IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO.

7, JULY 2009

2493

Model-Based H Control of a Unified

Power Quality Conditioner
Kian Hoong Kwan, Member, IEEE, Yun Chung Chu, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Ping Lam So, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a solution to the control of a unified power quality (PQ) conditioner (UPQC) for PQ improvement
in power distribution systems. The problem formulation allows
not only harmonic compensation but also voltage sags/swells,
load demand changes, and power factor correction to be tackled
in a unified framework. The proposed controller combines the
multivariable regulator theory with H loop shaping, so that
zero steady-state error, robustness to modeling uncertainties, and
insensitivity to supply frequency variations can be accomplished
simultaneously, thus providing a complete theoretical solution to
all the aforementioned PQ problems. The effectiveness of the
proposed controller is, in practice, verified by experimental studies
on a single-phase power distribution system.
Index TermsActive filter, harmonic compensation, H-infinity
loop shaping, Kalman filters, multivariable regulator, power quality (PQ), unified PQ conditioners (UPQCs).

I. I NTRODUCTION

N RECENT years, the increasing use of power electronic

devices has led to the deterioration of power quality (PQ)
due to harmonic generations [1][3]. On the other hand, a stable
supply voltage has always been desired for smooth operations
of many industrial power plants. Therefore, compensating devices such as dynamic voltage restorers [4][7], uninterruptible power supplies [8][10], and active filters [11][17] are
proposed to ensure PQ. However, their capabilities are usually
limited as they can only solve one or two PQ problems. Recent
research has shown that the unified power quality conditioners
(UPQCs) [18][27], an integration of series and shunt active filters, can be utilized to solve most PQ problems simultaneously.
This motivates us to develop comprehensive and cost-effective
controllers that cannot only be implemented easily but also fully
utilize the UPQC to solve a wide range of PQ problems.
Different control approaches for the UPQC have been proposed. The most common approach focuses on extracting and

Manuscript received July 16, 2008; revised November 18, 2008 and
February 18, 2009. First published April 21, 2009; current version published
July 1, 2009. This work was supported by the School of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
K. H. Kwan is with the Laboratory for Clean Energy Research, School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore 639798, and also with Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore 529757
(e-mail: kwan0019@ntu.edu.sg).
Y. C. Chu is with the Division of Control and Instrumentation, School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore 639798.
P. L. So is with the Laboratory for Clean Energy Research, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
639798.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2020705

injecting distorted components, e.g., harmonics (from sampled supply voltage and load current), into the network [20]
[24]. This aims to make the load voltage and supply current
undistorted. However, there is no feedback (FB) of the load
voltage and supply current in these designs to show that they
are undistorted. From this point of view, these designs are
open-loop control. Also, the shunt and series filters of these
approaches are usually controlled independently, despite the
existence of a coupling effect between the series and shunt
filters [25]. Furthermore, if there is a drift in the operating
frequency, the extraction of harmonic components can become
inaccurate. For these reasons, this type of control approach
might not result in the best performance of the UPQC.
Another approach is the model-based control [26], [27].
Here, the UPQC is modeled with a coordinated control scheme.
The coupling effect is considered in the UPQC model. However, the cost and complexity of the UPQC will increase due
to the additional sensors or high-speed DSP needed. Moreover,
any modeling error can be detrimental to its performance.
The proposed approach in this paper is a model-based feedforward (FF)/FB control. First, a UPQC model is formulated.
Then, the FF control is applied to make the model outputs, i.e.,
the load voltage and the supply current, track certain desired
waveforms. It can ensure zero steady-state tracking error if
there is no modeling error. Otherwise, the negative effects
introduced by any modeling error can be mitigated by the
FB control simultaneously. This approach provides direct FB
to the controller and shows how well the PQ of the outputs
can be improved. The coupling effect between the series and
shunt filters is also taken care of. To minimize the cost, digital
Kalman filters are implemented in place of hardware sensors.
To minimize the complexity of the UPQC, the gains of the
controller and the Kalman filters are calculated offline and
then implemented as constant gains online. Also, the proposed
control approach ensures that the UPQC can still operate under
slight frequency variations in the supply voltage.
In what follows, this paper provides a complete solution for
the operation of a UPQC from the control theoretic point of
view, based on a multi-inputmulti-output (MIMO) state-space
model that is to be presented in Section III. The following four
tasks will be accomplished simultaneously by the UPQC:
1) compensating the harmonics in the supply voltage and
load current;
2) eliminating the disturbances due to voltage sags/swells at
the supply side or changes in the load demand;
3) correcting the power factor at the supply side;

0278-0046/$25.00 2009 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

sampling of the states of the state-space model. Consequently,

the cost and complexity of the UPQC will increase.
C. Proposed MethodModel-Based With FF and FB Control

Fig. 1. Classical control approach for the series active filter of the UPQC.

4) maintaining the power quality despite slight frequency

variations in the supply voltage.
In Sections IV and V, the technical details of the aforementioned tasks are given. In Section VI, the experimental
results of the proposed control scheme are presented. Finally,
in Section VII, the results of this paper are summarized.
II. S TUDIES OF P RESENT C ONTROL A PPROACHES
Generally, the control of the UPQC can be classified into two
types. They are as follows.
A. Type 1Extraction and Injection of Distorted Components
The distorted components of the supply voltage and load
current, e.g., harmonics, are extracted. These form references
to be injected into the network to make the load voltage and
supply current undistorted [20][24].
For example, in Fig. 1, to achieve voltage harmonic compensation in the distorted supply voltage vS , vS is passed into an
extraction circuit to extract the fundamental component vf . vf
is then subtracted from vS to obtain the harmonic components
vh . vh forms the reference to be injected into the network via
a controller and the series active filter. The same approach is
applied independently for current harmonic compensation.
This approach is simple and can easily be implemented.
However, the controls of the series and shunt filters are independent, so their coupling effect is neglected. Moreover, the voltage
drop across the line impedance and the voltage source inverters
(VSIs) are also neglected. Obviously, all these will affect the
performance of the UPQC.
B. Type 2Model-Based Control
A model-based coordinated control determines the switching
signals for the VSIs of the series and shunt filters of the UPQC
[26], [27]. Here, the power distribution network is modeled
with the UQPC into a multi-inputmulti-output state-space
model. The impedances present in the different components and
in the line can be included in the model. Then, a coordinated
control scheme is applied to the model. It will generate the
switching sequences for the VSIs of the series and shunt filters
of the UPQC. In this way, it calculates what is to be injected
into the system while taking into account the coupling effect
and the voltage drop across different impedances. Hence, the
performance of the UPQC is optimized as far as possible.
However, one drawback of such an approach is that any
modeling error can be detrimental to the performance. Also,
it may require a high-speed DSP and additional sensors for the

In this paper, a model-based coordinated control is proposed

for the UPQC. It is an FF/FB control that aims to regulate the
load voltage and supply current to the desired waveforms directly so that they are undistorted. The coupling effect between
the series and shunt filters is also accounted for. In the absence
of any modeling error, zero steady-state error can be achieved
by the FF control in principle. Otherwise, the negative effects of
any modeling errors introduced are mitigated by the FB control.
In general, the proposed control approach combines the
following.
1) An FF control that makes use of the linear regulator
theory [28], [29] to eliminate the tracking error between
the model outputs and their desired references in the
steady state if there is no modeling error.
2) An FB control to eliminate the effects of any modeling
errors and maintain a satisfactory performance under
slight frequency variations in the supply voltage. A loopshaping approach that effectively extends the idea of
repetitive control [11], [30], [31] to tolerate small frequency variations is adopted. To provide an overall robust
stabilization, H optimization [32][34] is applied to
maximize the stability margin of the system.
Furthermore, the control gains can be calculated offline and
implemented as constants. This control approach incorporates
Kalman filters as extraction circuits to extract the harmonic
spectra of the supply voltage and load current. All these can
reduce the implementation complexity and cost significantly.
The following section details the modeling of the UPQC,
followed by the construction of the proposed controller.
III. UPQC M ODEL
Fig. 2 shows a single-phase representation of the UPQC [35].
vS models the supply voltage at the point of common coupling
(PCC), and iL models the current drawn by the load. Due to
the use of advanced power electronic equipment nowadays, the
load could be nonlinear. Therefore, iL consists of both the
fundamental if and the harmonic ih . If the harmonics are
transmitted via the source impedance to the supply network,
vS , being the difference between the source voltage and the
voltage across the source impedance, will also be distorted. As
a result, other customers at the PCC will receive this distorted
vS that consists of both the fundamental vf and the harmonic
vh , which is highly undesirable. A purpose of the UPQC is to
ensure that the supply current iS remains harmonics free despite
the harmonics in iL (caused by the customers own nonlinear
load), and the load voltage vL remains sinusoidal despite the
possibly distorted vS (caused by other customers nonlinear
load currents transmitted to the supply network).
In Fig. 2, u1 (Vdc /2) and u2 (Vdc /2) represent the switched
voltages across the series and shunt VSIs of the UPQC, respectively. Rse and Rsh are the losses of the respective series and
shunt VSIs, respectively. Lse , Cse , Lsh , and Csh represent two

KWAN et al.: MODEL-BASED H CONTROL OF A UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

Fig. 2.

2495

Single-phase representation of the UPQC.

second-order low-pass interfacing filters designed to remove

the high-frequency components generated by the VSIs. vinj
denotes the injected voltage of the series active filter, while iinj
denotes the injected current of the shunt active filter. Finally,
the line impedance is represented by Rl and Ll .
With the details given in the Appendix, a state-space model
of the UPQC in Fig. 2 can be derived as follows:
 
vS
(1)
+ B2 u
x = Ax + B1
iL
 
vS
(2)
y = Cx + D1
+ D2 u
iL
where

l
R
Ll
0

A= 0
1
C

0
se
R
Lse
0

1
Cse

se

1
Csh

1
Ll



D1 =

0
1

0
0
0
0

B1 =
0
0
0
C=

C1sh
0
0

0 0
0 0

0
0


0
0
sh
R
Lsh

0
1
Csh

L1l
L1se
0
0
0

Vdc
2L
se

B2 = 0
0

L1l
0
L1sh
0
0

0
0

Vdc
2Lsh
0
0


1
0


0 0
D2 =
0 0
0
0

circuits but also allows us to obtain a complete discrete-time

solution for the original continuous-time UPQC model and
exosystem, which is to be explained in Section V.
IV. C ONTROL D ESIGN
Using the UPQC model discussed in Section III, the proposed control law (that consists of the FF and FB controls) for
the UPQC is given by
u = u + ufb

(3)

where u refers to the FF control law and ufb refers to the FB

control law.
Ideally, u is the FF control law that guarantees zero tracking
error between the plant outputs in (2) and their desired references in the steady state if there is no modeling error and ufb is
a stabilizing FB control law.
Generally, the tracking error might tend to a small but
nonzero value due to the truncation of the Fourier series (to be
explained hereinafter), and it might also have a large transient
energy due to voltage sags/swells or load demand changes. The
former may be regarded as a modeling error, and the latter may
be considered as a disturbance. Therefore, a task of the FB
controller ufb is to minimize the effects of such modeling error
and disturbance on the tracking error. The following section
will first discuss how to formulate the FF control law based
on the linear regulator theory and then how to formulate the FB
control law based on the idea of repetitive control theory and
H loop shaping to provide an overall system stabilization.
A. Design of FF Control

x = [iS ise iinj vinj vCsh ]T is the state vector; u =

[u1 u2 ]T is the control input, with 1 uk 1, k = 1, 2;
and y = [vL iS ]T is the output, which will be regulated to
track the desired sinusoidal waveforms.
In some previous approaches [25], [35], [36], state-FB control designs were adopted such that additional sensory circuits
may be required. However, in this paper, a direct output-FB
approach, which is to be explained in Section IV, is adopted.
Furthermore, the plant model is combined with an exosystem
observer for the control design. This not only replaces sensory

The first step of our control design is to represent the periodic disturbance of the model [vS iL ]T by another statespace model known as the exosystem. The basic idea is that
any periodic signal v(t)

that consists of a finite number of

harmonics, i.e., v(t) = i i sin(i t + i ), can be represented
by this state-space model (or the exosystem)
= A

(4)

v = C

(5)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

where A is a block-diagonal matrix, with the blocks given by


0
i
, and C = [1 0 1 0 1 0]. A differi 0
ent initial condition (0) then corresponds to a different set
of Fourier coefficients. Conversely, for a measurable periodic
signal v(t), its state can be estimated using an observer as
follows:

= A + L w

(6)

v = C .

(7)

The observer gain L can be designed from a steady-state

Kalman filter, and w = v v is called innovation, which is
essentially the difference between the target signal v(t) and
the estimate v(t), generated from the Kalman filter, such that
w(t) should tend to zero as t , provided that the model
(4) and (5) is exact and the matrix A L C is stable.
Since is actually a Fourier decomposition of the periodic
signal v(t), this Kalman filter (6) and (7) functions like a harmonic extraction circuit from the power system point of view
[37][39].
Next, we let the desired sinusoidal waveforms that vL and iS
are to track be represented by d = [dvL diS ]T . If harmonic
compensation is the only task [27], then we simply need to
apply the aforesaid Kalman filter to vS and iL to extract their
fundamentals vf and if (which are given by the first compo of the two Kalman filters) and let dv
nents of the states s
L
and diS be equated to them, respectively. Unfortunately, this
simple mechanism does not extend to handle voltage sag/swell
compensation and power factor correction easily. In this paper,
we propose to use two Kalman filters similar to (6) and (7)
to generate d = [dvL diS ]T , an estimate of d. Of course, the
associated A matrices are only 2 2 since both dvL and diS
are purely sinusoidal, but the corresponding innovations w must
be designed carefully, as detailed in the following.
1) Normally, dvL is supposed to be vf , the first state component of the Kalman filter for vS . However, if any
voltage sag/swell occurs in vS , the reference dvL should
be decoupled from vf so that it will not be affected. In
other words, the control system is designed to maintain
the magnitude of vL even when the voltage sag/swell
occurs. Therefore, we may let the innovation for dvL be

w=

vf dvL ,
0,

if no voltage sag/swell
if voltage sag/swell.

(8)

|
vf ||diS | = |dvL ||if | cos

(9)

(10)

where | | denotes the magnitude of a sine wave and is

the phase angle between dvL and if . Note that (10) does
not assume that the frequencies at the supply side and the
load side must equal each other, thus remaining valid even
under frequency variations at the supply side.
The four Kalman filters for vS , iL , dvL , and diS can be
combined into a more compact representation

= A + L w
 
vS

iL = C1

(11)
(12)

d = C2

(13)

where w is the vector of innovations. An FF controller can then

be designed by solving a pair of matrix equations known as the
regulator equations
XA = AX + B0 + B2 U

(14)

C2 = CX + B0 + D2 U

(15)

for the matrices X and U , where

B0 = B1 C1

D0 = D1 C1 .

Let the control u be decomposed into

u = u + ufb .

(16)

The FF control law is given by

u = U .

(17)

In effect, the regulator equations transform the original plant

model (1) and (2) into the following open-loop system:
d
= A(x X )
+B

X w + B2 (u U )
(x X )
dt

+D
1 w + D2 (u U )
e = C(x X )

(18)
(19)

where
X = B
1 XL ,
B

In practice, voltage sag/swell might occur anytime, and

dvL can be decoupled from vf once it settles down after
an initialization period.
2) For the current, instead of synchronizing diS with if , the
first state component of the Kalman filter for iL , we may
alter the phase of diS to make it in phase with vf . This is
basically the power factor correction desired. Hence, the
innovation for diS is given by
w =
vf diS

with the scaling factor designed such that when the

innovation (9) vanishes, the conservation of energy will
be followed

1 = [B1
B

0],

1 = [D1
D

0]

and e is the estimated tracking error defined by

e = y d.

(20)

The FF control can be represented by Fig. 3.

The FF control law (17) can guarantee zero tracking error
in the steady state, provided that no modeling error is present
and the innovation w(t) 0. However, in reality, there will
be certain modeling errors, e.g., the variations of the various
impedance values of the plant or the truncation of the Fourier

KWAN et al.: MODEL-BASED H CONTROL OF A UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

Fig. 3.

2497

FF control for the UPQC, with K/F denoting the Kalman filter.

Fig. 5. Magnitude plot of W2 (s) with three peaks at 50, 150, and 250 Hz.
Fig. 4. Combining the precompensator W1 (s), the postcompensator W2 (s),
and the stabilizing controller K (s) into an overall FB controller.

series in the formulation of the exosystem. Therefore, a complimentary FB control, which can be implemented easily, is
designed to mitigate the negative effects of any modeling errors
and to ensure satisfactory performance of the UPQC under
slight drift of the fundamental frequency.
B. Design of FB Control
In this paper, the FB control law is designed based on the H
loop shaping.
For a given linear time-invariant MIMO plant G(s), the idea
of H loop shaping [32][34] is to employ a precompensator
W1 (s) and a postcompensator W2 (s) to modify the open-loop
gain to a desired one and then close the loop with a stabilizing
controller K (s) that is computed by some H optimizations
to maximize the stability margin. Thus, the overall FB controller is given by W1 (s)K (s)W2 (s), as shown in Fig. 4.
Although the synthesis of the stabilizing controller K (s)
is pretty systematic, the design of the precompensator W1 (s)
and the postcompensator W2 (s) is problem dependent and
requires some engineering skills. Several case studies of H
loop shaping in power system applications can be found in
[40][42]. In [40], where H loop shaping was applied to
the steam-generator-level control in EDF nuclear power plants,
the precompensator W1 (s) was chosen as a second-order lowpass filter to increase the roll-off rate at high frequencies for
better noise attenuation, whereas the postcompensator W2 (s)
was chosen as a PI controller for zero steady-state error. On the
other hand, for the power system stabilizers in [42], W1 (s) was
simply set to one, whereas W2 (s) was designed to increase the
loop gain in the frequency range of the interarea mode but not
at other frequencies.
Our H loop-shaping approach to the UPQC is motivated
by the idea that slight frequency variations can be tackled by
properly designing W1 (s) and W2 (s), while the impedance
variations in the system can be handled by the robust stabilizing
controller K (s). Note that the values of the line impedance
and VSI impedances are not exactly known in practice. Therefore, the robustness offered by K (s) is an effective means
to maintain a desirable performance under such modeling
uncertainties.
To design W1 (s) and W2 (s), we note that the signals considered here are periodic. Therefore, the desired open-loop

shape should have a high gain at the fundamental frequency,

denoted by 1 , and its integral multiples. Indeed, the concept
of repetitive control in the literature [11], [30], [31] is to create
an infinite gain at all such frequencies by placing open-loop
poles on the imaginary axis, but how to robustly stabilize
such a system when the loop is closed remains a tricky issue.
The proposal of this paper is that, since an FF controller was
already employed in Section IV, we shall only focus on a few
important frequencies (typically the principal odd harmonics
inherent in a power system) rather than all integral multiples
of 1 . Hence, the closed-loop system can be robustly stabilized via H optimizations. Another important concern in this
paper is that the proposed control approach should be able to
maintain power quality even when there is a slight drift of
the fundamental frequency, which is not handled by the FF
controller in the previous section. To address this issue, the
high-gain region around 1 and its integral multiples should be
in the logarithmic scale of the frequency, instead of the linear
scale used in the repetitive control, since all harmonics are
shifted by the same ratio when the signal frequency deviates
from the nominal value. Based on these considerations, the
precompensator W1 (s) and the postcompensator W2 (s) for the
H loop-shaping design are selected as follows. First,
W2 (s) =

(s + i )2
s2 + 2i s + i2
i=1

(21)

with > 0 but very close to zero. In the experimental studies

in Section VI, W2 (s) consists of three peaks at 50-, 150-, and
250-Hz frequencies, i.e., the fundamental, third, and fifth harmonics, with the damping ratio

=

(co /1 )2 + (co /1 )2 2
2(co /1 )2 + 2(co /1 )2

(22)

and the 3-dB cutoff frequency co chosen as 1.05 1 . See

Fig. 5 for its magnitude plot. Note also that the loop gain
remains reasonably high even between integral multiplies of 1 ,
implying that not only integral harmonics but also any possible
interharmonics caused by the frequency drifts will be removed
effectively. Second, W1 (s) is chosen to be
W1 (s) =

s + 101
10s + 1

(23)

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(2) to become

Fig. 6. FB control for the UPQC, with FB/C denoting the FB controller.

Fig. 7. Overall FF/FB control for the UPQC.

which gives a typical loop shape of high gain at low frequencies

and low gain at high frequencies. This choice of W1 (s) may
also be interpreted as penalizing the high-frequency variations
of ufb .
Finally, the stabilizing controller K (s) that maximizes the
stability margin can be computed using tools available in the
Matlab Robust Control Toolbox. The overall FB control law is
then given by
e.
ufb = W1 (s)K (s)W2 (s)

(24)

The FB control can be represented by Fig. 6.

In other words, if there is no modeling error and w(t) 0,
then e(t) 0 and, hence, uf b 0 as t . Otherwise, the
complimentary ufb will seek to mitigate the negative effects of
any modeling error simultaneously.
By combining the FF and FB controls, the overall FF/FB
control in Fig. 7 is proposed. As can be seen, although this
control is model based, there is no need to have additional
sensors for the sampling of the states of the UPQC model (1)
and (2). Only four sensory circuits are needed for vS , vL , iS ,
and iL .
V. D ISCRETE -T IME C ASE
As the combined control law (3) given by
u = u + ufb
= U + W1 (s)K (s)W2 (s)
e

 
    
  
L
0

A 0
u
+ w+
=
B0 A x
B2
x
B1
  
 
    
0
d

0
C2 0
u
=
+ w+
D0 C x
D2
y
D1

(26)
(27)

and then apply ZOH to this combined system. The A matrix

after discretization will remain in a triangular form, implying
that the system can be decomposed back into a discrete-time
exosystem observer, followed by a discrete-time UPQC model.
The only point to note is that this discrete-time UPQC model
does not take [vS iL ]T as input but instead the estimated
exosystem state and the innovation vector w directly.
Hence, the regulator equations (14) and (15) are still the
equations to solve but are applied to the discrete-time model
data instead of the continuous-time ones. The solution matrix U
will be the FF gain. Putting the disturbance w and the modeling
errors aside, the FF control law guarantees zero steady-state
tracking error as in the continuous-time case but only at the
sampling moments since the problem formulation is now discrete. It is also worth mentioning that the observer gain L can
be designed from a discrete-time Kalman filter directly, rather
than the discretization of a continuous-time Kalman filter.
As for the FB part of the control law, the compensators
W1 (s) in (23) and W2 (s) in (21) can be converted into discrete
time using the matched pole-zero method, and the H synthesis
will be carried out in the discrete domain.
In this way, we have obtained a complete discrete-time
solution for the original continuous-time UPQC model and
exosystem.
One important point to note is that, although the formulation and the discretization of the control law (25) may seem
complex, its control gains, i.e., U and W1 (s)K (s)W2 (s),
are computed offline. This eliminates the need for real-time
computation of any control gains and hence reduces the implementation complexity. On the other hand, despite the robustness of our control design, it is only meant to deal with
small variations of circuit parameters or supply frequency, and
performance may deteriorate significantly when such variations
become large. This limitation should be taken into account for
real applications.
VI. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS

(25)

and the Kalman filter will both be implemented in discrete time

for experimental studies, this section describes the key elements
required for discretization.
First and the most important of all is to obtain a discretized
version of the plant model, based on which the discrete-time
controller will be designed. Note that it is not preferable to
directly apply zero-order hold (ZOH) to the UPQC model (1)
and (2) because the signals vS and iL are not piecewise constant
in the steady state. A way to overcome this is to combine the
exosystem observer (11)(13) with the UPQC model (1) and

Both computer simulation and experiment have been conducted to verify the control performance of the UPQC, but
only the experimental results are reported in this paper for
brevity. A single-phase power distribution system supplied by
a programmable voltage source, rated at 100 VRMS 50 Hz, is
constructed. Several light dimmers are used as the nonlinear
load. By adjusting the light intensity of the dimmers, the
demand and the harmonic content of the load current iL can
be varied. The supply voltage vS at the PCC can also be
distorted to a variable degree by paralleling additional light
dimmers. Note that a single-phase system is used merely for
simplicity. Our control methodology can easily be extended to a

KWAN et al.: MODEL-BASED H CONTROL OF A UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

Fig. 8.

2499

Overall configuration of the UPQC, with K/F denoting the Kalman filter and FB/C denoting the FB controller.

TABLE I
VALUES OF THE COMPONENTS OF THE UPQC

what follows, four test cases are carried out to investigate the
performance of the UPQC.

A. Test Case 1: Steady-State Performance

TABLE II
LINE IMPEDANCE AND VSI IMPEDANCES OF THE UPQC

three-phase UPQC topology [35] by adopting three sets of

controller, each working independently on each phase.
The control design of the UPQC is implemented using
dSPACE 1103. Data collection of the experimental results is
performed by Tektronix TPS2024 for graphical representations.
Note that dSPACE 1103 is chosen here mainly for fast prototyping. A more cost-effective implementation may be achieved by,
for example, Texas Instruments TMS320F2808.
The control law and the Kalman filter are computed in discrete time (see Section V) with a sampling frequency of 20 kHz.
The exosystem state consists of odd harmonics up to the 29th
order, which is expected to be high enough for the innovation w
to be negligible in the steady state. The decoupling of dvL from
vf , as described in Section IV, is done after 10 cycles (0.2 s)
upon the installation of the UPQC.
The overall configuration of the UPQC is shown in Fig. 8.
The physical design parameters of the UPQC are summarized
in Table I. The control design also requires the values of the line
impedance and VSI impedances, which are not precisely known
in practice and become a source of modeling uncertainties. The
impedance values are coarsely estimated and listed in Table II.
Another point to note is that the control u is converted into
the switching signals for the VSIs by means of pulsewidth
modulation (PWM). The switching frequency must be high
enough for the harmonics to be tackled (up to the 29th order
here) and is chosen as 7 kHz in the experiment. The PWM
also introduces nonlinear effects that are not represented by
the simple model in Fig. 2. The robustness of our control design to the aforementioned impedance uncertainties and PWM
nonlinearities will then be examined in the experiment. In

The first test case demonstrates the steady-state performance

of the UPQC in harmonic compensation and power factor
correction. The voltage and current waveforms under this test
case are shown in Fig. 9, where the total harmonic distortion
(THD) values of vS and iL are 10.0% and 26.4%, respectively,
but the UPQC manages to give a clean vL of 2.9% THD and a
clean iS of 3.5% THD. Note that they are not totally zero due to
the nonlinear effects of the PWM mentioned earlier but remain
satisfactorily small. On the other hand, the waveform of iS is
in phase with that of vS despite the fact that the waveform of
iL lags that of vL by around 30 . This confirms that the power
factor at the supply side has been corrected near to unity. As
a result of the power factor correction, the root-mean-square
(rms) value of the supply current iS (which consists primarily
of the load fundamental component that is in phase with vS ) is
lower than that of the load current iL , which will also be true
in all other test cases in this paper (see, for example, Fig. 11 in
test case 2).

B. Test Case 2: Sags and Swells in the Supply Voltage

The second test case shows how the UPQC copes with sags
and swells in the supply voltage. The voltage and current
waveforms are shown in Fig. 10. A programmable voltage
source simulates a voltage sag of 30% for 0.2 < t < 0.3 s and
a voltage swell of 30% for 0.4 < t < 0.5 s, while the load
demand is kept constant throughout the entire interval. It can
be seen that vL is hardly distorted, which is also confirmed by
the rms value measured and shown in Fig. 11. However, the sag
(swell) in vS instantaneously decreases (increases) the supply
power (see the real power measured and shown in Fig. 12). The
Vdc of the UPQC temporarily provides for this power difference
to maintain a pretty steady power consumed by the load (the
dashed lines in Fig. 12). If the sag (swell) is going to last, the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

Fig. 9. Experimental test case 1: voltage and current waveforms.

UPQC will demand a larger (smaller) iS , resulting in the rise

(drop) of iS in Fig. 11. For 0.2 t < 0.3 s, during the sag in
vS , as seen in Fig. 12, the supply power (the real power) drops.
The controller will automatically adjust the supply current to
rise [based on (10)] so that the supply power can recover
back to its original level for the conservation of energy to be
achieved during the sag period. When the sag in vS recovers at
t = 0.3 s, the supply power rises. Once again, the supply current
is adjusted to drop [again according to (10)] so that the supply
power can recover back to its original level for the conservation
of energy to be maintained when the sag is cleared. Then, for
0.4 t < 0.5 s, during the swell in vS , the supply power (the
real power) rises. The supply current is automatically adjusted
to drop so that the supply power recovers back to its original
level. This is done so that the conservation of energy can still be
maintained during this swell period. Finally, when the swell is
cleared at t = 0.5 s, the supply power drops. The supply current
is once again adjusted to rise to its predisturbance level, such
that the drop of the supply power is able to recover back to its
original level for the conservation of energy to be achieved once
again.
Furthermore, the reactive power delivered by the supply
(the solid lines) in Fig. 12 remains significantly close to zero
during the entire test period, confirming that the power factor
correction can be achieved at the supply side concurrently.

C. Test Case 3: Changes in the Load Demand

The third test case demonstrates how the UPQC adapts to
changes in the load demand. vS is basically the same as in
the first test case, with a THD value of about 10.0%. The
load current and its harmonic content are varied by adjusting
the light intensity of the dimmers. Three waveforms of the
distorted iL , from (I) having the highest light intensity but the
lowest distortion to (III) having the lowest light intensity but
the highest distortion, are shown in Fig. 13. The waveforms
of the corresponding compensated supply current iS , which
show a low THD value of below 4%, are shown in the same
figure. The THD value of vL also measures 3% or below in all

cases, confirming that both voltage and current are compensated

despite the load variations.

D. Test Case 4: Slight and Unknown Frequency Variations in

the Supply Voltage
The fourth test case explores the capabilities of the UPQC
to maintain the power quality under slight frequency variations
in the supply voltage, which may be regarded as a modeling
error in the exosystem. The voltage and current waveforms are
shown in Fig. 14. The programmable voltage source simulates
3 cycles of vS at 50 Hz, followed by 3 cycles of vS at 53 Hz
and followed by 3 cycles of vS at 47 Hz, while the load current
iL is always at 50 Hz. Note that the UPQC would attempt to
maintain vL at 50 Hz (the reference dvL has been decoupled
from vf since t = 0.2 s). On the other hand, even though it
does not know the drift of the supply frequency explicitly, the
UPQC automatically tries to match the frequency of iS to the
changing frequency of vS based on the innovation (9), as shown
in the waveforms in Fig. 14. Therefore, the task of maintaining
a clean iS is much more challenging than that of maintaining a
clean vL . As a result, the distortion of vL is very mild, but the
distortion of iS is more noticeable in Fig. 14.
It is important to examine the effectiveness of the H
loop-shaping approach in dealing with the unknown frequency
variations. Fig. 15 shows the contents of the signals from
the second harmonic up to the 29th harmonic, relative to the
fundamental one, measured when vS is at the third cycle of
47 Hz. A breakdown of THD values (in percent) into the odd
harmonics of the voltages and currents is given in Table III.
As our W2 (s) in (21) contains peaks at 50, 150, and 250 Hz,
the corresponding third and fifth harmonics in vL and iS
should be low, which is confirmed by the figures in Table III.
The residual harmonics in iS are mainly due to the 13th and
17th harmonics of vS (note that the 13th/17th harmonic of iL
actually has a different frequency from the 13th/17th harmonic
of iS ). On the other hand, the strong third and fifth harmonics
of vS and iL are mostly suppressed in vL and iS . This confirms
that the H loop-shaping approach is effective in handling

KWAN et al.: MODEL-BASED H CONTROL OF A UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

2501

Fig. 10. Experimental test case 2: voltage and current waveforms.

Fig. 11. Experimental test case 2: rms value of voltages and currents.

Fig. 12. Experimental test case 2: power delivered by (solid lines) the supply and consumed by (dashed lines) the load.

unknown frequency variations, a source of modeling error in

the exosystem, at the supply side.
Table IV summarizes the advantages of using the proposed
controller over a conventional PI-controlled UPQC [43]. The
PI parameters have properly been tuned to optimize the performance at 50 Hz. However, during the 6 cycles of frequency variations at 53/47 Hz, the power quality fluctuates significantly,
with a serious dip in vL and a big drop in the power factor. The
control signal u2 also saturates at 1, which partly accounts for
the performance degradation. On the other hand, our controller
can maintain the power quality more steadily over the 6 cycles

of frequency variations, and it is observed that saturations occur

only when the frequency variations last 10 cycles or longer.
VII. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a model-based solution via H loop shaping
has been presented for the control of a UPQC as a multiinputmulti-output system. This will handle the coupling effect
between the series and shunt filters. The proposed solution
integrates Kalman filters to extract the harmonics of the signals,
linear regulator theory to design an FF controller for zero

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

Fig. 13. Experimental test case 3: (top) load current waveforms and (bottom) supply current waveforms after compensation.

Fig. 14. Experimental test case 4: voltage and current waveforms.

Fig. 15. Experimental test case 4: harmonic spectrum of voltages and currents when vS is at 47 Hz.
TABLE III
BREAKDOWN OF THD VALUES (IN PERCENT) OF VOLTAGES AND
CURRENTS UP TO THE 17TH ORDER

TABLE IV
POWER QUALITY FLUCTUATIONS DURING FREQUENCY VARIATIONS

KWAN et al.: MODEL-BASED H CONTROL OF A UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

steady-state error in principle, and H loop shaping to synthesize an FB controller that robustly stabilizes the closed-loop
system. By properly choosing the innovations of the Kalman
filters and the loop shape, a wide range of power quality issues
have been put into the same methodological framework and
tackled simultaneously. Experimental studies have confirmed
that the H loop-shaping design is robust to modeling errors,
including the nonlinear effects introduced by the PWM and
the uncertain values of the impedance in the line and VSIs.
Furthermore, the proposed loop shape is an effective means
to maintain a good control performance when slight frequency
variations occur in the supply voltage. It is concluded that this
paper has demonstrated a systematic approach to the control
design of UPQC, providing an overall solution to a variety of
power quality problems encountered in a power distribution
system.
A PPENDIX
To derive a state-space model for the UPQC in Section III,
Kirchhoffs voltage and current laws are applied to the three
current loops shown in Fig. 2.
From loop iS , we obtain
vS = iS Rl + Ll

diS
+ vinj + vL .
dt

(28)

From loop ise , we obtain

u1

Vdc
dise
= Rse ise + Lse
+ vinj
2
dt

1
(iS + ise )dt.
vinj =
Cse

(29)
(30)

From loop iCsh , we obtain

Vdc
diinj
iinj Rsh Lsh
= vL
2
dt

vCsh = (1/Csh ) iCsh dt = vL

u2

iS + iinj iCsh = iL .

(31)
(32)
(33)

Rearranging (28)(33), we obtain the state-space representation

of the UPQC model in (1) and (2).
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Kian Hoong Kwan (S06M08) received the

B.Eng. degree (first-class honors) in electrical and
electronic engineering from Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, in 2004, where he is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Laboratory
for Clean Energy Research, School of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering.
He is currently a Lecturer with Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. His interests include active filters,
power electronics, power quality, control theory, and
sustainable energy.
Mr. Kwan is currently a Committee Member of the Power Engineering
Chapter, IEEE Singapore Section. He received the IEEE Singapore Power
Engineering Chapter Gold Medal and Book Prize Awards and the Singapore
Power Ltd. Book Prize Award during his undergraduate studies.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

Yun Chung Chu (S88M97SM06) received the

B.Sc. degree in electronics and the M.Phil. degree in
information engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 1990 and 1992,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in control from the
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K., in 1996.
He was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Chinese
University of Hong Kong in 19961997, was a Research Associate with the University of Cambridge
in 19981999, and is currently an Associate Professor with the Division of Control and Instrumentation,
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests include control theory and artificial
neural networks, with applications to spacecraft, underwater vehicles, combustion oscillations, and power systems.
Dr. Chu was a Croucher Scholar in 19931995 and has been a Fellow of the
Cambridge Philosophical Society since 1993.

Ping Lam So (M98SM03) received the B.Eng.

degree (first-class honors) in electrical engineering
from the University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K., in
1993, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical power systems from Imperial College, University of London,
London, U.K., in 1997.
He is currently an Associate Professor with
the Laboratory for Clean Energy Research, School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore. Prior to his
academic career, he worked for 11 years as a Second
Engineer with China Light and Power Company Ltd., Hong Kong, in the field of
power system protection. His research interests include power system stability
and control, flexible ac transmission systems, power quality, and power line
communications.
Dr. So is currently the Chairman of the IEEE Singapore Section.