A Novel Control Method for Transformerless H-Bridge Cascaded STATCOM With Star Configuration

This paper presents a transformerless static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) system based on multilevel H-bridge converter with star configuration. This proposed control methods devote themselves not only to the current loop control but also to the dc capacitor voltage control. With regards to the current loop control, a nonlinear controller based on the passivity-based control (PBC) theory is used in this cascaded structure STATCOM for the first time. As to the dc capacitor voltage control, overall voltage control is realized by adopting a proportional resonant controller. Clustered balancing control is obtained by using an active disturbances rejection controller. Individual balancing control is achieved by shifting the modulation wave vertically which can be easily implemented in a field-programmable gate array. Two actual H-bridge cascaded STATCOMs rated at 10 kV 2 MVA are constructed and a series of verification tests are executed. The experimental results prove that H-bridge cascaded STATCOM with the proposed control methods has excellent dynamic performance and strong robustness. The dc capacitor voltage can be maintained at the given value effectively.