2009 Third International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, INDIA December 27-29

Three Single-Phase Voltage Source Converter Based

Three-phase four wire DSTATCOM

Bhim Singh P. Jayaprakash D P Kothari

Dept.of Electrical Engineering, Dept.of Electrical Engineering Vellore Institute of Technology,
Indian Institute of Technology, Govt. College of Engg. Kannur, Vellore, Tamil Nadu,
Delhi, India-110 016 Kerala, India-670 563. India-632 014.
Email: bhimsinghr@gmail.com Email: jayaprakashpee@gmail.com Email: dpk0710@yahoo.com

Abstract— In this paper, a DSTATCOM (Distribution Static
Compensator) using three single-phase VSCs (voltage source
converters) integrated with three single phase transformers is
employed for the power quality improvement in three-phase
fourwire distribution system. Three single phase transformers
are used for isolation and connection of H-bridge VSCs. This
DSTATCOM provides the voltage regulation or power factor
correction by reactive power compensation, harmonics
elimination, load balancing and neutral current compensation in
three-phase four-wire distribution system. This topology has the
advantages of the use of ‘off the shelf’ H-bridge VSCs and
optimum voltage rating of VSCs. The performance of the
proposed DSTATCOM system is demonstrated under linear and
nonlinear balanced and unbalanced loads by simulation using
MATLAB with its Simulink and Simpower systems (SPS) tool
boxes.
Keywords- Power Quality, H-bridge VSC, DSTATCOM, SRF
Theory, Neutral Current Compensation.
I. INTRODUCTION
The power quality problems such as high reactive power
demand, harmonics current burden, unbalance in the load and
excessive neutral current in the present day three-phase four-
wire power distribution system are widely reported in the
literature [1-4]. The power quality aspects are governed by the
various standards such as the IEEE-519 standard [5]. The
DSTATCOM (distribution static compensator) is a shunt
connected device, which is used to mitigate the power quality
problems associated with the currents. Three-phase four-wire
DSTATCOM compensates the reactive power, eliminates
harmonic currents and balances the load currents along with
neutral current compensation. The neutral current is the sum of
zero-sequence harmonic component and zero-sequence
fundamental component and this over loads the neutral
conductor of three-phase four-wire distribution system.
Three-phase four-wire DSTATCOM is realised using four-
leg VSC [1], three- leg VSC with split capacitors [1], three
single-phase VSCs [6-8] and three-leg VSC with a zig-zag
transformer [9-11]. In this investigation, three single-phase
VSCs are controlled for reactive power compensation,
harmonic elimination, load balancing and compensation of the
neutral current. There are many control algorithms for the
control of active shunt compensator for three-phase four-wire
systems and the synchronous reference frame theory (SRFT)
based algorithm is found to be of better performance [12]. This
SRFT based control algorithm is used for the control of the
proposed topology of DSTATCOM. The proposed
DSTATCOM connected to three-phase four-wire system is
designed, modeled and its performance is simulated under
different operating conditions.
II. PROPOSED DSTATCOM TOPLOLOGY
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of three single-phase
VSCs based DSTATCOM for power quality enhancement such
as reactive power compensation, harmonic elimination, load
balancing and neutral current compensation. The VSCs are
connected to the power line using star connected primary
windings of three single-phase transformers. The linear and
non-linear, balanced and unbalanced loads are connected at the
PCC. The DSTATCOM consists of a set of three pulse width
modulated (PWM), two-leg, voltage-source converters (VSCs)
using four insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), interface
inductors, and a dc capacitor. These transformers provide an
isolation to the DSTATCOM as well as the suitability of
selecting ‘off the shelf’ H-bridge VSCs for this application.
The DSTATCOM provides the neutral current compensation,
harmonic elimination and load balancing along with power
factor correction or line voltage regulation. The detailed design
and control of the DSTATCOM system are given in the
following sections:
A. Design of DSTATCOM
There are three single phase voltage source converters
(VSCs) used as a DSTATCOM in this configuration and this
topology is shown in Fig. 1. The rating of the solid-state
switches is based on the voltage and current rating of the
compensation system. The rating of required VSC for the
reactive current compensation of the load given in Appendix is
12kVA. The selection of dc bus voltage, dc bus capacitor, ac
inductor and the ripple filter are given below.
1) Transformers Rating
The transformers are designed for isolating the VSCs and
optimizing the voltage rating of VSC. The rating of transformer

978-1-4244-4331-4/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE

1

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 2009 Third International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, INDIA December 27-29
Fig. 1. Three single-phase VSC based three-phase four-wire DSTATCOM
connected three-phase four-wire system
depends on the load reactive power and is 12 kVA as shown in
Appendix. Here, the transformer is designed for a turns ratio
of 240 V: 200 V and hence three single phase transformers of
4 kVA, 240V/200V each are selected.
2) DC bus Voltage
The value of DC bus voltage (Vdc) depends on the
instantaneous energy available to the DSTATCOM. For a two-
leg VSC with a dc capacitor, the dc bus voltage of capacitor is
defined as [7],
Vdc = 2V m
where, m is the modulation index and is considered as 1
and V is the ac output phase voltage of DSTATCOM. Thus one
may obtain the value of Vdc as 282.80 V if the V is selected as
200 V and it is selected as 300V.
3) DC bus capacitor
The principle of energy conservation is applied as,
1
2
( ) ( )
Cdc [ Vdc2 − Vdc2 1 ] = 3V ( aI ) t (2)
where, Vdc is the reference dc voltage and Vdc1 is the
minimum voltage level of dc bus, a is the over loading factor,
V is the phase voltage, I is the phase current and t is time by
which the dc bus voltage is to be recovered.
Considering, 5 % voltage ripple in the dc bus, the minimum
voltage level of dc bus, Vdc1= 285 V, and Vdc= 300 V, V=
239.60V, I= 27.82A, t= 350 µ s, a= 1.2, the calculated value of
Cdc is 1037µ F and it is selected as 2000µ F.
4) AC Inductor
The selection of the ac inductance depends on the current
ripple, icr(p-p). Considering, switching frequency (fs) = 10 kHz,
modulation index (m) =1, dc bus voltage (Vdc) of 300V, over
load factor, a=1.2, the Lf value is calculated as,
Lr = ( mVdc ) /(4af s icr ( p − p ) )
Considering, 5 % ripple in the inductor current, and the
current ripple, icr(p-p) = 0.05*27.82*240/200= 1.669 A, the
calculated value of Lac is 3.74 mH and it is selected as 4.0 mH.
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B. Control of DSTATCOM
There are many theories available for the generation of
reference source currents for the control of VSC of
DSTATCOM for three phase four wire system in the literature
viz. instantaneous reactive power theory (p-q theory) [1],
synchronous reference frame (SRF) theory [2], proportional
integral (PI) controller based etc [9]. Among the different
control techniques applied to three-phase three-wire
compensators, the SRF based technique is found to be suitable
for different topologies of DSTATCOM [12]. The SRF theory
is simple and proven to be one of the best performance under
various operating conditions and hence this theory is used for
the control of proposed H-bridge DSTATCOM. A block
diagram of the control scheme is shown in Fig. 2. The load
currents (iL) and the PCC voltages (vS) are sensed as feedback
signals. These loads currents in the three-phases are converted
into the d-q-0 frame using the Park’s transformation as,
⎡ 1⎤
⎢ cos θ − sin θ ⎥
⎡iLd ⎤ ⎢ 2⎥ i
⎡ La ⎤
⎢ ⎥ 2⎢ ⎛ 2π ⎞ ⎛ 2π ⎞ 1 ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢iLq ⎥ = 3 ⎢ cos ⎜ θ − 3 ⎟ − sin ⎜ θ − 3 ⎟ 2 ⎥ ⎢iLb ⎥ (4)
⎢i ⎥ ⎢ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎥ ⎢i ⎥
⎣ L0 ⎦ ⎢ ⎛ ⎣ Lc ⎦
2π ⎞ ⎛ 2π ⎞ 1 ⎥
⎢ ⎜cos θ + ⎟ sin ⎜ θ + ⎟ ⎥
⎢⎣ ⎝ 3 ⎠ ⎝ 3 ⎠ 2 ⎥⎦
A three-phase PLL (phase locked loop) is used to synchronise
these signals with the voltages at PCC. The d-q components are
then passed through low pass filters (LPFs) to extract the dc
components of iLd and iLq. The error between the reference dc
(1) capacitor voltage (vdc*) and the sensed dc bus voltage (vdc) of
DSTATCOM is given to a PI (proportional integral) controller
and its output is considered as the loss component of current
(iloss) and is added to the dc component of load current (iLd) to
generate the reference d-axis source current (id*). Another PI
controller is used to regulate the PCC terminal voltage. The
error between the amplitude of the load terminal voltage (Vs)
and its reference value (Vs*) is fed to the PI controller and the
output (iqr) is used along with the dc component of q-axis load
current (iLq) to generate the reference q-axis source current
(iq*). The control strategy is to regulate the PCC voltage,
elimination of harmonics in the load current and the load
balancing. This mode of operation is called zero voltage
regulation (ZVR) operation of the DSTATCOM. The resultant
reference source currents in the dq-0 frame (id*, iq*, i0*) are
again converted into the reference source currents (isa*, isb*, isc*)
in the abc frame using the reverse Park’s transformation. For
unity power factor (UPF) operation of DSTATCOM, iq* is
considered to zero, which means zero reactive current in the
source.
The three single-phase VSCs are operated in unipolar
switching so that the ripples in the inductor currents are
reduced and THD (total harmonic distortion) of source current
(3) is reduced [7]. Hence the reference source currents (isa*, isb*,
isc*) are compared with sensed source currents (isa, isb, isc) using
a current controlled PWM to generate gating pulses for the
switches.
 2009 Third International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, INDIA December 27-29

Fig. 2. Block diagram for the control of three-single phase VSC based three-
phase four-wire DSTATCOM.

III. MATLAB BASED MODELLING OF THE DSTATCOM

SYSTEM
Three H-bridge VSCs and three single phase transformers
based three-phase four-wire DSTATCOM connected to a three
phase four wire system shown in Fig. 1 is modelled and
simulated using the MATLAB and its Simulink and
SimPowerSystem (SPS) toolboxes. The loads considered are
lagging power factor linear loads and non-linear loads. The
ripple filter is connected to the VSC of the DSTATCOM for Fig.3. Performance of three-single phase VSC based DSTATCOM for voltage
filtering the ripple in the terminal voltage. The system data are regulation operation, load balancing and neutral current compensation at linear
given in Appendix. loads.

The control algorithm for the DSTATCOM shown in Fig. 2 is
also modeled in MATLAB. The reference source currents are
derived from the sensed PCC voltages, load currents and the dc
bus voltage of DSTATCOM. A unipolar pulse width
modulated (PWM) current controller is used over the reference
and sensed source currents to generate the gating signals for the
twelve IGBTs of the VSCs of the DSTATCOM.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The performance the DSTATCOM consisting of H-bridge
VSCs and the three single phase transformers is demonstrated
for power factor correction and voltage regulation along with
harmonic reduction, load balancing and neutral current
compensation. The developed model is used for simulation
under varying loads and the results are discussed below.
A. Performance of DSTATCOM with linear and non linear
loads for neutral current compensation, load balancing
and zero voltage regulation (ZVR) Operation
The dynamic performance of the DSTATCOM for PCC
voltage regulation along with neutral current compensation and
load balancing at balanced and unbalanced linear loads is
shown in Fig. 3. The voltages at PCC (vs), balanced source
currents (is), load currents (iL), compensator currents (iC),
source neutral current (isn), load neutral current (iLn),
compensator neutral current (iCn), dc bus voltages (vdc) and
amplitude of PCC voltage (VS) are demonstrated under varying
load conditions. It is observed that the amplitude of PCC
voltage is regulated to the reference amplitude by the required
reactive power compensation. The zero sequence fundamental
current of the load current resulted from the unbalanced load
current is compensated by single phase VSCs of DSTATCOM
and hence the source neutral current is maintained at nearly
zero. The dc bus voltage of the capacitor of the VSC of
DSTATCOM is regulated by the controller and the dc bus
voltage is maintained at the reference voltage under different
load disturbances. Similarly, the dynamic performance of the
DSTATCOM for PCC voltage regulation along with harmonic
elimination, neutral current compensation and load balancing at
balanced and unbalanced non-linear load is shown in Fig. 4. It
is observed that the amplitude of PCC voltage is regulated to
the reference amplitude and the source currents are balanced
and sinusoidal.
B. Performance of DSTATCOM with linear and non-linear
loads for neutral current compensation, load balancing
and UPF Operation
The dynamic performance of the DSTATCOM system in the
unity power factor (UPF) mode of operation is depicted in Fig.
5 and Fig. 6. The load balancing and neutral current
compensation at linear loads is demonstrated in Fig. 5 and the

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 2009 Third International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, INDIA December 27-29

harmonic elimination and neutral current compensation at

nonlinear loads is demonstrated in Fig. 6. The PCC voltages
(vs), balanced sinusoidal source currents (is), load currents (iL),
compensator currents (iC), source neutral current (isn), load
neutral current (iLn), compensator neutral current (iCn), dc bus
voltages (vdc) and amplitude of PCC voltage (Vs) are shown in
both the cases. It is also observed that the PCC voltage is not
regulated in both these cases as the compensator is operated in
the UPF mode. The waveform of the load current and its
harmonic spectrum is shown in Fig. 7 and the compensated
source current with its harmonic spectrum is shown in Fig. 8.
The voltage at the PCC with its harmonic spectrum is shown in
Fig. 9. It may be observed that the THD (total harmonic
distortion) of the source current is reduced less than 5% thus
meeting the requirement of IEEE-519 standard [5].

Fig.5. Performance of three-single phase VSC based DSTATCOM for UPF

operation, load balancing and neutral current compensation at linear load.

Fig.4. Performance of three-single phase VSC based DSTATCOM for voltage

regulation operation, harmonic elimination, load balancing and neutral current
compensation at non-linear load.

V. CONCLUSION
The performance of a three-phase four-wire DSTATCOM
consisting of isolated H-bridge VSCs using a three single phase
transformers has been demonstrated for the neutral current
compensation along with reactive power compensation,
harmonic elimination and load balancing. The voltage
regulation and power factor correction modes of the
DSTATCOM have been achieved in satisfactory manner. The
transformers have been found effective for providing isolation
to the H-bridge VSC and suitability to select its optimum Fig.6. Performance of three-single phase VSC based DSTATCOM for UPF
voltage rating of VSC. operation, harmonic elimination, load balancing and neutral current
compensation at non-linear load.

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 2009 Third International Conference on Power Systems, Kharagpur, INDIA December 27-29

Line Impedance: La= 2 mH, Ra=0.1 Ω.

Load: Linear: 20 kVA, 0.80 pf lag.
DC bus voltage: Vdc=300V.
DC bus capacitance: Cdc= 2000 µF.
AC Inductance: Lac=4.0 mH.
PWM switching frequency: 10 kHz.
Ripple filter: Rf = 5 Ω, Cf = 15 µF.
DC voltage PI controller gains: Kp1= 0.12, Ki1= 1.2.
AC voltage PI controller gains: Kp2= 2.1, Ki2= 325.
Three single phase Transformers: Three numbers of single
phase transformers of 4 kVA each with 240 V/200 V.
Non-linear: Three single phase bridge rectifier with an R-C
load with R = 25 Ω and C = 470µF.
VSC: Three numbers of 4-IGBTs connected H-Bridge VSC.
Fig. 7. Harmonic Spectra and THD of Load current
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