Paper accepted for presentation at PPT 2001
2001 IEEE Porto Power Tech Conference
COMPENSATION OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
VOLTAGE SAG BY DVR AND D-STATCOM
M.H. Haque
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the techniques of correcting the supply
voltage sag in a distribution system by two power
electronics based devices called DVR and D-STATCOM. A
DVR injects a voltage in series with the system voltage and
a D-STATCOM injects a current into the system to correct
the voltage sag. The steady state performance of both DVR
and D-STATCOM is determined and compared for various
values of voltage sag, system fault level and load level. The
minimum apparent power injection required to correct a
given voltage sag by these devices is also determined and
compared. The maximum voltage sag that can be corrected
without injecting any active power into the system is also
determined. Simulation results indicated that a DVR can
correct a voltage sag with much less injected apparent power
compared to that of a D-STATCOM.
Keywords: D-STATCOM, DVR, power quality, voltage sag.
I INTRODUCTION
Voltage magnitude is one of the major factors that
determines the quality of power supply. Loads at
distribution level are usually subject to frequent voltage sags
due to various reasons. Voltage sags are highly undesirable
for some sensitive loads, especially in high-tech industries.
It is a challenging task to correct the voltage sag so that the
desired load voltage magnitude can be maintained during
the voltage disturbances.
Dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) or distribution STATCOM
(D-STATCOM) can be used to correct the voltage sag at
distribution level [I, 2, 3, 41. A DVR is a series device that
generates an ac voltage and injects it in series with the
supply voltage through an injection transformer to
compensate the voltage sag. The injected voltage and load
0-7803-7139-9/01/$10.0002001 IEEE
IOth -131h September, Porto, Portugal
current determine the power injection of the DVR. On the
other hand, a D-STATCOM is a shunt device that generates
an ac voltage, which in turn causes a current injection into
the system through a shunt transformer. The load voltage
and injected current determine the power injection of the D-
STATCOM. For lower voltage sags, the load voltage
magnitude can be corrected by injecting only reactive power
into the system [ 5 ] . However, for higher voltage sags,
injection of active power, in addition to reactive power, is
essential to correct the voltage magnitude. Note that both
DVR and D-STATCOM are capable of generating or
absorbing reactive power but the active power injection of
the device must be provided by an external energy source or
energy storage system.
The response time of both DVD and D-STATCOM is very
short and is limited by the power electronics devices and the
voltage sag detection time. The expected response time is
about 25 ms [6], and which is much less than some of the
traditional methods of voltage correction such as tap-
changing transformers. For simplicity, only the steady state
performance of DVR and D-STATCOM is determined and
compared in this study.
This paper investigates the steady state performance of a
DVR and D-STATCOM when applied to correct the supply
voltage sag in a distribution system. The maximum voltage
sag that can be corrected without injecting any active power
into the system is also determined. The minimum apparent
power injection required to correct a given voltage sag is
also calculated. The performance of both DVR and D-
STATCOM for various values of voltage sag, system fault
level and load level is also determined and compared.
I1 VOLTAGE SAG CORRECTION BY A DVR
The schematic diagram of a typical DVR is shown in Fig. 1.
The circuit on left hand side of the DVR represents the
Thevenin equivalent circuit of the system. The system
impedance (Zth= Rlh+j&) depends on the fault level of the minimizes the size of the injection transformer. The voltage
load bus. When the system voltage (v,,) drops, the DVR correction by a DVR for the zero active power injection
injects a series voltage VDVR through the injection (ZAPI) and minimum apparent power injection (MAPI)
transformer so that the desired load voltage magnitude VL cases is discussed in the following.
can be maintained. The series injected voltage of the DVR
can be written as
A Zero Active Power Injection (ZAPI)
vDVR = vL +'rhlL -vrh (1)
As mentioned earlier that, when the phase angle difference
Here ILis the load current and is given by between VDVR and IL is kept at nI2, no active power
injection into the system is required to correct the voltage

I,=(
PL +JQL
v, J sag. In this case, the angle a of the injected voltage VDVR
can be written as

When VL is considered as a reference, eqn. (1) can be

rewritten as
V,,LCZ = V,LO + Z,,I,L(P -e) - q h ~ 6 (3) From eqn. (3), the angle a can also be expressed as

Here a, p and 6 are the angle of VDVR,&h and Vth, Z,I, sin( p - 8) - V,, sin 6
respectively, and 8 is the load power factor angle
( 0 = tan-'(Q, / P L ) ) . The complex power injection of the
a = tan-'
[v, z,
+ I, cos(p - e ) - cos 6 v,,
DVR can be written as By equating eqns. (5) and (6), the phase angle 6 of Vth can
be expressed as
'DVR = vDVR'*, (4)

where cl = V, + Z,I, COS@ - 8)

c2 = Z,I, tan8 sin@ - 8)

I
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of a DVR
It may be mentioned here that when the injected voltage
VoVRis kept in quadrature with IL, no active power injection
by the DVR is required to correct the voltage. It requires the
injection of only reactive power and the DVR itself is
capable of generating the reactive power. Note that VDVR
can be kept in quadrature with ILonly up to a certain value
of voltage sag and beyond which the qradrature relationship
cannot be maintained to correct the voltage sag. For such a
case, injection of active power into the system is essential.
The injected active power must be provided by the energy
storage system of the DVR. On the other hand, when the
magnitude of the DVR injected voltage is minimized, the
desired voltage correction can be achieved with minimum
apparent power injection into the system. This aspect of
voltage correction is also very important because it
c, =qhtan8
and y = tan-'(c, / c 3 )
It may be mentioned here that, for a feasible value of 6, the
condition
must be satisfied. After some mathematical manipulations,
eqn. (8) can be expressed as
v, 2 (v,case + ZJ, cos p) (9)
The right hand side of eqn. (9) depends on the load current,
load voltage and system impedance. When the magnitude of
the system or Thevenin equivalent voltage (Vth) satisfies
eqn. (9), the desired voltage correction can be achieved
without injecting any active power into the system. In this
case, the complex voltage injection of the DVR can be
obtained from eqn. (3) with a value of 6 found from eqn. (7).
Once the value of VDVRis known, the complex power
injection of the DVR can be found from eqns. (4) and it will
have only the reactive component.
B Minimum Apparent Power Injection (MAPI)
For a given load current, the magnitude of the injected
apparent power of the DVR depends on the magnitude of
the injected voltage. From eqn. (3), the magnitude of the
injected voltage can be expressed as
Thus for the minimum voltage magnitude (or minimum
apparent power) injection, the condition
must be satisfied. Eqn. (1 1) can now be solved for the value
of 6 and is given by
6 = tan-'
Z,,I, sin@ - 6 )
v, + z,,I , cos(p - e) 1
Once the value of 6 is known, the injected complex voltage
and apparent power of the DVR can again be obtained from
eqns. ( 3 ) and (4), respectively.
I11 VOLTAGE SAG CORRECTION
BY A D-STATCOM
The schematic diagram of a D-STATCOM is shown in Fig.
2. In this diagram, the shunt injected current Ish corrects the
voltage sag by adjusting the voltage drop across the system
impedance &h. The value of Ish can be controlled by
adjusting the output voltage of the converter. The shunt
injected current Ish can be written as
= I L L - 8 - - -VL
or, IShLq fh( 6 - p ) + - L - pVL (13)
'fh 'fh
The complex power injection of the D-STATCOM can be
expressed as
'sh = 'L1;h (14)
It may be mentioned here that the effectiveness of the D-
STATCOM in correcting voltage sag depends on the value
of Zhor fault level of the load bus. When the shunt injected
current Ish is kept in quadrature with VL,the desired voltage
correction can again' be achieved without injecting any
active power into the system. On the other hand, when the
value of Ish is minimized, the same voltage correction can be
achieved with minimum apparent power injection into the
system. The voltage sag correction by a D-STATCOM using
the above two techniques is discussed in the following.
Fb,[converter
D-STATCOM
-. .-
Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of a D-STATCOM
A Zero Active Power Injection (ZAPI)
In this case, the D-STATCOM is not injecting any active
power into the system. Thus the entire load active power
(P,)must be provided by the Thevenin equivalent of the
system. The active power flow through the Thevenin
impedance of Fig. 2 (at load side) can be written as [7]
PL =-?h 'L
'th
From eqn. (1 5), the angle 6 can be expressed as
For a feasible value of 6, the condition
VL
-cosp+- 'L
II
K h F h'L
must be satisfied. The above constraint can be rewritten as
Thus, when the system voltage magnitude satisfies eqn.
(18), the D-STATCOM can correct the voltage sag without
injecting any active power into the system. For such a case,
the injected complex current and apparent power of the D-
STATCOM can easily be found from eqns. (13) and (14),
respectively. Note that the injected apparent power will have
only the reactive component.
B Minimum Apparent Power Injection (MAPI) Sinj increases rapidly with voltage sag. For this system it is
found that the maximum voltage sag that can be corrected
As mentioned earlier that, when the magnitude of the
by the DVR without injecting any active power into the
injected current is minimized, the D-STATCOM can correct
system is 0.236 pu. It can also be observed in Fig. 4 that, for
the voltage sag with minimum apparent power injection into
lower voltage sags (< 0.236 pu), the voltage correction
the system. Thus the condition of minimum apparent power
without injecting any active power is achieved at an expense
injection is
of higher apparent power injection into the system
(compared to the MAPI case). The injected apparent power
of the DVR for various values of fault level, load level, load
db power factor and X/R ratio of system impedance is also
An analytical expression of Ish can readily be obtained from studied in detail. It is found that, for a given load level, the
eqn. (13), and the solution of eqn. (19) provides the minimum apparent power injection of the DVR is
following independent of system fault level, X/R ratio of system
impedance and load power factor. However, Sinj for the
MAPI case depends on the load level as can be seen in Fig.
5. Fig. 5 indicates that, for a given voltage sag, the injected
apparent power of the DVR increases as the load level is
increased.
Thus for a given load, the value of 6 can easily be found
from eqn. (20). Once the value of 6 is known, the complex
current and apparent power injection of the D-STATCOM
can again be obtained from eqns. (13) and (14), respectively.
0.6 I
IV SIMULATION RESULTS
The simple system of Fig. 3 is used to demonstrate the
steady state performance of a DVR and D-STATCOM when
applied to correct voltage sags. It is considered that the load
of the system is 1.0 pu at 0.8 lagging power factor and the
fault level of the load bus is 10 pu with a X/R ratio of 2. It is
assumed that the voltage magnitude of the load bus is to be
maintained at 1.O pu during the voltage sag conditions. The
various results found for a DVR and D-STATCOM to 0 01 02 03 04 05
satisfy the above criterion are briefly summarized in the Voltage sag, pu

following.
Fig. 4 Variation of injected apparent power of the DVR
against voltage sag.
a: ZAPI case; b: MAPI case.

DVR or
D-STATCOM 05

Rest of the
system

Fig. 3 A simple system with a DVR or D-STATCOM

A DVR
First a DVR is used to correct the system voltage sags. The
variation of apparent power injection (Sjnj) against the 5
voltage sag to maintain the load voltage magnitude of 1.O pu Voltage sag, P"

for both ZAPI and MAPI cases is shown in Fig. 4. It can be

observed in Fig. 4 that, for the MAPI case, Sinj varies Fig. 5 Minimum apparent power injection of the DVR for
linearly with the voltage sag. However, for the ZAPI case, various load levels (S).
B D-STATCOM
Fig. 6 shows the variation of injected apparent power of the
D-STATCOM against the voltage sag. Results for both
ZAPI and MAPI cases are shown in the Figure. It can be
observed in Fig. 6 that, S,nj is again varies linearly with
voltage sag for the MAPI case. However, for the ZAPI case,
Sinjis slightly higher than that of MAPI case. For this system
the D-STATCOM can correct the voltage sags of up to
0.563 pu without injecting any active power into the system
and which is much higher than that found for the DVR (only
0.236 pu). It is also found that Sinj, for the MAPI case, is
independent of load level, load power factor and X/R ratio of
system impedance. However, Sinj is very sensitive to the
system fault level as can be seen in Fig. 7. It can be
observed in Fig. 7 that Sinj increases with the increase of
system fault level (FL).
Voltage sag. pu
Fig.6 Variation of injected apparent power of the D-
STATCOM against voltage sag.
a: ZAPI case; b: MAPI case.
Voltage sag. P”
Fig. 7 Minimum apparent power injection of the D-
STATCOM for various fault levels (FL).
V CONCLUSIONS
The steady state performance of a DVR and D-STATCOM
to correct the supply voltage sags is determined and
compared in this paper. Techniques of correcting the voltage
sags with zero active power injection as well as minimum
apparent power injection are also discussed. Simulation
results on a simple system indicated that the amount of
apparent power injection required by a D-STATCOM to
correct a given voltage sag is much higher than that of a
DVR. The main reason of that is a DVR corrects the voltage
sag only on the downstream side, whereas a D-STATCOM
corrects voltage on both sides. It is also found that a D-
STATCOM can correct much higher voltage sags without
injecting any active power into the system compared to that
of a DVR. The minimum apparent power injection of the D-
STATCOM is found to be very insensitive to load level but
sensitive to the system fault level. On the other hand, the
minimum apparent power injection of the DVR is observed
to be very insensitive to the fault level but sensitive to the
system load level. In terms of minimum apparent power
injection or size of the coupling transformer, the
performance of a DVR is found to be superior to a D-
STATCOM.
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