2012 I EEE 7th I nternational Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference - ECCE Asia

June 2-5, 2012, Harbin, China

Control Strategy Study of STAT COM Based on
Cascaded PWM H-bridge Converter With Delta
Confguration
Sixing Du, Jinjun Liu, Jiliang Lin, Yingie He
School of Electrical Engineering and State Key Lab of Electric Insulation and Power Equipment
Xi'an Jiaotong University
Xi'an, China
dusixing@163.com
Abstract-this paper describes a transformerless static
synchronous compensator (STATCOM) system based on
cascaded pulse-width-modulation (PWM) H-Bridge converter
with delta confguration. It is intend for dynamically
compensating reactive power and negative-sequence load current,
as well as for improving power quality and reliability of power
distribution system. In this paper, attention is paid to reactive
power control, negative-sequence current compensation, along
with voltage-balancing control consisting of clustered balancing
control and individual balancing control. Clustered balancing
control that keeps the dc voltage of each cluster equal to the dc
mean value of all the three clusters is achieved by introducing a
zero-sequence current fowing through the loop of the three
delta-connected clusters in three phases. The aim of this control
scheme is to fully extend power-quality- improving capability of
STATCOM system. A 100-V 3-kVA down scaled laboratory
system is designed, constructed and tested, using large-capacity
electrolytic capacitors as dc-voltage sources. Experimental results
obtained from the laboratory system verify the viability of this
cascaded multilevel PWM STATCOM system.
Keywords- Cascade nmlti/evel converer, STATCOM, voltage
balancing control, reactive power, compensating unbalanced load
T. INTRODUCTION
At present, the cascaded H-bridge topology is suitable for
high-power STATCOM system, because the single-phase H
bridge modular design brings great convenience to the
construction, repairs and maintains. When it is applied to
medium-voltage STATCOM, each of the H-bridge converter
cells should be equipped with a large-capacity electrolytic
capacitor.
To solve the problem of unequal DC voltage across each
foating capacitor, power electronics researchers have carried
out research works in both staircase modulation and PWM
modulation and the resultant papers have been published in
literature[ 1 ]-[ 11]. On the condition of compensating reactive
power, DC voltage balancing control has been focused in these
papers which also present the designing process, detail
algorithm and accurate control block. Some of the ideas
proposed in the literatures have been applied in medium
voltage cascade STATCOM [1] [2] [6]. Seldom papers in the
This paper and its related research are supported by the National Key Basic
Research Development Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2009CB219705).
345
literatures, however, has mentioned about the performance of
cascade STATCOM when it is required to compensating
negative-sequence current produced by seriously unbalanced
three-phase load. Literatures [4] [12] have mentioned the idea
of introducing zero-sequence current to balance three-phase
DC voltages when the negative-sequence current is required to
compensated, but the close-loop based algorithm for zero
sequence current control has not been suffciently discussed.
Nothing has been published on a practical algorithm being
capable of not only maintaining equal DC capacitor voltage but
also making the command reactive power and negative
sequence current accurately followed without any pollution to
the power grid.
The aim of this paper is to fgure out the infuence of DC
capacitor voltage coming fom the negative-sequence and zero
sequence current fowing in the cascaded H-bridge topology.
The analysis is implemented by mathematic method. Then,
layered control algorithm consisting of overall control,
clustered-balance control and individual-balance control, is
proposed in this paper not only for meeting the demand of
accurate reactive power control and negative-sequence current
control, but also for keeping the voltage of each foating
capacitor dynamically equal. Overall control gives out small
active current command which is determined by the sum of all
the foating capacitor's voltages and used for compensation of
switch loss and capacitors equivalent power consumption.
Clustered-balance control introduces a zero-sequence current
foating through the loop of three phase clusters with delta
connection to solve the problem of unequal DC voltages
between three phase caused by negative-sequence current and
different converter loss. Individual balance control, as the last
layer, maintains the equal DC capacitor voltages. The reactive
current command and negative-sequence current command are
obtained by sampling and calculating load current.
IT. DOWNSCALED EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM
Fig 1 shows the confguration of a three-phase ST A TCOM
rated at 100-Y and 3-kY A, which is based on cascade single
phase H-bridge converter cell. It's scaled down fom the
medium-voltage high-power STATCOM system to verif the
availability of the medium-voltage STATCOM system, as well
978-1-4577-2088-8/11/$26.00 20121EEE
as the capability of the control strategy to compensating the
seriously unbalance load while balancing the DC capacitor
voltage. Design parameters are summarized in table I for the
100-V3-KVA STATCOM.
L,
O ~ ~ __________ J ~ ________ ~
~ M C l ~ MCI
MC2 R MC2
Fig.I. lOO-V 3-kVA downscaled STATCOM
Table I. Circuit parameters in fig I
Rated reactive power 3kVA
Nominalline-to-line rms voltage 100V
AC inductor 6mH
Starting resistor 51 n
DC capacitor voltage reference SOV
DC capacitor capacitance 9600 f.1F
Carrier frequency for PWM 2.5kHz
Fig.2. Fully digital control system for lOO-V 3-kVA STATCOM
The cascade number of N = 2 is assigned to the 100-V 3-
kVA STATCOM system because of the restriction of the
author's laboratory condition. Therefore, the 100-V 3-KV A
STATCOM consists of six converter cells with the same
current and voltage rating. As a result, five-level voltage
waveform could be produced for cascade ac voltage. This
design is reasonable to verifY the capability of the medium-
voltage high-power STATCOM system because the control
method has no restriction on the cascade number of the
converter cells.
Each converter cell is equipped with an isolating
electrolytic capacitor with a capacitance of 9600 JL F. External
circuit or DC voltage source are not required to install on the
DC side of converter cell. The equal and constant DC voltage
is achieved by the control of voltage-balance algorithm. An
interface inductor is also installed in each cluster to support the
difference between the line-to-line ac grid and five-level PWM
voltage from the cluster. It also makes contribution in filtering
out switch current ripples caused by fast-speed switching.
The on-off state of each switch device configured in
converter cells is determined by the PWM modulation based on
the so-called phase-shifted unipolar sinusoidal PWM technique.
As a result, an equivalent carrier frequency of 10-kHz is
produced. It matches the 10-kHz sample frequency well.
The experimental system adopts a fully digital controller
using a fast speed digital signal processor (DSP) and field-
programmable gate arrays (FPGA). Most of the calculation is
implemented on the floating-support DSP chip and all the
PWM signal are generated and sent out by the FPGA chip. The
whole control system is shown in fig.2.
m. MATHEMATIC ANALYSIS OF POWER FLOW THROGUGH
CASCADED H-BRIDGE TOPOLOGY
The three-phase line-to-line grid voltage is assumed as
follows:
Usah = U psah + Unsah = .[iu p sin OJt + .[iun sine OJt + f/Jvn)
U,"bc = U psbc + Um"be = .[iu p sin(OJt - 27r / 3) + .[iun sin(OJt + f/J,,, + 27r / 3)
U'W = U psca + Unsca = .[iu p sine OJt + 27r / 3) + .[iu n sine OJt + f/Jvn - 27r / 3)
(1)
Then, the three-phase currents input the three clusters are
given by:
= fil I' sin(rot + (jIil' - 27r /3) + filn sine rot + (jIin + 27r /3) + fil n sin(rot + (jIin)
= fil p sin(rot + (jIip + 27r /3) + fil n sin(OJt + (jIin - 27r /3) + fil u sin(rot + (jIio)
(2)
The power provided by the grid can be calculated from
equation (1) and (2):
P sab = U psabicpu + U psabicnll + U psabio +
Unsabicpll + Unsabicnll + Unsabio
Psbc =Upsbcicpv +Upsbcicnv +Upsbcio +
Unsbcicpv + Unsbcicnv + Unsbcio
Psca = U pscaicpw + U pscaicnw + U pscaio +
unscaicpw + unscaicnw + unscaio
(3)
Substituting equations (1) and (2) into equation (3), the
following vectors can be obtained:
lu
p
sabic
p
l j l
V
p
I
p
cos ri
p
- V
p
I
p
cos(2mt + ri
p
)
j
P
pp
= U
p
Sbce
p
v =
V
p
I
p
cos ri
p
= V
p
I
p
cos(2mt + ri
p
: 2n
/

)
U
p
seale
p
w
V
p
I
p
cos ri
p
V
p
I
p
cos(2mt + ri
p
2n
/
.)
(4)
lu
p
sabie
nu
j
l
V
p
In cos rin - V / n cos(2mt + rin ) j
P
p
n
= U
p
Sbccnv =
V
p
I n cos( rin - 2n
/
3) = V
p
I n cos(2mt + rin
)
U
p
scale
n
ll'
V / n
cos( rin + 2n
/
3) V
p
I n cos(2mt + rin
)
(5)
[UPsabiO ) [ V
p
lo COSrio -U
p
locos(2mt+rio) 1
P
p
o
= UpSbCO = U
p
loCOS(rio :2n/3) =U
p
loCOS(2mt+rio-2n/3)
Upsca10 U
p
locos(rio 2n/3) U
p
locos(2mt+rio+2n/3)
(7)
[UlISahiel/u l l Vl/il/coS(t"l/-til/)-Vl/il/cos(2aJl+t"l/+til/)
PII/= UIshe/elll' = VIIICOS(t"l/ = til/) = V'/ICOS(2aJl+t"I/+til/-27/ )
UI/sea/el/II' V, n COS(t,'n tin) V nl n cos(2aJl + t,'n + tin + 27 I -)
(8)
(9)
Each element of the vectors fom (4) to (9) consists a term
fuctuating at twice of the line fequency. Those terms just
result in the DC voltage fuctuation and have no infuence on
the mean value of DC capacitors.
Therefore, conclusions can be gotten as follows: the power
components of
P
po and
P
no result in the redistribution of
active power between the three clusters while keep the overall
power constant.
P
po and
P
no result fom the zero-sequence
current which fows through the loop of the three delta
connection clusters and is not injected into grid. When the
cascade STATCOM is required to compensate reactive current
and negative-sequence cur rent, the power fow of
P
pn and
P
np will not be zero and then the imbalance DC voltage
between the three clusters may happens. Tn order to balance the
DC voltages, the zero-sequence current must be introduced.
Then the power fows of
P
po and
P
no will cancel the effect of
P
pn and
P
np . At last, the imbalance phenomenon could be
cancelled.
As the clustered-balance problem could be solved
according to the above analysis, the solution of individual
347
imbalance problem relays on the individual analysis. Taking
the frst converter in
U
-phase cluster for example, the power
absorbed by this converter is referenced as
Piul
. AC voltage of
frst module is assumed as follow:
N
Uilll = .Vililsin(mt+rilll)+ I.V
j
sin(jmt+r
) (10)
j2
Based on equation (2), the current input the converters can
be rewritten as:
ic
u =
.
I p sine mt + r
i
p) +
.
I n si n( mt + r
i
n) +
.
Josin(mt+r
i
o)
(11)
=
.
Iu sin(mt + rzJ
According to equation (10) and (11), the power
Pill
I could
be calculated by:
P
i
ul = Ui ul .
i
cu = Vi ul
I
U
cos(r
i ul
- r
u
)
N+I
+
IVkIucos(kt+r
k
)
k
=
1
(12)
The mean value of
Pilll
during one line period is given by:
(13)
Equation (13) indicates that individual DC capacitor
voltage is determined by the two factors of Villi and
rilll
. If the
DC voltage value need to be adjusted, the two factors,
Villi and rilll
, can be trimmed respectively or both.
iell
i
cv
iew
IV. CONTROL STRATEGY
i
o
*
U
ill
Uilll
*
Ui1l2
U
Indi vidual
bala ncing Uivl

control
Uiv2
U
lliwl
Uiw2
Fig.3. Block diagram of the total control scheme for IOO-V 3-kVA
STATCOM.
Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the control algorithm
proposed in this paper. The whole control algorithm is mainly
divided into three parts: decoupled current control based on
d -q transformations, command current generating algorithm,
voltage balance control for the six converter cells. The block
diagram of decoupled current control is shown in fgA and the
command current generating algorithm is designed according
to instantaneous power theory [13].
Moreover, the voltage balance control ,which will be
described in detail in section V, could also be classifed into
three parts, namely, overall voltage control, clustered balancing
control, individual balancing control. This control algorithm is
characterized by easy expansion to high cascaded number of
STATCOM system.
U
Inverse
d
-
q

U
Transform
-ation

U
Fig.4. Block diagram of decoupled control
V. VOLTAGE-BALANCING CONTROL
Based on the analysis in section III, a layered voltage
balancing control algorithm is described in this paper. It
consists of overall voltage control, clustered balancing control
and individual voltage control.
A. Overall voltage control
The sum of the three elements in power vector
P p
p
is the
total active power absorbed by all the three clusters of
converter cells, which equals to a term
of
p =
u
sd
.
idcre/ +
u
s
q
.
iqcre/'
Here, idcre/
is the only factor for
overall dc voltage control because of u
s
q
=
0 . The control
diagram is shown in fgS.
U
.
d""
_ kvp + kVi / S
udcsum
Fig.5. Block diagram of overall voltage control.
B. Clustered balancing control
Fig 6 shows the diagram of clustered balancing control by
introducing a zero-sequence current. The aim of this control is
to keep the dc voltage of each cluster equals to the dc mean
voltage of the three clusters. The clustered balancing control
considers a cluster of cascaded-connection converters as one
single-phase H-bridge PWM converter with a dc capacitor
of C
/
n . Here, n is the cascade number of cascaded-
348
connection converters in one cluster. Note that a resistance
nRc is introduced to represent the converter loss.
Based on the power vector p
p
o
' the mean values of power
caused by zero-sequence current can be calculated as:
- I f+1"
Poca = - Pocad! = U pI 0 cos(l;
o
- 2" /3)
ine
(14)
Due to linear correlation of the three equations In (14),
solving the frst two equations in (14) leads to:
J a
cos (io = P oab / U
p
(15)
losin(;o =-(
Poab +2Pobc)
/U
p
Assum ing lo
cos
(io = Iloab
and 10
cos
( (io + 2J /3) = Ilobc
,
the command zero-sequence current can be rewritten as:
iore/ = J! a sinew! + liO)
(16)
= J sin(w!) Il
oab
-
J COS(WI) (11 oab
+
2M abc)
In order to improving the stability, an iner current loop for
the clustered balancing control is introduced. The diagram of
clustered balancing control is shown in fg.6.
Fig.6 . Clustered balancing control between the three clusters by introducing a
zero-sequence current, where each of the three clusters is considered as a
single-phase H-bridge converters
C. Individual voltage control
Fig.7 shows the block diagram of the individual balancing
control. The aim is to keep each dc voltage of the converters in
one cluster equals to the dc mean value of the corresponding
cluster.
Fig. 7. Individual balancing control between the converters in one cluster,
taking U -phase cluster for example.
VI. EXPERIMENT RESULTS
Fig. 8. Experiment waveforms in a transient state from inductive to capacitive
operation at 3kYA with ucu
l
=80Y.
Fig 8 shows the experiment waveforms in a transient state
fom inductive to capacitive operation fom q * =3kV A to -
3kVA with a sharp change. The U -phase cluster voltage is a
fve-level voltage waveforms in both state. Compared with the
grid voltage U
sab
, the current input the U -phase cluster i
C
l
leads by 90 degrees in capacitive operation, and the current
i
C
l in inductive operation is out of phase by 90 degree as
expected.

.
1 0.00 v
Fig. 9. Experiment waveforms confirming the efectiveness of the clustered
balancing control when the ST A TeOM was operated in capacitive state at
4kYA with capacitor voltage of 80Y. Both of the overall voltage control and
the individual balancing control remain active in this experiment
Fig .9 shows the experiment waveforms respectively of the
line-to-neutral grid voltage Usa ' A -phase line current ica and
the dc capacitor voltages, to verif the effectiveness of
clustered balancing control. The clustered-balancing control is
intentionally disabled for 20s, and then, it was enable again.
During the period of experiment, the overall voltage control
and individual balancing control are constantly active. Afer
the clustered balancing control became disabled, the diverse of
the six capacitor voltages occurred. As soon as the clustered
balancing control recovered, the six dc mean value started to
converge at its average value.
349
Te
1
Fig. 10. Experiment waveforms confrming the efectiveness of the individual
balancing control when the ST A TeOM was operated in inductive state at
3kYA with capacitor voltage of 80Y. Both of the overall voltage control and
the clustered balancing control remain active in this experiment.
The experiment waveforms in fg 10 confrm the
effectiveness of the individual balancing control. As the
individual balancing control is intentionally disabled for 20s,
the overall voltage control and clustered balancing control still
keep active. Afer the individual balancing control was
enabled again, the capacitor voltage traces merged into one
waveform as shown in fg 10.
T----------t---------
-
Fig. II. Experiment waveforms when the ST A TeOM is required to
compensate balanced three-phase reactive load with capacitor voltage of 80Y.
All of the overall voltage control, the clustered balancing control and
individual balancing control are active in this experiment
Fig.11 confrms the effectiveness of compensation when
the three-phase load is balanced. During the compensating
process, the dc mean voltage of capacitors stays balance and
the total dc voltages are the same with the reference value.
/HCI COmCHSdlIOH, _lIU SUC CUIICHl KCCS H HdSC WlH _IU
VOld_C.
__
Z0.0m$

tt

.Um$
j
4.00W
Fig.12. Experiment waveforms when the ST A TCOM is required to
compensate serious unbalance three-phase load with capacitor voltage of 80V.
All of the overall voltage control, the clustered balancing control and
individual balancing control are active in this experiment
I_.J2 COHHlmS lHC C11CClIVCHCSS O1 COmCHSdlIOH WHCH lHC
lHlCC-HdSC OdU S SCIOUS HHDddHCCU. /S S SHOWH H H_J2,
d _ICdl U11CICHCC CXSlS H lHC lHICC md_HlUUCS O1 lHC OHlHl
CHHCHl. 1H OIUCI lO COmCHSdlC mDddHCC OdU, lHC
/L\w HjCClS HHDddHCCU IHC CUIICHl lO _IU WHC d
ZCIO-OIUCI CHIICHl S lOUHCCU D lHC CHSlCICU DddHCIH_
COHlIO lO KCC lHC CqHd O1 lHC lHICC CUSlCI VOld_CS. HIH_
lHC COmCHSdlIH_ IOCCSS, lHC UC mCdH VOld_C O1 CddClOIS
SldS DddHCC dHU lHC lOld UC VOld_CS dIC lHC SdHC WlH lHC
lC1CICHCC VdHC. /HCI COHCHSdlOH, lHC lHICC-HdSC _IU
CHIICHlS WIlH lHC SdmC md_HlUUC dIC H HdSC WlH lHC _IU
VOld_CS. HC OWCI qUdl S _ICdl mIOVCU WlH lHC
350
OWCI 1dClOI DCIH_ HHIl.
N1. CONCLUSION
HS dCI HdS dUUICSSCU d lIdHS1OImCI CSS /L\w
SSlCm DdSCU OH CdSCdUCU -IU_C WlH UCld COHH_HIdlOH.
HC COHlIO SCHCmC lOOSCU H lHIS dCI IS CH8IdClCIZCU D
lHC SHldDC dICdlOH 1OI COmCHSdlH_ SCIOHS HHDddHCC
OdU. HIS COHlIO SlIdlC_ HdS HO mldlOH OH lHC CdSCdUC
HHHDCI O1 lHC SH_C-HdSC -DIU_C COHVCIlCIS dHU CdH dSO
DC CdS CXdHUCU lO d H_HCI HHmDCI O1 VOld_C CVCS.
XCIHCHld ICSHlS ODldHCU HOm d J-N J-KN/ dDOIdlOI
UOWHSCdCU mOUC HdVC VCIHCU lHC VdDl O1 lHC COHlIO
SCHCmC.
REFERENCES
[ I ] Akagi H, Inoue S, Yoshii T, "Control and perfoemance of a
transformerless cascade PWM ST A TCOM with star confguration",
IEEE Trans. Ind Appl., 43(4), 2007, pp.1 041-1 049.
[2] Laxman Maharjan, Shigenori Inoue, Hirofumi Akagi, "A
Transformerless Energy Storage System Based on a Cascade Multilevel
PWM Converter With Star Configuration", JEEE Trans. Jnd Appl., 44(5)
2008, pp.1621-1630.
[3] S.D.Gamini Jayasinghe, D.M.Vilathgamuwa, U.K.Madawala, "A
Cascade Multilevel ST A TCOM for Wind Generation Systems",
Proceedings of the 2009 JEEE PEDS Jnternational Conference, pp.
1323- 1328.
[4] Nobuhiko Hatano, Toshifumi Ise, "Control Scheme of Cascaded H
Bridge ST A TCOM Using Zero-Sequence Voltage and Negative
Sequence Current", IEEE Trans. power Del., 25(2), 2010, pp. 543-550.
[5] Alan 1. Watson, Patrick W. Wheeler, et aI, "A Complete Harmonic
Elimination Approach to DC Link Voltage Balancing for a Cascaded
Multilevel Rectifer", IEEE Trans. Ind Electron., 54(6), 2007, pp.
2946-2953.
[6] Qiang Song, Wenhua Liu et aI, "Multilevel Optimal Modulation and
Dynamic Control Strategies for ST A TCOMs Using Cascaded Multilevel
Inverters", IEEE Trans. Pow. Del., 22(3), 2007, pp.1937-1946.
[7] Chong Han, Alex Q. Huang, "A Generalized Control Strategy of Per
Phase DC Voltage Balancing for Cascaded Multilevel Converter-based
ST A TCOM", Power Electron. Specialists Con, 2007, pp.1746-1752.
[8] Yidan Li , Bin Wu, "A Novel DC Voltage Detection Technique in the
CHB Inverter-Based STATCOM", IEEE Trans. Ind Electron., 23(3),
2008, pp.1613-1619.
[9] Yu Liu, Alex Q. Huang et aI, "Small-Signal Model-Based Control
Strategy for Balancing Individual DC Capacitor Voltages in Cascade
Multilevel Inverter-Based STATCOM", IEEE Trans. Ind Electron.,
56(6),2009, pp.2259-2269.
[10] Shukai Xu, Qiang Song et aI, "Development of a D-ST A TCOM
Prototype Based on Cascade Inverter with Isolation Transformer for
Unbalanced Load Compensation", Proceedings of the 2005 JEEE JCJT
International Conerence, pp.1 050- 1056.
[ I I ] Jon Andoni Barrena, Luis Marroyo et aI, "Individual Voltage Balancing
Strategy for PWM Cascaded H-Bridge Converter-Based ST A TCOM",
IEEE Trans.lnd Electron., 55(1), 2008, pp. 21-29.
[12] Akagi, "Classifcation, Terminology, and Application of the Modular
Multilevel Cascade Converter(MMCC)", JEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
26(11),2011, pp.3119-3130.
[13] H. Akagi, E. Watanabe, and M. Aredes. "Instantaneous Power Theory
and Applications to Power Conditioning", Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007.