Active filtering and VAR control of a cascaded H-bridge multi-level StatCom

This paper investigates the control of a multi-level cascaded H-bridge STATCOM when used as a simultaneous active filter and VAR compensator. The control algorithms developed borrow heavily from control strategies used in variable speed drives, and use predictive current control and symmetrical PWM. A novel phase locked loop approach for the extraction of the harmonics and generation of the forward prediction of the harmonic reference currents is developed. Simulation results in this abstract are presented. The final paper will present experimental results as well.