Thyristor Switched Series

capacitor (TSSC)
Parag Nijhawan
Department of Electrical & Instrumentation Engineering
Thapar Institute of Engg. & Tech., Patiala

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 Basic TSSC Scheme

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 Description
• Number of capacitors, each shunted by an
appropriately rated bypass valve composed of a
string of reverse parallel connected thyristors in
series.
• Similar to the circuit structure of the sequentially
operated GCSC but its operation is different due to
imposed switching restriction of the conventional
thyristor valve.

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 Operating principle
• Degree of series compensation controlled in a
step like manner.
• Capacitor is inserted by turning off the
corresponding valve and bypassed by turning
on the corresponding valve.

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 Effect of the thyristor
• The thyristor valve commutates naturally i.e. when
the current crosses zero, thereby this becomes the
point for capacitor insertion.
• +ve half cycle of the line current will charge the
capacitor from zero to its maximum.
• -ve half cycle of the line current will discharge the
capacitor from maximum to zero.

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Illustration of charging and discharging

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 Effects
• DC offset voltage equal to the amplitude of the AC
capacitor voltage.
• In order to minimize the initial surge current in the
valve and the corresponding circuit transients,
thyristor valves should be turned on for bypass only
when the capacitor voltage is zero.
• With the prevailing DC offset, this requirement can
cause a delay of up to one full cycle.
• This sets the theoretical limit for the attainable
response time of the TSSC.

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 A few points
• Sufficiently high degree of TSSC compensation could
cause sub synchronous resonance as much as any
ordinary capacitor.
• In principle, TSSC switching could be modulated to
counteract sub synchronous oscillations.
• Modulation is likely to be inefficient considering the
relatively long switching delays.

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 Contd…
• Hence, pure TSSC scheme not used in critical
applications where a high degree of
compensation is required and danger of sub
synchronous resonance is present.
• It can be used for power flow control and for
damping power oscillations where the
required speed of response is moderate.

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 Voltage Compensating Mode
• Reactance chosen so as to produce on an
average, the rated compensating voltage
VCmax=4XCImin.
• Imin≤I≤Imax.
• The factor 4 comes in because the case that is
being considered is that of 4 series connected
modules.)

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 V-I Characteristics

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 Loss Characteristics

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 Impedance Compensating Mode
• Maintain maximum rated compensating
reactance at any line current upto the rated
maximum.
• 4XC=VCmax/Imax.

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 V-I Characteristics

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 Loss Characteristics

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 Ratings
• Maximum rated line current and corresponding
capacitor voltage are design parameters.
• May also have transient rating defined as a function
of time.
• Outside the defined ratings, TSSC protected against
excessive current and voltage surges either by
external protection or with sufficient rating, by the
valve itself in by pass operation.

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 A Look Ahead
• Constraints imposed by physical device limitation on
the turn on condition of the thyristors (such as di/dt
and surge current magnitude may require current
limiting reactor in series with TSSC valve.
• This can handle bypass operation or possible mis-
firings.
• This structure is called a Thyristor Controlled Series
Capacitor (TCSC).

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 Thyristor Controlled
Series Capacitor -Basics

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 Basic TCSC Scheme

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 Practical TCSC

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 TCSC

• The main circuit of the TCSC consists of a capacitor

bank and a thyristor controlled inductive branch
connected in parallel.
• The capacitor bank may have a value of e.g. 10-30
Ohm/phase and a rated continuous current of
1500-3000 A rms.
• The capacitor bank for each phase is mounted on a
platform providing full insulation towards ground.

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 TCSC
• The valve contains a string of series-connected
high-power thyristors with a maximum total
blocking voltage in the range of hundreds kV.
• The inductor is an air-core inductor with a few mH
inductance.
• A metal-oxide varistor (MOV) is provided across
the capacitor in order to prevent overvoltages
across the capacitor bank.
• TCSC plays vital roles in the operation and control
of power systems such as Enhancing Power Flow,
Limiting Fault Current, Enhancing Transient and
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Dynamic Stability.
 Introduction
• Proposed by Vithayathil and others in 1986
and termed as a method of “rapid adjustment
of network impedance”.
• Series compensating capacitor shunted by a
TCR.
• Several such basic compensators may be
connected in series to obtain the desired
voltage rating and operating characteristics.

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 Continued
• Similar arrangement to the TSSC and in-fact,
can be operated in an on/off manner like the
TSSC if XL is sufficiently smaller than XC.
• The presence of the TCR practically
compensates the effective compensating
capacitance and provides a continuously
variable capacitance.

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 XCXL( )
XTCSC ( ) 
XL( )  XC

XL( )  XL
  2  sin 2
XL  XL( )  
XL   L
  delay angle measured from crest of capacitor voltage

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 Operating Modes of TCSC

Blocking Mode

Bypass Mode

Capacitive Boost Mode

Inductive Boost Mode

Harmonics

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 Performance Equations of TCSC
λ = resonant frequency/network frequency , fall
in the range of 2 to 4.

Boost Factor (KB)=Xapp/XC

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 Blocking Mode
When the thyristor valve is not triggered and the
thyristors are kept in non-conducting state the TCSC is
operating in blocking mode. The line current passes
only through the capacitor bank. The capacitor
voltage phasor is given by the line current phasor
according to the formula:
Uc=jXCIL, Xc<0
In this mode, the TCSC performs like a fixed series
capacitor with boost factor equal to one.

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 Bypass Mode
If the thyristor valve is triggered continuously, the valve stays conducting
all the time and the TCSC behaves like a parallel connection of the series
capacitor bank with the inductor in the thyristor valve. The resulting
voltage in the steady state across the TCSC is given by

This voltage is inductive and the boost factor is negative.

When λ is considerably bigger than unity, the capacitor voltage at a

given line current is much lower in bypass than in blocking mode.
Therefore, the bypass mode is utilized as a means to reduce the
capacitor stress during faults.
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 Salient Features
• Tunable parallel LC circuit presented to the
line current.
• Variation of XTCSC(α) with α is shown in the
next slide.
• αCmin≤ α ≤π/2 XTCSC(α) is capacitive.
• 0≤ α ≤ αLmin XTCSC(α) is inductive

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Impedance vs delay angle characteristics of
the TCSC

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 Points to ponder
• SS model of the TCSC described previously is
based on the characteristics of the TCR
supplied from a constant voltage source.
• But in reality, the TCR is in shunt with the
capacitor instead of a fixed voltage source.
• Dynamic interaction between capacitor and
reactor changes the operating voltage from
the basic sine wave.

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 Initial Condition
• Assume thyristor valve to be initially open.
• Current is producing a voltage VC0 across
capacitor.
• Let the TCR be turned on at α.
• At the instant of turn on, VC0 is negative and
line current is positive, thus charging the
capacitor in the positive direction.

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 Schematic for initial condition

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 Effects
• Line current, being a constant current source
continues to charge the capacitor.
• Charge of the capacitor is reversed during the
resonant half cycle of the LC circuit formed by
the switch closing.
• Produces a DC offset for the next positive half
cycle of the capacitor voltage.
• In the next negative half cycle, the DC offset
can be reversed by maintaining the same α.
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 Capacitor Voltage and TCSC current on
firing

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 Operation of TCSC in capacitive range

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 Operation of TCSC in inductive range

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 Important points
• Reversal of capacitor voltage is the key to the
control of the TCSC.
• Time duration of voltage reversal is dependant
primarily on XL/XC.
• If XL<<XC, reversal is almost instantaneous.
• Periodic voltage reversal produces a square
wave across the capacitor which is added to
the sine wave produced by the line current.

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 Idealized TCSC Compensating Voltage

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 Split Up
• Uncontrolled and a controlled component.
• Uncontrolled component is VC0 a sine wave whose amplitude
is directly proportional to the amplitude of the prevailing line
current.
• Controllable component is VTCR, a square wave whose
magnitude is controlled through charge reversal by the TCR.
• Time duration of the charge reversal is determined by the
natural resonant frequency f=1/(2π√(LC)).
• As XL is increased relative to XC, conductor period of the TCR
increases and zero crossings of the capacitor voltage become
increasingly dependent on prevailing line current.

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 Small vs Large
• XTCR does not significantly alter physical
operation of the TCSC if it is sufficiently small
compared to the capacitor.
• Whether the reactor should be small or large?
• It requires careful consideration to reconcile
contradictory requirements.

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 Advantages for Small
• Produces well defined charge reversal and
control of the time period of the
compensating voltage.
• Facilitates effective protective bypass for large
surge currents.

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 Advantages for Large
• Small XL increases the magnitude of the
harmonic generation by the TCR.
• Hence increases voltage harmonics injected
into the line.
• Decreases the range of actual delay angle
control and thus possibly makes the closed
loop parameter regulation difficult.
• Small XL produces large short duration pulses
in the thyristor valve, necessitating increase of
its voltage and current ratings.

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 Practical values
• XL/XC ratio is 0.1333 in prototype installations.
• Generally lies between 0.1 and 0.3 depending
on application requirements and constraints.
• It is important that natural resonance
frequency of the TCSC does not coincide with,
or is close by to two or three times the
fundamental.

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Controlling the DC offset by charge reversal

• Two cases discussed: increase and decrease of

capacitor voltage.
• Theoretically, ideal case of instantaneous
voltage reversal is assumed, with an
infinitesimal XL.

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 Increase of the capacitor voltage

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 Explanation
• To produce a DC offset, periodically repeated gating in the
second cycle is advanced by ξ.
• Produces phase advance for capacitor voltage w.r.t. line
current.
• Capacitor absorbs energy from line, charging it to higher
voltage.
• With phase advance, ∫i dt is greater for the +ve current
segment than that for the –ve one and the resulting integral
difference provides the net positive offset change.
• If phase advance is maintained, offset change keeps
increasing without limit.
• If ξ is negated at sufficient offset level, the voltage can be
maintained constant assuming lossless circuit

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 Decrease of capacitor voltage

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 Explanation
• In this case, the gating is retarded.
• The process continues until desired offset
voltage level is reached.

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 Practically…
• Voltage reversals take place over a finite
conduction period.
• The period varies wrt applied phase advance
or retardation.
• Circuit behaves as if a conventional delay
angle control is applied.
• Process of capacitor voltage tracking is
complex and is a function of the line current.

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 How Does a TCSC Compensate?
• When thyristor valve is gated when dvC/dt >0, a
prevailing capacitor voltage drives a current in the
TCR that self commutates when integrated volt-
seconds over the conduction interval becomes zero.
• Current in the reactor is supplied from the parallel
capacitor.
• +ve offset voltage will remain until reversed again by
a similar TCR conduction period at +ve to –ve zero
crossing of capacitor voltage (dvC/dt <0) in the
subsequent half cycle.
• Periodic reversal of offset voltage adds a controllable
in phase alternating voltage to the uncontrollable
VC0.

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 Summary
• The TCSC as mentioned in the previous slide,
can increase the compensating voltage over
that produced by the capacitor bank alone at
a given line current.
• In other words, TCSC can increase the
effective impedance of the series
compensating capacitor.
• This is in contrast to the GCSC which controls
the capacitor impedance from zero to the
actual impedance of the capacitor.

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V-I Characteristics for voltage control mode

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 Corresponding Loss Characteristics

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 Explanation
• In the capacitive region, αClim sets the limit for
maximum compensating voltage.
• In the inductive region, maximum delay angle
αLlim sets the limit.
• Losses are entirely due to the TCR.

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 V-I Characteristics for reactance control
mode

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 Corresponding Loss Characteristics

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 Explanation
• TCSC capacitor and TCR are chosen so that at
αClim, the maximum capacitive reactance can
be maintained at and below maximum rated
line current.
• Minimum capacitive compensating impedance
is the impedance of the capacitor.

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 Note
• Voltage and impedance compensating modes
are interchangeable by control action.
• Limitations imposed by component ratings
may constrain the attainable range of desired
operating mode.
• The transformation of the voltage vs line
current characteristics shown for a voltage
control mode transformed into the
compensating reactance vs line current
characteristics.

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 Attainable Compensating reactance vs line
current characteristics

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 Note
• TCSC does not have control below XCmin to
XLmin.
• Uncontrolled band is large if one TCSC unit is
used.
• Hence modularization is encouraged.

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 Rating
• Maximum voltage and current limits must be met by
thyristor valve, reactor and capacitor banks.
• Transient voltage and current ratings also present.
• Internally generated harmonics aggravate limit
conditions.
• Outside defined operating limits, TCSC is protected
against excessive voltage and current surges by
external protection or by the TCR itself in bypass
operation.

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 Harmonic Voltage Generation
• Caused by harmonic currents generated by
TCR.
• Dependant on the XL/XC ratio.
• Figure shows case for XL/XC=0.1333.
• Even though lower order harmonics have
relatively higher magnitude, they do not
contribute significantly to existing harmonic
currents.

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 Dominant Harmonics generated by TCSC

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 Harmonics
The harmonics caused by a TCSC emerge from the harmonics in the
thyristor branch current. Figure 5.13 shows the model that can be used
for study of harmonic distribution. In Figure 5.13, ZA and ZB : are the
corresponding harmonic impedances seen from Bus A and Bus B
respectively.
ZlineAand ZlineB are the corresponding harmonic impedances of two
section of the compensated line.

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 Harmonics
In the figure, the thyristor branch is modelled as a current
source which injects harmonic current into the series
capacitor bank. The series capacitor bank provides a low
impedance path for the harmonics and very little current will
leak into the transmission line. Generally the interest is
focused on the harmonic content of the voltages at Bus A and
Bus B and currents flowing towards Bus A and Bus B.
The lower harmonics of the inserted voltage are proportional
to KB-1 and to the line current amplitude.

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 Take Away

Normally the TCSC operates in the capacitive boost

mode with a boost factor close to one. Under these
circumstances only the lowest order harmonics, like
the third and fifth harmonics, have any practical
importance.

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 THANKS

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