1
for the required reactive power control.
The basic concept of the AC output voltage control of the VSC
is shown in Fig. 4, where Vs is the supply/mains voltage whereas β /2
γ Vt
Vt is the terminal voltage voltage and Vc1 is the fundamental AC
β /2
converter output voltage. Vt is the terminal voltage at point of com-
mon coupling. The system configuration for the voltage regulation Vc1
is shown in Fig. 5.
| Vc1 |<| Vt |
3. Control algorithm
Vlag = V1
Fig. 6 shows the block diagram of the control algorithm used in
the control of STATCOM. The following are the steps in this control
algorithm of the STATCOM. Vlead = V1

3.1. abc to dqo transformation

β /2
γ Vt
Three-phase terminal voltages ‘vtabc ’ are transformed to the ‘vdq ’ β /2
using Park’s transformation as, Vc1

vd =
2
{vta sin  + vtb sin( − 120o ) + vtc sin( + 120o )} (1) | Vc1 |>| Vt |
3 Vlag = V1

2 Fig. 4. Voltage vectors of lagging and leading converters and their sum.
vq = {vta cos  + vtb cos ( − 120o ) + vtc cos ( + 120o )} (2)
3
14 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17

vt reactive power component of current iq∗ is computed from an AC ter-

AC minal voltage controller for a given reference terminal AC voltage
System amplitude vt * .
Load
vs ist
STATCOM
3.4. Decoupled current controller
qst +
vdc Three-phase STATCOM currents ‘istabc ’ are transformed to the
- ‘idq ’ using Park’s transformation as,
ist vt 
2
id = (ista sin  + istb sin ( − 120o ) + istc sin ( + 120o )) (5)
Gating 3
PLL Pulses 
2
STATCOM iq = (ista cos  + istb cos ( − 120o ) + istc cos ( + 120o )) (6)
3
Control
The decoupled current controller calculates the reference con-
Fig. 5. System configuration for voltage regulation.
verter voltage commands ‘v* cd ’ and ‘v* cq ’. The reference AC voltage
commands in the direct axis and the quadrature axis are given as,
Angle ‘’ is the output of the PLL and is used in measurement of
the direct axis and quadrature axis components of three phase AC v∗cd = vd − Kpd (id∗ − id ) (7)
voltages and currents.
v∗cq = vq − Kpq (iq∗ − iq ). (8)
3.2. DC bus voltage controller
3.5. Phase command calculation
The DC voltage controller maintains the DC bus voltage at the
reference value. It calculates the reference direct axis current id∗ Eqs. (9) and (10) are used to calculate the phase angle command
which is fed to the direct axis current controller. A proportional- ‘ * ’ and ‘ˇ* ’as,
integral controller is used for this purpose. The expression for the
 
DC voltage controller is as, v∗cq
  ∗ = tan−1 (9)
v∗cd
id∗ = Kpdc (v∗dc − vdc ) + KIdc (v∗dc − vdc )dt. (3)
‘ * ’ is responsible for maintaining the DC link voltage and to supply
the converter losses.
3.3. AC terminal voltage controller

ˇ∗ (2V1 )2 − (v∗2 + v∗2
cq )
The AC terminal voltage controller maintains the AC terminal = tan−1 cd
(10)
voltage at the reference value. It calculates the reference quadrature 2 (v∗2
cd
+ v∗2
cq )
axis current iq∗ which is fed to the quadrature axis current controller.
A proportional-integral controller is used for this purpose which is where ‘V1  is the fundamental voltage of each set of lagging or
expressed as, leading converters defined as,
 √
6  
iq∗ = Kpt (v∗t − vt ) + KIt (v∗t − vt )dt. (4) V1 = 8n v cos( ) cos( ) = 6.17nvdc (11)
 dc 24 48

In first case, the desired reactive power control is realized for where ‘n’ is the turns ratio (primary to secondary windings of each
a given reference reactive power Q* , and iq∗ is derived from this transformer unit). ‘ˇ* ’ is the phase shift angle responsible for con-
reference reactive power Q* . However, in the second case, required trolling the reactive power.

Fig. 6. Block diagram of the control algorithm.

 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17
Fig. 7. (a) Dynamic performance of the STATCOM for varying the reference reactive power. (b) Zoomed in waveform of *.
3.6. Converter gating
All the lagging VSCs are gated at an angle of (− * −ˇ* /2) and
leading VSCs are gated at an angle of (− * + ˇ* /2) with respect to d-
axis. The PLL generates the synchronizing signal ‘’ which is used for
synchronizing the converter gating pulses with AC terminal voltage
Vt .
4. Dynamic performance of STATCOM
The dynamic performance of the proposed STATCOM is studied
for varying the reference reactive power Q* , varying the refer-
ence terminal voltage, Vt * for regulating the terminal voltage under
switching on an inductive and a capacitive load at different instants
for data of system given in Appendix A. Fig. 7 shows the perfor-
mance of the STATCOM for varying the reference reactive power
(Q* ). At t = 0.2 s, the reference reactive power Q* is set to -100MVAR,
and it is brought back to zero at t = 0.4 s. When the reference reactive
power Q* is changed to −100MVAR, the phase angle ˇ* decreases
as a result the AC converter voltage magnitude increases and the
reactive power flows from the STATCOM to the AC system. From
15
Table 1
%THD of STATCOM current.
Current %THD under capacitive %THD under
operation inductive operation
STATCOM 0.93 0.96
t = 0.4 s to t = 0.6 s the reference reactive power Q* is set to zero
level and phase angle ˇ* is adjusted such that the AC converter
voltage magnitude matches with the AC system voltage and the
STATCOM does not supply any reactive power. At t = 0.6 s, the ref-
erence reactive power Q* is set to 100MVAR and it is brought back to
zero at t = 0.8 s. When the reference reactive power Q* is changed to
100MVAR, the phase angle ˇ* increases as a result the AC converter
voltage decreases and the reactive power flows from the AC sys-
tem to the STATCOM. Table 1 shows %THD of the STATCOM current
under inductive and capacitive operations, which is well below 1%.
Fig. 8 shows the performance of the STATCOM for varying the
reference terminal voltage Vt * . At t = 0.2 s, reference terminal volt-
age Vt * is set to 1.03 pu and it is brought back to 1 pu at t = 0.4 s.
When the reference terminal voltage Vt * is increased to 1.03 pu,
16 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17

Fig. 8. Dynamic performance of the STATCOM by varying the reference terminal voltage.

Fig. 9. Dynamic performance of the STATCOM for constant terminal voltage regulation by switching on capacitive and inductive loads.
 B. Singh, V.S. Kadagala / Electric Power Systems Research 82 (2012) 11–17 17

Table 2 Appendix A.
%THD of system, load and STATCOM current.

Current %THD under capacitive %THD under GTO–VSCs based two-level 48-pulse 100MVAR STATCOM
operation inductive operation
Six-pulse GTO–VSCs 16
System 0.60 0.60 Number of GTO’s 96
Load 0.35 0.40 Number of pulses 48
STATCOM 0.93 0.96 Nominal AC voltage 132 kV
Nominal DC link voltage 3 kV
GTO gating frequency 50 Hz
DC capacitor 0.25 F
Table 3 Single-phase transformer rating 4.2 MVA, 50 Hz, 16 kV/2.12 kV, 9% (X)
%THD of system, load and STATCOM current. DC voltage controller Kpdc = 4, KIdc = 120
Decoupled current D-axis: Kpd = 40
Current %THD on switching %THD on switching
controller Q-axis: Kpq = −40
capacitive load inductive load
AC terminal voltage controller Kpt = 0.12, KIt = 15
System 0.24 0.30 AC system 132 kV, 50 Hz, 3% Zs
Load 0.20 0.36 Short circuit level 1000 MVA
STATCOM 0.78 0.68

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the STATCOM injects the reactive power to maintain the terminal
voltage at this reference value Vt * . From t = 0.4 s to t = 0.6 s, refer-
ence terminal voltage Vt * is set to 1 pu and the STATCOM does not
inject or draw any reactive power. At t = 0.6 s, the reference terminal
voltage Vt * is set to 0.97 pu and it is brought back to 1 pu at t = 0.8 s,
the STATCOM draws the reactive power to maintain the terminal
voltage at this reference value Vt * . Table 2 illustrates the %THD of
the system, load and STATCOM currents. These values of %THD of
these currents are of very low value of less than 1%.
Fig. 9 shows the performance of the STATCOM by switching
on a capacitive and an inductive loads and regulating the termi-
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1%.
5. Conclusion
A new configuration of STATCOM with constant DC link voltage
has been proposed and its dynamic performance has been studied
under different conditions for varying reactive power, and control-
ling the terminal voltage under switching on a capacitive and an
inductive load at different instants. The simulation results have
demonstrated the voltage regulation capability of the STATCOM.
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