Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Realization of UPQC H1 coordinated control in Microgrid

Peng Li a, Yuwei Li b, Ziheng Yin a,
a
b

State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, Hebei, China
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 30 November 2013
Received in revised form 14 July 2014
Accepted 12 October 2014
Available online 9 November 2014
Keywords:
Coordinated control
H1 control
Microgrid
Power quality
Renewable energy
UPQC

a b s t r a c t
Aiming at the complicated power quality problems with the coexistence of voltage quality and current
quality in Microgrid, a comprehensive regulation technology of power quality is urgently needed, which
makes unied power quality conditioner (UPQC) have widespread application elds. As a multiple power
quality conditioner, UPQC gathers the functions of voltage quality compensator, current quality compensator and energy storage device in the integrated manner, meeting the needs of comprehensive power
quality control for the Microgrid. In this paper, the advanced H1 control theory is adopted for further
development on the UPQC generalized controlled system, and the Riccati solution method of the H1
controller is presented. Through analyzing the coupling effect between UPQC series unit and shunt unit,
a design method of UPQC coordinated controller based on H1 control theory is proposed. The simulation
and experimental results show that the proposed method can realize UPQC series unit voltage tracking
compensation and shunt unit current tracking compensation simultaneously without steady-state phase
shift and amplitude degradation. Moreover, the proposed method radically eliminates the coupling effect
between UPQC series unit and shunt unit, and realizes the multiple power quality coordinated control
functions of UPQC.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
The Microgrid [1], is one of the hottest topics in the electrical
engineering eld. The Microgrid not only provides the effective
technology for large-scale applications of new energy and renewable energy distributed generation, but also provides technical
support for distributed generation to meet the grid-connected
operating requirements of the Smart Grid [2,3]. Fig. 1 shows the
Microgrid architecture, in the dashed box.
The Microgrid can effectively integrate a variety of distributed
generation (DG, e.g. photovoltaic generation, wind power generation, fuel cell, and micro gas turbine) and realize combined cooling
heating and power (CCHP) [4]. The Microgrid cannot only effectively improve the energy cascade utilization efciency, but also
effectively improve the power quality and the reliability of power
supply [57]. The Microgrid can meet standard or specic power
quality requirements of different types of loads, and provides Custom Power technology for different types of power consumers (e.g.
critical load, sensitive load, and common load). In addition, the
Microgrid can also be a technology service platform for electric
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15100203132.
E-mail addresses: ncepulp@gmail.com (P. Li), 1162062263@qq.com (Y. Li),
ncepuyzh@gmail.com (Z. Yin).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2014.10.032
0142-0615/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

vehicle charging station. Thus, the Microgrid can satisfy the comprehensive requirements of Smart Grid for distributed generation
and Custom Power [8,9].
In Microgrid, on one hand, the distributed generation and nonlinear uctuating load have complex and diverse types, such as
wind power and photovoltaic which have characteristics of intermittency, randomness and uctuation, often leading to the power
unbalance between power supply and load [10,11]. On the other
hand, a large number of power electronic devices are being used,
such as the applications of inverters, solid state switches, the electric vehicle charging equipments and so on [12,13]. As a result, the
power quality problems of Microgrid are more complex and prominent. The power quality problems of Microgrid mainly include:
voltage and current harmonics, voltage sags, voltage swells, voltage short interruptions, voltage uctuations and icker, voltage
and current unbalanced components, etc. Aiming at such complicated power quality problems with the coexistence of voltage quality and current quality, a comprehensive regulation technology of
power quality is urgently needed, which makes unied power
quality conditioner (UPQC) [14] with combined series and shunt
compensation devices have widespread applications.
The UPQC, as a key platform for Custom Power, consists of multiple power quality regulators. The functions of voltage quality
compensator, current quality compensator and energy storage

444

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

device are integrated for meeting the needs of comprehensive regulation of multiple power quality for the Microgrid. It is actually in
the Microgrid that UPQC can fully demonstrate its superiority.
UPQC is a technology platform with multiple functions having a
higher performance price ratio. Fig. 2 shows a main circuit topology of UPQC, in which the dashed box represents UPQC. As Fig. 2
shows, the series unit is composed of converter bridge 1 and transformer T1 with the functions of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR)
and dynamic uninterruptible power supply (DUPS). The shunt unit
is composed of converter bridge 2 and transformer T2 with the
functions of static var generator (SVG) and active power lter
(APF). And the energy storage unit is composed of converter bridge
3, transformer T3 and energy storage elements with the functions
of battery energy storage system (BESS). BESS, whose energy storage elements can be lithium battery, supercapacitor, ow battery,
etc., is capable of coping with voltage interruption, thus improves
the reliability of power supply. As one of the internal unit of UPQC,
the energy storage unit is mainly supplied to the series unit and
the shunt unit of UPQC and responsible for the stability of direct
current (DC) side voltage.
Each unit of UPQC cannot only operate independently to
achieve their respective functions, but also operate jointly to
achieve a unied and comprehensive function [15,16]. To control
the series unit and the shunt unit of UPQC as a unied system, it
is required to solve the coordinated control problem between the
two units. The control problem of UPQC is gaining more and more
attention in Microgrid application. Different methods, such as PID
control, hysteresis control based on ANN, particle swarm optimization-based feedback control, and deadbeat control, have been
adopted to study UPQC: [17] presents an output feedback control
of UPQC based on a novel model; In [18], a particle swarm optimization-based feedback controller is designed for UPQC; In [19],
inverse system model is used to generate deadbeat control
response for UPQC; In [20], ANN with hysteresis control is used
for UPQC. In summary, existing control methods have their own
advantages and disadvantages. For instance, PID control is easy
for engineering implementation, but difcult to optimize. Fuzzy
logic control does not require a precise mathematical model and
has good robustness, but the steady-state error is hard to avoid.
Deadbeat control has advantages of high tracking speed and control accuracy, but disadvantages of weak robustness.
The UPQC problems, such as the voltage and current waveform
tracking compensation optimal control theory and the coordinated
control strategy on series and shunt units, still need in-depth
investigation to achieve higher performances and to create a

Fig. 1. Microgrid architecture block diagram.

Electric
vehicle
charging

Fig. 2. Typical main circuit topology of UPQC.

greener environment. Therefore, in this paper, a coordinated control method of UPQC series unit and shunt unit based on H1 model
matching technique is proposed to solve the optimal and coordinated control problems. H1 control theory not only can optimize
the design of control system with high control precision and
robustness, but also has a clear physical meaning and a strict
mathematical basis. Its effectiveness is validated through digital
simulations and laboratory experiments. The next sections are
mainly focused on H1 model matching control about power quality
waveform tracking compensation, H1 coordinated control strategy
of the UPQC series unit and shunt unit, and providing synthetic
experiment results of the UPQC.
H model matching control with power quality waveform
tracking compensation

H1 Standard control of model matching system

The proposed method is based on the H1 standard control of
model matching system shown in Fig. 3. M is a known ideal model
transfer function, which can be selected as the transfer function of
general lter; P is a known controlled objectpower quality regulator; K is a controller to be designed. As is shown, q is a weighting
factor, I is a unit matrix, w is the external input signal, u is the control signal, z is the controlled output, and the measured output is
dened as y = (w  v). Additionally, r is the ideal objective function
obtained from M, v is the actual output of P, and e is the deviation
between r and v. G is a generalized controlled object. The H1 optimal controller K can be conveniently obtained by the described H1
standard control problem.
The H1 optimal control problem is to construct a regular real
rational controller K, to keep the closed-loop system internally

Fig. 3. H1 standard control of model matching system.

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

stable and to minimize the H1 norm of the transfer function matrix

Tzw(s), i.e.,

minkT zw sk1 c0

The solving methods based on Riccati and linear matrix inequality (LMI) theories are utilized in this paper. The design objective is
to choose the controller K, such that the tracking error e is minimal. The H1 model matching technology is suitable to be applied
on power quality waveform tracking compensation.

Let the state space realization of the generalized controlled

object G in Fig. 3 be

A
6
Gs 4 C 1
C2

B1
0
D21

B2

7
D12 5

And make the following assumptions:

(a) (A, B1) can be kept stable, (C1, A) is detectable.
(b) (A, B2) can be kept stable, (C2, A) is detectable.
(c) DT12 C 1 D12  0 I 


 
B1
0
(d)
DT21
I
D21
For the generalized controlled object (2) and given c > 0, with
the assumptions (a)(d), the H1 standard control problem to be
solved is:
Design output feedback control law

u KsY

to make the closed-loop system shown in Fig. 3 internally stable

and

kT zw sk1 < c

It can be seen that the output feedback control law (3) which is
designed to meet H1 performance, is the dynamic control law to
abide by. The necessary and sufcient conditions for this H1
suboptimal control problem to have a solution are expressed in
Riccati equations:
T

2

A X 1 X 1 A X 1 c

B1 BT1

B2 BT2 X 1

C T1 C 1

5a

AY 1 Y 1 AT Y 1 c2 C T1 C 1  C T2 C 2 Y 1 B1 BT1 0

5b

The conditions to have a solution are: X 1 P 0, Y 1 P 0.

The maximum singular value constraint condition is:

r X 1 Y 1 < c2

5c

If the above conditions are met, then the output feedback

dynamic controller, which makes the closed-loop internally stable
and satises (4), is

"
Ks

^1
A
F1

Z 1 L1
0

then obtain the H1 optimal control signal u for Pthe power quality regulator UPQC.
The power quality waveform tracking compensation control
method based on H1 model matching technology can both meet
the optimization design and ensure robust performance, which is
not easy for other methods to realize. Therefore, this H1 power
quality tracking control method is more suitable for the compensation control of the complex power quality conditions in Microgrid.
Coordinated control strategy of the UPQC series unit and shunt
unit

The solution of H1 Controller Based on Riccati Equation

445

The conguration of the UPQC series unit and shunt unit in

Microgrid is shown in Fig. 4, with the series unit operating as the
controlled voltage source uDVR and the shunt unit as the controlled
current source iAPF. Besides, us is the equivalent microsource
voltage in Microgrid, Zs is the equivalent microsource internal
impedance in Microgrid (including the Microgrid line impedance),
and ZL is the equivalent load impedance. The UPQC series unit and
shunt unit are unied with interactions due to the couplings
between the series unit and shunt unit in the main circuit:
i. The interaction between the output voltage compensation of
the series unit and the output current compensation of the
shunt unit due to their electric connection with the outer
distributed line in Microgrid;
ii. The interaction between their inverters due to their sharing
with the inner DC capacitor of the energy storage unit.
The coupling interaction between the series unit and the shunt
unit increases the complexity of UPQC unied coordinated control.
An effective method is introduced to control the coupling effect
between the series unit and the shunt unit, which can make the
UPQC function unied and diversied. Furthermore, the control
manner is made simple and independent with each of the units.
The control method that can mitigate the coupling effect between
the UPQC series unit and shunt unit is addressed next.
Technology to mitigate the coupling effect due to the outer distributed
line in microgrid
Method to mitigate the effect that the UPQC series unit has on the
UPQC shunt unit
The compensation current iAPF of the UPQC shunt unit is affected
by the practical voltage of the Microgrid connected with the shunt
unit, as is shown in Fig. 5. Namely, the practical load side voltage at
the location B after compensation by the UPQC series unit directly
inuences the compensation current in the UPQC shunt unit.
The UPQC shunt unit is composed of a voltage source inverter, a
lter, etc. Its equivalent circuit, as is shown in Fig. 6, is obtained by
connecting the UPQC shunt unit with the Thevenin equivalent of

#
6

^ 1 A c2 B1 BT X 1 B2 F 1 Z 1 L1 C 2 ,
where
F 1 BT2 X 1 ,
A
1
1
L1 Y 1 C T2 , Z 1 I  c2 Y 1 X 1 .
The solution process of the above method can be summarized
as: First, set an initial value c; Then verify whether the c is satised
with (5a), (5b) and (5c), if not, increase c, if yes, gradually decrease
c, after several iterations, the approximate optimal c0 satisfying (5)
and the precision requirement is obtained; Finally, solve the
approximate optimal dynamic controller K according to (6), and

Fig. 4. Conguration of the UPQC series unit and shunt unit in Microgrid.

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Fig. 5. Equivalence of the shunt unit in the Microgrid considering the series unit.

Fig. 6. Equivalent circuit of the UPQC shunt unit.

its external circuit. Considering that the source internal impedance

Zs is usually small, the equivalent impedance Zeq can be neglected
(Zeq  0); when uDVR is not active, equivalent source voltage
ueq  us.
In Fig. 6, the inverter output voltage of the UPQC shunt unit is
up, the inverter is equivalent to an alternating controlled voltage
source; the switching loss of the inverter and the active loss of
the lter and the shunt transformer are equivalent to resistance
RP; the summation of the ltering inductance and the transformer
leakage inductance are equivalent to LP. Because the ltering
inductance current iLP is the compensation current iAPF provided
by the UPQC shunt unit, the state space expression of the UPQC
shunt unit can be addressed as:

x_ Ax Bu

y Cx

where the state variable x iLP , the control variable u uP  us ,

the output variable y is iAPF ,



RP
;
A 
LP

 
1
;
LP

C 1:

Therefore, the ultimate output of the UPQC shunt unit is just a

controlled current source.
In (7), the control variable of the UPQC shunt unit state space
expression is expressed as u = uP  us. But, when considering
the compensation of the UPQC series unit, the control variable
u = uP  (us + uDVR), in which a voltage corrective term uDVR is
added. Then the demanding output voltage of inverter is:

uP u us uDVR

where u is the optimal control variable obtained by the above H1

method, us is the voltage of the Microgrid, uDVR is the compensation
voltage generated by the UPQC series unit. The pulse width modulation (PWM) modulating wave uP of the inverter can be pulse
width modulated to implement the current tracking compensation
of the UPQC shunt unit.
In the practical application, a voltage transformer is assembled
at the location B to detect the voltage uB directly; u = uP  uB can be
employed as the control variable of state space expression in the

UPQC shunt unit, which considers the voltage compensation generated by the UPQC series unit automatically, the UPQC shunt unit
operates with the practical line voltage where it is connected.
Therefore, no matter how the compensation voltage that the UPQC
series unit generates, the shunt unit can always be considered as
the practical compensation of the series unit and operate properly
following its own H1 optimal control pattern. The effect that the
series unit has on the shunt unit can be essentially eliminated. In
summary, the technology to mitigate the effect that the series unit
has on the shunt unit can be addressed as: a voltage corrective link,
namely a voltage compensation component of the UPQC series
unit, is introduced to the control signal of the UPQC shunt unit,
and in the practical application, it can be realized by directly
detecting the voltage at location B of the Microgrid where the
UPQC shunt unit is connected. This will be veried by simulation
studies next.
Under the condition that the voltage and current compensation
are simultaneously applied by the UPQC, Fig. 7 shows the current
tracking compensation result of the shunt unit without considering
the series unit compensation. Curve 1 presents the objective
harmonic current waveform to be compensated, and curve 2 is
the practical compensation current tracking waveform of the shunt
unit, where there is a relative deviation between these two curves.
So, it is necessary to consider the effect of the UPQC series unit, and
then a voltage corrective should be introduced to the control signal
of the UPQC shunt unit in order to eliminate the deviation.
Based on the control method of (8), the current tracking
compensation result considering the voltage compensation of the
series unit is addressed. When the series unit compensates the line
voltage completely, namely compensates all the distorted voltage,
the current tracking compensation results are presented in Fig. 8,
where uA is the distorted voltage at location A in the bus, the
standard fundamental wave uB is the load side voltage at location
B after compensation by the series unit (refer to Fig. 4), iAPF is the
current tracking compensation waveform of the shunt unit under
this condition, curve 1 is the objective harmonic current waveform
to be compensated, curve 2 is the practical compensation current
tracking waveform of the shunt unit. They are matched well with
each other. The current tracking compensation of the shunt unit
is proven to have good performance.
When the series unit compensates the line voltage partly,
namely compensates some of the distorted voltage, the current
tracking compensation results are presented in Fig. 9. After the partial voltage compensation by the series unit, the voltage uB has not
yet become the standard sinusoidal waveform. Even under this
condition, the current tracking compensation waveform iAPF shown
in Fig. 9 clearly indicates that curve 1 (the objective harmonic
current waveform to be compensated) and curve 2 (the practical
compensation current tracking waveform of the shunt unit) are

Current (pu)

446

Time (s)
Curve 1: objective harmonic current waveform to be compensated.
Curve 2: practical compensated current tracking waveform
Fig. 7. Current tracking compensation of the shunt unit without considering the
action of the series unit.

447

Voltage (pu)

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Voltage (pu)

Time (s)

Fig. 10. Conguration of the series unit in the Microgrid considering the action of
shunt unit.

Current (pu)

Time (s)

Time (s)

Voltage (pu)

Fig. 8. Current tracking compensation of the shunt unit considering the action of
series unit (voltage completely compensated).

Voltage (pu)

Time (s)

Current (pu)

Time (s)

The compensation current of the UPQC shunt unit affects the

line current directly, so a counterpart of the effect that the shunt
unit has on the series unit is the additional voltage loss that line
current has on the lter and the series transformer of the UPQC
series unit, which can be removed by the control method.
The UPQC series unit is also composed of a voltage source inverter, a lter, etc. Its equivalent circuit, as is shown in Fig. 11, is
obtained by connecting the UPQC series unit with the Norton
equivalent of its external circuit. Without considering the effect
of the UPQC shunt unit, the current of equivalent current source
is load current il; considering the effect, it is practically the line current is of the source side after compensation by the UPQC shunt
unit, which is presented in Fig. 10. In addition, given that the load
impedance ZL is much larger than the internal impedance of the
UPQC series unit, the equivalent impedance branch paralleled with
the equivalent current source can be ignored.
In Fig. 11, there is no consideration for the series transformer
and the UPQC shunt unit, uD is the output voltage of the inverter,
which is equivalent to the alternating controlled voltage source
uD; the switching loss of the inverter and the active loss of the
ltering segment are equivalent to resistance RD; LD is the ltering
inductance; and CD is the ltering capacitance. The capacitance
voltage uDVR of the ltering segment is the compensation voltage
generated by the UPQC series unit, and then the state space expression of the UPQC series unit can be expressed as:

x_ Ax Bu

y Cx

Time (s)
Fig. 9. Current tracking compensation of the shunt unit considering the action of
series unit (voltage partly compensated).

also matched together obtaining good performance of the shunt

unit tracking compensation. Therefore, the results indicate that
no matter how the compensation voltage that the UPQC series unit
generates, the UPQC shunt unit can properly operate in its own
H1 optimal control way while considering the compensation of
the series unit. The effect of the current tracking compensation
performance that the UPQC series unit has on the shunt unit is
essentially eliminated.

Method to mitigate the effect that the UPQC shunt unit has on the
UPQC series unit
As is shown in Fig. 10, the UPQC series unit is connected to the
Microgrid in series. There is a voltage loss on the UPQC series unit
due to the line current, the lter and the series transformer contribute to the main loss where ZT is the leakage impedance of the
series transformer.


u
duDVR
, the control variable
DVR

x
where state variable x 1
h
i x2
dt
u u uD  RD il  LD didtl , the output variable y x1  uDVR ,

"

0
 LD1C D

#
1
;
 RLDD

"

0
1
LD C D

C 1 0

Therefore, the ultimate output of the UPQC series unit is the

controlled voltage source.
In (9), the control variable of the UPQC series unit state space
expression is expressed as:

u uD  RD il  LD

dil
dt

Fig. 11. Equivalent circuit of UPQC series unit.

10

11

where there is no consideration for the compensation of the UPQC

shunt unit and the voltage loss that the line current has on the
series transformer leakage impedance ZT after compensation. When
considering the compensation of the UPQC shunt unit, the line current owing through the UPQC series unit is the practical source
current is that microsource affords to the load after compensation
by the shunt unit, as is shown in Fig. 10. When considering the voltage loss that the source current is has on the series transformer
leakage impedance ZT, the valid compensation voltage by the UPQC
series unit becomes u0DVR (reference Fig. 10), where there is a relative
deviation between uDVR and u0DVR . u0DVR is the ultimate voltage
compensation generated by the UPQC series unit to meet the
requirement of the customer. To make up the voltage loss of the
series transformer, and to consider the effect that the shunt unit
has on the series unit, the control variable of the UPQC series unit
should be corrected. In Fig. 3, by introducing the voltage loss that
the current is has on the series transformer leakage impedance to
the external input signals of the series unit, the external input signal
w becomes w0 , i.e.

w0 w LT

dis
dt

12

where the leakage inductance LT of the series transformer is considered, while its resistance is ignored. Considering the new referenced
input signal w0 , and following the H1 model matching control
method, the new H1 optimal control variable u0 can be obtained
from the above H1 method.

u0 uD  RD is  LD

dis
dt

13

Then, the output voltage of the inverter in the series unit is:

uD u0 RD is LD

dis
dt

14

where u0 is the optimal control variable obtained by the above H1

control method; the others are the voltage corrective representing
the voltage losses that the source current is has on the lter considering the compensation of the UPQC shunt unit. By adding the voltage loss that is has on the leakage inductance LT of the series
transformer to (12), and introducing the voltage loss that is has on
the ltering impedance to (14), the voltage compensation deviation
of the series unit can be removed, and the ultimate voltage on line
compensated by the UPQC series unit can be paralleled with the
object voltage without steady state amplitude attenuation and
phase shift. And then, the PWM modulating wave uD of the inverter
is modulated to realize the voltage tracking compensation of the
UPQC series unit. In (12) and (14), the voltage corrective includes
the source current is, which is the line current after the shunt unit
compensating the load, so the effect of the shunt unit is considered
automatically. Therefore, no matter how the compensation current
that UPQC shunt unit affords, the series unit can always consider
the practical compensation of the shunt unit and operate properly
following its own H1 optimal control way. The effect that the shunt
unit has on the series unit can be essentially eliminated. In short,
the technology to mitigate the effect that the shunt unit has on
the series unit can be expressed as: after compensation by the shunt
unit, an additional voltage loss that the source current has on the
internal impedance of the series unit as a corrective link is introduced to the control signal of the UPQC series unit. In the practical
application, it can be realized by directly detecting the source side
current is. It will be veried by simulation studies next.

Time (s)

Voltage (pu)

dil
dt

Time (s)

Current (pu)

uD u RD il LD

Time (s)
Fig. 12. Voltage tracking compensation of the series unit without considering the
action of the shunt unit.

Under the condition of the UPQC series unit and shunt unit
working simultaneously, Fig. 12 shows the voltage compensation
results of the series unit without considering the effect of the shunt
unit, where uA is the distorted voltage at location A in the bus, uB is
the load side voltage at location B compensation by the series unit,
is is the source side current compensated by the shunt unit. After
compensation by the series unit, uB is not the standard sine-wave
voltage yet. The deviation comes from the voltage loss that the
source side current is has on the internal impedance of the series
unit, which causes fundamental wave voltage loss, and leads to
the voltage distortion when the harmonic current component is
not eliminated completely (some parts of harmonics contained in
is), which is shown in Fig. 12.
Therefore, it is necessary to consider the current compensation
of the UPQC shunt unit, following (12) and (14), a voltage loss
corrective is introduced to the control signal of the UPQC series
unit, and then the load side voltage at location B can become standard fundamental sine-wave voltage. The results are presented in
Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 next.

Current (pu) Voltage (pu) Voltage (pu)

So, the output voltage of inverter required is:

Voltage (pu)

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Voltage (pu)

448

Time (s)

Time (s)

Time (s)

Time (s)
Fig. 13. Voltage tracking compensation of the series unit considering the action of
the shunt unit (current completely compensated).

Current (pu) Voltage (pu) Voltage (pu)

P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Time (s)

Time (s)

449

generates and the compensation current that the shunt unit

affords, the UPQC series unit and the shunt unit can respectively
follow their own H1 optimal control pattern to operate properly
while considering the working condition of each other. Based on
the proposed control strategy, the interaction due to the coupling
of the external distributed line in the Microgrid between the series
unit and the shunt unit can be eliminated; the UPQC series unit
and shunt unit can operate coordinately, and the synthetic performance of ideal voltage and ideal current tracking compensation
can be realized simultaneously.
Technology to eliminate the coupling effect that the internal DC
capacitor has on the series and shunt units

Voltage (pu)

Time (s)

Time (s)
Fig. 14. Voltage tracking compensation of the series unit considering the action of
the shunt unit (current partly compensated).

When the shunt unit compensates the load current completely,

namely compensates all the fundamental reactive power and the
harmonic current, the voltage tracking compensation results of
the series unit are presented in Fig. 13, where uA is the distorted
voltage at location A in the bus, uB is the load side voltage at location B compensated by the series unit, the source side current is
becomes the fundamental pure active current by the complete
compensation of the shunt unit, u0 is the H1 optimal control variable of the series unit under this condition. Therefore, the UPQC
series unit now can compensate uB to become the standard sinewave voltage.
When the shunt unit partially compensates the load current,
namely compensates some of the fundamental reactive power
and the harmonic current, the voltage tracking compensation
results of the series unit are presented in Fig. 14, where, uA is the
distorted voltage at location A in the bus, uB is the load side voltage
at location B compensated by the series unit, the source side current is still includes some components of the fundamental reactive
power and harmonic current after being compensated by the shunt
unit (as is shown in Fig. 14), u0 is the H1 optimal control variable of
the series unit under this condition. As is shown, the UPQC series
unit also can compensate uB to become the standard sine-wave
voltage.
As is presented in Figs. 13 and 14, under the different conditions
of complete and partial current compensation to the shunt unit, for
compensating the load side voltage at location B as standard
fundamental wave, the demanded H1 optimal control variable u0
of the series unit is different. The simulation results indicate that
whatever the compensation current that the UPQC shunt unit
affords, the UPQC series unit can follow its own H1 optimal control
way to operate properly. The effect of the voltage tracking compensation performance that the UPQC shunt unit has on the series unit
is essentially eliminated.
In general, by introducing a voltage corrective link considering
the voltage compensation of the series unit to the control signal
of the shunt unit, and an additional voltage loss corrective link that
the source side current has on the series unit internal impedance
considering the compensation of the shunt unit to the control signal of the series unit, in other words, the voltage compensation of
the UPQC series unit and the current compensation of the shunt
unit feedback to the control system of the other unit respectively,
each unit can get each others real-time operating conditions. Thus,
no matter how the compensation voltage that the series unit

DC capacitance voltage is affected by the inverter PWM modulation of the series unit and the shunt unit, while the output of the
inverter is also affected by the DC capacitance voltage uctuation,
and this is another coupling effect of the UPQC series unit and the
shunt unit due to their sharing with the same inner DC capacitor.
By selecting the proper PWM control method, the limit of the
capacitance voltage uctuation can be released. So, the PWM
control method of the impulse equivalent principle is adopted, as
is shown in Fig. 15.
The pre-set switching frequency of the UPQC inverter is fK, the
switching period TK can be obtained by fK. For TK is much smaller
than the period of the objective variable to be compensated, so
the sampling value un of the inverter modulating wave uDP can
be considered to be approximately constant in every switching
period, then based on the impulse equivalent principle, the integral
area of the capacitance voltage Uc and un is equivalent to each other
at the corresponding time period, which is presented in Fig. 15, i.e.

jun j  T K U c  tn
The time breadth of the nth impulse can be addressed as:

tn

jun j
 TK
Uc

15

Then, by the sampling value un of the inverter modulating wave

uDP in the series and shunt units obtained previously and from (15),
the inverter switching control variable, namely the PWM impulse
group, of the UPQC series and shunt units can be got.

Fig. 15. PWM control method of the impulse equivalent principle.

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As is presented in (15), the impulse breadth tn is related to the

capacitance voltage Uc. To eliminate the effect that the uctuation
of the capacitance voltage Uc has on tn, while the modulating wave
being sampled to obtain un, the capacitance voltage Uc is also
sampled. Then the PWM impulse group obtained from (15) has
taken the uctuation of capacitance voltage Uc into account automatically, so the coupling effect of the UPQC series unit and shunt
unit due to their sharing with the same inner DC capacitor can be
essentially eliminated, and the PWM control has good accuracy
when the inverter of the UPQC series unit and the shunt unit work
simultaneously. The PWM control results of the voltage and the
current waveform tracking compensation in the UPQC series and
shunt units are presented in Fig. 16, which indicate that the voltage
and the current tracking waveform can follow their own ideal
waveform respectively after the PWM control.
Through the above part 3, the coordinated control strategy successfully resolves the coupling effects between UPQC series and
shunt units, and achieves their own desired compensation performance and control accuracy when operating jointly. And the block
diagram of UPQC H1 coordinated control strategy in Microgrid is
shown as Fig. 17.

Voltage (pu)

The coupling effect between the UPQC series unit and shunt
unit is successfully eliminated by the proposed coordinated control
strategy, their own required compensation performance and
control accuracy can be realized simultaneously when operating
together. A group of synthetic voltage and current tracking compensation results of the UPQC are presented in Fig. 18, where uA
is the source side voltage at location A in the bus, which has
voltage sag (30%) and contains distorted components of harmonic
voltage; il is the load current with fundamental reactive, harmonic
components, etc.
After the synthetic compensation of the UPQC series unit and
shunt unit, the load side voltage uB at location B becomes the fundamental sine voltage with rated amplitude, the phase of uB is the
same as the fundamental wave phase of uA, furthermore the

Fig. 17. Block diagram of UPQC H1 coordinated control strategy in Microgrid.

Time (s)

Current (pu) Voltage (pu)

Synthetic voltage and current tracking compensation results of

the UPQC

Time (s)

Current (pu)

Time (s)

Voltage (pu)

0.4

0.2

0.0

Time (s)
-0.2
-0.4

Fig. 18. Synthetic voltage and current tracking compensation results of the UPQC.

0.068

0.072

0.076

0.08

Time (s)

(a) Voltage waveform

Current (pu)

1.0

0.5

0.0

voltage sag and the voltage distortion components are compensated; meanwhile, the source side current is is compensated to
become the fundamental pure active current with the same phase
as uB, and the fundamental reactive and harmonic current components are compensated. There is proven good performance of the
synthetic voltage and current tracking compensation in the UPQC
by the proposed H1 coordinated control strategy.

-0.5
-1.0

0.040

0.044

0.048

Synthetic experiment results of the UPQC

Time (s)

(b) Current waveform

Curve 1: ideal compensated waveform
Curve 2: compensated waveform after PWM control

Fig. 16. PWM control results of voltage and current waveform tracking compensation in the UPQC series and shunt units.

A UPQC prototype was developed in the laboratory environment

to validate the method proposed in the paper as is shown in Fig. 19.
The voltage level of the prototype is 0.4 kV and its total capacity is
20 kV A including 10 kV A for the series compensation unit (DVR)
and 10 kV A for the shunt compensation unit (SVG/APF). The UPQC

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P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Voltage (V)

1400
700
0
-700
-1400
0

15

20

250

0
-250
-500
0

10

15

20

Time (ms)
Fig. 21. Voltage after Compensation by UPQC series unit.

84

Current (A)

42

t (rad)

42

84
Fig. 22. Current with harmonic component before compensation.

84

Current (A)

42

t (rad)

42

84
Fig. 19. The front view of UPQC inside.

25

500

Current dynamic compensation experiment of the UPQC shunt unit

The charging load contained harmonic current source is to be
compensated in the experiment. The current with harmonic component before compensation is presented in Fig. 22, the distortion
factor is 21%; the current after compensation with the distortion
factor less than 3% is presented in Fig. 23, and the fundamental
reactive current is compensated dynamically with the power factor

10

Fig. 20. Voltage with harmonic component before compensation.

Voltage dynamic compensation experiment of the UPQC series unit

The source voltage contained harmonic component is to be
compensated in the experiment. The voltage with harmonic component before compensation is presented in Fig. 20; the distortion
factor is 7%.
The voltage after compensation is presented in Fig. 21; the distortion factor is less than 1%. Therefore, the ability of compensation
harmonic voltage dynamically in the UPQC series unit is realized.

Time (ms)

Voltage (V)

prototype is composed of 4 parts all connected with the bus including the main control cabinet, the rectier unit cabinet, the series
compensation unit cabinet and the shunt compensation unit
cabinet, and can be connected with other devices like energy storage equipment. The energy storage is based on supercapacitors.
The UPQC prototype establishes an experimental platform for the
research of comprehensive management for power quality problems. By using the above coordinated control strategy, UPQC
integrated functions can be achieved, namely the functions of
DVR, SVG, APF etc., making the UPQC one overall system with
multiple functions.
Each converter bridge of the UPQC consists of insulated
gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules, whose number is BSM100
GB170DN2. They operate as voltage source inverter mode. A set
of IGBT module drive and protection technology is developed to
protect the converter bridge work reliably, and the special drive
and protection circuit module number is M57962L4Z51. Special
designs are also used on the UPQC reactors and transformers.
The UPQC control core uses digital signal processor (DSP) of
TMS320LF2407, which has good real-time control performance
and is suitable for waveform tracking control. In order to achieve
industrialization application requirements of UPQC, specic integrated protection circuits for overvoltage, overcurrent, overheat,
etc. are designed. The anti-interference of the whole equipment
is specically designed to ensure the reliable and stable operation
of UPQC on site. Based on the experiment of UPQC, the correctness
of the proposed control method is veried, which lays the foundation for further development of the industrial UPQC products.
The synthetic experiment results of the UPQC are as follows.

Fig. 23. Current after compensation by UPQC shunt unit.

25

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P. Li et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 65 (2015) 443452

Voltage (pu)

References

Time (s)
Curve 1: line voltage waveform with voltage sag
Curve 2: line voltage waveform after compensation
Fig. 24. The whole process of tracking and compensation voltage sag.

equal to 0.98 (lag). Therefore, the functions of the APF and the SVG
in the UPQC shunt unit are realized.
DVR functions-voltage sag tracking compensation experiment of the
UPQC
The voltage sag is to be compensated in the experiment. The
whole process of tracking compensation of UPQC can be clearly
seen through the change of the waveform in Fig. 24. Counting from
the moment when the voltage drop occurs, the load voltage can
resume normal voltage after about one frequency cycle. The efciency of voltage sag inhibition is good in UPQC.
Conclusions
In Microgrid, intermittent microsources (e.g. photovoltaic and
wind power), uctuating load, power electronic devices (e.g. convertor and electric vehicle charger), result in the coexistence of
many kinds of power quality problems. UPQC can provide excellent
comprehensive compensation solutions for such complicated
power quality problems, and provide a more reliable pure electrical environment for Microgrid. With the proposed UPQC solutions
in this paper, the Microgrid can be an ideal green power source
with high reliability and quality to customers, while the customer
can become a qualied customer to Microgrid. In this paper, the
advanced H1 control theory is used to design UPQC controller,
and the correctness and feasibility of the power quality waveform
compensation coordinated control method based on H1 model
matching has been effectively validated through the experiments,
which lay a foundation for the industrial application. UPQC can
realize the Custom Power functions in Microgrid suitable for Smart
Grid.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (50977029).

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