Control of a Cascade STATCOM With Star Configuration Under Unbalanced Conditions

A control scheme for star-connected cascade static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) operating under unbalanced conditions is proposed. The STATCOM is assumed to be connected to an equivalent three-phase star-connected power supply. By selecting the line-to-neutral voltages of the equivalent power supply, zero average active power in each phase can be obtained under unbalanced compensation currents or unbalanced supply voltages. Furthermore, to implement a separate control for the three-phase dc-link voltages, the average active power in each phase can also be adjusted to a target value determined by the dc-link voltage control loop. Then, by forcing the converter neutral voltage to be equal to the counterpart of the equivalent power supply, the STATCOM can be decoupled into three single-phase systems and the line-to-neutral voltage of the equivalent power supply can be used as the input voltage to the corresponding phase leg. Accordingly, reference current tracking and dc-link voltage maintaining can be simultaneously achieved under unbalanced conditions. The valid operating range of the star-connected cascade STATCOM under unbalanced conditions is also analyzed. The proposed control scheme has been tested using the power systems computer-aided design/electromagnetic transient in dc system (EMTDC) simulation results and the experimental results based on a 30-kVAr cascade STATCOM laboratory prototype are proposed.