Modeling and Control of DSTATCOM for

Three-Phase, Four-Wire Distribution Systems

Bhim Singh
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India
bsingh@ee.iitd.in
A.Adya, A.P.mittal and J.R.P Gupta
Department of Instrumentation and Control
Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology
New Delhi-110045, India
alka106@rediffmail.com, alok@nsit.ac.in ,
jrpg83@yahoo.com

Abstract This paper deals with a DSTATCOM (Distribution
Static Compensator) for load balancing, neutral current
elimination, power factor correction and voltage regulation in
three-phase, four-wire distribution system feeding commercial
and domestic consumers. A four leg voltage source inverter (VSI)
configuration with a dc bus capacitor is employed as
DSTATCOM. The modified instantaneous reactive power theory
(IRPT) is used in the control of DSTATCOM. The capability of
the DSTATCOM is demonstrated through results obtained using
MATLAB based developed model of the system at different types
of loads.

Keywords-DSTATCOM; load balancing; voltage regulation;
IRPT theory; power factor correction; neutral current elimination.
I. INTRODUCTION
Three-phase, four-wire systems are widely used in distributing
electric energy to commercial and domestic users. Under
normal conditions, the loads are assumed to be reasonably
balanced and the neutral current is quite small in magnitude.
However, due to advances in solid state power conversion
technology, there is a tremendous increase in linear and non-
linear loads. The situation worsens when three-phase
unbalanced nonlinear loads are also existing in three phase,
four wire system along with linear loads and ideal operating
conditions do not exist. In practice, three-phase, four-wire
systems are employed in distributing electric energy to several
office buildings, lighting systems and small manufacturing
plants. In such systems, under abnormal operating conditions
and un-balanced loads, the current in neutral conductor
exceeds the normal phase current. The excessive harmonic
current in neutral conductor causes problems such as wiring
failure, transformer overheating and malfunctioning of
electronic equipments. Unbalance and distortion in the voltage
affect the performance of other loads.
In the past, attempts have been made on electric power
quality problems and many solutions have been suggested to
improve the power quality in electric distribution systems [1-
3]. A number of compensators have been reported for power
factor correction, voltage regulation and load balancing using
lossless passive elements (L and C) [1] and active elements
(solid state CSI and VSI) [2,3]. Development of STATCOM
for three-wire system is reported in literature in recent years
[1-3] but very little work is available on three-phase, four-wire
systems using DSTATCOM. Many control techniques have
been incorporated such as instantaneous reactive power theory
[4], power balance theory, indirect current control technique
[5-6] etc.
In this paper, a modified version of instantaneous reactive
power theory is used for control of DSTATCOM. A four leg
voltage source inverter (VSI) configuration with a dc bus
capacitor is employed as DSTATCOM. This configuration
offers use of less complex and more reliable control as
compared to three single-phase voltage source converters. A
fourth leg is added to control the current in the neutral wire
and to reduce it to acceptable levels. Three-phase reference
supply currents are derived using sensed ac voltages at point
of common coupling (PCC) and dc bus voltage of the
DSTATCOM as feedback signals. Two proportional plus
integral (PI) controllers are used. One PI controller is used for
regulating the DC bus voltage of DSTATCOM and the second
PI controller is for regulating the ac terminal voltage at PCC.
A dynamic model of DSTATCOM is developed in MATLAB
environment to simulate its behaviour. Simulation results
during steady state and transient operating conditions of the
DSTATCOM are presented and discussed in detail to
demonstrate voltage regulation, power-factor correction and
load balancing capabilities of the DSTATCOM system.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Fig.1a and Fig.1b show the basic diagrams of DSTATCOM
system connected as a shunt compensator. DSTATCOM
system consists of a standard three-phase Insulated Gate
Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) based four leg VSI bridge with the
input ac inductors and a dc bus capacitor to obtain a self-
supporting dc bus. An additional leg is added to control the
current in neutral wire. A three-phase ac source with line
impedance feeds power to balanced / unbalanced linear and
non-linear load. One PI controller is used over the sensed and
reference values of dc bus voltage of the DSTATCOM for
power factor correction. A second PI controller is used over
the reference and sensed values of ac terminal voltage at PCC
for voltage regulation. A dynamic model of DSTATCOM is
developed in MATLAB environment to simulate its behavior.

III. CONTROL SCHEME
The control algorithm used is a modified version of the basic
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IRPT scheme given by Akagi et al [4]. The scheme is
illustrated for power factor correction and voltage regulation.
A. Power Factor Correction and Load Balancing
Fig. 2 shows the schematic layout of the control scheme used
for DSTATCOM system. For obtaining power factor
correction, it is assumed that the source supplies load active
power (p
l
) and power loss (p
osc
). The reactive power

Fig.1a Schematic diagram of DSTATCOM connected to a distribution system


Fig.1b Schematic diagram of DSTATCOM

requirement of the load is fed locally from DSTATCOM. The
p
l
is filtered and its DC component (P
l
) is extracted. Consider
i
s
, i
s
to be the - components of the supply currents and v
s

and v
s
be the components of the supply voltages (v
s
). One PI
controller is employed for the regulation of DC link voltage
(V
dc
). The output of this PI controller is considered as power
loss (p
osc
) in DSTATCOM. Reference supply currents (i
sr ,
i
sr
)

are calculated as:
i
sr
={v
s
(P
l
+p
osc
)}/(v
s
2
+v
s
2
) (1)
i
sr
={v
s
(P
l
+p
osc
)}/(v
s
2
+v
s
2
) (2)
where v
s
, v
s
are obtained by transformation of voltages from
a-b-c frame to --o frame as:
v
s
= (2/3)
1/2
(v
sa
v
sb
/2 v
sc
/2) (3)
v
s
= 1/2
(1/2)
(v
sb
-v
sc
) (4)
v
so
=1/3
(1/2)
(v
sa
+v
sb
+v
sc
) (5)
and the active power requirement of the load (p
l
) is calculated
as:
p
l
= (v
sa
i
la
+ v
sb
i
lb
+ v
sc
i
lc
) (6)
The quantity p
l
is filtered and its DC component (P
l
) is used.
The active power loss component (p
osc
) is calculated as:
p
osc(n)
= p
osc(n-1)
+ K
pd
{v
de(n)
- v
de(n-1)
} + K
id
v
de(n)
(7)

where v
de(n)
= V
dcr
V
dca(n)
denotes error between sensed DC
bus voltage V
dc
calculated and reference DC voltage (V
dcr
).
K
pd
and K
id
are proportional and integral gains of the dc bus
voltage PI controller.
A reverse transformation of --o frame to a-b-c frame gives
three phase reference supply currents (i
sar
,i
sbr
,i
scr
)

as:
i
sar
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{ i
sor
/2
(1/2)
+ i
sr
} (8)
i
sbr
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{-( i
sor
/2
(1/2)
) (i
sr
/2) + (3
(1/2)
i
sr
/2) } (9)
i
scr
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{- (i
sor
/2
(1/2)
) (i
sr
/2) + (3
(1/2)
i
sr
/2)} (10)
where (i
sr
, i
sr
, i
sor
) are obtained from (1)-(2).

B. Voltage Regulation and Load Balancing
For voltage regulation, a second PI controller is employed
over the amplitude of ac terminal voltage at the point of
common coupling. The amplitude of ac terminal voltage is
calculated as:
v
tm
=(2/3 )
1/2
(v
sa
2
+ v
sb
2
+ v
sc
2
)
1/2
(11)
This quantity is again filtered to obtain DC component. The
output of the second PI controller over v
tm
and

v
tmr
is
considered as Q
l
. The equations for calculation of reference
supply currents are calculated as:
i
sr
= {v
s
(P
l
+p
osc
)+(v
s
Q
l
)}/(v
s
2
+v
s
2
) (12)
i
sr
= {-v
s
(P
l
+p
osc
) + (v
s
Q
l
)} / (v
s
2
+ v
s
2
) (13)
where Q
l
is calculated as:
Q
l(n)
= Q
l(n-1)
+ K
pq
{v
ae(n)
- v
ae(n-1)
} + K
iq
v
ae(n)
(14)
where v
ae(n)
= v
tmr
v
tm(n)
denotes the error between v
tm
and
reference voltage v
tmr
and v
tm
at the n
th
sampling instant. K
pq

and K
iq
are the proportional and integral gains of the second PI
controller.
A reverse transformation of --o frame to a-b-c frame using
equations (8)-(10) gives reference supply currents (i
sar
,i
sbr,
i
scr
)
are obtained from equations (15)- (17):
i
sar
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{ i
sor
/2
(1/2)
+ i
sr
} (15)
i
sbr
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{-( i
sor
/2
(1/2)
) (i
sr
/2) + (3
(1/2)
i
sr
/2)} (16)
i
scr
= (2/3)
(1/2)
{- (i
sor
/2
(1/2)
) (i
sr
/2) + (3
(1/2)
i
sr
/2)} (17)

C. Hysteresis Current Controller
The DSTATCOM consists of 4 legs; each leg having two
IGBT devices as shown in Fig.1b. The switching logic for the
upper switch and lower switch for phase-a is formulated as:
if i
sa
< (i
sar
h
b
) upper switch is OFF and lower switch is ON.
if i
sa
> (i
sar
+h
b
) upper switch is ON and lower switch is OFF.
Similarly, the switching logic of two other phases (b and c) are
formulated, using h
b
the width of hysteresis band.
The neutral supply current (i
ns
) and reference (i
nsr
) are
calculated as:
i
ns
= -(i
sa
+ i
sb
+

i
sc
) (18)
i
nsr
= 0 (19)
The error between i
ns
and i
nsr
gives appropriate gating signals
for the fourth leg of VSI.




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Fig.2 Control scheme for DSTATCOM system




Fig.3 MATLAB model of DSTATCOM system

v
sb

v
s

v
s

abc
transformation
v
sa

vsc
abc
transformation
i
sa

i
sb

i
sc

i
s

i
s



Estimate
Supply
Reference
Currents
i
sr, i
sr




Transform
-abc
Reference
Supply
currents
i
sar
, i
sbr
,i
scr


Hysteresis
Current
Controller

DSTATCOM
8
gating
pulses
PI controller --I
p
osc
PI controller -II
q
l
V
dcr

V
dc

V
tmr
V
tm

i
sr
i
sr
i
sar
i
sbr
i
scr
i
sa
i
sb
i
sc

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Fig. 4 MATLAB Control scheme based on modified IRPT

IV. MATLAB BASED MODELING OF SYSTEM
Model of the DSTATCOM including power distribution
system network and its controller is developed in MATLAB
environment with Simulink and Power System Block-sets
(PSB) toolboxes. Figs. 3 and 4 show the MATLAB diagram
representing DSTATCOM and the ac mains as well as load on
the distribution system. The source consists of three phase ac
voltages with neutral and load. Provision is made for linear /
non-linear loads to be balanced and unbalanced using
appropriate switches. The DSTATCOM consists of 8-IGBTs
each shunted by a reverse parallel connected fast switching
free wheeling diode. The output of DSTATCOM is coupled in
parallel to the distribution system network through
inductances of the coupling transformer.
V. PERFORMANCE OF DSTATCOM SYSTEM
Performance of DSTATCOM for power-factor correction,
voltage regulation and harmonic rduction along with load
balancing is studied. The performance of the model is
analyzed under various conditions.

A. Performance of DSTATCOM with Linear Loads for Power
Factor Correction
Fig.5 shows the response of DSTATCOM with lagging power
factor load of 11kW for power-factor correction and load
magnitude but the supply currents still remain balanced and
in phase. It is observed that DSTATCOM is able to improve
the supply power-factor to unity. The supply currents are
balanced, sinusoidal and in-phase with the voltages. At t= 0.06
sec, the three phase balanced load (11kW) is changed to two
phase load. It is observed that the load currents are of unequal
phase with the supply voltages. The neutral current in supply
is also reduced to a small magnitude even though neutral load
current and neutral DSTATCOM currents are having large
magnitude. The DC link voltage is regulated to reference
value of 700 V before and after disturbance.

Fig.5 Performance of DSTATCOM with linear loads for power factor
correction and load balancing for 11kW load.
B. Performance of DSTATCOM with Linear Loads for Voltage
Regulation

Fig.6 shows the response of DSTATCOM with lagging power
factor load for voltage regulation and load balancing. It is
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observed that DSTATCOM is able to regulate the voltage
(v
tm
) to reference value of 338V. The supply currents are
balanced, sinusoidal and slightly leading with respect to the
voltages. At t= 0.06sec, three phase balanced load is changed
to two phase and then back to three phase load at t=0.1sec.
The neutral current in supply remains negligible in magnitude
even when the neutral load current is high from 0.06 to 0.1sec.
The load currents are of unequal magnitude as one of the
phase is switched off from t=0.06 sec to t=0.1sec, but the
supply currents are still balanced and sinusoidal. The voltage
at PCC is regulated to its reference value of 338V and DC bus
voltage is maintained at nearly its reference value.

C. Performance of DSTATCOM with Non-Linear Loads for
Power Factor Correction and Load Balancing
Fig.7 shows the response of DSTATCOM with nonlinear

Fig.6 Performance of DSTATCOM with linear loads for voltage regulation
and load balancing for 11kW load.


Fig.7 Performance of DSTATCOM with nonlinear load (50 kW) for power
factor improvement

loads for power-factor correction and load balancing. The
nonlinear load considered is R=6.75 ohms across a diode
rectifier. It is observed that DSTATCOM is able to make the
supply currents nearly sinusoidal. The supply currents are
balanced, sinusoidal and in-phase with the voltages. At t= 0.14
sec, the three phase balanced load having 50kW power is
changed to two phase load. The supply currents are still
balanced and sinusoidal even when the load current in one of



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Fig.8 Waveform and Harmonic spectrum for supply current (Is).




0
20
40
60
80
100
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31
Harmonic Order
I
l
(
A
)
THD I
l
=27.2%


Fig.9 Waveform and Harmonic spectrum for supply current (Is).


the phases is zero. The THD of load currents is 27.2% which
is reduced to THD of 5.2% for supply currents using
DSTATCOM. Fig.8 and Fig.9 show the waveforms for load
current and supply current. The THD of supply currents is
reduced to 3.98% in time interval t=0.14 sec to t=0.18sec
when the THD of load currents is 16.1%. The neutral current
in supply is also reduced to a small magnitude. The DC link
voltage is regulated nearly to reference value of 700V.

D. Performance of DSTATCOM with Non-Linear Loads for
Voltage Regulation
Fig.7 shows the response of DSTATCOM with nonlinear
loads for voltage regulation. The nonlinear load considered is
R=6.75 ohms across a diode rectifier. Here, two PI controllers
are used one is for the regulation of DC link voltage and the
second is for ac terminal voltage regulation. It is observed that
DSTATCOM is able to make the supply currents nearly
sinusoidal and slightly leading with respect to the voltage.

Fig.10 Performance of DSTATCOM with nonlinear load (40 kW) for
voltage regulation under load change from 40kW to 50 kW at
t=0.24sec


0
20
40
60
80
100
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31
Harmonic Order
I
l
(
A
)
THD : 27.2%


Fig.11 Waveform and Harmonic spectrum for load current (Is).

THD : 5.2%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31
Harmonic Order
Is(A)
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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31
Harmonic Order
I
s
(
A
)
THD: 5.2%


Fig.12 Waveform and Harmonic spectrum for supply current (Is).

At t= 0.24 sec, the diode rectifier load is changed from R=
10ohms to R=7.5 ohms. The supply voltage, supply current,
load current and compensator current waveforms are shown in
Fig.10. It is seen that the terminal voltage is maintained close
to the reference value of 338V. Moreover, the DC link voltage
is regulated to its reference of 700V. Fig. 11 and Fig.12 show
the waveform and harmonic spectrum for load current and
supply current respectively. It is observed that DSTATCOM is
able to reduce the THD of load current from 27.2% to THD
of 5.2% in supply current.

V. CONCLUSIONS
The proposed control algorithm of the DSTATCOM has been
found suitable for compensation of balanced / unbalanced
linear as well as nonlinear loads. The proposed DSTATCOM
with modified instantaneous control scheme provides quick
and independent control for various power quality features
like power factor correction, voltage regulation along with
load balancing. It has reduced neutral current which can
become excessive under load unbalancing and nonlinear loads.
The control algorithm of the DSTATCOM is flexible and it
can be applied to any category of loads. DSTATCOM is likely
to replace conventional compensators for improving power
quality in near future due to improved performance and
reduced cost.
REFERENCES
[1] T. J. E. Miller, Reactive Power Control in Electric Systems. Toronto,
Ontario, Canada: Wiley, 1982.
[2] R.M.Mathur (Editor), Static Compensators for Reactive Power Control,
Contexts Publications, Winnipeg, Canada, 1984.
[3] A.Ghosh and G. Ledwich,Power Quality Enhancement using Custom
Power devices, Kluwer Academic Publishers, London 2002.
[4] H.Akagi, Y.Kanazawa and A.Nabae, Instantaneous reactive
compensators comprising switching devices without energy storage
components, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. IA-20,
no. 3, May/June 1984, pp. 625-630.
[5] B.N.Singh, K.Al-Haddad, A.Chandra, DSP based indirect-current
controlled STATCOM -I Multifunctional capabilities IEE Proceedings,
vol. 147, no. 2, March 2000, pp. 107-112.
[6] B.N.Singh, K.Al-Haddad, A.Chandra, DSP based indirect-current
controlled STATCOM -II Multifunctional capabilities IEE
Proceedings, vol. 147, no. 2, March 2000, pp. 113-118.
[7] O. Lara and E. Acha, Modeling and analysis of custom power systems
by PSCAD/ EMTDC, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 17,
No.1, Jan. 2002, pp. 266-270.
[8] P.Giroux, G.Sybille and H.LeHully, Modeling and Simulation of a
Distribution STATCOM using Simulinks Power System Block set,
IECON01 27
th
Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics
Society, pp. 990-996.
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