2018 Twentieth International Middle East Power Systems Conference (MEPCON), Cairo University, Egypt

Voltage Dip’s Mitigation during PV-Grid-

Connection using STATCOM

Mohammed A. Saeed Ebrahim A. Badran, IEEE Member

Ibrahim Hamdeen
Electrical Engineering Department
Mansoura University
Mansoura, Egypt
ibrahim.hamdeen@yahoo.com
Electrical Engineering Department Electrical Engineering Department
Mansoura University Mansoura University
Mansoura, Egypt Mansoura, Egypt
emsaeed1@gmail.com ebadran@mans.edu.eg

Abstract—The high penetration of PV systems grows fear of
transients and power quality problems. In this paper, the
voltage dip due to the PV-grid connection is investigated using
PSACD/EMTDC. STATCOM is the most recent technology
used for voltage support. STATCOM is used in this study and
its parameters such as DC capacitor, the control loop of
reactive power, generation of triangular waveforms and control
of STATCOM are designed and simulated. The results show
that the designed STATCOM has the ability to reduce the
voltage dip in the initial connection of the PV and the grid.
Keywords— PV, Voltage dip, STATCOM, PSCAD
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, efficiency and reliability in the operation of
renewable energy systems are more important. The PV grid-
connected systems has more effective utilization of
generated power. However, there is a major problem
concerning the voltage dip when PV is initially connected to
the grid. Voltage dip is an important issue that industries and
facilities are faced. It contributes more than 80% of the
power quality problems that exist in the power systems [1].
In the last few years, a lot of researchers have taken place in
the area of solving the voltage dip problem in grid-
connected PV systems.
The authors in [1] presented a prototype of Distribution
Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) for voltage dip
mitigation in case of three phase balanced fault. The results
proved that DSTATCOM is able to mitigate the voltage dip
caused by the three-phase balanced faults as well as
improving power quality of the power system. The authors
in [2] analysed a Static Var Compensator (SVC) in IEEE 14
bus system with induction motor load for avoiding voltage
dip and voltage sag. The results proved that SVC was able
to reduce voltage dip with a proper reactive power support.
A three-phase voltage fed PWM converters for voltage
compensation was proposed in [3], but the model was simple
enough as there were no storage devices or power
transformers.
In [4], a PV array which fed three-phase three-wire
Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) for treating the voltage
regulation in a low voltage distribution system against
unbalance in the source side has been studied. The
synchronous reference frame theory was used for estimating
the reference DVR voltages. The results proved that DVR
injects a compensating voltage and is capable of mitigating
the voltage dip during disturbances.
The problem of voltage dip during the PV initially
connection to the grid is not discussed according to the
available survey. Therefore, this paper investigates this issue
and proposes a mitigation method for the voltage dip on the
PV array side.
II. THE GRID-CONNECTED PV SYSTEM MODEL
A. Model Description
The solar cell module is a semiconductor device that
converts the solar radiation directly to electrical
energy. The modules are connected in series and in parallel
to form a PV array with the required rated power. Fig. 1a
illustrates a schematic diagram for grid-connected PV
system [5]. The system contains PV source, a dc-link
capacitor, a dc-dc converter, a dc-dc controller with
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), a grid interface
inverter with an appropriate filter and a step up transformer.
The PSCAD model for the grid-connected PV system is
illustrated in Fig. 1c.
The equivalent electrical circuit of the PV cell contains a
current source anti-parallel with a diode, a shunt resistance,
and a series resistance is shown in Fig. 1b [5]. I is the output
cell current, IL is the light-generated current, ID is the diode
current and Ish is the parallel branch current. The IL is a
function of the solar radiation on the plane of the solar cell
G and the cell temperature Tc [5].
The dc-dc converter serves the purpose of transferring
maximum power from the PV module to the load by
changing the duty cycle [6]. In this paper, the buck converter
is selected in order to use a battery with low voltage to
provide power continuity at the day night. It consists of a
power switch that is followed by an inductor, a diode, and an
output capacitance, as shown in Fig. 1c [7] where T11 is the
control of dc-dc buck converter.
The dc-dc converter is used for MPPT by controlling the
voltage of the DC capacitor and the PV array. This is
achieved by a reference voltage and a PI controller. Fig. 2a
illustrates the model of the reference voltage (VMPPT)
generation. The PV output current (Iarray) and the voltage
(Varray) are passed through a low pass filter [8].

978-1-5386-6654-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 (b) PV cell equivalent circuit

(a) Schematic diagram of Grid-Connected PV system [5]

(c) The PSCAD model

Fig. 1: The Grid-connected PV system

(a) Maximum power point tracking control

(b) dc-dc Converter Control (c) Signal generator for the inverter

(d) The active power controller

(e) The reactive power controller

Fig. 2: PV Grid-connected Controllers models in PSCAD

 The objective of the converter control is to keep the PV
voltage equals to the voltage at MPPT. The difference
between Varray and Vmppt is used as an input to a PI
controller. Its output and a saw tooth waveform are
compared to generate a 1 kHz frequency duty cycle, as
shown in Fig. 2b
The three phase inverter is constructed by three pairs of
IGBT switches and the snubber circuits are used to to
protect them from damage. The sine wave generators and the
triangular waveform generators are used to determine the
switches on-off states [7], as shown in Fig. 2c.
The PV active and reactive power is controlled by power
flow equations. The difference between the voltage of the
inverter and the DC-bus voltage is fed into a PI controller.
The controller output is the phase angle of firing pulse which
is used as an input to the firing pulse generator as shown in
Fig. 2d. The difference between the inverter’s output voltage
and the grid voltage is used as an input to a PI controller.
The output is used as an input to the pulse generator, as
shown in Fig. 2e.
A filter is used to remove the high order harmonics and
to confine the variation of maximum power within 5%. The
filter capacitance is 60 ߤ‫ܨ‬. The inverter’s and grid’s
inductance are 1.361 ݉‫ ܪ‬and 0.1 ݉‫ܪ‬, respectively [7].
A 0.5 MVA, 0.6/11 kV, Δ/Y transformer is used. The
copper losses and no load losses of the transformer are 0.2
pu and 0.01 pu, respectively. The PV array operates at 1.5
kV and 0.27 MW due to the MPPT effect.
B. Model Validation
The grid-connected PV model is validated via a
comparison between the outputs and previously published
results in [7]. The test conditions are listed in Table 1. It
can be seen that the irradiation and temperature are changed
as Table 1 and, therefore, the voltage, current, and power are
affected.
Fig. 3 shows the closeness between the results of the
simulation and the published, that confirming the validity of
the simulation results and readiness to make any
modification to it.
III. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Fig. 3 illustrates that the PV is initially connected to the
grid. Otherwise, when the PV is initially disconnected and at
an instant is reconnected to the grid, it is found that there is a
voltage dip. This can be result in protection problems in the
system’s operation. Also, it is not practical to delay the
protection devices for each PV switching on.
Fig. 4 illustrates that case. It can be noted that the
voltage dips from 1.8 kV to 0.4 kV at the instant of PV
switching on and return to 1.5 kV which is the original value
of PV array voltage. Also, the current is overshot to 8% of
the normal load current and then return to the original value.
The irradiance and temperature in this case are 1000 Wm-2
and 25 °C, respectively.
TABLE1: ENVIRONMENTAL INPUT OF THE TEST CONDITIONS OF
PV ARRAY [7]
Seconds Irradiance (Wm-2) Temperature (°C)
0 ˂ t ˂3. 1000.0 25.0
0 ˂ t ˂ 6. 800.0 30.0
3. ˂ t ˂ 9. 600.0 50.0
6. ˂ t ˂ 11. 400.0 40.0
9. ˂ t ˂ 13. 200.0 50.0
11. ˂ t ˂16. 1000.0 40.0
Fig. 5a illustrates the reactive power of the inverter. It is
dipped from 0.1 pu to -0.65 pu at the instant of connection.
After that the reactive power is raised up to 0.15 pu and then
is decreased slowly to steady state value of -0.2 pu. Also,
Fig. 5a’ illustrates the active power of the inverter. The
initial value is zero and then is raised up to 1.0 pu when the
PV is connected to the grid.
Fig. 5b illustrates the reactive power at PCC point. It is
reduced from zero to -0.72 pu. After that, it is raised up to
0.1 pu, then is decreased to -0.3 pu. Also, Fig. 5b’ shows the
active power at PCC point, which is raised up from zero to
1.0 pu.
Fig. 5c illustrates the reactive power of the grid. The
initial value is 2.2 pu and when the PV is connected to the
grid. It is raised up to 3.0 pu and then decreases to 2.2 pu.
Also, Fig. 5c’ shows the active power of the grid. It is
decreased from 3.0 pu to 2.0 pu. It is noted that the PV
supplies the load after the connection.
Fig. 5d illustrates the reactive power of the load. It is 0.6
pu. Also, Fig. 5d’ shows the active power of the load. It is
0.8 pu. It is clearly seen that, the active and reactive power
of the load are not changed when the PV is connected to the
grid.
There are several methods to compensate the voltage dip
in the power system such as DVR, SVC, or STATCOM [1, 2,
4]. Therefore, in this paper, the STATCOM is selected to
mitigate the voltage dip due to the PV initial connection to
the grid.
IV. VOLTAGE DIP MITIGATION USING STATCOM
STATCOM is considered as a voltage-source converter
(VSC) that uses a dc voltage to produce a three-phase ac
voltage [9, 10]. If the dc link voltage is increased, the
reactive power flows from the inverter to the system and
vice versa [11-12]. The DC side of the STATCOM is used
to keep the DC voltage as low as possible and to improve
DC capacitor utilization.
The DC capacitor is used to inject reactive power to the
STATCOM when the voltage is in sag condition.
The dc bus voltage and power rating of STATCOM are
given by [13,14]:
 (a) Simulated current of the PV array (a’) published current of the PV array

(b) simulated voltage of the PV array (b’) published voltage of the PV array

(c) simulated voltage at PCC point (c’) published voltage at PCC point

(d) simulated power at PCC point (d’) published power at PCC point

Fig. 3: A comparison between the simulated results and the published results in [7]

QSTAT = 3VI S (1)

2 2V
VDC = (2)
3M a
where QSTAT is the power rating of STATCOM, V is the line
voltage of STATCOM, IS is the STATCOM line current,
VDC is the dc bus voltage and Ma is the modulation index of
(a) voltage pulse width modulation.
The ac coupling inductor is calculated in the following
form [14]:
3M a .VDC
LAC = (3)
12.a. f S .I P − P
where fs is the switching frequency, LAC is the ac coupling
inductor, IP-P is the ripple current for ac inductor and a is the
(b) current
Fig. 4: PV Array’s current and voltage including initial connection with the over current factor .
grid
The dc bus capacitance of STATCOM may be expressed as
[13]:
3VPh I S T
C DC = 2 2
(4)
(VDC − VDC 1)
where T is the response time of STATCOM (350 µs) [13],
VDC1 is the dip in the dc bus voltage [13,14].
The parameters of the used STATCOM are designed for
the proposed task and are given in Table 2.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this work, a 6-pulse STATCOM configuration is shunt
connected between the PV inverter and the transformer. The
simulations are carried out to illustrate the validity of using
the STATCOM in mitigating the voltage dip when the PV
array is initially connected to the grid.
In Fig. 6, the output voltage of the PV array with initially
connected STATCOM is illustrated. It can be seen that, the
voltage dip of the PV array is reduced at the moment of
connection at t = 1.0 sec from 0.4 kV to 0.7 kV. Then the
voltage is raised up to 1.5 kV (the original value). Fig. 6b
illustrates the current of the PV array. The current is
increased from 0.02 kA to 0.2 kA and then fluctuates at the
steady state value of 0.185 kA which is the same value
without using the STATCOM.
Furthermore, Fig. 7a shows the reactive power of the
inverter with using the STATCOM. The reactive power
decreases from 0.1 pu to -0.18 pu, then it is raised up to 0.25
pu and then it is decreased gradually to a steady state value
of - 0.12 pu. Also, in Fig. 7b the active power of the inverter
is increased from zero to 1.0 pu.

(a) Inverter’s reactive power (a’) Inverter’s active power

(b) Reactive power at PCC point (b’) Active power at PCC point

(c) Grid’s reactive power (c’) Grid’s active power

(d) Reactive power at load (d’) Active power at load

Fig. 5: Active and Reactive power including initial connection with the grid
 TABLE2: PARAMETERS OF THE DESIGNED STATCOM protection of the system. It can be seen that the STATCOM
Item Value improves the voltage dip of the PV array from 0.4 kV to 0.7
kV as shown in Fig 4a and Fig. 6a. This value does not
Power rating of STATCOM 600 kVAR
satisfy the protection limits.
Line voltage of STATCOM 600 V Table 3 illustrates the value of the power rating of
DC bus voltage 1100 V STATCOM with the required capacitance to mitigate the
voltage dip of the PV array. The voltage dip will be
Ac inductance 0.162 mH
decreased as shown in the table.
Modulation index 1
TABLE3: THE DESIGNED STATCOM FOR VOLTAGE DIP
Switching frequency 10 KHz MITIGATION
Over current factor 1.2 STATCOM Rating
Capacitance (µF) Voltage dip (kV)
(MVAR)
Response time of STATCOM 350 µs
10 19000 0.7
DC bus capacitance of STATCOM 1200 µF
45 85000 0.84

53 100 000 0.94

80 150000 1.28

105 200000 1.35

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the voltage dip due to the PV-grid initially
connection is investigated. STATCOM is used as a
(a) Output voltage mitigation method to improve the voltage and mitigate the
dip. STATCOM parameters such as the DC capacitor, the
control loops constants are designed. PSCAD/EMTDC is
used in this study. The results show that the designed
STATCOM has the ability to reduce the voltage dip in the
initial connection of the PV to the grid. This solve the under
voltage protection problems in the system’s operation during
the PV connection to the grid.

(b) Output current REFERENCES

Fig. 6: PV array voltage and current with using STATCOM
Fig. 7c illustrates the reactive power at PCC with using
the STATCOM. The reactive power is decreased from zero
to -0.22 pu, then it is raised up to 0.2 pu, and then it is
decreased gradually to a steady state value of - 0.2 pu. Also,
Fig. 7d illustrates the active power at PCC. It is increased
from zero to 1.0 pu.
Fig. 7e shows the reactive power of the grid with using
the STATCOM, the reactive power is increased from 2.2 pu
to 2.4 pu, then is dipped to 2.0 pu. After that, it is increased
gradually to 2.4 pu. Also, Fig. 7f illustrates the active power
of the grid. It is decreased from 3.0 pu to 2.0 pu.
Fig. 7g illustrates the reactive power of the load. It is 0.6
pu. Also, Fig. 7h shows the active power of the load. It is 0.8
pu. It can be seen that, the active and reactive power of the
load are similar to the active and reactive power in Fig. 5d
and Fig. 5d. The STATCOM does not affect on the load
characteristics.
Finally, the STATCOM operates for compensating the
voltage dip which is caused due to the PV initially connected
to the grid. The STATCOM must be designed to satisfy the
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