Shunt Active Power Filter/STATCOM Topology for

Medium/High Power Applications: Parallel Inverters Operating

at Different Switching Frequencies
Tuhin S. Basu, Avik Bhattacharya, Member IEEE and Chandan Chakraborty, Senior Member IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Kharagpur, 721302, WB, India
Email: thnsbasu@gmail.com, avik.iitkgp@gmail.com, chakraborty@ieee.org

AbstractThis paper deals with a unique combination of two
inverters those may work as an active power filter (APF) or a
STATCOM. Two inverters are switched at different frequencies.
The low frequency inverter takes care of the reactive power
demand of the system and makes the source current in phase
with the voltage, while, the high frequency inverter mostly
compensates for the harmonics. In the limiting case, the low
frequency inverter operates in square wave mode with minimum
number of switching per cycle, thereby, also reducing the
switching losses in the inverter. The high frequency inverter
includes a L-C passive filter to mitigate the lower order
harmonics and to bring down the operating voltage of the
inverter to a very convenient level. It will be shown that the
proposed combination has all the merits to work as a STATCOM
or as an APF. Performance of the proposed topology is verified
by MATLAB/SIMULINK and also confirmed by prototype
experimentation.
Index Terms- Active power filter, passive filter, hybrid topology,
STATCOM, harmonics.
I. INTRODUCTION
Owing to wide spread use of adjustable speed drives
(ASD), arc furnace, SMPS, UPS etc. harmonics
compensations have become increasingly important for power
systems. Harmonics not only increase the losses but also
produce unwanted disturbance to the communication network,
more voltage and/or current stress etc. Passive filters have the
advantages of low cost and losses. However, they have the
problems of harmonic resonance with the source and/or the
load. Moreover they need to be tuned properly to take care of
a wider frequency range. Active filter may completely replace
the passive counterpart [1-6]. This requires higher
voltage/current switches for medium/high power applications.
Use of hybrid filter, where a passive filter is connected in
series with a lower rating active filter, has the merit of
operating the active filter at a convenient voltage and current
level. Fujita and Akagi [7-8] proposed such topology in 1991.
However, it required a transformer to couple the passive filter
with the active filter. Later the transformer is eliminated and
Srianthumrong and Akagi [11] proposed a hybrid combination
for application with diode rectifier. The passive filter
connected in series is tuned at 5th harmonics and the active
filter is operated at a much lower voltage (at 300V for a 3.3kV
line). Bhattacharya et al. [12] and Cheng et al. [13] put
forward a dual hybrid configuration where the series filters are
tuned to eliminate 5th and 7th current harmonics.
This paper reports a system, which is a combination of low
and high frequency inverters to optimally compensate the
load. The purpose of the low frequency inverter is to
compensate for the reactive power demand of the load. In case
the system works as a STATCOM, the reactive power demand
being very high, this inverter needs to switch very high
current. Therefore in marginal case it is desired that the
switching frequency be very less and the inverter may work in
square wave mode. The high frequency inverter, on the other
hand, takes care of all the harmonics injected by the load and
also generated by the low frequency inverter. Hybrid topology
uses a passive L-C filter and has the advantage to work at a
convenient voltage level. The L-C filter if tuned properly may
eliminate/reduce lower order harmonics (LOH).
This paper is organized in eight sections. The following
section explains the proposed system. Section-III deals with
the limiting case of study for the low frequency inverter. A
detail discussion on the square wave mode is presented.
Fig.1 . Proposed APF/STACOM Topology.

978-1-4244-5226-2/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE 2669

Section-IV explains the operation of high frequency inverter.
Section-V discusses the filter design of low and high
frequency inverters respectively. Section-VI and VII report
simulation and experimental results. Section-VIII concludes
the work.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
The topology of the proposed active power filter is shown
in Fig.1. Two back-to-back connected inverters, one switching
at low frequency (LFI) and another switching at high
frequency (HFI) are used sharing a common dc link. The dc
link capacitor may be split across HFI and LFI to make the
system suitable for high power and high switching frequency.
The HFI mainly responsible for compensating harmonics and
it is required to operate at higher switching frequency. The
total dc link voltage is applied across the LFI which is
designed to compensate for the reactive power demand of the
load. A diode bridge rectifier feeding a resistive load is used
as nonlinear load for this study. A 3-phase R-L load may be
connected in parallel to the rectifier load to investigate the
VAR compensation.
III. OPERATION OF LOW FREQUENCY INVERTER IN
SQUARE WAVE MODE
In marginal case the LFI may operate in square wave mode.
This is particularly important when the system works as a
STATCOM. Fig.2 shows the control circuit of square wave
inverter. The load current is detected and it is transformed into
d-q synchronous reference frame using Phase Locked Loop
(PLL). Low pass filter (at 16Hz cut off frequency) is used to
extract the dc component i d* and i q* ,which corresponds to the
fundamental component of active and reactive current of the
load. i q* is set as reference-reactive-current.
output current of the inverter is transformed into d-q
* real power flows to charge the capacitor to the required
synchronous reference frame. The i q component is compared
*
with i q and processed using a PI controller to generate the
Fig. 2. Control circuit of square wave inverter.
(a)
(b) ` (c)
Fig 3. (a) Single phase equivalent circuit diagram connected
to grid (b) Reactive compensation for inductive load (c)
Reactive compensation for capacitive load
Van =Vao + jXIa (1)
Ia =
[V a n V ao ]
(2)
jX
(which is the angle between the inverter output voltage and the
line voltage). The operation of the square wave inverter may
be explained using single phase equivalent circuit diagrams
shown in Fig.3b. The current injected by the inverter is given
by (2).
To satisfy the reactive compensation for both inductive as
well as capacitive load, the fundamental ac voltage supplied by
the inverter has to be increased or decreased [9]. For inductive
load, when the inverter supplies pure reactive power, Vao
(inverter output voltage) is greater than Van (source phase
The 3-phase
voltage) as shown in Fig.3c.To meet this value of Vao, a small
V dc .
Similarly for capacitive load, Vao is less than Van and a small
negative real power flows to discharge the capacitor to maintain
the required V d c .The dc link is split (as shown in Fig.1) The
voltage across the dc link capacitor ( V d c 2 ) that is applied to the
HFI is held constant (by the high frequency inverter) and the
voltage across the dc link ( V d c ) of the LFI is adjusted
according to the reactive compensation provided by the inverter.
IV. HIGH FREQUENCY INVERTER OPERATION
The high frequency inverter (HFI) is a shunt hybrid active
filter and operates at 10kHz switching frequency. This only
compensates the load harmonics but also takes care for the
harmonics injected by the LFI. The inverter consists of LC
filter tuned optimally to compensate 5th and 7th harmonics.
Therefore, the dc-link voltage is controlled by q-axis current
[11].
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 where
1
Z F = RF + j LF + (6)
jCF
From the relation given in (3), if ZK >>ZF there is less
harmonic current I sh in source as all the harmonic current will
sink to ZF . If the ZK tends to infinity then the relation (3) is
given as:
I sh = 0 (7)

VHFI = ZF ( Ilh + Iah ) (8)

V. FILTER DESIGN OF LOW FREQUENCY INVERTER

Fig. 4. Control circuit of high frequency inverter.

In the limiting condition the LFI will operate in the square

The operation of the HF inverter can be explained by a single wave mode. Here the filter design is carried out for this mode
phase equivalent circuit as shown in Figs.5 and 6. ZF, is the of operation. The value of the inductor is determined by the
impedance of the LC filter. The harmonic currents injected by THD of current supplied by the inverter [9].
the LFI and the load can be modeled as independent current With reference to Figs.1 and 3,

sources I ah and I lh respectively. Van = Vao + jXI a (9)

The harmonic current
present in supply is given by: Vdc = Vdc1 + Vdc 2 (10)
ZF
I sh = ( I lh + I ah )
Z K + sLS + Z F Vao = Van 2 + ( XI a )
2
(3) (11)
The terminal voltage at PCC is given by:
sLS Z K Vdc Vdc 2
V pcc = ( I lh + I ah ) (12)
Z K + sLS + Z F (4)
The inverter output voltage is given by: Vdc
Vao = (13)
Z Z (I + I ) 2 2
VHFI = F K lh ah
Z K + Z F + sLS (5)
X = 2 fL1 (14)
Vdc
Van
X= 2 2
(15)
Ia
For eliminating lower order harmonic current, the value of the
inductor (L1) increases as a result of which the reactance (X)
drop also increases. During capacitive load the value of dc
Fig 5 Single phase equivalent circuit of the system, when both the voltage must be smaller to produce ac voltage as given in (11).
inverters are working. The filter is designed by considering maximum value of
capacitive load to be compensated and by eliminating 13th,
11th and 7th harmonic.
The filter for the HFI is selected depending on the
predominant lower order harmonics in the load current.

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS

Fig. 6 Single phase equivalent circuit of the system, when
feedback control is applied.
To understand the performance and importance of each
inverter, the low and high frequency inverters are operated
one at a time. Fig.7 shows the dynamic performance of the
LFI. It is to be noted that the source current becomes in phase
with the source voltage, when the inverter starts operating.

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However, the source current consists of considerable
harmonics which is due to the net harmonic injected by the
load as well as inverter. To understand the performance of
high frequency inverter, the inverter is started after LFI
(operated in square wave mode). Fig.8 shows simulation
results. Satisfactory performance is noted. To study the
dynamics of the high frequency inverter, a step change of load
is carried out at the rectifier side. Fig.10 shows the simulation
results, which explain that the transient effect is negligible and
it is overcome within a few cycle of operation. The simulation
of the combined performance of the two inverters is shown in
Fig.9. Satisfactory source current in phase with the source
voltage is noted.

Fig.9 Dynamic performance of dual parallel square wave topology

for non-linear balanced load
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 50V/div)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (d): Compensating current of low frequency inverter
(Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (e): Compensating current of high frequency
Waveform (f): Inverter voltage of low frequency inverter (Scale:
200V/div)
Time Scale: 20ms/div

Fig.7 Dynamic performance of dual parallel square wave

topology for non-linear balanced load
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 50V/DIV)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (d): Compensating current of low frequency
inverter (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (e): square wave inverter line to line voltage
voltage (Scale: 5A/div)
Waveform (f): Inverter voltage of low frequency inverter
(Scale: 200V/div)
Time Scale: 20ms/div

Fig.10 Dynamic performance of dual parallel square wave topology for

non-linear balanced load
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 50V/div)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (d): Compensating current of low frequency inverter (Scale:
10A/div)
Waveform (e): Compensating current of high frequency (Scale: 5A/div)
Waveform (f): Inverter voltage of low frequency inverter (Scale: 200V/div)
Time Scale: 20ms/div

VII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

An experimental prototype is also made in the laboratory to
verify the performance. Two inverters using IGBTs those are
available in the laboratory are used for this purpose. Initially
Fig.8 Dynamic performance of dual parallel square wave topology 110V, 50Hz mains supplying a load of 3kW is considered. The
for non-linear balanced load switching frequency of the high frequency and low frequency
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 50V/div) inverters are set at 10kHz and 330Hz respectively for
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
experimental verification of the proposed topology. Details are
Waveform (d): Compensating current of low frequency inverter available in the Table-1. Fig.11 shows the result when both the
(Scale: 10A/div) inverters are applied. Excellent performance is achieved.
Waveform (e): Compensating current of high frequency
Waveform (f): Inverter voltage of low frequency inverter (Scale:
200V/div)
Time Scale: 20ms/div
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 Fig. 12 shows the performance in steady state of the low
frequency inverter when it is operated as six-pulse STATCOM.
The low frequency inverter has compensated VAR demand of
880VA. The source current is polluted with load harmonics as
well as the harmonics injected by the low frequency inverter.
Now as the high frequency inverter started in parallel with the
LFI the source current is improved as given in Fig.13 and 14.
The dc link of the high frequency and low frequency inverters
are operated at 30V and 180V respectively. The hybrid filter
works only with feedback control.
Fig.11. Dynamic performance with compensating current from LFI
for a step-change in inductive load.
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 50V/div)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform(c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (d): Compensating current from LFI (Scale: 5A/div)
Time Scale: 20ms/div
Fig.12. Steady state performance with LFI
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 100V/div)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform(c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform(c): compensating current of LFI(Scale: 10A/div)
Time Scale: 10ms/div
Fig.13. Performance with compensating current from LFI and HFI
Waveform (a): Source voltage (Scale: 100V/div)
Waveform (b): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform(c): Load current (Scale: 10A/div)
Time Scale: 10ms/div
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Fig.14. Performance with compensating current from LFI and HFI
for a step-change in inductive load.
Waveform (a): Source current (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (b): compensating current of HFI (Scale: 10A/div)
Waveform (c): Compensating current from LFI (Scale: 10A/div)
Time Scale: 10ms/div
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has proposed a combination of two inverters to
operate as an active power filter/STATCOM. Two inverters
are operated at different switching frequencies. The low
frequency inverter takes care of the reactive power demand,
whereas the high frequency inverter compensates for the
harmonics. In the extreme condition the low frequency
inverter may be operated in the square wave mode with
minimum number of switching per cycle. This has the
advantage of low loss. However under such condition the low
frequency inverter also injects harmonics to the system. The
high frequency inverter needs to be properly designed such
that the source current adheres to IEEE 519 standard. The use
of passive L-C filter in the high frequency inverter
compensates for lower harmonics and also reduces the
magnitude of dc link voltage. The controller used in this
topology is very simple and can be implemented by analog
/digital hardware circuit. The proposed topology is validated
in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simulation results proves that
two objectives, harmonic and reactive current compensation
can be achieved by this topology.
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TABLE-1: System Parameters(experimental)

Load ratings 5kW
Line volatge(line to 110V
line)
Line frequency 50Hz
Power system 0.2mH
inductance(LS)
AC inductor to the 3mH
rectifier:LAC
Series capacitor CF1 200F
Filter inductors LF1 1mH
Filter inductors L1 15mH
Quality factor of LF and 56
CF
Dc link capacitor 2200F
Switching frequency of 330Hz/six-pulse
inverter-1
Switching frequency of 10kHz
inverter-2

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