Decoupled and Modular Harmonic Compensation for Multilevel STATCOMs

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industrial electronics (1982) Vol. 61; no. 6; pp. 2743 - 2753
• Main Authors: Munoz, Javier A., Espinoza, Jose R., Baier, Carlos R., Moran, Luis A., Guzman, Johan I., Cardenas, Victor M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-06-2014; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Automatic voltage control; Cancellation; Compensation; Control algorithms; Harmonic analysis; Harmonic compensation; Harmonics; Mathematical model; Modular; Modules; Multilevel; multilevel power converters; Power harmonic filters; power quality (PQ); Reactive power; Semiconductors; static compensator (STATCOM); Switches
• ISSN: 0278-0046; 1557-9948
• DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2013.2276058

A modular and decoupled approach to achieve harmonic cancellation in a multilevel Static Compensator (STATCOM) is presented in this paper. This work shows that it is possible to split the compensation tasks depending on the frequency components present on the line current that is intended to be compensated by using the superposition principle and the modular features of an H-bridge based multilevel STATCOM. This approach allows the implementation of the topology with dedicated modules in order to decouple and simplify the control algorithms. The H-bridge modules can be implemented with two different kinds of semiconductors: (i) slow switches for fundamental frequency compensation modules and (ii) fast switches for harmonic frequency compensation modules. As the modules meant for harmonic cancellation can self-regulate its dc voltage, they can follow the load requirements and thus operate with minimum power. The theoretical analysis is validated in a laboratory prototype.