STATCOM: In the electrical distribution industry, engineers are tasked with manipulating basically two major system constraints;

these are providing sufficient current capacity to the entire load while maintaining an acceptable voltage level. Since electrical circuits operate within the laws of physics, typically the system planner will confront both of these problems at once, trying to maintain each within acceptable limits. Feeder conductors within loaddense urban areas typically experience thermal limitations due to heavy feeder loading. Corresponding I*X losses result in reduced system voltage, but feeders in these areas are limited by ampacity contstraints. In distinction, feeders in rural areas are subject to lighter loading but they may span great distances. This increased distance between the source and the load(s) may result in gradual voltage degradation, which causes an increased current demand to fulfill the power requirements. This exacerbates the problem. Historically, low voltage conditions have been addressed through the conventional means of voltage regulators and system shunt capacitors. Although these electrical devices can sometimes be successfully integrated into a distribution system to provide a balance between the power components, this is not always the case. Simply stated, when regulators that operate by adjusting their taps to maintain predetermined setpoint voltage levels are coupled with capacitors that are switched on and off to regulate voltage, the voltage swings that the a circuit endures (sometimes resulting in "hunting") can cause concerns for customers due to adverse effects from reduced power quality. The development of the electronic Distribution Static Compensator, or D-STATCOM, provides the distribution planner with a new tool to alleviate these conditions through dynamic voltage regulation. We propose a solution to the concern of voltage regulation on long, voltage-limited feeders through dynamic voltage regulation with the D-STATCOM, a fast electrical power controller under development. The D-STATCOM has a constant current capability at its reactive output limit, anaiogous to a synchronous generator. Consequently, the reactive power output of a D-STATCOM is proportional to the system voltage rather than the square of the system voltage, as in a capacitor.

In the effort to develop a distribution system which will

continually provide quality power while maintaining freedom from the transients, Westinghouse has developed the D-STATCOM as part of their program for advanced distribution. The D-STATCOM is a solid-state dc to ac switching power converter that consists of a three-phase, voltage-sourced inverter. In its basic form, the DSTATCOM injects a voltage in phase with the system voltage, thus providing voltage support and regulation of VAr flow. Because the device generates a synchronous waveform, it is capable of generating continuously variable

reactive or capacitive shunt compensation at a level up to the maximum MVA rating of the D-STATCOM inverter. This equipment is forced-air-cooled is available in ratings from 1 to 10 MVA in 1 MVA modular increments. The easiest way to understand the operation of a DSTATCOM is by analogy to a synchronous machine. The basis of operation of a synchronous machine is that it can be operated with either an overexcited field, causing it to supply reactive power to the system, or an underexcited field, causing it to absorb reactive power from the system. Synchronous machines can also adjust their output continuously to compensate for system conditions, and, being inductive in nature, are seldom a source of switching transients or other disturbances. Synchronous machines are seldomly applied in distribution systems, however, because they have relatively high energy losses, and, being rotating machines, have high maintenance requirements and low availabilities compared to static passive devices. Also, they contribute large amounts of short circuit current. In the typical utility, these machines cannot be applied easily as a corrective measure in an everyday distribution environment. Conceptually, the D-STATCOM performs like a static synchronous machine. Over 15 years ago, Gyugyi [l] suggested an analogue to synchronous machine that did not have any moving parts. The device was described as a static condenser, or STATCON, by a member of a U.S. utility. The name was quickly adopted by the power industry in the U.S. The name was changed recently to static synchronous compensator, or STATCOM in recognition of international practice (i.e. the term synchronous condenser is used only in the U.S.). The DSTATCOM uses an electronic inverter connected to the line by tie reactors to generate reactive power.

DFC

dynamic flow controller (DFC) is composed of: 1) a mechanically-

switched phase-shifting transformer (PST); 2) a multimodule thyristor-switched series capacitor (TSSC); 3) a multimodule thyristor-switched series reactor (TSSR); and 4) a mechanically-switched shunt capacitor (MSC) unit [1]. DFC can provide steady-state and dynamic power flow control for power lines and is considered as a FACTS controller. Due to the discrete switching nature of PST, TSSC, TSSR, and MSC units, which constitute a DFC: 1) these units are best modeled as finite automata and 2) then a discrete event system (DES) supervisory control can be used to design and implement the overall control logic. A DES is a dynamic system that evolves in accordance with the sudden occurrence of physical events at possibly unknown irregular intervals [2]. The supervisory control technique is an effective analytical tool for automation and control of DES [3]. Discrete-event models are generally used to describe systems where coordination and control are required to ensure the orderly flow of events, and/or to prevent the occurrence of undesired chains of events. DES serves to describe a wide variety of behaviors in industrial and physical systems. These include
Manuscript received February 06, 2007; revised November 21, 2007. First published April 03, 2008; current version published December 24, 2008. Paper no. TPWRD-00063-2007. A. A. Afzalian is with the Shahid Abbaspour University of Technology, Tehran 171916765, Iran (e-mail: afzalian@ieee.org). S. A. Nabavi Niaki, M. R. Iravani, and W. M.Wonham are with the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G4, Canada (e-mail: nabavi.niaki@utoronto.ca; iravani@ecf.utoronto.ca; wonham@control.toronto.edu). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2008.921114

control and scheduling of electrical power systems, manufacturing systems, queuing systems and communication protocols, and database management systems. Applications of DES theory to power systems [4][7] include: 1) supervisory control, 2) modeling and analysis, and 3) monitoring and diagnosis. The synthesis of a DES-based supervisory control for an underload tap-changing transformer (ULTC) is introduced in [8]. In the last two decades, DES have been studied with respect to modeling, analysis, and control. Synthesis methods for DES controls have been developed and implemented in a software environment called TCT [9] to compute controllers that are optimal in the sense that the controlled system not only satisfies the specifications but is also as permissive as possible. The developed software [9] is used in this study for synthesizing the supervisory controllers. DFC components and the control specifications in each mode of operation are modeled as finite automata. Then supervisory control is designed for the DFC in automatic and auto/manual modes of operation, and in centralized and decentralized structures. DFC consists of discrete-event dynamic components that are event-driven and exhibit discrete-event behavior. Neglecting discrete properties of these components in modeling and control of the system reduces the accuracy of the model and results

in a suboptimal control strategy [12]. Supervisory control of discrete-event systems (SCDES) is a systematic approach to synthesize a control system for plants with discrete-event components. SCDES evaluates controllability of specifications (control logic) with respect to the plant and guarantees the nonblocking and nonconflicting properties for the supervisor (controller) using a systematic formulation on a rigorous mathematical basis. Since the DFC components have a discrete-event nature, the conventional controllers (e.g., PI controllers) are not fully applicable. The proposed DES controller has the following advantages. 1) It copes with the discrete-event dynamic nature of the components, rather than their approximate continuous models. 2) It constructs the optimal controllable approximation to the control specifications. 3) It guarantees required properties for the supervisor, such as the nonblocking and nonconflicting properties. 4) It formulates the control solution in a hierarchical structure for large plants, such as microgrids. II. PRINCIPLES OF DFC OPERATION Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a DFC that is connected between buses and within a transmission line and comprises:
0885-8977/$25.00 2008 IEEE
220 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a DFC. Fig. 2. One-line diagram of the study system.

a conventional (mechanically switched) phase-shifting transformer (PST), which can inject a lead/lag quadraturephase voltage; a series-connected multimodule thyristor-switched series capacitor (TSSC) system that can insert series capacitive reactance in discrete steps to adjust the line series reactance; a series-connected multimodule thyristor-switched series reactor (TSSR) system that can insert series inductive reactance in discrete steps primarily to prevent over flow in the line; a shunt-connected mechanically-switched capacitor (MSC) for voltage control or reactive power compensation. DFC belongs to the family of hybrid compensators since it provides power flow control through series and/or shunt compensation, analogous to the unified power flow controller (UPFC) [11]. Although DFC does not offer all versatility and technical features of the UPFC, its salient features make it an alternative to the UPFC. Furthermore, since TSSC and TSSR modules are not phasecontrolled and only switched in and out by thyristor switches, DFC does not generate harmonics and has no adverse impact on power quality and does not require filters. Owing to their large inherent time-constants, PST and MSC can only provide slow steady-state power flow control, while the TSSC and TSSR modules can provide both dynamic and steady-state power flow control. Since the tap control of PST and the switching actions of TSSC and TSSR are discrete in

nature, a discrete-eve strategy is best suited. III. SUPERVISORY CONTROLLER DESIGN

nt control

A. Supervisory Control Theory

The supervisory control problem for a discrete-event system is formulated by modeling the plant as well as its control logic (specifications) as some DES. A discrete-event plant must be controlled based on some specifications (requirement behavior logic). By adjoining controller structure to the plant, it is possible to vary the language generated by the closed loop system within certain limits. The desired performance of such a controlled plant will be specified by stating that its generated language must be contained in some specification language. It is often possible to meet these specifications in a minimal restrictive way which is addressed by optimal supervisor in DES literature. To solve the supervisory control problem, it is necessary to show that a controller which forces the specification to be met exists and is constructible [10]. A DES model is specified by; the set of states (including an initial state, and marker state which can be desired states in some applications), the set of events, and the state transition function of the system. Formally, a DES is represented by an automaton G = (Q, , , q0, Qm) in which; Q is a finite set of states, with q0 Q as the initial state and Qm Q being the desired (marker) states; is a finite set of events () which is referred to as an alphabet; and finally (q, ) is a transition mapping : Q Q which gives the next state after occurrence of an event (). G plays the role of the plant and together with its states, events and transition operator (mapping) model a physical process. G is called generator, as it generates a set of strings (sequence of events or concatenated events). In other words it generates a language L(G), consisting of strings of events which are physically possible in the plant. The supervisor controls the behavior of a discrete-event system by enabling and disabling events, therefore affects the event sequences and state trajectories of the plant. The

supervisor can be considered as a functionV : L(G). () 0 means that the event is disabled and () 1 indicates that the event left enabled.

B. DES Modeling of DFC

As shown in Figure 4, a DFC (plant) consists of three components: Power-meter, TSC, and PST. Moreover we need a model for the operator's action to switch the modes and to override in abnormal situations. Each component is modeled as a DES. DES models of plant components are synchronized to form the plant model.

POWER-METER The (measured) real power passing through the line must be within a dead-band. The power meter reports the following events associated with the load active power (Figure 5-a): Power meter Initialized (ev11) Report decrease in power is demanded, (ev10) Report normal situation (ev12) Report increase in power is demanded, (ev14) TSC Events associated with the TSC are (Figure 5-b): Capacitor decrease command (ev31) Capacitor decrease successful (ev32) Capacitor increase command (ev33) Capacitor increase successful (ev34) Capacitor decrease/increase failed (ev30) PST The phase shifting transformer controls the transformer ratio in order to increase or decrease the line power flow.

Events associated with the PST are (Figure 5-c): Tap down command (ev41) Tap down successful (ev42) Tap up command (ev43) Tap up successful (ev44) Tap up/down failed (ev40)

OPERATOR Operator can switch operation mode of DFC. Events 51 and 53 are defined for operator actions (Figure 5-d): Enter Automatic Mode (ev51) Enter Manual Mode (ev53) The operator can force the system from Automatic to Manual mode at any time (ev53). System switches to Manual mode from Automatic mode by a Manual command from operator (ev53), or an abnormal situation such as, failed TSC step up/down or PST tap up/down.

C. DES model of the Control Specification

The following specifications are considered to design supervisory control. - TSC has 7 steps. (Figure 6-a) -Tap-changer of the PST has 19 steps. (Figure 6-b) -The DFC works in Auto/Manual operation mode according to the following logic (Figure 6-c) a. If a decrease in power is demanded (ev10), then run the following commands: 1) Decrease TSC steps (ev31) until it reaches the new operating point (ev12). 2) Decrease one PST tap (ev41). 3) Increase one TSC step (ev33). 4) Go to (2) until all the decreased TSC steps are brought back in b. If an increase in power is demanded(ev14), then run the following commands: 1) Increase TSC steps (ev33) until it gets to the new operating point (ev12). 2) Increase one PST tap (ev43). 3) Decrease one TSC step (ev31). 4) Go to (2) until all the increased TSC steps are removed.

c. System switches to Manual mode from Automatic

mode by a Manual command from an operator (ev53) at any time, or an abnormal situation such as, failed TSC step up/down (ev30) or PST tap up/down (ev40). In Manual mode the system is waiting for tap/step Up, tap/step Down, Automatic, or Stop commands. On returning to Automatic mode the controller is reinitialized at state 0 of the specification. As shown in Figure 6, three separated automata are employed to represent the control logic (a, b, and c).

D. Supervisory Control Design for DFC

Using three specifications shown in Figure 6 and the local plant models the supervisory control is synthesized in centralized and decentralized structure using TCT software. TCT is software developed for modeling and synthesis supervisory control for discrete-event systems in different structures.