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Designing a fuzzy-LQR controller for STATCOM based 3-level voltage source

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 Designing a fuzzy-LQR controller for
STATCOM based 3-level voltage source
converter
Naser Mahdavi Tabatabaei, Naser Taheri, Javad Hamidi

Abstract—This paper presents the use of three levels
STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator) for reactive
power compensation and voltage stabilization on electric grid
network. A new control scheme based on a hybrid fuzzy-LQR
control is introduced in this paper. Linear quadratic regulator
(LQR) is an optimal control method that minimizes the cost
function in order to achieve the optimal trade off between the
use of control effort, the magnitude and the speed of response.
Also it guarantees a stable control system and the Fuzzy logic is
used to design of control system in outer loops because of
STATCOM nonlinear characterizations. The controller and the
STATCOM were designed with MATLAB/SIMULINK.
Simulation results are presented to verify performance of
control system.
Keywords—Fuzzy Logic, LQR, STATCOM, Voltage
source converter.
II. POWER SYSTEM MODELLING
Modeling the scheme sample STATCOM including the
power network is done using MATLAB/SIMULINK as
shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows the single line
diagram representing the STATCOM and the host grid
network. The feeding network is represented by a
Thevenin equivalent (bus B1) where the voltage source
represented by a 230*1.03 kV with 10000 MVA short
circuit power with a X/R = 8 followed by a transmission
line connected to middle bus Vt. The system parameters
are given in Table 1. The STATCOM device is included
mainly 3-level voltage source converter connected to the
host grid network through a coupling transformer. The dc
link voltage is provided by the capacitor C which is
charged from the AC host network.

I. INTRODUCTION

Flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices are

being used increasingly in modern power systems to
improve both static and dynamic performances of the
systems. With the increasing power rating achieved by
solid-state devices, the Static Synchronous Compensator
(STATCOM) is taking place as one of the new
generation flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS)
devices. A STATCOM provides better dynamic
performance and minimal interaction with the supply
grid. As a promising technology, the control of
STATCOM has been discussed in many literatures [1]-
[4]. Many of the methods focus on decoupling the system
variables and designing PI controllers. A STATCOM is a
Fig. 1 SMIB System by Installed STATCOM
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system. It is not
.
possible to totally decouple the system variables.
Therefore, the control performance may sometimes be A. Dynamic Equation for STATCOM
poor. Other control methods apply state feedback control One convenient way for studying balanced three-phase
Techniques [3], [4].also it is proposed a PI_LQR in [5] system (especially in synchronous machine problems) is
for eliminate steady state error. In this paper, a hybrid to convert the three phase voltages and currents into
fuzzy _ LQR method for STATCOM control is synchronous rotating frame by abc / dq transformation.
introduced. This method use a LQR Controller, instead of The benefits of such arrangement are: the control
a traditional PI controller, in the STATCOM current problem is greatly simplified because the system
control loop and fuzzy logic controller in inner loop for variables become DC values under balanced condition;
improvement control strategy. multiple control variables are decoupled so that the use of
classic control method is possible, and even more
physical meaning for each control variable can be
acquired [5]. Equations (1) to (3) give the mathematical the controller. The feedback gain K is obtained by getting
expression of the STATCOM shown in Figure 1. matrix P first via solving the Riccati equation:

di d R 1 AT P + PA − PBR −1 B T P + Q = 0 (6)
= − i d + ωi q + (Vtd − V sd ) (1)
dt L L
Therefore,
diq R 1
= −ωid − iq + (Vtq − Vsq ) (2)
dt L L K = R −1 B T P (7)

dVdc 3(Vtd i d + Vtq i q ) i L When the feedback gain K is obtained, the LQR
=− − (3) controller can be easily designed to make the states
dt 2C sVdc Cs
approach zeros optimally.
Writing equations (1) and (2) in the state space format as
B. STATCOM control circuit (5), the corresponding matrix can be found as:
Figure.3 illustrates the actual detailed control block
diagram for STATCOM according dynamic equations ⎡ R ⎤ ⎡1 ⎤
⎢− ω ⎥ ⎢ 0⎥ ⎡1 0⎤
described in A [5]. A=⎢ L ,B = ⎢L ,C = ⎢
R⎥ 1⎥ ⎥
⎣0 1 ⎦
⎢− ω − ⎥ ⎢0 ⎥
⎣ L⎦ ⎣ L⎦

⎡i d ⎤
Where the states x = ⎢ ⎥, the inputs
⎣i q ⎦
⎡v td − v sd ⎤ ⎡i d ⎤
u=⎢ ⎥ and the output y = ⎢ ⎥
⎣ v tq − v sq ⎦ ⎣i q ⎦

Since the LQR controller is designed to drive the states to

zero. This is very restrictive and not suitable for solving
tracking system problem. In the STATCOM control, line
currents are to be followed. Therefore, alteration must be
applied to the LQR controller in order to drive the current
Fig. 2 STATCOM Control Circuit errors, instead of the currents, to zero. To achieve zero
steady state errors, an integrator is inserted in the control
loop. And the original system is augmented to include the
III. LINEAR QUADRATIC REGULATOR errors as new system states [5].
LQR is an optimal control method and is also a pole
placement method. This method determines the feedback ⎡ . ⎤
⎢ x(t ) ⎥ = ⎡ A 0⎤ ⎡ x (t ) ⎤ + ⎡ B ⎤u (t ) + ⎡0⎤ r (8)
gain matrix that minimizes the cost function in order to ⎢ . ⎥ ⎢⎣− C 0⎥⎦ ⎢⎣e I (t )⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 0 ⎥⎦ ⎢I ⎥
⎣ ⎦
achieve the optimal tradeoff between the use of control ⎣e I (t )⎦
effort, the magnitude and the speed of response. In
addition, this method guarantees a stable control system In equation (8),
[6]. Given a linear system,
⎡ x(t ) ⎤ ⎡ x(t ) ⎤
. u (t ) = − K (t ) ⎢ ⎥ = −[K x (t ) K I (t )]⎢ ⎥ (9)
x(t ) = Ax(t ) + Bu (t ) (4) ⎣e I (t )⎦ ⎣e I (t )⎦
y = Cx(t )
Rewrite the cost function in format of (10), it shows that
Where x(t) are the system’s states, u(t) is the system input the new LQR regulator is aimed in minimize the errors
and y(t) is the output. The objective is to design a eI.
feedback u(t) =-Kx(t) such that the cost function (4) can t

be minimized: ∫
J = e TI (t )e I (t ) + u T (t ) Ru (t )dt
0
∞
(10)

∫[ ]
t
⎡0 0⎤ ⎡ x(t ) ⎤
∫
J = ( x T Qx + u T Ru )dt
0
(5) = x T (t ) e I T (t ) ⎢
⎣ 0 I ⎥ ⎢e (t )⎥ + u (t ) Ru (t )dt
⎦⎣ I ⎦
T

The weighting matrices Q and R are positive semi-

definite. They control how much effort should be put on
Control block diagram of the LQR Current control loop
is shown in Fig.3. For more details of this method,
readers can refer to [5, 6].
Where x1 ...x M are input variables, U 1 is the output
~
variable, “and” is a fuzzy logic AND operator and A ,
~ ~
B and C are fuzzy sets. Fuzzy sets can also be
represented by linguistic terms, for example, “Positive,
Negative and Zero”. In theory, these variables can be
either continuous or discrete; practically speaking,
however, they should be discrete because virtually all
fuzzy controllers are implemented using digital
~
computers. The first part of the fuzzy rule ’If x1 is A and
~
…and x M is B ’ is called the rule antecedent, whereas
the remaining part is named the rule consequent.

Fig. 3 STATCOM pi/LQR Control

IV. FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER

Figure.4 depicts the structure of a fuzzy control system,
which is comprised of a typical Single Input Single
Output (SISO) Mamdani fuzzy controller and a system
under control. The major components of a typical fuzzy
controller are Fuzzification, fuzzy rule base, fuzzy
inference, and defuzzification. Fuzzification is the
process of decomposing a system input and/or output into
one or more fuzzy sets. Many types of curves can be
used, but triangular shaped membership functions are the
most common because it is easier to represent in Fig. 4 fuzzy logic inference
embedded controllers. Each fuzzy set spans a region of
input (or output) values graphed with the membership. A number of fuzzy inference methods can be used to
Any particular input is interpreted from this fuzzy set and accomplish this task, but only four of them are popular in
a degree of membership is interpreted. The membership fuzzy control. . For more details of this method, readers
functions may overlap to allow smooth mapping of the can refer to [7].
system. The process of fuzzification allows the system
inputs and outputs to be expressed in linguistic terms so
that rules can be applied in a simple manner to express a V. FUZZY/LQR CONTROLLER
complex system. To improve STATCOM control system, PI controllers
A fuzzy set is represented by a membership function are replaced with Fuzzy controllers (Fig.5).
defined on the universe of discourse. The universe of
discourse is the space where the fuzzy variables are
defined. The membership function gives the grade, or
degree, of membership within the set, of any element of
the universe of discourse. The membership function maps
the elements of the universe onto numerical values in the
interval [0, 1]. A membership function value of zero
implies that the corresponding element is definitely not
an element of the fuzzy set, while a value of unity means
that the element fully belongs to the set. A grade of
membership in between corresponds to the fuzzy
membership to the set.
Fuzzy rules represent the control strategy. They are
linguistic if-then statements involving fuzzy set, fuzzy
logic, and fuzzy inference. Fuzzy rules play a key role in Fig. 5 fuzzy/LQR controller
representing expert control knowledge and experience
and in linking the input variables of fuzzy controllers to The equation giving a conventional PI-controller is:
output variable (or variables). A general Mamdani fuzzy
rule, for M input-one output, can be expressed as:
~ ~
If x1 is A and …and x M is B then U 1 is C
~
∫
u (t ) = K P e(t ) + K I e(t )dt (11)
 Error, deviation error and controller output range for all
Where K P and K I are the proportional and the integral fuzzy controllers are shown in Table.2.
gain coefficients. A block diagram for a fuzzy control The sample study radial power system is subjected to
system is shown in Fig.6. load switching at Bus B3. The network voltage,
When the derivative, with respect to time, of the Vg = 1 pu is 1.03 pu and only inductive load 1 with
Equation (1) is taken, it is transformed into an equivalent ( P = 1.15 pu , Q = 1.12 pu ) (at rated voltage) is
expression:
connected at load Bus B3 and the STATCOM B2 bus
voltage is 0.97 pu . The simulation is carried out by using
du (t ) de(t )
= KP + K I e(t ) (12) the MATLAB/SIMULINK and power system blockset
dt dt
and the digital simulation results is given as shown in
Or in the discrete form: Fig8-13. The following load excursion sequence is
tested:
Δu (t ) = K P Δe(t ) + K I e(t ) (13)

Here that one has the error and the change-of-error inputs
and one need just to integrate the output of a controller.

(a)

Fig. 6 detailed PI fuzzy controller

We can write the rule as: (b)

Fig. 7 membership functions for outer dc voltage control loop
If e is <property symbol> and Δe is <property symbol> Error (a) deviation error(b)
then Δu is <property symbol>.
In this case, to obtain the value of the control output Table. 1 fuzzy controllers rules
variable u (t ) , the change-of-control output Δu (t ) is Δe PB PS ZE NS NB
added to u (t − 1) . It is necessary to stress here that this e
takes place outside the PI-like fuzzy controller, and is not PB PB PB PS PS ZE
PS PB PS PS ZE NS
reflected in the rules themselves. ZE PS PS ZE NS NS
In this paper linguistic values {NB, NM, NS, Z, PS, PM, NS PS ZE NS NS NB
PB} where NB stands for Negative Big, NM stands for NB ZE NS NS NB NB
Negative Medium, NS stands for Negative Small, Z
stands for Zero, PS stands for Positive Small, PM stands Table. 2 fuzzy controllers information
for Positive Medium and PB stands for Positive Big are Range
Fuzzy controllers
used(Table.1).
Error Error Output
~ ~
Deviation
In Fig. 6 K I , K P and K u are fixed gain. Fuzzification,
fuzzy inference and defuzzification are performed in Outer dc voltage [-1,1] [-0.001,0.001] [-20,20]
fuzzy controller. Than, Controller output is applied to control loop
system and these actions is repeated in every time step Outer reactive power [-1,1] [-1,1] [-10,10]
(T). control loop

Supplementary [-0.1, 0.1] [-0.001,0.001] [-1,1]

damping controller
VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig.7 shows the membership functions for fuzzy
controller that used in outer dc voltage control loop. Step1: t = 0 s :at this time the static synchronous
Fuzzy rules that used in fuzzy controllers are shown in compensator is connected to the power system network.
table.1.
The STATCOM is now operating in the capacitive mode
and injects about 0.55 pu of reactive power into the ac
power system, as shown in Fig.8. The B2 bus voltage is
increased to 0.99 pu as shown in Fig9. The STATCOM
draws 0.07 pu of real-active power from the network to
compensate for the GTO switching losses and coupling
transformer resistive and core losses (Fig.10). Figs.10,
11
show the STATCOM current components. The
STATCOM current is totally a reactive current.
Step 2: t = 0.3 s : at this time the second inductive load 2
with P = 0.7 pu , Q = 0.5 pu (at rated voltage) is added to
the ac power system at Bus B3, therefore more dynamic Fig. 9 middle bus voltage
reactive power compensation is still required. The
STATCOM injects 1pu reactive power (Fig.8) so the bus
B2 voltage holds in 1pu. It is clear that without
STATCOM, this voltage drops to 0.95 pu (Fig.9). The
STATCOM d-axis current temporarily increases in order
to charge the dc capacitor.
Step 3: t = 0.5 s : the capacitive load 3 Q = −0.4 pu (at
rated voltage) is now added to the power system at Bus
B3. The capacitive load has a compensative effect so the
STATCOM inject less reactive power into the ac system
at Bus B2. The injected reactive power is decreased
to Q STATCOM ≈ 0.7 pu . The regulated bus voltage is 0.995
pu.
Step 4: t = 0.75 s :at this time both loads 1 and 2 are
removed from Bus B3 which is severe load rejection and Fig. 10 absorbed/injected I d
only the capacitive load 3 remains connected at Bus B3.
Due to this capacitive load, the STATCOM operates in
inductive mode to regulate the resultant over voltage at
Bus B2. STATCOM draws reactive power
( Q STATCOM ≈ 1.45 pu ) from the network (inductive
operation). Voltage of bus B2 is increased to 1.01 pu.
From Fig.9, it is clear that without the STATCOM this
voltage was around 1.06 pu.
Fig.12 shows the DC capacitance voltage. It can be seen
that this voltage changes a little when a load is added or
removed from the network. Fig.13 shows the inverter
output 3-level voltage.

Fig. 11 absorbed/injected I q

Fig. 8 absorbed/injected reactive power

Fig. 12 DC Voltage

Fig. 13 inverter output voltage
VII. CONCLUSION
The paper presents a novel fuzzy/LQR controller for
STATCOM. These full descriptive digital models are
validated for voltage stabilization reactive compensation
and dynamically power flow control. The presented
simulation results show that STATCOM with hybrid
Fuzzy/LQR strategy acts well than the conventional PI
method.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Pablo, G. C. Aurelio, “Control System for a PWM-based
STATCOM”, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 15,
Issue 4, Oct. 2000.
[2] V. Blasko, V. Kaura, “A New Mathematical Model and Control of
a Three-Phase AC-DC Voltage Source Converter”, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan 1997H.
[3] P.W. Lehn, M.R. Iravani, “Experimental Evaluation of
STATCOM Closed Loop”, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,
vol. 13, No. 4, Oct. 1998.
[4] P. Rao, M.L. Crow, Z. Yang, “STATCOM Control for Power
System Voltage Control Applications”, IEEE Transactions on
Power Delivery, vol. 15, no. 4, Oct. 2000.
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[5] W. Ren, L. Qian, D. Cartes, M. Steurer, “A Multivariable Control
Method in STATCOM Application for Performance
Improvement”, IEEE 0-7803-9208.
[6] J.B. Burl, “Linear Optimal Control: H2 and H∞ Methods”,
Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. pp. 303-310, 1999.
[7] H. Ying,” Fuzzy Control and Modeling: Analytical Foundations
and Applications”, IEEE Press Series on Biomedical Engineering,
Series Editor: Metin Akay, New York, 2000
Naser Mahdavi Tabatabaei was born in Tehran,
Iran, 1967. He received the B.Sc. and the M.Sc.
degrees from University of Tabriz (Tabriz, Iran)
and the Ph.D. degree from Iran University of
Science and Technology (Tehran, Iran), all in
Power Electrical Engineering, in 1989, 1992, and
1997, respectively. Currently, he is a Professor of
Power Electrical Engineering at International Ecoenergy Academy,
International Science and Education Center and International
Organization on TPE. He is also an academic member of Power
Electrical Engineering at Seraj Higher Education Institute and teaches
Power System Analysis, Power System Operation, and Reactive Power
Control. He is the secretaries of International Conference and Journal on
TPE. His research interests are in the area of Power Quality, Energy
Management Systems, ICT in Power Engineering and Virtual E-learning
Educational Systems. He is a member of the Iranian Association of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Naser Taheri received the B.Sc. from University
of Guilan (Rasht, Iran) in Electronics Engineering,
in 2007 and M.Sc. degree from Azarbaijan
University of Tarbiat Moallem (Tabriz, Iran) in
Power Electrical Engineering, in 2009. He is
currently researching on Power System Control,
Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) and
power systems dynamic modeling.
Javad Hamidi was born in Mashhad, Iran in
1983. He received the B.Sc. degree in Electronic
Engineering from university of Guilan (Rasht,
Iran) in 2006 and M.Sc. degree in Power Electrical
Engineering from University of Tabriz (Tabriz,
Iran) in 2009. His research interests include Power
System Harmonics and Power Electronic Converter
and Application Intelligent Methods in Power
Quality Compensation Systems.