J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543

DOI 10.1007/s11768-012-9290-z
Voltage control for static var compensator using
novel optimal nonlinear PI
Lu FANG
1
, An LUO
1
, Xianyong XU
2
, Houhui FANG
1
, Fujun MA
1
, Wen WANG
1
1.College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha Hunan 410082, China;
2.Hunan Electric Power Company Test and Research Institute, Hunan Electric Power Company, Changsha Hunan 410007, China
Abstract: Static var compensators (SVCs) are used for voltage and reactive power control in power systems. In this
paper, we will consider the structure of SVCs that mainly consists of Y -connection of mechanically-switched capacitor
(MSC) and delta connection of thyrister-controlled reactor (TCR). First, the control model of SVC was established in
this paper. Then, a novel optimal nonlinear voltage controller for SVCs is proposed. The proposed SVC voltage controller
consists of a nonlinear function and a conventional PI controller. The improved simplex method (SPX) is presented to adjust
and optimize the parameters of the nonlinear PI controller in real-time, and to make transient state response procedure of
SVC optimum. The integration of time multiplied absolute error (ITAE) is adopted as the optimized objective function
of SPX. Simulation and engineering application results show that the proposed voltage control method is able to track
reference voltage value of SVC immediately. It also demonstrates that the whole SVC control system can synthetically
compensate reactive power.
Keywords: Static var compensator (SVC); Nonlinear PI; Improved optimal simplex method; Voltage controller;
Control model of SVC
1 Introduction
Since static var compensators (SVCs) were launched into
commercial operation, many countries have continuously
equipped SVCs in the past thirty years and have obtained
considerable prot [1, 2]. SVCis an important reactive com-
pensation device that has been used in power systems to
maintain bus voltage at a constant level, improve the tran-
sient stability, dampen the systems and suppress voltage
icker. In fact, to dynamically support the voltage in power
systems and enhance SVC capability, the design of SVC
controllers has attracted much attention from scholars and
engineers [3, 4].
Many different types of control schemes have been in-
vestigated and applied to SVC, such as conventional PID
[5], linear optimal [6], robust and adaptive control methods
[7, 8]. The adaptive pole-shift controller is considered to be
one of the successful control algorithms that have been ap-
plied to SVC controllers to improve power systems stabil-
ity [9]. Some nonlinear control techniques have also been
proposed. A bang-bang controller combined with a linear
damping controller has been presented in [10]. This con-
troller uses a phase angle signal that is obtained fromthe bus
voltage, current and active power at the location of the SVC.
Another approach, based on direct feedback linearization,
has been used to design nonlinear SVC voltage controller
mainly for a voltage stability problem [11]. Among vari-
ous SVC controllers, fuzzy logic control schemes have also
been paid much attention [12]. Fuzzy logic has attracted
considerable attention as a novel computational system be-
cause of the variety of advantages and it offers over the con-
ventional computational systems. Fuzzy logic controllers
have been successfully applied to control nonlinear dynamic
systems especially in the eld of adaptive control by making
use of online training [13]. The adaptive fuzzy-logic SVC
controller does not need an exact mathematical model of
the SVC controlled system [14]. Nonlinear controllers us-
ing neural networks such as the multilayer perception, radial
basis function, and Elman network can provide suitable and
desired control over a wide range of operating conditions. In
[15, 16], a generalized neuron controller has been designed
for SVC. It has been shown that this algorithm has good ro-
bustness for SVC controlled system. However, its hardware
implementations require high-speed processors and a lot of
memory.
Conventional PI controllers are usually easy to be imple-
mented, which has a very important status in power con-
trol system. Because the parameters P and I are combined
and mapped linearly, dynamic regulation performance of
the conventional PI controller is not ideal. Especially the
contradiction exists between its regulation rapidness and
stability. To overcome these drawbacks, we propose an op-
timal nonlinear PI controller composed of a nonlinear func-
tion in series with conventional PI controller. An improved
simplex method (SPX), with integration of time multiplied
absolute error (ITAE) as its optimized objective function,
is presented to real-time adjust and optimize K
P
, K
I
of
the nonlinear PI controller, and makes transient state re-
sponse process of the SVCsystemreach optimum. The SVC
system can compensate reactive power synthetically. SVCs
with proposed control strategy can track the reference volt-
Received 11 December 2009; revised 22 July 2010.
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2009CB219706), and the Scientic Research Plan of
Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Department of China (Nos. 2009FJ3036, 2011FJ3035).
c South China University of Technology and Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
36 L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543
age value of power systems rapidly and with less overshoot.
2 Description of SVC system
The structure diagram of SVC is shown in Fig. 1. The
system mainly consists of Y -connection of mechanically-
switched capacitor (MSC) and delta connection of thyrister-
controlled reactor (TCR). In Fig. 1, u
a
, u
b
, u
c
, and i
a
, i
b
,
i
c
are three-phase bus voltage and three-phase current of
the grid, respectively; I
svca
, I
svcb
, I
svcc
, and i
La
, i
Lb
, i
Lc
are output current of SVC and three-phase load current, re-
spectively. These signals are respectively detected by volt-
age and current sensors, and then sampled by digital-signal-
processor (DSP) control panel. The control signal is pro-
cessed by control arithmetic, and then is converted to trig-
gering pulse by triggering circuit, which respectively con-
trols the switches of MSC and the ring angle of TCR.
Fig. 1 The structure of SVC system.
MSC produces rough-tuning capacitive reactive power
with rank difference, while TCR produces inductive re-
active power with continuously regulation. By combining
these two, SVC can produce continuously regulating reac-
tive power. Through detecting the real-time reactive power
of the grid and according to the reactive power demand
Q
V
of the grid, SVC control system determines the num-
ber of capacitors, and then generates capacitive reactive
power Q
MSC
with rank difference. When the capacitive
reactive power is over, TCR produces inductive reactive
power Q
TCR
, so that the system reactive power Q
N
is equal
to constant or zero, that is, Q
N
= Q
V
Q
MSC
+ Q
TCR
=
constant or zero.
The DSP control systems are composed of four parts,
which are described in detail as follows:
1) Measurement module: detecting input signals of SVC
controller, such as bus voltage and current of grid, load cur-
rent, output current of SVC.
2) Voltage control module: the bus voltage values of the
grid are compared with their reference values. The error sig-
nal is taken as input signal of the nonlinear PI controller.
The output control signal of controller is transmitted to trig-
gering unit through optical ber.
3) Triggering module: according to output control signal,
the I/O triggering signal is amplied through power ampli-
cation circuit to control the switches of MSC. At the same
time, the pulse-width-modulation (PWM) triggering signal
is changed into direct voltage signal with lter circuit. Its
value decides the value of TCRs ring angle.
4) Communication module: DSP controller obtains con-
trol instructions (such as voltage and power factor reference
values of grid) from the industrial computer through RS232,
and at the same time, the data detected by measurement
module are send to storage device of the industrial computer
and displayed on the computer.
3 Control model of SVC
The single-phase circuit of TCR is shown in Fig. 2, its
source voltage is e(t) =

2E sin(t), is the fundamental

angular frequency; i
TCR
is current of TCR; is triggering
angle of TCR; the conduction angle is = 2( ). It can
be easily derived positive and negative half-cycle current of
TCR i
1
, i
2
based on circuit theory and boundary conditions,
as follows:

i
1
=

2E
L
(cos cos t), t +,
i
2
=

2E
L
(cos +cos t), +t ++.
(1)
In order to obtain better characteristics of i
TCR
, we need
to break down the current based on Fourier transform func-
tion. i
TCR
can be expressed through a variable switch-
ing function and sine function modulated waveform. The
L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543 37
Fourier series of switching function can be written as
f(t, , ) = a
0
+

k=1
[a
k
cos(kt) +b
k
sin(kt)]. (2)
Fig. 2 The single phase circuit of TCR.
Based on the orthogonality of trigonometric functions
and Fourier coefcients, the coefcient a
0
, a
k
, b
k
in equa-
tion (2) are obtained as

a
0
=
1
2

2
0
fd(t) =

2
,
a
k
=
1

2
0
f cos(kt)d(t)
=
2
k
cos(k
0
+
k
2
) sin
k
2
,
b
k
=
1

2
0
f sin(kt)d(t)
=
2
k
sin(k
0
+
k
2
) sin
k
2
.
(3)
According to equations (2) and (3), the switch functions
f
1
and f
2
, which are corresponded with the positive and
negative half-cycle current i
1
and i
2
, respectively, can be
obtained as

f
1
(t, , ) =

2
+

k=1

2
k
sin(k) cos(kt),
f
2
(t, +, )
=

2
+

k=1
(1)
k+1
2
k
sin(k) cos(kt).
(4)
Therefore, the current of TCR can be expressed as
i
TCR
= f
1
i
1
+f
2
i
2
= (f
1
f
2
) cos + (f
1
+f
2
) cos t
=

2E
L
[

k=1,3,5,...
4
k
sin(k) cos cos(kt)
+

k=2,4,6,...
2
k
sin(k)[cos(k + 1)t + cos(k1)t]

cos t]. (5)

From equation (5), it can be seen that the current of TCR
only contains odd harmonics and fundamental waveforms.
Fundamental waveforms i
TCR1
and harmonic i
TCRm
can
be expressed, respectively as
i
TCR1
=

2E
L
sin(2) + 2 2

cos t, (6)
i
TCRm
=

2E
L

[
2

(
sin(m+1)
m+ 1
+
sin(m1)
m1
)

sin(m) cos
m
] cos(mt),
when m = 3, 5, 7, . . . , (7)
where L is the inductance of TCR. From the preceding anal-
ysis and in accordance with equations (6) and (7), TCR can
be seen as a nonlinear system, which is composed of two
parts, one is a variable susceptance B
TCR
, another is a har-
monic current source i
TCRh
. The equivalent model of TCR
is shown in Fig. 3.
B
TCR
=
sin(2) + 2 2
L
. (8)
Fig. 3 The single phase equal model of TCR.
Fig. 4 shows the single-phase equivalent control model
of SVC device. B

is equivalent susceptance of connect-

ing transformer; B
Cj
is total susceptance of MSC, where
j = 1, 2, . . . , n. U
p
is voltage RMS of common connec-
tion point of SVC. I
SVC
, I
TCR
, I
TCR1
, I
TCRm
are the
current RMS of the entire SVC device, TCR branch, TCR
branch fundamental waveform, TCR branch harmonic, re-
spectively. This article only discusses the problems of SVC
used in fundamental waveform reactive power compensa-
tion; therefore, I
TCRm
is not considered. Based on cir-
cuit principle, the expression of SVC controller susceptance
B
ref
can be obtained as
B
ref
=
B

(B
Cj
+B
TCR
)
B

+B
Cj
+B
TCR
. (9)
Because B

is far less than the susceptance of each TSC

and TCR. From equations (8) and (9), we can obtain
B
ref
= (1
B
Cj
B

)B
Cj
+ (1
2B
Cj
+B
L
B

)B
TCR
, (10)
where B
L
is equal to L. Equation (10) is control model of
SVC.
Fig. 4 Single phase control model of SVC.
4 Optimal nonlinear control strategy of SVC
The voltage control diagram with current feedback of
SVC is shown in Fig. 5. U
rms
is the root mean square of
power grid voltage; U
ref
is the system reference voltage;
U
SL
is the compensating voltage of SVC, which is taken
as correct quantity of U
ref
, that is, the feedback quantity
of SVC voltage controller. It can be obtained by U
SL
=
K I
SVC
, where the regulating ratio K is 3% in this pa-
38 L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543
per. U is the error signal. From Fig. 5, we can see that the
output susceptance of TCR is converted to radian (the r-
ing angle) by susceptance-degree function so as to control
inductive reactive power injecting into the grid, while the
switch electric-levels of the MSC logical controller output
determine the number of capacitors.
Fig. 5 Voltage controller for SVC system.
4.1 The structure of optimal nonlinear PI controller
Once K
P
and K
I
of the conventional PI controller are de-
termined, the two parameters are invariable, so that the con-
troller cannot effectively track the variable references and
suppress interferences. In order to improve the dynamic re-
sponse, decrease the overshoot of transient response and the
steady-state error of the SVC, an optimal nonlinear PI con-
trol is proposed and shown in Fig. 6.
In Fig. 6, the optimal nonlinear PI composed of an opti-
mal PI control and a nonlinear function k(e). An improved
accelerated simplex algorithm (SPX) was adopted to opti-
mize K
P
and K
I
. e and B
ref
are the input and output of the
optimal nonlinear PI controller, respectively; In this paper,
e is actually equal to U of Fig. 5. min

t
0
t|e(t)|dt is the
objective function of the improved SPX algorithm.
Fig. 6 Control structure of optimal nonlinear PI.
4.2 Improved simplex algorithm
To ensure that the SVC voltage regulator has a good tran-
sient response and steady-state performance, an improved
SPX algorithm is proposed to optimize K
P
and K
I
in this
paper. ITAE rule, i.e., integral time absolute error is widely
adopted to evaluate the dynamic performance of the control
system [17]. It is adopted as the optimized objective func-
tion:
J =

t
0
t|e(t)|dt, (11)
where the upper limit t is chosen as a nite time so that the
integral can approach a steady-state value.
Besides, reserving the reection along the direction of
the worst spot, the reection along the direction of the best
spot is added in the improved SPX. The improved SPX will
choose a better direction to reect and expand, which ac-
celerates the computation speed. Mapping computation for-
mula can ensure that every iterative computation of SPX
does not degenerate or reduce dimension.
The convergence criterion of the SPX is presented as
|
J
(max)
J
(min)
J
(min)
| < , (12)
where J
(max)
and J
(min)
are the maximum and the mini-
mum value spots after optimization, respectively; is the
given positive error.
The operation process of the improved SPX algorithm
can be presented as follows:
Step 1 First, setting the initial peak value of K
P0
and
K
I0
(obtained by Ziegler-Nichols rule). K
P0
and K
I0
are
presented as x
(0)
, which is a row vector. While the other
peak value can be obtained by expressions x
(i)
= x
(0)
+
2E
(i)
, where i is equal to 1 or 2, E
(i)
is the ith coordinate
vector. The objection function value j
(0)
, j
(1)
, j
(2)
of every
peak spot can be obtained.
Step 2 The highest spot (the worst spot) x
(2)
, the higher
spot x
(1)
and the lowest spot (the best spot) x
(0)
can be ob-
tained by comparing the function values. Equation (12) is
tested, if the equation is true, the optimal spots x
(0)
and j
(0)
are obtained and the computation is over, otherwise move to
Step 3.
Step 3 Reection.
1) The highest spot is reected by the center of the other
two spots. Choosing the reection coefcient: = 1, x
(3)
h
and J
(3)
h
can be obtained:

X
h
=
1
2
(x
(0)
+x
(1)
),
x
(3)
h
=

X
h
+(

X
h
x
(2)
).
(13)
2) The lowest spot is reected by the center of the other
two spots. Choosing the reection coefcient: = 1, x
(3)
L
and J
(3)
L
are obtained from following expressions:

X
L
=
1
2
(x
(2)
+x
(1)
),
x
(3)
L
= x
(0)
+(x
(0)

X
L
).
(14)
3) If J
(3)
L
< J
(3)
h
, then J
(3)
= J
(3)
L
, x
(3)
= x
(3)
L
,

X =

X
L
; otherwise, J
(3)
= J
(3)
h
, x
(3)
= x
(3)
h
,

X =

X
h
.
4) If J
(3)
< J
(0)
, the reection is achieved, move to Step
4; if J
(0)
J
(3)
J
(1)
, move to Step 5; if J
(3)
> J
(1)
,
L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543 39
move to Step 6.
Step 4 Expanding.
1) If J
(3)
= J
(3)
L
, x
(3)
= x
(3)
L
,

X =

X
L
, namely, the
value of reection spot is less than the value of the lowest
spot of initial SPX, that means the lest value can be obtained
by searching along the direction of the best spot and expand-
ing can be implemented. The expanding coefcient is 2 in
this paper; the value of the expanding spot can be shown as
x
(4)
=

X +(x
(3)
x
(0)
). (15)
a) If J
(4)
< J
(3)
, expanding is successful, and a new
SPX is formed by peaks x
(0)
, x
(1)
, x
(4)
.
b) If J
(4)
J
(3)
, expanding is unsuccessful. The highest
spot x
(2)
is substituted by reection spot x
(3)
L
, and the new
SPX peak can be presented as
x
(i)
= x
(3)
L
+r(x
(i)
x
(0)
), i = 1, 2, (16)
where r is the mapping expanding coefcient.
2) If J
(3)
= J
(3)
h
, x
(3)
= x
(3)
h
,

X =

X
h
, setting x
(3)
h
and

X
h
as the fundamental spot, searching along the direc-
tion of the highest spot, and expanding, choosing the ex-
panding coefcient: = 2, the value of expanding spot can
be obtained by expression (17):
x
(4)
=

X +(x
(3)
h


X
h
). (17)
a) If J
(4)
< J
(3)
, expanding is successful, and a new
SPX is formed by peaks x
(0)
, x
(1)
, x
(4)
.
(b) If J
(4)
J
(3)
, expanding is unsuccessful. The high-
est spot x
(2)
is substituted by reection spot x
(3)
h
, the new
SPX peak can be obtained by expression (18):
x
(i)
= x
(3)
h
+r(x
(i)

X
h
), i = 1, 2. (18)
3) Each peak value of SPX is newly computed, and then
return to Step 2. The iterative process is circulated.
Step 5 If J
(0)
J
(3)
J
(1)
, the new SPX is formed
by the spots x
(0)
, x
(1)
, x
(3)
.
Step 6 If J
(3)
> J
(1)
, the reection spot is too far. The
spot should be compressed along the direction of x
(3)

X.
The compressed coefcient is chosen as 0.5 and the less
value between x
(2)
and x
(3)
is chosen. Assuming x
(k)

[x
(2)
, x
(3)
],
x
(5)
=

X +(x
(k)

X). (19)
If J
(5)
J
(k)
, a new SPX is formed by the peaks x
(0)
,
x
(1)
and x
(5)
; if J
(5)
> J
(k)
, x
(6)
and x
(7)
can be ob-
tained by the expressions: x
(6)
= x
(1)
+
1
2
(x
(0)
x
(1)
),
x
(7)
= x
(2)
+
1
2
(x
(0)
x
(2)
), and then the new SPX is
formed by x
(0)
, x
(6)
and x
(7)
.
Step 2 is repeated until the convergence criterion is sat-
ised. Therefore, the optimal K
P
and K
I
of the SVC volt-
age controller are obtained, which improves the dynamic
response and decreases steady-state error of SVC.
4.3 Nonlinear function
When a conventional PI controller is used, the input of
the controller is obtained directly from the error between
the voltage reference and the practical value, the overshoot
could be prodigious. Many types of nonlinear PI controller
are provided to solve the overshoot problems brought by tra-
ditional PI controller [18, 19]. A simple nonlinear PI con-
troller can be realized by cascading a nonlinear function
k(e) of error on conventional PI regulator, which is shown in
Fig. 6. In order to obtain k(e), simulation combined with ex-
periment method is adopted in this paper. The implementa-
tion could be concluded as follows: First, we established the
simulation model of SVC with the proposed control method
in software PSCAD; second, we observed the voltage re-
sponse curve of SVC. According to the response time and
overshoot, we regulated the constant value of k(e) and ob-
tained approximate function of k(e). And then via plenty of
experiment data, we ulteriorly revised coefcients of k(e).
Finally, we obtain the type of nonlinear function as shown
in formula (20).
k(e) = 0.001
2 exp(0.05e
1
)
1 + exp(0.05e
1
)
, (20)
where
e
1
=

0.105 +e, when |0.105+e| 0.2,

0.2sgn(0.105+e), when |0.105+e| 0.2.
(21)
Because the value of the nonlinear function k(e) can
reach innitely, the voltage value of SVC control system
will overshoot and oscillate. Therefore, e
1
is used to restrict
the value of k(e) in this paper.
5 Simulation results
To verify the effectiveness of the proposed optimal non-
linear PI voltage regulator of SVC, we conduct the simula-
tion with software PSCAD, while improved SPX algorithm
is programmed in MATLAB and the M le is embodied
into PSCAD simulation circuit. Three-phase AC source is
150 kV, 50 Hz. TCR capacity is 100 MVar; MSC capacity is
334 MVar; nonlinear load is a three-phase universe bridge
rectier. The MSC is concurrently worked as the 5th and
7th single tuned lters and a high pass lter without damp-
ing resistor. The initial values of K
P
and K
I
are obtained
by Ziegler-Nichols, K
P
= 12, K
I
= 4; however, through
improved SPX algorithm K
P
= 5, K
I
= 1.25.
The variation of the nonlinear gain k(e) along with time
is shown in Fig. 7. At 0.01 s, TCR+MSC is launched into
the grid, the nonlinear gain sharply varies from 1.0015 to
1 in the voltage regulating process of SVC controller. Al-
though the varying range is little, the controllers capacity
is obviously enhanced. At steady state, the nonlinear gain
k(e) is sustained at 1 and only the optimized PI controller
is worked.
Fig. 7 Variation of the nonlinear gain k(e) with time.
Fig. 8 is the waveform of root mean square of SVC in-
stalled point voltage in the condition of three-phase bal-
ance. The voltage reference value is 1 pu and TCR+MSC is
40 L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543
launched at 0.01 s. Fig. 8 (a) and Fig. 8 (b) are the waveform
of the conventional PI and the optimal nonlinear PI, respec-
tively. From Fig. 8 (a), we can see that it takes 0.2 s to reach
the reference with overshoot 16%, while from Fig. 8 (b) it
takes 0.15 s without overshoot. The comparison illustrates
that the optimal nonlinear PI whose response speed and pro-
cessing time are superior to the conventional PI and nicely
solves the overshoot problem caused by large initial con-
trol force. Meanwhile, the optimal nonlinear PI has good
dynamic and static characteristics.
Fig. 9 is the voltage waveform in the condition of load
changing. Fig. 9 (a) and Fig. 9 (b) are the waveforms of the
conventional PI and the optimal nonlinear PI, respectively.
At the same interval, about 1.5 cycles, there is obviously
voltage distortion in Fig. 9 (a), while in Fig. 9 (b) voltage
waveform is smooth. Therefore, the capacity of dynamic
voltage regulation in the optimal nonlinear PI is better than
the conventional PI.
Fig. 10 is the waveform of A phase current in the condi-
tion of three phase imbalance. In Fig. 10 (a), it is obvious
that dynamic regulating process in the conventional PI is
about 3.5 cycles. Compared with Fig. 10 (a), however, in
Fig. 10 (b) it only takes 1.5 cycles in the optimal PI and
current distortion is relatively lower.
Fig. 8 The response of system voltage under balanced load.
Fig. 9 Waveforms of dynamic compensate of voltage under unbalanced load.
Fig. 10 Waveforms of dynamic compensate of current under unbalanced load.
6 Results of industrial application and dis-
cussion
The TCR+MSC (MSC concurrently working as lters)
type var compensation device is developed for a copper
foil factory, which reactive power compensation is not
enough, high power uctuation nonlinear load exists as well
as supply voltage distortion is serious. Based on the pro-
posed control method and simulation research, the control
main chip is TMS320LF2407A whose maximum frequency
is 40 MHz. A/D sampling module adopts two pieces of
MAX125 whose precision is 14bit and conversion time of
each channel is 3 s. TCRcapacity is 374 kVar; MSCcapac-
ity is 750 kVar. The proposed optimal nonlinear PI control
method is applied to compensate reactive power for load.
The diagrams of SVC control box and eld equipment
are shown in Fig. 11. In the condition of three phase imbal-
ance, the comparing waveform diagrams of dynamic com-
pensating effect respectively controlled by the conventional
L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543 41
PI and the optimal nonlinear PI are shown in Fig. 12. At t
1
,
the phases of A phase voltage and current drift when three
phase load is varying from balance to imbalance. At t
2
, the
SVC is launched. At t
3
, waveforms of voltage and current
are stable and their phases are uniform. From Fig. 12, we
can see that regulating process takes about 4 cycles in the
conventional PI, while at the same condition the proposed
optimal nonlinear PI takes about 2.5 cycles. Consequently,
steady-state and dynamic features of the proposed PI are
better than that of the conventional PI.
In the condition of three phase balance, the compar-
ing waveform diagrams of compensating effect respectively
controlled by the conventional PI and the optimal nonlinear
PI are shown in Fig. 13.
Fig. 11 Field equipment of SVC.
Fig. 12 Waveforms of voltage and current based on different control strategies under unbalance loads.
Fig. 13 Waveforms of voltage and current based on different control strategies under balance loads.
At t
1
the inductance loads are connected to power grid,
the phase angle of A phase current lags the phase angle of
A phase voltage. At t
2
, the SVC is launched to the power
network. At t
3
, waveforms of voltage and current are stable
and their phases are uniform. From Fig. 13, we can see that
regulating process takes about 6 cycles in the conventional
PI, while at the same condition the proposed optimal non-
linear PI takes about 4.5 cycles. The SVC with the proposed
control method also has good compensation performance in
the condition of balance loads.
The comparison results of SVC with proposed control
strategy, conventional PI and the compensation result with-
out SVC in operation are shown in Fig. 14. The industrial
computer software is developed in Delphi 6.0. To impose
the comparison, the records at the same time before and af-
ter two days are selected. From Fig. 14, we can see that
power factor is improved and the whole current distortion
ratio and three phase imbalance reduce obviously after SVC
being launched. The application data results of the copper
foil factory are shown in Table 1.
42 L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543
Fig. 14 Comparison diagrams of with and without SVC in industrial application.
Table 1 Application data results.
Imbalance ratio/% Power factor Total current THD/%
Without SVC 9.42 0.74 4.96
With SVC controlled by conventional PI 6.23 0.91 4.83
With SVC controlled by proposed PI 3.39 0.98 4.53
7 Conclusions
The proposed control algorithm for SVC can rapidly
track the voltage reference of the SVC systems and im-
prove the performance of the SVC system observably. A
DSP based controller adopting the proposed control method
has been developed. Engineering application results demon-
strate that the proposed SVC control system can syntheti-
cally compensate reactive power with faster response speed
and higher compensation precision.
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Lu FANG was born in Hunan, China, in 1983.
She received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the
College of Electrical and Information Engineering,
Hunan University, Changsha, China, in 2005 and
2011, respectively. Since 2011, she was a lecturer
at the College of Electrical and Information Engi-
neering, Hunan University. She is engaged in re-
search on the harmonics suppression and reactive
power compensation, power quality of microgrid,
L. Fang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 3543 43
and electric power saving. She has published over 20 journal and confer-
ence articles. E-mail: 2001xxy@163.com.
An LUO was born in Changsha, China, in 1957.
He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Hu-
nan University, in 1982 and 1986, respectively, and
Ph.D. degree from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang,
China, in 1993. He was with the Central South
University, as a professor between 1996 and 2002.
Starting in 2003, he became a professor at Hunan
University. He is engaged in research on power
conversion system, harmonics suppression and re-
active power compensation, and intelligent control theory and application.
He has published over 100 journal and conference articles. He is a recipi-
ent of the 2006 National Scientic and Technological Awards of China, the
2005 Scientic and Technological Awards from the National Mechanical
Industry Association of China, and the 2007 Scientic and Technological
Awards from the Hunan Province of China. He currently serves as the As-
sociate Board Chairperson of Hunan Society of Electrical Engineering. He
also serves as the Chief of Hunan Electric Science and Application Labo-
ratory.
Xianyong XU was born in Henan, China, in 1981.
He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the
College of Electrical and Information Engineering,
Hunan University, Changsha, China, in 2005 and
2010, respectively. Since 2010, He was an engineer
with Hunan Electric Power Company Test and Re-
search Institute, Changsha, China. He is engaged in
research on the harmonics suppression and reactive
power compensation for power electronic devices
and active power lters, power quality of microgrid, UHV AC test system
and its application for UHV AC devices, and electric power saving. He has
published over 20 journal and conference articles. He is a recipient of the
2010 National Scientic and Technological Awards of China, the 2007 Sci-
entic and Technological Awards from the National Mechanical Industry
Association of China. E-mail: 5xxy@163.com.
Houhui FANG was born in Changsha, China, in
1956. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from
Hunan University, Changsha, China, in 1977 and
1991, respectively. Since 2005, he has been a pro-
fessor with the College of Electrical and Informa-
tion Engineering, Hunan University. He is engaged
in research on building electrical, power conversion
system, harmonics suppression and reactive power
compensation, and electric power saving. He has
published over 30 journal and conference articles. Since 2007, he serves
as the Associate Chairperson of Electrical Research Society in Hunan Col-
leges and Universities. Between 2003 and 2007, he also served as the Di-
rector of Electrical Research Society in China Colleges and Universities.
He was a recipient of the 2005 Scientic and Technological Awards from
the National Mechanical Industry Association of China and the 2005 Sci-
entic and Technological Awards from Hunan Province of China.
Fujun MA was born in Hunan, China. He received
his B.S. degree from Hunan University, Chang-
sha, China, in 2008. He is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree fromHunan University. He is engaged
in research on harmonics suppression and reactive
power compensation for power electronic devices,
active power lters, and intelligent control theory.
Wen WANG was born in Hubei, China. He re-
ceived his B.S. degree from Hunan University,
Changsha, in 2008. He is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree from Hunan University. He is en-
gaged in research on harmonics suppression, re-
active power compensation, and power system au-
tomation.