ELECTRIC SPRING FOR VOLTAGE STABILITY
AND POWER FACTOR CORRECTION
Amalu Philip,Jaison Cherian-Asst Proffessor
Department of electrical and electronics
Saintgits College Of Engineering ,Pathamuttom
Kottayam,,India
amalu.philip@saintgits.org,jaison.cherian@saintgits.org
Abstract— The Electric Spring is an ingenious solution to the
problem of voltage and power instability associated with
renewable energy powered grids. Renewable Energy Sources
(RESs) like solar and wind are indispensable components for a
sustainable microgrid of the future. However, their intermittent
and unpredictable nature poses an issue of power and voltage
instability in the grid. This technique provides voltage and power
regulation at demand side. Electric Spring is able to provide
voltage and power stability in real-time. Implementation of the
electric spring through an improvised control scheme to provide
the power and voltage stability and overall power factor
correction. Single phase dq transform is used for the generation
of PWM signals by using PI controller to trigger the gate signal.
Keywords—electric Spring, Critical Load,PI controller
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy Demand is increasing day by day. Hence the available
renewable energy sources must be utilized efficiently in order
to meet the increased demand for energy. The main challenge
that power system engineers face today is to find new
technologies for efficient use of available renewable energy.
The main problem with renewable energy sources is that they
are intermittent and inject harmonics when connected to the
grid. Incorporation of renewable energy sources into the grid
hence causes stability and power quality issues. Many
technologies were developed in order to alleviate these
problems. Traditional series reactive compensators like
Statcom, Static Var Compensation, and UPFC technologies
provide reactive power compensation to overcome voltage
stability issues. The latest and more superior technology to
overcome problems related with incorporation of renewable
energy sources is electric springs. In future smart grids
renewable energy sources will be used more. Since renewable
energy sources are intermittent in nature, it is not possible to
determine the power generation in real time. Hence the
existing control paradigm, of power generation following load
demand has to be shifted to the control paradigm load demand
following power generation. Many load demand management
techniques like load scheduling, use of energy storage as a
Catherin Mary Agnes
Department of electrical and electronics
Saintgits College Of Engineering,Pathamuttom
Kottayam,India
catherinmary24@gmail.com
buffer, electricity pricing, direct control or on-off control of
smart loads was proposed. But these are not suitable for
energy balance in real time and have many drawbacks. Energy
storage method even though effective to reduce imbalance
between generation and demand in real time it is expensive.
Electric spring is the latest and most superior technology
which was developed to overcome all kinds of stability and
power quality issues caused due to incorporation of renewable
energy sources into the grid and also to achieve the control
paradigm load demand following power generation. The
concept of electric springs was developed from mechanical
springs. An electric spring is called so because it can store
energy and release it when needed like mechanical springs. An
ES can provide voltage support, store electric energy and
damp electric oscillations. For using electric springs loads
have been classified into critical and non-critical loads.
Critical loads are loads which require constant voltage at all
times for example hospital loads. Non critical loads are loads
are less sensitive to fluctuations in voltage like refrigerators,
electric water heaters etc. An ES is connected in series with
non-critical load. ES will always maintain constant voltage at
critical loads. ES will pass all the fluctuations to the non-
critical loads. The main difference between the series reactive
power compensators (RPC) and ES is that an RPC adopts
output voltage control whereas for the ES it is input voltage
control. It is this input voltage control that enable ES to
exhibit features that other reactive power controllers do not
have. A very distinguishing feature of ES that differentiates
it from other compensators is that along with providing
reactive power compensation it enables automatic load
variation in non-critical loads.ES enables distributed voltage
control.ES can be embedded in non-critical loads thus
enabling distributed control[1]. If a single ES fails to operate it
will not result in a catastrophic failure of the grid. Electric
spring has high potential in overcoming all types of stability
problems of future power systems with renewable energy
sources. Electric spring can reduce the energy storage
requirement of grid.ES provides real and reactive power
compensations. In grids with high penetration of renewable
energy sources an ES provides voltage regulation by input
voltage control. An ES enables power quality improvement Where Vs is the critical voltage,Ves is the inverter voltage,Rx
through input current control. and Lx are line impedances Iin input current and Vnc are non
The Electric Spring is an ingenious solution to the problem critical load
of voltage and power instability associated with renewable
energy powered grids. Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) like III. PROPOSED CONTROL SCHEME
solar and wind are indispensable components for a sustainable
microgrid of the future. However, their intermittent and
unpredictable nature poses an issue of power and voltage
instability in the grid[5]. This technique provides voltage and
power regulation at demand side. Electric Spring is able to
provide voltage and power stability in real-time.
Implementation of the electric spring through an improvised
control scheme to provide the power and voltage stability and Fig 2: Control Circuit For Electric Spring
overall power factor correction[2]. Single-phase dq transform is
used for the generation of PWM signals by using PI controller An advantage of using the single phase d-q transformation is
to trigger the gate signal. that the parameters of the converter are DC in steady state .
Thus from analysis point of view, the rates of change in
II. BASIC OPERATION OF ELECTRIC SPRING inductor current in d-q axes would be zero. And similarly, the
rates of change in the capacitor voltage in d-q axes would be
Electric spring was developed from the concept of mechanical
zero.Using the inverse d-q transformation, the modulation
springs. An electric spring is called so because it can store
signal could be obtained which would generate the
energy and release it when required just like mechanical
compensating voltage i.e. ES Voltage in steady state. The line
springs. Electric spring is used to overcome problems
current and voltage are chosen as control parameters because
associated with the incorporation of renewable energy sources
mq is directly linked to Vs,d and md is directly linked to Iin;q.
into the grid,it is realized using an inverter.An electric spring
The internal PLL property of the single phase d-q
can be used to provide electric voltage support, store electric
transformation is utilized in this control scheme; internal PLL
energy and damp electric oscillations. In a RES powered
is generated by using the line voltage, Vs. Thus, the q
microgrid, the electric spring could be realized through an
component of line voltage becomes zero and is used to
inverter and is attached in series with the non-critical load,
generate the reference t for the control loop[3]. We regulate the
such as electric heaters, refrigerators and air conditioners, as
d component of line voltage and the q component of line
shown in below figure to form a smart load. In parallel to this
current while the d component of line current, Iin;d is allowed
smart load, critical loads like a building's security system are
to vary dynamically. The direct (d) axis reference voltage
connected. The ES needs to operate under two major
signal, is calculated so as to regulate the rms of the line
scenarios: (a) when the line voltage, Vs is less than the
voltage to 230
reference line voltage, Vref (RMS value of 230 Volt) called the
Volt and the quadrature (q) axis reference line current is zero
under-voltage case and (b) when the line voltage is more than
so that maximum power factor correction for the system is
the reference line voltage called the over-voltage case.When a
achieved, such that the line current, Iin is in phase with the
voltage fluctuation occur the switch is closed and by adjusting
critical load voltage. A restriction is incorporated in the
the non-critical load the voltage is maintained constant at
controller so that the ES doesn’t become primary source in the
critical load.
system.
IV. SIMULATION STUDIES
The system shown in Fig. 1, with specifications as shown in
TABLE I is considered. It was simulated on a MATLAB
Simulink platform. The reference line voltage is set to be 230
Volt (rms)[4]. The system has an effective resistive-inductive
load.

Fig 1:Electric spring in a circuit

Fig 3:simulation model

The output voltage of the critical load when a voltage drop
occur at 0.2 ms is shown in figure below
CONCLUSION
400

300
The Electric Spring was demonstrated as an ingenious solution
to the problem of voltage and power instability associated with
200

renewable energy powered grids. By the implementation of

100

the proposed improvised control scheme it was demonstrated

Voltage

0
that the improvised Electric Spring (a) maintained line voltage
-100
to reference voltage of 230 Volt, (b) maintained constant
-200
power to the critical load, and (c) improved overall power
-300
factor of the system compared to the conventional ES. The
-400
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Time
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 proposed input-voltage-input-current control scheme is
compared to the conventional input-voltage control.
Fig 4:voltage drop occur at critical load
REFERENCES
So,by using the proposed control scheme the voltage [1] Chaudhuri, N. R., C. K. Lee, B. Chaudhuri, and S. R. Hui (2015).
regulation of the given system can be done when a voltage Dynamic modeling of electric springs. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid,
drop occur.The compensated critical voltage is shown below 5(5), 2450–2458.
400
[2] Ciobotaru, M., R. Teodorescu, F. Blaabjerg, et al., A new single-phase pll
300
structure based on second order generalized integrator. In Power Electronics
200 Specialists Conference.
100
2006.
Voltage

0
[3] Hui, S. Y., C. K. Lee, and F. F.Wu (2012). Electric springsa new smart
-100 grid technology. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 3(3), 1552–1561.
-200

[4] Shuo, Y., S.-C. Tan, C. Lee, and S. R. Hui, Electric spring for power
-300
quality improvement. In Applied Power Electronics Conference and
-400
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Exposition (APEC), 2014 Twenty- Ninth Annual IEEE. IEEE, 2014.
Time

Fig 5:critical load voltage [5] Tan, S.-C., C. K. Lee, and S. Hui (2013). General steady-state analysis and
control
The power factor is made to unity by using the proposed principle of electric springs with active and reactive power compensations.
method IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 28(8), 3958–3969.
30

20
[6] Wang, Q., M. Cheng, Z. Chen, and Z. Wang (2015). Steady-state analysis
10
of electric
current

-10 springs with a novel _ control. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics,

-20
30(12), 7159–
-30
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
7169.
400

200
voltage

-200

-400
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time

Fig 6:Current and Voltage of critical load

TABLE I. SIMUATION SYSTEM SPECIFICATION

Line voltage 230V
Line impedance 0.1 ohms,2.5mH
Non critical load 6.11+j0.44ohm
Critical load 11+j11 ohms
Switching frequency 20kHz
inductance 1.92mH
capacitance 13.2e-6 F
Line voltage 230V
Line impedance 0.1 ohms,2.5mH
Non critical load 6.11+j0.44ohm
Critical load 11+j11 ohms
Switching frequency 20kHz
inductance 1.92mH
capacitance 13.2e-6 F