Modeling, Design and Analysis of Different
Controllers for DSTATCOM
Bhim Singh, Senior Member, IEEE, Alka Adya, A.P.Mittal, Member, IEEE, and J.R.P. Gupta
Abstract-This paper deals with different control strategies for
DSTATCOM (Distribution Static Compensator) for power
quality improvement for a three-phase, three-wire distribution
system. A three-leg voltage source inverter (VSI) configuration
with a dc bus capacitor is employed as DSTATCOM. The
hysteresis as well as PWM current controllers are designed,
analyzed and compared for PI controller and sliding mode
controller. The capability of the DSTATCOM is demonstrated
through results obtained using MATLAB and Simulink based
developed model of the DSTATCOM system. The performance
of the DSTATCOM acting as a shunt compensator is found
satisfactory under varied load perturbations.
Index Terms-- Current Controllers, DSTATCOM, Hysteresis,
PWM, Power Quality.
I. INTRODUCTION
p OWER quality improvement has acquired tremendous
improvement in the last few years. This trend has
translated into the development of devices based on power
electronics. In this era of custom power devices, several
shunt, series and hybrid devices have been proposed and some
of these are also effectively applied worldwide. DSTATCOM
is one of the most widely applied shunt compensator [1-5].
DSTATCOM is based on the voltage source converter
technology and its control aspects have always been an area of
major interest among the researchers. A substantial literature
[6-11] has focused on control and simulation of DSTATCOM
and other FACTS devices using standard simulation packages
like PSCAD, EMTDC, MATLAB etc.[9-11]. A number of
control schemes like instantaneous reactive power theory [6],
power balance theory, indirect current control scheme [7-8]
have been used for DSTATCOM. Both open as well as closed
loop control techniques are available. Since the foremost
objective of any controller is to respond to the desired state in
Bhim Singh is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi, India (e-mail. bhimsinghrggmail.com).
Alka Adya is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi, India (e-mail.
alkaadyaggmail.com).
A.P.Mittal is with the Department of Instrumentation and Control
Engineering, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi, India (e-mail.
mittalap@yahoo.com).
J.R.P Gupta is with the Department of Instrumentation and Control
Engineering, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi, India (e-mail.
jrpg83gyahoo.com).
978-1-4244-1762-9/08/$25.00 C2008 IEEE
the quickest possible time, choice of a suitable control
technique is widely studied by engineers. Some of the criteria
affecting controller design are simplicity, closed loop stability
aspects and convergence criteria. The other basic
requirements relate to no phase and amplitude errors between
the reference and the instantaneous quantities, extremely fast
response under varying dynamic conditions and limited/ near
constant switching frequency to guarantee a safe operation
under a wide range of dynamic conditions.
Various closed loop controllers and current control techniques
have been proposed in the past and the most common ones
include ramp comparison, predictive control and hysteresis
control. This paper presents various issues in design of
Proportional Integral (PI) and sliding mode controllers (SMC)
using two different control strategies. Hysteresis controller
and the PWM controller are used to obtain switching logic for
DSTATCOM. The performance of these controllers is
demonstrated with linear resistive-inductive (R-L) loads
through simulation results using Power System toolboxes
(PST) of Simulink / MATLAB.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of DSTATCOM connected
in shunt configuration to the system. The model is developed
for a three-phase, three-wire system configuration.
DSTATCOM consists of three-phase Insulated Gate Bipolar
transistor (IGBT) based voltage source inverter (VSI) with
small filter capacitors and DC bus capacitor. The three-phase
IGBT based CC-VSI has three input inductors (Lc, Rj) and an
electrolytic capacitor at its DC link. Three-phase ac mains
with line impedance (Z,) feed power to linear/ non-linear
balanced and unbalanced loads. Small filter capacitors (Cc) are
connected in delta configuration at PCC. A provision is made
to make the loads balanced or unbalanced using appropriate
switches. DSTATCOM has no energy storage component,
except an electrolytic capacitor (Cdc) at its dc link. The
electrolytic capacitor helps to obtain a self supporting DC bus
of DSTATCOM for an effective current control. A dynamic
model of DSTATCOM is developed with both the power and
control algorithm to simulate its behavior. The system
parameters viz. system voltage, series impedance,
DSTATCOM DC link voltage, control parameters and the
load impedance values are indicated in the Appendix.
 Z=CIXI+ C2X2 (5)
The tuning of all the gain constants is required to amplitude of
reference supply current (Ipdr)
ISpdr = c3x1y1 + c4x2y2 (6)
Three-phase reference currents are obtained using Ispdr and
unit vectors, and thereafter appropriate current controller
schemes are employed for fast control of actual and reference
supply currents. The gain constants c1, C2, C3 and C4 are
suitably tuned to obtain the best performance.

C. Design of P WM control signal generation scheme

Sinusoidal pulse width modulation considered here utilizes
sinusoidal modulating signal compared with a triangular
carrier wave. The frequency ratio (mf) defined to be the ratio
of peak of carrier triangular wave to the frequency of
modulating wave is taken as 400. A high value of mf is chosen
DSTATCOM
so that dominant harmonics of the order of mf2, mf +4, 2mf
1, mf3 etc. are in the high frequency range and hence can
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of system with DSTATCOM. be filtered out easily using passive devices. The choice of
modulation index (ma) is generally between 0 and land for ma
III. CONTROL SCHEME greater than 1, it results in over-modulation.
The PI controller as well as sliding mode controller are The switching logic for a three-leg DSTATCOM based on
developed for power factor correction. These two current sinusoidal PWM is shown in Fig. 2a. The error signals are
control schemes are used to estimate amplitude of reference first obtained as the difference of reference and actual
supply current (Ispd,). Once the reference currents are DSTATCOM currents and then converted to modulated
generated, hysteresis and PWM current controllers are voltage signals for the three-phases. This conversion may be
designed to obtain appropriate gating signals. These gating achieved by using three proportional (P) controllers or PI
pulses provide switching on and off of six IGBT switches of controllers. The intersection of modulated voltage signal with
the voltage source inverter working as a DSTATCOM. carrier signals defines the switching logic for leg 'A'and for
other two legs for the VSI based DSTATCOM.
A. Design ofPI Controller
PI controller is one of the most widely sought after
controller in industry as it is the simplest to design. In D. Design of Hysteresis Controller
proposed system, one PI controller is developed over the DC Hysteresis controller for tracking of reference source
link voltage of DSTATCOM. The DC bus voltage is filtered currents is shown in Fig.2b. The error signals of the reference
and then compared with the reference value. The resulting and the actual (instantaneous) source currents are determined
error signal (ve(n) Vdcr -Vdc(n) ) is obtained and the output and compared within a small hysteresis band generally 1% to
Vo(n) obtained as:
is 5% of the current level. The control logic used is given as
Vo(n)= Vo(n1l) Kp (Ve(n)-Ve(n-I)) Ki Ve(n)
+ + (1) If (isa < isa* - hb) then upper switch of VSC is OFF and
where Kp and Ki are the proportional and integral gain lower switch is ON. The upper and the lower switching device
constants for the PI controller. The output Vo(n) is taken as (IGBT in the model) are switched in a complementary
amplitude of Ispdr after limiting it to a safe value. fashion.
B. Design ofSliding Mode Controller
The hysteresis band hb can be varied. A narrow hysteresis
band results in very good and fast tracking of currents but
The design of sliding mode controller is based on forcing a switching frequency may become too high. A wide hysteresis
variable to follow specific trajectory known as sliding surface. band may not provide effective tracking and the system may
This non-linear controller is designed by choosing state become unstable.
variables xl x2 which are defined as:
ve(n) = Vdcr -Vdc(n) xI
= (2) IV. MATLAB BASED MODELING AND PERFORMANCE
and its derivative x2 = (Ve(n)-Ve(n-l) )/ Tx MATLAB based models of a three-phase three-wire grid
where Tx is sampling interval. The switching functions yi, Y2 connected system feeding linear loads (R-L) have been
are defined as: developed and the performance of these have been studied for
y=+l (if zxI>0) dynamic load changes. The non-linear load is modeled and
and yl=- I (if zxl < 0) (3)
y2=+l (ifzx2>0)andy2=-1 (ifzx2<0) (4)
where z is the switching hyper-plane function defined as
 bLea NOT dobl

booe NOT double

booe NOTdo ubleIIN

Current
YNZNNI~
Triangular
errors carrier

Fig. 2a. Schematic representation of PWM carrier-less control.

ar --< |
---s_

la 43
L

br '* X

!-----------l
cr~~~~~~~~~~

Reference Actual currents Hysteresis

currents controller

Fig. 2b. Schematic representation of PWM hysteresis control.

11- In Out

Pi
controller2 controllerl

Fig. 3. MATLAB based model for the system. simulated in the form of a three-phase diode bridge rectifier
feeding resistive loads. Both the power circuit as well as
appropriate controller (PI or SMC) are developed using
Simulink and Power System Toolbox of MATLAB.
Figure 3 shows the detailed MATLAB model developed
for the three-phase, three-wire system with linear or nonlinear
loads. The results of the developed DSTATCOM model with
linear loads and different controllers are presented in Fig.4-6.
A. Performance with PI- Hysteresis Current Controller with
Linear Loads
Performance of DSTATCOM with a PI controller
employing a hysteresis current controller is shown in Fig.4 for
power factor correction. This figure shows variation of
various quantities viz.(supply voltage, currents, load currents,
DSTATCOM currents and DC link voltage) for a three-phase
(18kW) linear load. At t=0.3sec to 0.4sec, the load is doubled
to 36kW and brought back to its initial value at t=0.4sec.
These responses show that DC link is nearly maintained to
700V with +40V overshoot and undershoot. DSTATCOM
improves the power factor of ac supply to unity under varying
loads.

B. Performance with PI-P WM Based Current Controller with

Linear Loads
Performance of DSTATCOM with a PI controller with
PWM triangular carrier wave is shown in Fig.5 for a similar
change of load from three-phase linear load of 18kW. The
load perturbations are simulated at t=0.7sec where the load is
doubled from 18 to 36 kW and reverted back to its initial
value at t=0.8sec. It is observed that the DC link is regulated
to 800V. DSTATCOM improves the power factor of ac
supply to unity under varying load. Supply currents (is), Q25 Q3 .35 Q4 045 Q5
DSTATCOM currents (ic) and dc bus voltage (Vdc) settle to
steady state values within a cycle for any type of change in gm-
load. The PI controller regulates the DC link voltage error to -80D-
zero under steady state as well as dynamic load changes. 0
-clu
C. Performance with SMC Controller with Linear Loads am-
Here, SMC controller is developed instead of the PI control Q25 Q3 .35 Q4 045 Q5
and all four parameters (c1, C2, C3, C4) are tuned to obtain bn(s)
optimum performance. Fig.6 shows the performance of
DSTATCOM with sliding mode controller with hysteresis
current controller. The dynamic performance of the model is
tested using load perturbations. The load is changed from Fig. 4. Performance of DSTATCOM with PI and hysteresis controller
under variation of loads at t=0.3sec and t=0.4sec.
36kW to 24kW at t=0.3sec (3-phase to two-phase) and then
brought back to 36kW at t=0.34sec. It is observed that DC
link voltages stay at slightly higher values in the transient D. Performance with PI- Hysteresis Current Controller with
conditions with SMC whereas the PI controllers regulate the Non-Linear Loads
DC link voltage error to zero under steady state as well as Performance of DSTATCOM with a PI controller
dynamic load changes. The three supply currents are employing a hysteresis current controller for non-linear loads
sinusoidal and in phase with the supply voltages thereby unity is shown in Fig.7 for power factor correction. This figure
power factor is achieved. shows variation of various quantities viz.(supply voltage,
The performance of controllers with non-linear loads is currents, load currents, DSTATCOM currents and DC link
now compared as shown in Fig.7-12. The non-linear load is voltage) for a three-phase (32kW) nonlinear load. The load
represented in the form of R connected at end of diode is varied from 32kW to 48kW at t= 0.24sec and brought back
rectifier. to its initial value at t=0.28secsec. The reference DC link
voltage is set to 700V and the response shows that PI
controller is able to maintain DC link voltage nearly to 700V.
DSTATCOM improves the power factor of ac supply to unity
under varying load. The THD of line current is 28.76% which

06 Q65 07 075 08 Q85 09

100 1 T

-50
-IW
06 Q65 07 075 08 0Q8 09

-50I II

06 066 07 075 08 086 09

I 1I T T
9S0 700

7W0 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

Time(sec)
06 07 075 08 09
Tin z)

Fig. 6. Performance of DSTATCOM with Sliding mode controller.

Fig. 5. Performance of DSTATCOM with PI and PWM controller.

is reduced to THD of 3.13 % in supply current by
DSTATCOM action. The harmonic spectra of the supply and
load currents are also shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9 respectively.
The THD of the supply current is reduced to less than 5%
level.
E. Performance with SMC Controller with Non-Linear Loads
Performance of DSTATCOM with a SMC controller for non-
linear load is shown in Fig. 10 for power factor correction.
This figure shows variation of supply voltage and currents,
load load currents, DSTATCOM currents and DC link voltage
for a three-phase 32kW non-linear load. The load is
 200

-200

-400
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
100

50

-50

-100
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3

lOC --T

-50

-500
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3

O
bU II~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I I
_

-DU
0.18 0.2 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28 0.3 0.332
-50
0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3 800
750 _
800- 5
700
>.700 650 _

600 ._
600- 0.18 0.2 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28 0.3 0.32

0.2 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.25 0.26 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.3
Time(sec)

Fig. 7. Performance of PI controller with nonlinear loads. Fig. 10. Performance of SMC controller with nonlinear loads.

90
90 THD: 3.13%
80 80 THD: 1.38 %
70 70
60 60
50
50
i 40
30- 40
20 30
10
20
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 10
0
harm onics
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33

Fig. 8. Harmonic spectra for supply current. Fig. 11. Harmonic spectra for supply current.
100 80

80-
THD: 28.76 70 THD: 28.71%
60-
60- 50
=40- Z-40
30
20- 20
0 _ 10 _ _ _
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
harm onics 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
harmonic order
Fig. 9. Harmonic spectra for load current.
Fig. 12. Harmonic spectra for load current.
varied from 32kW to 48kW at t=0.22sec and then brought
back to 32kW at t=0.26sec. The controller is tuned to show
the optimum performance and reduction of THD of supply
currents to less than 5% levels as per IEEE 519 standard.
The reference DC link voltage is set to 750V and the
controller parameters are appropriately tuned to obtain the
best response. DSTATCOM is able to improve the THD of
line current from 28.71% to THD of 1.38% in supply current.
The harmonic spectra of the load and the supply currents are
also shown in Figs. 11-12. Although the SMC controller gives
near sinusoidal waveform for supply currents, yet the DC link
voltage is not brought back to its reference value during
dynamic disturbances. The SMC controller only gives
indicative direction of voltage change during disturbances.
Thus, the performance of a wide variety of linear as well as
non-linear loads is studies under different controllers for the
three-phase, three-wire VSC based DSTATCOM has been
studied. It has been found that for small systems, PI based
hysteresis current controller is the simplest and works well.
For the test DSTATCOM system developed using MATLAB,
hysteresis controller with PI based control has been developed
for a band of +5%. Bandwidth predominantly affects the
performance results. The controller is easier to develop as the
number of control parameters are fewer. The only
disadvantage of hysteresis current controller is that the high
switching may not be desirable for all applications as the
losses associated with power electronic device increase.
Moreover, high acoustic noise may make the controller
unsuitable for commercial applications.
Next, PWM based controller has been developed for
DSTATCOM to achieve unity power factor. The
DSTATCOM is controlled to perform well in this case also
and the disadvantage of variable switching frequency
associated with hysteresis control are also effectively
eliminated. The PWM scheme is designed to perform at
m '400.
The performance results with SMC controller are found to
be remarkably different than obtained with PI control. The DC
link voltage does not return to its reference value after each
load disturbance. Moreover, tuning of SMC controller
required obtaining optimum values of all four control
parameters simultaneously, which is relatively tedious than
hysteresis controller.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Two types of closed loop controllers and current schemes
have been designed and modeled for a DSTATCOM working
as a shunt compensator on a three-phase, three-wire system
feeding linear loads. The controllers have been developed for
optimum performance when DSTATCOM works in the power
factor correction mode. The performance of PI and SMC
controller is similar under steady state conditions but varies
under dynamic load changes. Moreover, the hysteresis
controller maintains instantaneous currents for all the three-
phases exactly within the tolerance band. It has provided
simple, very effective control with almost zero tracking errors
and good response to dynamics of load changes. The PWM
current controller has one distinct advantage over the
hysteresis current controller in terms of fixed switching
frequency. However, there may be inherent tracking error
which may be reduced by proper tuning of PI controllers.
SMC controller needs tuning of four parameters but its
parameters are less sensitive to variation in system parameters.
VI. APPENDIX
System: 3-phase, 3wire, 338V p-p, 50Hz
Load: R-L linear load, delta connected, 18kW (R=1OQ,
L=24mH)
PI Controller :Kp=0.1, Ki=0.3
SMC Controller: c1= 0.35, c2= 0.35, C3= 1.2, C4= 1.5
VII. REFERENCES
[1] N.G.Hingorani and L.Gyugyi, Understanding FACTS, Standard
Publishers, Delhi, 2001.
[2] T. J. E. Miller, Reactive Power Control in Electric Systems. Toronto,
Ontario, Canada: Wiley, 1982.
[3] A.Ghosh and G. Ledwich,Power Quality Enhancement using Custom
Power devices, Kluwer Academic Publishers, London 2002.
[4] R.M.Mathur (Editor), Static Compensators for Reactive Power Control,
Contexts Publications, Winnipeg, Canada, 1984.
[5] Y.H.Song and A.T.Johns, Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS),
IEE Press, Oct 1999.
[6] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa and A. Nabae, "Instantaneous Reactive Power
Compensators Comprising Switching Devices without energy storage
Components," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.20,
no.3, pp. 625-630, May/June 1984.
[7] B.N.Singh, A. Chandra, Al-Haddad, "DSP based indirect-current
controlled STATCOM -I Evaluation of current controlled techniques,"
IEE proceedings on Electric Power Applications, vol. 147-2, pp.107-
1 12, March 2000.
[8] B.N.Singh, A. Chandra, Al-Haddad, "DSP based indirect-current
controlled STATCOM-II Multifunctional capabilities, IEE proceedings
on Electric Power Applications, vol. 147-2, March 2000, pp. 1 13-118.
[9] 0. Lara and E. Acha, "Modeling and analysis of custom power systems
by PSCAD/ EMTDC," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 17,
No. 1, pp. 266-272, Jan. 2002.
[10] P.Giroux, G.Sybille and H.Le-Huy, "Modeling and Simulation of a
Distribution STATCOM using Simulink's Power System Block set," in
Proceedings of IECON'01 27th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial
Electronics Society, vol. 2, p. 990-994.
[11] Power System Block set For Use with Simulink, User's Guide; The
Math works Inc., 2000.
VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Bhim Singh (SM'99) graduated from University of Roorkee in 1977 with BE
(Electrical), MTech in Power Apparatus and Systems from IIT Delhi in 1979
and PhD from IIT Delhi in 1983. He is currently working as a Professor in IIT
Delhi. He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India), Fellow of INAE and
IETE, a Life Member of ISTE, SSI and NIQR and Senior Member IEEE. His
research interests include power electronics, electrical machines, induction
generator, active filters, static VAR compensator, analysis and digital control
of electrical machines, FACTS, electric drives.
Alka Adya graduated from Delhi College of Engineering in 1996 with BE
(Electrical), MTech in Power Systems from IIT Delhi in 2001 and Ph.D from
Delhi University, 2007. She is presently working as an Assistant Professor in
the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in Maharaja
Agrasen Institute of Technology. Her research interests include FACTS,
power systems and power quality.
A.P.Mittal received his B.E. in 1978 from M.M.M Engg. College,
Gorakhpur, M.E. in 1980 from University of Roorkee and PhD in 1991
from IIT Delhi. He has teaching experience of more than twenty years. He
is presently Professor and Head of Instrumentation and Control
Engineering Department in Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. He is
a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India). His research interests include
active filters, FACTS, electric machines and drives.
J.R.P. Gupta graduated from Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology
(M.I.T) and received his B.Sc. degree in 1972 and completed his Ph.D.
degree from University of Bihar in 1983. He has been in Netaji Subhas
Institute of Technology for the last ten years and is presently holding the
position of Professor and Head of Instrumentation and Control
Engineering Department in Delhi University. His research interests
include power electronics, active filters, power quality, electric drives.