> Reference number: 035< 1

Synchronous Voltage Reversal control of TCSC

– impact on SSR conditions
Hailian Xie Lennart Ängquist
Master student Researcher
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Abstract—The paper describes the laboratory setup of a

TCSC model. A new control scheme named SVR
(Synchronous Voltage Reversal) control is employed
instead of the traditional firing angle control scheme. The
impact of the SVR controlled TCSC on SSR is investigated
in this real-time simulator by analysing the system
damping. Some results are presented graphically together
with conclusions.

Index Terms— Series compensation, SSR, TCSC, Boost

control.
Fig. 1. TCSC main circuit

I. INTRODUCTION When a forward-biased thyristor is fired the capacitor will

S eries compensation is an effective mean to increase the
electrical power transfer capability of high-voltage
transmission lines. Insertion of a capacitive reactance in series
with the line’s inherent inductive reactance lowers the total,
effective impedance of the line and thus virtually reduces its
length. As a result both angular and voltage stability in the
power system gets improved.
A side effect of the inserting a series capacitor in series
with the transmission line is that an electrical resonance will
be introduced. In the 70’ies it was experienced that this
electrical resonance may be harmful if a series compensated
be partially discharged through the LC circuit constituted by
the thyristor controlled inductive branch and the capacitor
bank. The circulating current pulse passes through the
capacitor in phase with the line current. It creates an
additional voltage across the capacitor in excess of the
voltage, which is caused by the line current. The increased
voltage at a given line current amplitude is perceived by the
transmission system as if the inserted capacitive reactance had
been increased or “boosted” by the action of the thyristor
valves. The generic waveform of the TCSC is shown in Fig. 2.
2

transmission line is connected electrically close to a thermal 0

power station. The reason is that the shaft system joining the -2
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
electrical generator with the various turbine stages exhibits 5

mechanical torsional resonance at various “subsynchronous” 0

frequencies, i.e. frequencies below the nominal 50 or 60 Hz -5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
frequency of the network. At certain unfavourable relations 50

between the electrical and mechanical resonance frequencies 0

oscillations with exponentially increasing amplitude can be -50
excited spontaneously. This condition is being referred to as a 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

Torsional Interaction SubSynchronous Resonance “TI-SSR”. -20

This condition potentially may cause damage to the generator
-40
with severe consequences for the power supply and causing 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

harsh economical loss.
During the 90’ies the Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor
(TCSC) was being introduced. In this apparatus a thyristor
controlled, inductive branch has been connected as an add-on
in parallel with the series capacitor bank (Fig. 1.).
Fig. 2. Generic waveforms for the TCSC. From top to bottom: line current,
valve current, capacitor voltage, apparent reactance
It was recognized early that the characteristics of the TCSC
with respect to SSR differed completely from that of a
passive, fixed series capacitor. The latter reveals a capacitive
> Reference number: 035<
reactance, which is inversely proportional to the frequency.
Accordingly it tends towards infinity at zero frequency (DC).
The apparent reactance of the TCSC, in contrast, decreases
with frequency and gets zero at zero frequency (DC). The
reason for this dissimilarity is that the TCSC reacts on an
injected subsynchronous line current component by
modulating the thyristor current in the inductive branch. This
influences the subsynchronous current passing through the
capacitor, which determines the subsynchronous voltage
across the TCSC.
The algorithm that has been selected for the thyristor
triggering control plays the main role in forming the
characteristics of the TCSC with respect to SSR behaviour.
However, also the regulators executing synchronization and
boost control do have an impact on the TCSC’s SSR
properties.
II. TCSC WITH SYNCHRONOUS VOLTAGE REVERSAL
CONTROL
Figure 3 depicts a control system named Synchronous
Voltage Reversal (SVR) scheme, in which the boost
regulator provides the time reference for the capacitor voltage
zero-crossing instants rather than, as in conventional
approaches, the thyristor firing instants. A supplementary
device then determines the firing instant taking into account
actual line current and capacitor voltage values.
phase
comp
PLL SVR
UC
Phasor Boost
eval IL meas
Boost
Boost contr
ref
Fig. 3. Outline of TCSC boost control system (inner layer marked SVR)
It is shown in [1] that this approach ideally provides an
apparent inductive reactance of the TCSC for sub-
synchronous frequencies, independent of the boost level.
As a general rule the risk for SSR problems increases with
increasing degree of compensation of the transmission line.
Experience shows that normally 30 % of the line reactance
can be compensated by series capacitors without any risk of
SSR. However, from a power transmission point of view,
often more compensation is desired in order to improve
stability in the system, specifically during contingencies.
The use of TCSC can enhance the degree of compensation
2
that can be utilized by eliminating the risk of SSR. A simple
explanation is as follows: an SSR condition can only arise
through interaction between a mechanical and an electrical
resonance at complementary frequencies. The effect of using
TCSC instead of fixed series capacitors is that the electrical
resonance frequency is pushed towards a lower frequency, as
if a lower degree of compensation had been used.
A. SVR control scheme
Traditional boost control method controls the firing
angle β = π − α of the thyristor. A rather non-linear relation
exists between the boost factor k B and the steady state
conduction angle σ = 2β making k B very sensitive to the
instant of triggering when the TCSC runs at a high boost
factor. Further, at transients, a complicated dynamic
characteristic governs the relation between the firing angle
and the conduction angle.
Instead of controlling the thyristor firing angle, another
control scheme, named ‘Synchronous Voltage Reversal’, is
being used. It aims for controlling the instant when the
capacitor voltage crosses zero [1]. Analysis of the TCSC
circuit during the conduction interval shows that the capacitor
voltages at the start and end instants of the conduction have
the same magnitude but with opposite sign. Therefore, the
effect of the conduction of the thyristor controlled inductance
branch can be represented by an equivalent, instantaneous
voltage reversal. In steady state when there is no change in the
boost factor, the zero-crossing point of the capacitor voltage
will coincide with the peak point of the line current, called
equilibrium point of the synchronous voltage reversal.
IL-meas
However, if the zero-crossing occurs at a point other than the
equilibrium point, e.g. with an angular displacement of ∆ϕc as
shown in Figure 4, the boost factor will change according to
(1).
iL uc
UC-meas
π
iv
α −
2 β
t
∆ϕc
Fig. 4. Illustration of SVR control scheme
16 f N
∆k B = ∆ϕc (1)
π s
where s is the Laplace operator.
> Reference number: 035<
In order to control the boost factor, it is advantageous to
immediately control the angular displacement ∆ϕc of the
synchronous voltage reversals from their equilibrium points.
It should be noticed that any change of the phase of the line
current would have the same impact on the boost factor as the
change of ∆ϕ c has. To eliminate this impact a Phase-Locked-
Loop (PLL) is introduced. The PLL works on the line current
and gives out the PLL angle θ PLL , which is used in the
coordinate transformation from the fixed coordinate system to
the rotating coordinate system and in the calculation of the
firing time.
B. Synchronous voltage Reversal (SVR) equation
The output of the boost controller is the angular
displacement of the equivalent voltage reversals from their
equilibrium point ∆ϕ c . This angle displacement determines the
instant when the voltage zero-crossing should occur. The
voltage zero-crossing instant, together with ω PLL and the
known circuit parameters such as X0 and λ (see table 1), in
turn determines the firing time of the related thyristor.
Methods for calculating the firing time have been described in
[1]. The method used in the implementation is based on the
simple assumption that the line current is constant and equals
to the measured value during the interval between the
measurement and the firing time. Below a brief review of this
calculation procedure is presented.
First the notations are defined according to Fig. 5.
t M : the instant at which line currents and capacitor
voltages are sampled;
t F : thyristor firing instant.
t Z : the desired instant when the capacitor voltage zero-
crossing occurs;
The PLL angles corresponding to these three instants are:
θ PLL _ M , θ PLL _ F , and θ PLL _ Z .
θ PLL_Z 2π
PLL angle
θ PLL_F PLL angle
β π iL
θ PLL_M
∆ϕ c
0 implemented. The simulator contains a general-purpose
u c ----without boosted
tM tF tZ
Fig. 5. Illustration of SVR equation
As the first step, (2) gives an estimation of the capacitor
voltage at t Z based on the measured value of the line current
iLM and the assumption mentioned above.
3
1
uCZ = uCM + ∆uC = u CM + i LM ∆t
CTCSC
= uCM + X 0 i LM λω PLL (t Z − t M ) (2)
= uCM + X 0 i LM λ (θ PLL _ Z − θ PLL _ M )
Analysis of the circuit equation during the conduction
interval yields another expression for ucz [1]. Namely,
uCZ = X 0iLM [λβ − tan(λβ )] (3)
where β = ω PLL (t Z − t F ) is the angle difference between firing
time and voltage zero-crossing time.
By solving the nonlinear equation, which is obtained by
combining (2) and (3), β can be acquired.
The firing time is then obtained from (4):
β
tF = tZ − (4)
ω PLL
C. Boost control system
The overview of the boost control system is shown in Fig.
3.
The line current and capacitor voltage are measured and the
components of fundamental frequency are extracted through
phasor estimation [3]. The complex quotient between these
two phasors gives the apparent impedance of the TCSC
capacitor bank. Normalizing the imaginary part of the
apparent impedance with the physical reactance of the
capacitor bank yields the measured boost factor, which will be
taken as a feedback signal and compared with the reference
boost factor. The error of the boost factor is delivered to the
boost controller, whose output can be visualized as a series of
time reference pulses that defines the instants when the
capacitor voltage should cross zero. The block named ‘SVR’
will determine the thyristor firing time taking into account the
measured line current and capacitor voltage and then trigger
the corresponding thyristor at desired instant.
III. LABORATORY SET UP
In the KTH laboratory for electrical machine and power
electronics, a real-time power system simulator is being
control system of type ABB Mach 2, which is adapted to
control power electronic apparatus for high-power
applications e.g. the TCSC.
A. Simulation system overview
tim e Fig. 6 shows the TCSC simulation system, which is the
model of a simple transmission system. The system consists of
two voltage sources (an infinite bus and a source with source
impedance) and a transmission line compensated by a TCSC
in series with a fixed capacitor bank.
> Reference number: 035< 4

Thyristor TCSC simulate a voltage produced by a synchronous machine, for

Valve inductance which the shaft speed contains a small sinusoidal variation.
The generic voltage generated is derived assuming that the
rotor flux is constant in the rotor coordinate system [1]. For
oscillation frequencies in question with respect to Sub-
synchronous Resonance, i.e. 15-45 Hz mechanical
Source 1 line fixed infinite
Impedance impedance capacitor TCSC capacitor bus
frequencies, this approximation seems to be adequate. At
these rotor frequencies, the resistance in the damper windings
has little impact and thus these windings serve as a magnetic
Fig. 6. TCSC simulation system diagram screen, which captures the rotor flux and prevents it from
being varied. The leakage between the stator winding and the
The part within the dashed-line frame forms the TCSC. damper windings is represented by the subtransient reactance
The thyristor valve module is designed with compensation and the rotor flux behind that reactance can be considered to
for the thyristor forward voltage drop during conduction and be constant in the rotor-fixed coordinate system.
for the resistive voltage drop in the TCSC inductor. With such This means that the sub-transient reactance of the machine
a design, the thyristor controlled inductance branch will should be incorporated with the transmission system when the
appear as an ideal thyristor valve in series with a pure analysis is being performed. Similarly the stator resistance can
inductance. be incorporated with the transmission system impedance. The
The transmission lines in the power system are represented machine model is shown in Fig. 7 within the dashed frame.
by inductors and resistors.
The specifications of the simulation system are given in
Table 1. dψ r
us = Rsource XL_source Rline XL_line Infinite bus
dt
Table 1 specification of the simulation system Figure 2.2. Generator model
Parameter Notation Value
Source resistance [Ω] Rsource 0.98 Fig. 7. The generator model

Source reactance at fN [Ω] XL_source 9.5

2) Formulas for generated voltage
Source inductance [mH] Lsource 30.3 Assume that rotor flux is constant in the rotor reference
1.86
frame and is given by
Line resistance [Ω] Rline

ψ RR (t ) ≡ ψˆ R
Line reactance at fN [Ω] XL_line 23.6
(5)
Line inductance [mH] Lline 75.1

Fixed capacitor bank [µF] Cfixed 550 The mechanical angle of the shaft is θ sh (t ) with respect to a
Fixed capacitor reactance at fN [Ω] Xc_fixed 5.79 certain reference angle in the stator.
Generally, the stator flux in the rotor coordinate system is
TCSC capacitor bank [µF] CTCSC 650
given by:
TCSC capacitor reactance at fN [Ω] Xc_TCSC 4.90

TCSC inductance [ mH ] LTCSC 2.45 ψ sR = L's' ⋅ isR + ψ RR (6)

λ(ratio between the TCSC 2.52

Since the transient reactance of the generator has be
resonance frequency and fN)
126
incorporated into the transmission system, the flux then
TCSC resonance frequency [ Hz ] f0
becomes:
TCSC capacitor reactance at f0 [Ω] X0 1.94

ψ sR = ψ RR = ψˆ R (7)
B. Voltage sources
Accordingly, in the stator coordinate system, the stator flux
The source voltages are generated by electronic power
becomes
amplifiers controlled by a DSP. The selected power scale

ψ SS (t ) = ψˆ R e jθ sh (t )
utilizes 10 3 V rms as the nominal line-line voltage (might
(8)
correspond to 500 kV) and 8VA as a nominal power (might
correspond to 1000 MVA).
1) Generator model Assume that the nominal angular frequency is ω N . Then
In order to investigate the impact of the TCSC on Sub- the induced stator voltage is given by
Synchronous Resonance, one of the voltage sources should
> Reference number: 035< 5

1 dψ SS θ&  
u SS (t ) = = jψˆ R sh e jθ sh (t ) (9)  
ω N dt ωN  a   1
u ( t ) 0 
   1 3   uα (t ) 
 ub (t )  =  −   (16)
 u (t )   2 2   u β (t ) 
Let the normalized shaft speed be defined by  c   1 3
− − 
 2 2 
θ&sh (t )
nsh (t ) = (10)
ωN With all the above equations implemented in the DSP and
Then (9) yields the scaling adjusted, two source voltages are obtained with
one per unit voltage corresponding to 10V rms phase voltage.
u SS (t ) = jψˆ R nsh (t )e jθ sh (t ) (11)

IV. SSR
a) Voltage generated in the infinite bus With the TCSC simulation system runs with a shaft angle
modulated voltage source, the damping performance of the
For the infinite bus, the generator shaft angle is given by system with respect to SSR has been investigated.
(12): A. Analysing method
1) Electrical torque
θ sh (t ) = ω N t + ϕ (12)
The source voltage generated by the DSP as stated in
Chapter 2 is a simulation of a turbine-generator, whose shaft
where ω N is the nominal angular frequency and ϕ is the
angle is modulated with a frequency of Ω and amplitude ∆θˆ ,
phase angle. i.e., with an angular deviation from its steady state:
Inserting (12) to (11) yields the generated voltage vector.
) )
∆θ = Re(∆θ e jΩt ) = ∆θ cos Ωt (17)
b) Voltage generated with Shaft torsional oscillation

Correspondingly, the speed variation is:

Assume that the generator is running with nominal average
speed but with a small super-imposed sinusoidal phase angle
Ω
variation with amplitude ∆θˆ and frequency Ω ; and assume ∆n = − ∆θˆ sin Ωt (18)
ωN
the phase is ϕ .

{ }
With the generated source voltages connected to the
θ sh (t ) = ω N t + Re ∆θˆ e jΩt + ϕ (13) simulation system, the line currents that occur are measured
and returned into the DSP. The electro-dynamical torque now
The corresponding normalized speed variation can be can be calculated from the generated voltage and the measured
obtained from (10), which yields current according to (19)

{
nsh (t ) = 1 + Re ∆nˆ e jΩt } {
Tel (t ) = Im iSS (t )e − jθ sh (t )ψˆ R } (19)
Ω (14)
∆nˆ = j ∆θˆ
ωN The electrical torque contains two components, the steady
Insertion of (13) and (14) in (11) defines the voltage state one Tel _ av and the variation one ∆Tel as shown in (20).
generated in the stator. This voltage contains both the nominal
fundamental frequency and side-bands at frequencies that Tel (t ) = Tel _ av + ∆Tel (20)
deviate from the fundamental frequency by the mechanical
oscillation frequency. However, in the DSP program the
general formula without linearization is utilized. The variation component ∆Tel is caused by the angle
modulation of the generator shaft and thus has the same
Equation (11) gives out the voltage space vector in the frequency Ω as the shaft oscillation. Therefore, ∆Tel can be
stator coordinate system, i.e., expressed as (21).

u SS (t ) = uα (t ) + ju β (t ) (15) {
∆Tel = Re ∆Tˆel e jΩt }
{[
= Re Re(∆Tˆel ) + j Im(∆Tˆel ) e jΩt ] } (21)
The three phase quantities of the generated voltage can be = Re(∆Tˆ ) cos Ωt − Im(∆Tˆ ) sin Ωt
el el
obtained by the following transformation [2]:
> Reference number: 035< 6

1
fo _ line =
It can be observed that the variation component can be split 2π ( Lsource+ Lline ) C fixed
into two parts, in phase with the speed variation and the (24)
1
angular variation respectively. By utilizing three 1st-order low = = 32.8 Hz
~ ~ 2π (75.12 + 30.25) * 224*10−9
pass filters these two parts, Re(∆Tˆel ) and Im(∆Tˆel ) , can be
extracted.
Theoretically, this is the complementary frequency of the
2) Damping curve
critical undamping mechanical frequency, which will be
Generally, the torque variation can be resolved into two
testified by the actual damping curve plotted in Fig. 8.
parts, proportional to the angular variation and the speed
Del & Kel with fixed series compensation
variation respectively, i.e., 5

Del [pu trq/pu spd]

0

Ω
∆Tel = − K el ∆θˆ cos Ωt − Del (− ∆θˆ sin Ωt ) (22) -5
ωN
-10
Here K el and Del can be identified as the ‘electrical spring -15
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
constant’ and ‘electrical damping factor’ respectively.
Comparing (21) and (22) yields: 3

Kel [pu trq/rad]

~ 1
− Re(∆Tˆel )
K el = 0

∆θˆ -1
~ (23)
− Im(∆Tˆel )ω N -2
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Del = mech freq [Hz]
∆θˆ Ω
Fig.8. Electrical damping (Del) and spring constant (Kel) for system with
fixed series compensation
Equation (23) gives the spring constant and damping factor
of the system with a certain shaft modulation frequency. The figure shows that with a torsional shaft vibration
In order to measure the damping coefficient in the sub- frequency of about 17 Hz, the fixed series compensated
synchronous frequency range, a MATLAB program is applied system has a large negative damping, which means high
to interface the DSP, which controls the generated voltage. danger to the generator shaft.
The MATLAB program will automatically perform the Then the 224 µF fixed capacitor bank will be replaced by a
investigation by commanding various oscillation frequencies combination of a 550 µF fixed bank in series with the TCSC.
and recording the measured results. Every time MATLAB When the TCSC operates at a boost factor of 1.72, the total
commands a new frequency to the DSP, a new source voltage compensation becomes:
with that new modulation frequency will be generated. With
the measured line current sent back to DSP, the DSP could Xc = Xc _ + k B ⋅ X c _ TCSC
fix
calculate the electrical torque, extract the component with the (25)
= 5.787 + 1.72 ⋅ 4.897 = 14.2Ω
modulation frequency and split it into real part and imaginary
part. The MATLAB program reads these two parts of the
This gives the same compensation degree at network
torque phasor from the DSP and calculates the spring constant
frequency as the 224 µF capacitor bank.
and the damping coefficient. Finally, the program generates
Let the gain of PLL and boost controller both be very low
the curve showing the damping coefficient and the spring
(0.015) and the integrating part be very slow so that the
constant as functions of mechanical modulation frequency.
damping characteristic is determined almost completely by the
B. SSR behaviour of the TCSC SVR control scheme. Fig. 9 presents resulted damping curve
The simulation results for several cases will be presented in for boost factor 1.2 and 1.72.
this part.
As a first example, the simulated transmission line is
compensated by a fixed capacitor bank of 224 µF which gives
a compensation of Xc = 14.2 Ω
In this case, the electrical resonance frequency of the
transmission system will be:
> Reference number: 035< 7

4
S V R c ontrol, no P LL, no boos t c ontrol while as increases the undamping peak values.
Del [pu trq/pu spd] 2
SVR, KB=1.72, medium boost control with different PLL speed
0
4

Del [pu trq/pu spd]

-2 2

-4 0
-2
-6
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
-4
-6
3
K B = 1.2 -8
2 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
K B = 1.72
Kel [pu trq/rad]

1
4
0 slow
medium
-1

Kel [pu trq/rad]

2 fast

-2
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
0
m ec h freq [Hz ]

Fig.9. SVR control; no PLL, no boost control; Boost factor 1.2 (thick line); -2
boost factor 1.72 (thin line) 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
mech freq [Hz]

Fig.11. SVR control; medium boost control; Boost factor 1.72; slow PLL
When compared with figure 8 it can be seen that the critical (thick line); medium PLL (dashed line); fast PLL (thin line)
undamping frequency is pushed rightward, from about 17 Hz
to 31 Hz. The use of the TCSC with SVR control scheme
makes it possible to utilize high compensation even in a
system fed by a generator having a torsional resonance V. CONCLUSION
frequency about 10 Hz higher than if only fixed series
• At low boost factor, SVR controlled TCSC can
compensation is used.
provide much better damping than conventional
It should also be noted that the discrepancy between
control scheme that controls the firing angle
different boost factors is quite small. This implies that the
directly.
TCSC using SVR control can mitigate SSR problems even
• The damping characteristic of SVR controlled
when operating at low boost factor. Direct control of the TCSC with respect to SSR is almost independent of
thyristor fire angle does not provide similar performance. the boost factor.
Fig. 10 gives a comparison between these two control • The tuning of the boost controller and PLL makes
methods both with a boost factor of 1.2. It shows that SVR no critical difference on the TCSC SSR behaviour.
can provide much better damping for frequencies lower than
25 Hz.

KB=1.2, no PLL, no boost control

4
REFERENCES
[1] Lennart Ängquist, “Synchronous Voltage Reversal Control of Thyristor
Del [pu trq/pu spd]

0 Controlled Series Capacitor”, Royal Institute of Technology, TRITA-

ETS-2002-07, ISSN 1650-674X
-2
[2] Lennart Harnefors, Hans-Peter Nee, “Control of Variable-Speed AC
-4
Drives”, Royal Institute of Technology, 1998
-6
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
[3] Lennart Ängquist, “RLS-based Phasor Estimator for POD”, ABB
Utilities AB (SE), 1JNR100001-406
3
SVR control
2 beta control
Kel [pu trq/rad]

-1

-2
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
mech freq [Hz]

Fig. 10. No PLL, no boost control; boost factor 1.2; β control (thin line);
SVR control (thick line)

Finally, the system is assumed have a medium boost

controller gain but with different synchronizing speed. It can
be seen from Fig. 11 that for frequencies lower than 11 Hz, a
fast PLL reduces the damping. Moreover, a fast PLL speed
pushes the critical undamping frequency rightward slightly as