1

System Modeling and Control Design for Fast Voltage Regulation Using STATCOMs
Amit K. Jain, Student Member, IEEE, Aman Behal, and Ned Mohan, Fellow, IEEE
authors knowledge, there is no standard procedure for designing a load voltage controller that ensures the required bandwidth and robustness to system variations. In [4], a small signal model of the system was derived by transforming the equivalent impedance of the ac system to the dq frame. However, the angular frequency of the dq frame was assumed to be constant and equal to the steady state line frequency. This paper describes a modeling strategy, similar to that used for field oriented control of three phase ac machines, that allows voltage controller design of STATCOMs accounting for system parameters. Although a simple system is considered here, it is indicated how the method described can be extended to more complex systems. Using linear and nonlinear systems approach it is shown that system is nonminimum phase for certain operating conditions, and thus has an inherent limitation on achievable dynamic response. A voltage controller is designed using input to output bode plots of the system linearized about various operating points. Simulation results showing the controller performance are presented. Section II describes system representation. Section III discusses the non-minimum phase nature of the system. Controller design and simulation results are presented in Section IV. II. SYSTEM MODEL A. System Description The system considered here is a simplified model of a load supplied on a distribution system. A STATCOM is connected at the load bus to regulate the voltage magnitude. One phase of the model is shown in Fig. 1(a). It consists of: the source modeled as an infinite bus with inductive source impedance, the load modeled by a resistance, the STATCOM modeled as a controllable current source, and a coupling capacitor. The coupling capacitor is included for two reasons: (1) if a capacitor is not included then the line current and the STATCOM output current are not independent [12], (2) a real STATCOM will always have an L-C filter at its output (e.g. [6]). It is assumed that the source, load, and STATCOM are balanced three phase systems. The STATCOM current dynamics have been neglected so it is represented as a controlled current source. The system dynamics are described by: dis , abc = Rs is , abc vL ,abc + vs , abc (1) Ls dt
AbstractStatic compensators can be used for voltage regulation in the presence of flicker or transients on parallel connected loads in a distribution system. This paper presents a general modeling strategy that allows design of a fast voltage magnitude controller accounting for system parameters. The coordinate transform used in modeling the system facilitates extraction of linearized system dynamics with the help of circuit simulators. It is also shown that the problem of voltage regulation using instantaneous reactive current is non-minimum phase for certain operating conditions, thereby limiting its dynamic response irrespective of the control design method. Simulation results with a controller designed using input output bode plot are presented to prove the efficacy of the proposed method. Index TermsFlicker mitigation, Modeling, STATCOM, STATCOM control, Voltage regulation.

I. INTRODUCTION ast load voltage regulation is required to compensate for time varying loads such as electric arc furnaces, fluctuating output power of wind generation systems, and transients on parallel connected loads (e.g. line start of induction motors) [1]-[3]. Reactive power compensation is commonly used for flicker mitigation and load voltage regulation. Due to their high control bandwidth, Static Compensators (STATCOMs) based on three phase pulse width modulated converters, have been proposed in [1], [4][8] for this application. For effecting fast control, the STATCOM is usually modeled using the dq axis theory for balanced three phase systems, which allows definition of instantaneous reactive current [9]. Most literature on STATCOM control concentrates on control of STATCOM output current and dc bus voltage regulation for a given reactive current reference. Regulation of load voltage is achieved using a PID controller that generates the reactive current reference (e.g. [10]). For this paper it is assumed that the STATCOM can be modeled as a controlled current source. The problem addressed here is to design a voltage magnitude controller that will generate the reactive current reference for the STATCOM. Other than experimental procedures like Zeigler and Nichols [11], to the
A. K. Jain and N. Mohan are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. (phone: 612-624-7309, fax: 612-625-4583 E-mail: akj@ece.umn.edu, mohan@ece.umn.edu). A. Behal is with the Department of Bioengineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0915. (E-mail: abehal@ces.clemson.edu).

dt Here, is , abc , iSC , abc , vs , abc , and vL , abc are vectors consisting of

Cc

dvL , abc

= is , abc iSC , abc g L vL ,abc

(2)

field oriented control of three phase ac machines. The angle used in (4) is chosen as = tan 1 ( vs / vs ) . Thus,

vLq 0 dvLq / dt = 0

(7)

the individual phase quantities denoted in Fig. 1(a), g L = 1/ RL is the load conductance, Ls is the source inductance, Rs is the source resistance, and Cc is the coupling capacitor. Under the assumption that zero sequence components are not present, (1)-(2) can be transformed to an equivalent two phase system by applying the following three to two phase transformation. vs , = vsa e j 0 + vsb e j 2 / 3 + vsc e j 4 / 3 (3) where, the complex number vs, = vs + j vs . followed by the rotational transformation: vs , dq = vsd + j vsq = e j vs , This is (4)

Defining = s t , where s is the frequency of the infinite bus phase voltages, we get vs ,dq = Vs e j , where Vs is the constant magnitude of the infinite bus voltage. The relative orientations of the vectors vL ,dq , vs ,dq , and the reference frame chosen are shown in Fig. 2. Ignoring losses, a STATCOM only supplies reactive power so that iSCd 0 . Using the conditions mentioned above the transformed system equations can be rewritten as: dv Cc Ld = g L vLd + is d (8) dt di (9) Ls sd = vLd Rsisd + Lsisq + Vs cos dt di Ls sq = Lsisd Rsisq Vs sin (10) dt d = s (11) dt (i i ) (12) = sq SCq Cc vLd
where (12) has been derived using (7). Corresponding equivalent circuits are shown in Fig. 3. Since vLq = 0 , vLd represents the instantaneous magnitude of the phase voltages vL , abc , which has to be controlled. The reactive current absorbed by the STATCOM, iSCq , is the

Applying the two transformations, (1) and (2) can be written as dis , dq Ls = ( Rs + j Ls ) is , dq vL , dq + vs , dq (5) dt dvL ,dq Cc = is , dq iSC , dq ( g L + j Cc ) vL ,dq (6) dt where, given by = d / dt , is yet to be defined and may be a function of time. The equivalent circuits corresponding to the real (d-axis) and imaginary (q-axis) components of this equation are shown in Fig. 1(b) and 1(c) respectively.
is ,abc
+

Rs

Ls

vs ,abc

vL,abc

RL Cc

iSC ,abc

(a)

control input. Since it has been assumed that negative sequence components are not present, in steady state all the state variables in (8)-(11) are constant. Effectively, the balanced three phase ac system is transformed to an equivalent dc system.
q axis

isd
+

Ls isq
Ls

+ +

axis

vs

Rs

vsd

Cc vLq
Cc
(b)

vLd

st
RL iSCd
Fig.2. Orientation of reference frames.

vL

d axis

axis

isq
+

Ls isd

Rs

Ls Cc v Ld

vsq

Cc
(c)

v Lq

RL

iSCq

C. Advantages of the System Representation The control problem is simplified to control of dc quantities as opposed to sinusoidally varying quantities, and the input (STATCOM reactive current, iSCq ) and output (bus voltage magnitude, vLd ) are clearly defined on an instantaneous basis. Equations (8)-(12) define the system completely and can be used to design controllers using linear or nonlinear techniques. The transformed system can be represented in the form of equivalent circuits using circuit simulators with analog behavioral modeling capabilities. The d and q axis equivalent

Fig. 1. (a) One phase of the system model, (b) d-axis equivalent circuit, (c) qaxis equivalent circuit.

B. Choice of Reference Frame The choice of reference frame is similar to that used for

circuits shown in Fig. 1(b) and 1(c) can be easily derived from the single phase circuit in Fig. 1(a). Inductors and capacitors
isd

Lsisq

Rs Ls

+
Cc

vsd

+
RL vLd

(a)
isq

Lsisd

iSCq
RL

Since all the states are constant in steady state, operating point calculation is possible by equating the state derivatives to zero. This can be done by a dc bias point calculation in a circuit simulator. The system can then be linearized about calculated operating points to obtain either state space data or bode plots of the required transfer functions of the linearized system. Since simulators like Simulink can calculate operating points and extract linearized model of the system about the operating point, it is not necessary to write all the state equations explicitly. This is important for systems having a large number of states. III. NON-MINIMUM PHASE NATURE OF SYSTEM

+
vsq Cc vLd

(b)
Fig. 3. Simplified equivalent circuits: (a) d axis, (b) q axis.

System data used in the rest of the paper is taken from [7]. However, a purely resistive load and a reasonable value for the coupling capacitor have been assumed here. The system parameters are:
Vs (L-L rms) RL Cc

are augmented by appropriate controlled voltage and current sources connected in series and parallel respectively. Three phase sinusoidal ac sources with constant amplitude are replaced by controlled dc sources (e.g. vsd = Vs cos ,

415 V 32 1 F

Ls Rs

9 mH 0.3

vsq = Vs sin ). Two additional equations corresponding to

(11)-(12) are needed to define and . Using these principles, a more complicated system can be modeled without writing all the state equations explicitly. For this paper, Matlab/Simulink along with the Power System Blockset has been used for modeling the equivalent circuits. Fig. 4 shows the Simulink block diagram of the system. Results obtained from the equivalent circuits based model were verified with those obtained from direct modeling of (8)(12).

This system was linearized around operating points corresponding to a range of values of the reactive current absorbed by the STATCOM, I SCq . Fig. 5 shows bode plots of the small signal transfer function from isc ,q to vLd for the linearized system. It is evident that for certain values of I SCq the transfer function has one Right Half Plane (RHP) zero. This non-minimum phase behavior was partially explained in [4]. There, a linearized model was used and the STATCOM current was assumed to be zero. As seen in Fig. 5, the system is non-minimum phase only for certain values of I SCq .

Fig. 5. Bode plots of system for different values of I SCq .

Fig. 4. Simulink block diagram of transformed system.

A. Explanation of the Non-Minimum Phase Nature Non-minimum phase nature of a system implies that initial transient behavior of the system is counter intuitive. If the input is increased as a step the immediate effect is a reduction in the output. After an initial undershoot the output starts increasing and reaches its steady state value. The peculiar

behavior of our system can be understood from an inspection of equivalent circuits shown in Fig. 3. Assume that at t = 0 iSCq is increased as a step. Since isq cannot change instantaneously, the current Cc vLd reduces instantaneously. Since vLd cannot change instantaneously the immediate effect is a reduction in . If the operating condition of the system prior to the step change was such that isq (0) > 0 , then isd starts reducing due to reduction in value of the controlled voltage source Lsisq . This leads to a decrease in vLd . Once

Ls

disq dt

= Rsisq g LVL (VL (1 + g L Rs ) Vs cos )

1 Vs sin isq

d 1 = + (VL (1 + g L Rs ) Vs cos ) dt Lsisq

(13) (14)

isq starts increasing, due to reduction of the controlled voltage

source Lsisd , isd and vLd start increasing. If the initial system condition is such that isq (0) < 0 , then a reduction in does not cause isd to decrease. Thus, the system exhibits nonminimum phase behavior only for isq (0) > 0 . Fig. 6(a) and 6(b) show the simulated step response of the uncontrolled open loop system for cases where isq (0) > 0 and isq (0) < 0 respectively. It was numerically verified that the small signal transfer functions obtained for operating conditions with I sq > 0 , had an RHP zero and those for I sq < 0 did not.

Stability of the system described by (13) and (14) was studied by calculating the equilibrium points and linearizing (13) and (14) about them. Eigen values of the resulting state matrix were calculated numerically with VL as a parameter. It was found that for isq > 0 one eigen value is positive, while for isq < 0 both the eigen values are negative. Since the linearized system corresponding to (13)(14) is unstable for the case isq > 0 , the nonlinear system given by (13)(14) is also unstable [13]. For isq < 0 , since the linearized system is stable, (13)(14) is locally asymptotically stable. Thus, it may be concluded that the system described by (8)(12) is nonminimum phase for isq (0) > 0 . IV. CONTROLLER DESIGN AND SIMULATION RESULTS A. Control Design Bode plots of the linearized system shown in Fig. 5 were used along with the Single Input Single Output Design Tool in Matlab to design the controller. The worst case bode plot, corresponding to the minimum value of the RHP zero (1400 rad/s), was found at the maximum value of I SCq (10 A) considered. A purely integral compensator with the parameters indicated below was designed for effecting voltage regulation. Open loop bode plots of the system with the compensator are shown in Fig. 7.
KI Gain crossover frequency

100 55 Hz

Gain Margin (min.) Phase Margin (min.)

9 dB
78o

(a)
(a) isq (0) > 0 (b) isq (0) < 0 .

(b)

Fig. 6. Response of the uncontrolled system to a step increase in iSCq :

B. Nonlinear Systems Approach According to [13] a nonlinear system is non-minimum phase if the zero dynamics of the system are not asymptotically stable. Assuming isq 0 , zero dynamics of the system are derived as follows. First the output vLd is set to a constant value of VL in (8) which gives isd = g LVL . These values of vLd and isd are used in (9) to obtain iSCq in terms of isq and

. Substituting the obtained value of iSCq in (10) and (11) and using (12) for the definition of gives the following
zero dynamics.

Fig. 7. Bode plots of the open loop system with integral compensator for different values of I SCq .

Simulation Results A three phase system was modeled in Simulink with the parameters mentioned above. A block diagram of the closed loop system implementation is shown in Fig. 8. The angle used for abc to dq and dq to abc transforms is derived from sensed load voltages by using = tan 1 ( vs / vs ) . iSCd is set to zero while iSCq is connected to the output of the integral compensator described above.
is ,abc
+

B.

A three phase balanced current source of magnitude 5A and frequency of 10Hz was connected in parallel with the load. This simulates the effect of pulsating load power. Fig. 11 shows the system response with and without the controlled STATCOM. The variation of the phase voltage magnitudes is

Rs

Ls RL Cc

iSC ,abc

vs ,abc

vL,abc

vLd ,ref vL,abc

abc to dq

iSCd = 0

vLd

1 s

KI

iSCq

dq to abc

abc to

Fig. 10. Simulated response for a step increase in load current.

tan 1 ( vs / vs )

Fig. 8. Block diagram of the simulated system

Fig. 11. Response to parallel current injection at 10 Hz.

Fig. 9 Simulated response for a step change in voltage reference.

Fig. 9 shows the system response for step changes of 0.05 p.u. in the desired voltage magnitude. As expected from the designed gain crossover frequency the voltage settles in less than 15 ms. Fig. 9 shows the system response for a step increase in load from 100% to 120% at t = 40 ms. As seen, the load voltage magnitude is regulated to its reference value in less than 15 ms.

1.85% without the STATCOM and 1.44% with the STATCOM. Although the STATCOM does compensate to some extent, it is limited by the controller bandwidth. The 10 Hz parallel load appears at beat frequencies in the dq axis frame. Since the open loop gain crossover frequency is only 55 Hz the STATCOM cannot completely compensate for the disturbance. The controller bandwidth cannot be increased any further due to the non-minimum phase nature of the system. Thus, this limitation on the dynamic response is imposed by system parameters.

V. CONCLUSION This paper has described a method for modeling distribution systems in which a STATCOM is used for load voltage regulation. The modeling strategy, similar to that used for field oriented control of AC machines, suited to design of voltage magnitude controller accounting for system parameters. Although a simple system was considered in this paper, the method presented can be applied to complex systems. The particular co-ordinate transform used facilitates extraction of linearized system dynamics with the help of circuit simulators having analog behavioral modeling capabilities. Towards this end Matlab/Simulink with the Power System Blockset were used. The system is non-minimum phase for certain operating conditions. These operating conditions have been identified and explanation of the non-minimum phase nature based on both linear and nonlinear systems approach has been provided. This characteristic of the system imposes restriction on the dynamic response achievable with reactive current compensation and therefore on the ability of STATCOMs to regulate voltage in the presence of disturbances. A simple integral controller was designed utilizing bode plots of the input to output transfer function. Simulation results illustrating dynamic response of the controlled system have been presented. VI. REFERENCES
G. D. Preville, Flicker mitigation: Application to a STATCOM, in Proc. 2001 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, CD-ROM. [2] M. Gutierrez, G. Venkataramanan, A. Sundaram, Solid state flicker controller using a pulse width modulated AC-AC converter, in Proc. thirty-fifth IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, 2000, vol. 5, pp. 3158-3165. [3] C. V. Moreno, H. A. Duarte, and J. U. Garcia, Propagation of flicker in electric power networks due to wind energy conversions systems, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol.17, pp.267-72, June 2002. [4] K. R. Padiyar, and A. M. Kulkarni, Design of reactive current and voltage controller of static condenser, Electric Power and Energy Systems, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 397-410, 1997. [5] C. Hochgraf, and R. H. Lasseter, STATCOM controls for operation with unbalanced voltages, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol.13, pp.538-44, April 1998. [6] S. Chen, and G. Joos, Series and shunt active power conditioners for compensating distribution system faults, in Proc. 2000 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, vol.2, pp.11821186. [7] P.S. Sensharma, K. R. Padiyar, and V. Ramanarayanan Analysis and performance of distribution STATCOM for compensating Voltage fluctuation, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 16, pp. 259264, April 2001 [8] J. Dolezal, and J. Tlusty, Background of active power filter control for flicker suppression, in Proc. 2001 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, CD-ROM. [9] C. Schauder, and H. Mehta, Vector analysis and control of advanced static VAR compensators, IEE Proceedings-C Generation Transmission & Distribution, vol.140, pp.299-306, July 1993. [10] P. W. Lehn, and M. R. Iravani, Experimental evaluation of STATCOM closed loop dynamics, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol.13, pp.1378-84, Oct. 1998. [11] K. Ogata, Modern Control Engineering, 3rd ed., New Jersey, PrenticeHall, 1997. [1]

[12] A. K. Jain, and N. Mohan, Fast voltage regulation using STATCOMs, (to appear) in Proc. Caribbean Colloquium on Power Quality, Dorado, Puerto Rico, 2003. [13] H. K. Khalil, Nonlinear Systems, 3rd, ed., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 139-142 and pp.512-517.