Design of robust current controller using GA for three level 24-pulse VSC based STATCOM

Abstract

A STATic synchronous COMpensator (STATCOM) is a shunt connected voltage source converter (VSC) based FACTS controller using Gate Turn Off (GTO) power semiconductor devices employed for reactive power control. The operation principal is similar to that of a synchronous condenser. A typical application of a STATCOM is voltage regulation at the midpoint of a long transmission line for the enhancement of power transfer capability and/or reactive power control at the load centre. This paper presents the modeling of STATCOM with twenty four pulse three level VSC and Type-1 controller to regulate the reactive current or the bus voltage. The performance is evaluated by transient simulation. It is observed that, the STATCOM shows excellent transient response to step change in the reactive current reference. While the eigenvalue analysis is based on D-Q model, the transient simulation is based on both D-Q and 3 phase models of STATCOM (which considers switching action of VSC).