A Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) for mitigation of voltage sag and
VAR compensation of linear loads
M. Basu
S.P. Das
Gopal K. Dubey
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Kanpur-208016 INDIA
Abstract: A Unified Power Quality
Conditioner (UPQC) is proposed in this paper. It
Protects the consumer at the load end from supply
voltage sag, and provides unity power factor at the
utility for different values of ioad. In the proposed
scheme, the peak voltage feedback is sampled
every 1/6" eycle, so that faster compensation can
be provided. Selected digital simulation results are
reported along with control circuit and phasor
diagram to validate the proposition.
1. INTRODUCTION
Power line disturbances can often lead to
severe loss in automated production industries,
where sophisticated process controllers, such as
PLCs, industrial control relays and contactors,
solenoids and other protection devices trip due to
voltage sag. Further, the adjustable speed drives,
switching power supplies and industrial
illumination are also affected by short duration
ge sags [1],
In paper and textile mills, speed fluctuation
in the drives due to short term voltage sag can cause
large production losses. According to the power
quality survey reports [2.3.4] 68% of the
disturbances are shallow, short duration voltage sag
problems (typically 15% sag, for more than a few
cycles) which costs billions of dollars in production
loss per year [4,9].
Therefore, such consumers are keen to keep
their load end voltages insensitive to the supply
voltage sags, at the cost of apparently additional
expenditure for ultimately greater cost benefits.
This has given a thrust to investigate a power
conditioning equipment for particularly voltage
627
sensitive loads. As often reactive VA compensator
is required by industrial loads to avoid punitive
tariffs; a Unified Power Quality Conditioner
(UPQC) is proposed in the paper, which can
simultaneously support the VAR requirement for
the load, ensuring unity power factor operation at
all load conditions, and also protect the load from
supply voltage sag.
This multi-purpose equipment provides fast
dynamic response to voltage saz and VAR support
to the load through appropriate closed loop control.
No separate or external de link support system
Fequired, as the VAR compensator maintains the
common de link voltage. The voltage to be boosted
in case of sag is always in quadrature advance to
the supply current, thus minimising the active
Power consumption for the power conditioning
equipment. The control scheme is such that in the
worst case, a maximum delay of only 1/6" cycle
will be there to take the corrective action.
The schematic diagram. control block
diagram and simulation results are provided to
show the effectiveness of this compact scheme.
Il. CONFIGURATION OF THE
PROPOSED UPQC
The UPQC consists of two 3-phase inverters
connected in cascade in such a manner that
inverter-Il (shunt inverter) is connected in parallel
to the load [7]. The inverter-1 (series inverter) is
connected in series with the supply voltage through
a transformer (Fig.1).
‘The main purpose of the shunt inverter is to
‘compensate for the reactive power demanded by the
load and to regulate the common de link voltageInverter -1
(Sees)
Fig. 1. Schematic Diagram of UPQC
«The series inverter injects appropriate
voltage to the supply such that the load end voltage
is always maintained at the desired value. The two
inverters operate in a coordinated manner. The
series inverter operates in a PWM voltage
controlled mode. It injects voltage in quadrature
advance to the supply voltage(current). The shunt
inverter operates with hysteresis current controlled
mode to make the supply current in phase with the
supply voltage.
Ill. PHASOR DIAGRAM
The following phasor diagram (Fig.2)
explains the operation of UPQC.
When supply voltage is Vj (rated) and
therefore the load voltage Vi (IV = [Vul= (Va) is
also at the rated value, and the load current is
In Gilni= {h), the shunt inverter compensates the
reactive component lq of load, resulting in unity
ower factor, hence the load draws only in-phase
component I, from the supply.
Now if there is a voltage sag in the supply,
such that the supply voltage falis to Via (WV,