Application of AC converter in STATCOM

Traditional reactive power compensation devices, such as static VAR compensator (SVC), respond in 0.5 to 1 cycle. But they response slower under fault conditions and the output reactive power is reduced. STATCOMs are relatively faster, but they need large energy storage and large inverters. This paper presents a new method to achieve reactive power and harmonic comprehensive compensation with ac converter in high-voltage. The method of detecting random harmonic current based on the instantaneous reactive power theory. The simulation results show the circuit has good compensation effects.