International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]
Magnetically Controlled Reactor Based
Harmonic and Voltage Profile Improvement In
Long Transmission Lines
Nisha Jenipher R.
Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita University, India
nishajenipherr@gmail.com
Abstract— The two aspects of power transmission that goes
hand in hand, is the voltage control and the reactive power flow.
Voltage control is very important in a transmission line to ensure
system security, stability and reliability. The under consumption
or over consumption of reactive power at load side, effects the
voltage profile, which may lead to Ferranti effect, heating of
lines, insulation failure. Since it is not always possible to change
the nature of load, power compensation circuits are established.
These circuits employ inductors (consumes reactive power),
capacitors (generates reactive power) and power electronic
switches (controls). Here; comes the advent of Flexible
Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices for
reactive power compensation. The commonly used FACTS
devices for reactive power compensation are Thyristor
Controlled Reactor (TCR), Thyristor Controlled Series
Compensator (TCSC), Static Var Compensator (SVC), and Static
Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM). In this paper,
characteristics of a new FACTS device named magnetically
controlled reactor (MCR) design is drawn out and its harmonic
and voltage profile is compared with TCR using
MATLAB/Simulink.
Keywords— Reactive power compensation; Flexible Alternating
Current Transmission Systems (FACTS); Magnetically Controlled
Reactor (MCR); Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR).
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity is a useful form of energy. In present scenario,
the need for electric power transmission by maintaining
system security and reliability has been considerably
increased. The system security and reliability is attained by
maintaining voltage in a transmission line within limits,
maximizing utilization of transmission lines and by reducing
the line losses [1-2]. Voltage limits can be maintained by
means of compensating reactive power. 90% of the load
connected to the transmission line are non-linear and
consumes reactive power. If a load is suddenly disconnected
from a line, the reactive power at the receiving end will
remain unconsumed which causes the receiving end voltage to
be greater than the sending end voltage. This is an undesirable
effect and leads to heating of transmission lines, insulation
failure. The reactive power is also related to real power and
apparent power by means of a power triangle. The power
dissipated across load is the real power and the power that
978-1-5090-5682-8/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
K.R.M. Vijaya Chandrakala
Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita University, India
krm_vijaya@cb.amrita.edu
oscillates between source and load is reactive power. Hence,
reactive power compensation is also important for efficient
transfer of real power and also to overcome power quality
issues [3-4]. The methods of reactive power compensation
include static shunt compensation, static series compensation,
static Var compensation, synchronous condenser. The
drawback of static shunt and series compensation is that it can
provide only a fixed amount of reactive power compensation.
To overcome this issue fast acting reactive power
compensation devices namely Flexible Alternating Current
Transmission Systems (FACTS) are used. FACTS devices use
thyristor based switches to provide dynamic compensation of
reactive power. FACTS devices include TCR, TCS, SSSC,
UPFC, TCSC, STATCOM [5-7]. Disadvantages of FACTS
devices includes expensive cost, size of device, reliability of
semiconducting switches, transient overload capacity, smooth
adjustment of reactance, harmonics [8-9]. Hence, to overcome
these issues a new FACTS device named Magnetically
Controlled Reactor (MCR) is used for reactive power
compensation. Unlike other FACTS controller, MCR adjusts
the reactive power by means of adjusting core saturation.
Therefore, smooth control of reactance is ensured. MCR’s
construction resembles a transformer; hence efficiency of it is
guaranteed [10-15]. As the thyristor switches used in MCR are
of low ratings (required to excite control windings) the
harmonic profile is much improved when compared to TCR
[16-18].
This paper deals with the study of characteristics of a
MCR and its harmonic profile and performance comparison
with TCR. For the analysis; MCR and TCR module [19]
operating on a single phase supply of 230V drawing current of
1.5A is considered. The characterization of MCR is necessary
to compensate the reactive power based on surge impedance
loading of the line [20] and capability of its action than other
FACTS devices for improving the stability of the system [21-
22]. In the following way the sections details about the work.
Section I focuses towards introduction; section II explains
construction and working of MCR; Section III derives the
design equations of MCR and TCR; Section IV presents the
results and discussions in terms of harmonic profile and
performance comparison with TCR. And voltage profile
comparison with and without MCR, in a long transmission
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 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

line under loaded condition is followed. Section V concludes The working of MCR is categorized in two regions based
the work. on the polarity of the supply. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, represents the
working of MCR during positive half cycle and negative half
II. CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING PRINCIPLE OF cycle respectively. Since the saturation of core depends on the
MAGNETICALLY CONTROLLED REACTOR amount of excitation, the control windings can be replaced by
means of dc voltage sources.
A magnetically controlled reactor is a type of FACTS
device used for compensation of reactive power flow in a
transmission line. It is a kind used for shunt compensation
technique in order to compensate the reactive power in a
transmission line. The construction of MCR resembles a
transformer but it works on the principle of magnetic
amplifier. MCR consist of a four legged iron core. Iron core is
used instead of ferrite core because of its higher degree of
saturation. It consists of two sets of windings. One used for
controlling the saturation level of core, named as control
winding and other used for reactive power compensation,
named as working winding. The working windings are
connected to the supply.
The control winding is provided with dc excitation by Fig. 2. control winding current during positive half cycle of supply voltage
means of semiconductor switches. The degree of saturation of During positive half cycle, T1 becomes active due to
the core varies by means of varying the firing angle to positive voltage on anode. As the voltage across T1 is zero,
thyristor. The number of turns of control winding is less than the control windings K11, K12 are indicated by shorted lines
the working winding, therefore; the rating of the and K21, K22 contributes the control winding current during
semiconductor switches used for control is comparatively low positive half cycle.
than those in other FACTS devices. The Fig. 1 represents the
winding connections of a MCR.

Fig. 3. control winding current during negative half cycle of supply voltage

During negative half cycle, T2 becomes active due to

negative voltage to cathode. As the net voltage across T2 is
zero, the control windings K21, K22 are indicated by shorted
lines and K11, K12 contributes the control winding current
during negative half cycle.

III. DESIGN ASPECTS OF MAGNETICALLY CONTROLLED

REACTOR
Fig. 1. Single phase MCR module
The design of a MCR module includes the design of
In the Fig. 1; AX represents the supply. K11, K12 control winding and main winding, thyristor and diode ratings,
represents the control windings of first limb and K21, K22 are tapping ratio between the main winding and control winding
the control windings of the second limb. The winding and the core design [23-25].
connected to supply AX represents the working windings. Let
N represents the total number of windings in one limb and A. Core design
hence N/2 is the number of windings in each half of the limb, The design starts with the basic faraday’s law,
whereas Nk/2 is the number of control windings in each half.
The thyristor T1 and T2 are connected across the control dΦ
E=N (1)
winding. A diode D is connected across the cross coupling of dt
the control windings for freewheeling.

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 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

where; ‘N’ is the number of turns, ‘ Φ ’ is the flux and ‘E’ is Where ‘B’ is the flux density, ‘lm’ is the mean magnetic
the supply voltage. The flux density is given by Equation (2), length and ‘ȝ’ is the permeability. The thyristor is connected
across the control winding, hence, the voltage rating depends
Φ
B max = (2) on the turns ‘Nk’ and the current rating depends on the main
Ac winding turns. The reverse voltage of thyristor is given by
Hence; integrate Equation (1) w.r.t angular frequency ‘Ȧ equation (11),
(2ʌf)’ and substitute Equation (2) in Equation (1) to calculate Vt = 2E.δ (11)
induced emf ‘E’ whose equation is highlighted in Equation The current rating is determined by Equation (12);
(3);
E = ω.N.Ac.B.Ks (3) B.lm
I=2 (12)
where ‘Ac’ is the core area and ‘Ks’ is the stacking factor. (1 − δ)Nμ
With the known values of E, N, B, Ks, Ȧ the core area is IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
calculated using Equation 3. The window area ‘Aw’ is needed
to find the area product (Ap) of the core which is calculated A. Magnetically Controlled Reactorc characteristics
using Equation (4);
Ap = Ac.Aw (4) For the analysis, a model MCR is developed using
Hence; the window area is calculated using Equation (5); MATLAB/ Simulink by referring to Fig.1 and using the
Aw.Kw = a.J (5) single line diagram connecting a generator feeding to a long
transmission line via MCR to load is shown in Fig. 3.
where ‘a’ is the cross sectional area of wire, ‘J’ is the current
density and ‘Kw’ is the winding factor.
B. Inductance and reactive power rating
The rating of a MCR is determined by the value of
inductance or the reactive power consumed by the reactor. The
value of inductor is given by Equation (6);
d2 N 2
L(μH) = (6)
18d + 401
where; ‘d’ is the diameter of the wire in inches and ‘l’ is the Fig.3 Single line diagram of a system with MCR module.
length of the wire in inches. The reactive power rating of
MCR is determined using Equation (7); As, a MCR module, saturation transformer is taken into
account which replicates the action of MCR. For the two sets
Q(Var) = ω.B.Ap.Ks.Kw.J.B (7)
of winding, which operates for positive and negative half
By using Equation (4) and Equation (5) and substituting in cycle respectively, two saturation transformers are used. The
Equation (7) gives the reactive power rating of MCR. primary of the transformers is considered as the working
C. Tap ratio and turns winding and the secondary is considered as the control
winding. The secondary of the two transformers are cross
The taping ratio ‘į’ is the factor which is determined by coupled and a diode is connected across it and further excited
varying range of reactance in a reactor and is usually in by means of thyristor switches. Saturation transformer of
between 0.01 to 0.05. Hence, considering ‘į’ as a known value 0.5kVA rating is considered which is fed with a single phase
the number of turns of control winding is given by Equation supply of 230V, supply current of 1.5A. The designed values
(8); of MCR obtained using Equation (3), Equation (6) and
Nk Equation (7) is incorporated in modeling. The Table I depicts
δ= (8)
N the range of inductance value chosen for the MCR based on
where; ‘Nk’ is the control winding turns and N is the total the firing angle.
number of turns. TABLE I. CHARACTERISTICS OF SINGLE PHASE MCR
Firing Current Reactive Reactance Inductance
D. Selection of diode and thyristor
Angle (A) Power (Q) (Xl in Ÿ) (L in H)
The voltage and current rating of diode and thyristor is
determined by the reverse voltage and the current influenced (º) Var
by the taping ratio ‘į’. The peak reverse voltage of the diode is 0 1.48 247.8 213.47 0.68
given by Equation (9); 30 1.41 242.6 218.05 0.69
δ
Vr = 2E (9) 60 1.24 217.6 243.10 0.77
1− δ 90 0.95 160.2 330.21 1.05
The current rating of the diode is determined by using
120 0.60 89.5 591.06 1.88
Equation (10);
B.lm 150 0.25 24.22 2184.4 6.9
I= (10) 180 0.00 0.00 inf Inf
Nμ

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 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

From the Table I, it is clear that with increase in firing
angle the current and reactive power consumed by the reactor
decreases and on the other hand the reactance and inductance
increases. The inductance and reactance for each value of
current and reactive power is calculated by the following
Equations (13) and (14).
I = 2Vrms /(2Π fL) (13)
X L = (( 2Vrms) ^ 2)) /Q (14)
‘Vrms’ considered for the analysis is ‘230V’ and frequency
is 50Hz; Q’ is the reactive power, ‘XL’ is the inductive
reactance of MCR. The characteristics of MCR with respect
to TABLE I is shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
From the Fig.6, it shows that with increase in firing angle the
magnitude of flux in the saturation transformer decreases
thereby the saturation of the core increases.
Once the core gets saturated no current flows through the
reactor hence the reactive power absorbed by the reactor
becomes zero.
B. Harmonic profile comparison of MCR and TCR
Thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) is a type of FACTS
device used in reactive power compensation. It consist of two
antiparallel thyristor connected in series with inductor. The
reactive power consumed by the reactor is based on the firing
angle of thyristor. The range of firing angle of thyristor is
from 90º to 180º. Maximum current is obtained at 90º and
minimum current is at 180º. In order to compare
characteristics of MCR with TCR, the specifications of TCR
should be same as that of MCR.
Hence, the inductor value chosen for TCR is with respect
to the maximum reactive power consumed by MCR. TCR is
connected to the single phase system operating at 230V
drawing a supply current of 1.5A with respect to Fig. 2. Table
II shows the behavior of TCR for the firing angle variation.

Fig. 4. Current characteristics of MCR

TABLE II. CHARACTERISTICS OF TCR IN A SINGLE PHASE
SYSTEM
Firing Current Reactance Inductance
Reactive
Angle (A) (Xl in Ÿ) (L in H)
Power (Q) Var
(º)
90 1.6 247.3 213.9 0.68
120 0.77 78.28 675.99 2.15
150 0.15 3.38 1556 49
180 0.00 0 inf Inf

From Table I and II, it is clear that the maximum current

Fig.5. Characteristics of reactive power of MCR consumed by both the reactor is nearly 1.5A. Table II shows
a limited operating range for TCR and irregular control of
The results of Table I is plotted as graph. The above
reactive power. The harmonic profile comparison of MCR
graphs clearly indicate that the MCR supports a wide
operating range and ensures smooth control of reactive power. with TCR is shown in Fig.7.
The variation in the reactive power is due to the variation of
saturation of core, that is for 0Û firing angle the MCR absorbs
maximum current with respect to its rating and for 180Û the
current absorbed is zero, which indicates that the core is
deeply saturated such that it cannot absorb any current. Fig. 6
represents the variation of flux in MCR
.

Fig. 7. Harmonic Analysis of MCR and TCR

Fig.6 Characteristics of reactive power of MCR

From the Fig. 7, it shows that the harmonic component of
MCR is lower than TCR between the firing angle variations

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 International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies [i-PACT2017]

of 90º to 180º.The harmonic analysis is carried out under the
same snubber conditions. This show, the filter circuits and
harmonic compensation techniques required will be of low
rating.
Hence, the overall cost and size of the device reduces to
a greater extent than that conventional FACTS device
namely TCR.
C.Voltage profile improvement using MCR
Under no load or lightly loaded condition the receiving
end voltage will be greater than the sending end voltage and
results in Ferranti effect, which is undesirable in a
transmission line. Hence, as effect of reactive power control
using MCR, the improvement in the voltage profile of a
system with load is discussed in this section. A system of long
transmission line with a 2HP motor and a MCR module is
simulated using MATLAB/Simulink. Voltage profile under
loaded condition is shown in Table III.
TABLE III. VOLTAGE PROFILE OF THE SYSTEM DURING
UNDER- LOADED CONDITION WITHOUT MCR
Hence, from the above results highlighted in TABLE IV
indicates that the MCR module regulates the receiving end
voltage such that the line is free from Ferranti effect and also
from the increased line losses.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The application of power electronic devices in power
system not only has advantages like fast response and
controlled action. But also introduces disadvantages like
cost, increased size and harmonic injection. Therefore a
single phase MCR which is a new type of FACTS device is
suggested in this work to overcome all the disadvantages of
the conventional FACTS devices. The characteristics of
MCR supports a wide operating range by varying the firing
angle, smooth control of reactance and comparatively lower
harmonic profile than TCR could be achieved. The MCR
would prove its relevance in reactive power control on
transmission line which proves being economical due to low
harmonic behavior and efficient operation of device in terms
of improved voltage profile w.r.t wide range.

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