A Transformer-less Unified Power Quality Conditioner with Fast Dynamic

Control

Abstract – A single-phase transformer-less unified power quality conditioner (TL-

UPQC) is presented. Apart from having no isolation transformer, the proposed
structure utilizes four switching devices only, forming two half-bridge voltage-
source inverters - one connected in parallel with the load and another one connected in
series with the AC mains. The two inverters share the same DC link. The parallel
inverter, which is controlled by a hysteresis current controller, is used to shape the
current drawn from the AC mains and regulate the DC-link voltage. The series
inverter, which is controlled by a boundary controller with second-order switching
surface, is used to regulate the steady-state load voltage and provide voltage sag /
swell ride-through. A DC-link capacitor voltage balancing control that coordinates
the operations of the hysteresis and boundary controllers is designed. Modeling,
design, and analysis of the whole system will be given. A 1kVA, 110V, 60Hz prototype
has been built and evaluated on a setup with a nonlinear load. The steady-state and
transient responses under a voltage sag will be given. Experimental results are
favorably compared with the theoretical predictions and the performance of other
UPQCs.
I. Introduction
It has been a general trend of integrating various kinds of distributed generation
(DG) systems at the point of consumption. The power rating of typical DG systems
ranges from 1kW to 20kW. Such architecture offers numerous merits to the society and
power system - reducing carbon emissions, increasing efficiency, optimizing asset
utilization, and improving system security, stability, capacity, flexibility, and
reliability [1]-[3]. Similar to traditional power systems, it is essential to provide
consumers with quality electricity. Otherwise, system malfunctions or activation of
device protection might occur. On the one hand, green energy resources are
intermittent in nature and their generated power and voltage sometimes fluctuate. On
the other hand, current harmonics caused by nonlinear loads would cause grid-
voltage distortion and would increase the loss in the distribution transformers [4]. Thus,
an equipment
that can enhance the power quality at the point of common coupling is needed.
Unified power quality conditioners (UPQCs) that can deal with both current- and
voltage-type power quality issues [5]-[12] can regulate load voltage, mitigate voltage
transients, eliminate input current harmonics, and correct input power factor over a wide
operating range.
Each UPQC acts as an active power filter (APF) and a dynamic voltage restorer
(DVR) with their DC links shared with the same energy storage devices. A current
controller is used to regulate the input current of the APF and thus shape the current
drawn from the AC mains. A voltage controller is used to control the DVR to regulate
the load voltage and provide sufficient voltage sag / swell ride-through capacity.
Three typical structures for single-phase UPQCs, including full-bridge, three-leg,
and half-bridge structures [6], [13]-[21], have been proposed. The full-bridge structure
consists of two H-bridge inverters having eight switching devices with or without an
isolation transformer [14]-[15]. The isolation transformer is used to inject necessary
compensating voltage between the grid and the load. With the low-frequency isolation
transformer, the structure is bulky in size, heavy in weight, and costly. The way to
achieve fast dynamic behaviors is also one of the design challenges. The three-leg
structure consists of two H-bridge inverters with one leg shared [16]-[18]. Only six
switching devices are used. As no isolation transformer is required, the three-leg
structure is more cost effective and compact than the full-bridge structure.
However, the shared leg causes mutual coupling between the two inverters and thus
introduces operational constraints in shaping the incoming current and stabilizing the load
voltage. In [18], a sophisticated modulation technique is used to synchronize the
operations of the two inverters and deal with the coupling effects. Special
considerations are taken to optimize energy efficiency and harmonic performance under
different grid and load conditions. The half-bridge structure consists of two half-
bridge inverters and one isolation transformer [19]-[21]. Its operation is similar to the
operation of the full-bridge one, except that the full bridge is replaced by a half bridge
with the voltage rating doubled. Its structure requires less number of switching devices,
but the isolation transformer still limits the power density of the system.

A transformer-less UPQC (TL-UPQC) utilizing four switching devices is presented. It

consists of two half-bridge voltage-source inverters with one connected in parallel with
the load and another one connected in series with the AC mains. The two inverters share
the same DC link. The parallel inverter is controlled by a hysteresis current
controller [22]-[23] and the
series inverter is controlled by a boundary controller with second-order switching
surface [24]-[26]. The DC-link capacitor voltages are balanced by a mechanism that
coordinates the hysteresis and boundary controllers. A 1kVA prototype has been
built and evaluated. The experimental results are favorably compared with theoretical
predictions and other UPQCs.
 LITERATURE SURVEY

[1] G. Joos, B. T. Ooi, D. McGillis, F. D. Galiana, and R. Marceau, “The Potential of

Distributed Generation to Provide Ancillary Services,” in Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Society
Summer Meeting, 2000, pp. 1762-1767.

The growing concerns regarding electric power quality and availability have led to the installation of
more and more distributed generation. In parallel and in the context of an accelerating trend towards
deregulation of the electric industry, the unbundling of services, many grouped under ancillary services,
should create a market for some of these services. This paper discusses the potential of distributed
generation (DG) to provide some of these services. In particular, DG can serve locally as the equivalent
of a spinning reserve and voltage support of the AC bus. The main types of distributed generation with
emphasis on the power electronic interface and the configurations appropriate to provide ancillary
services are reviewed. The flexibility and features provided by the power electronic interface are
illustrated. In addition to control of the real power, other functions can be incorporated into the design of
the interface to provide services, such as reactive power, and resources associated with power quality.
These include voltage sag compensation and harmonic filtering. The implications on the design of the
power converter interface are discussed.

[2] G. T. Heydt, “The Next Generation of Power Distribution Systems,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 1,
no. 3, pp. 225-235, Dec. 2010.
This paper summarizes diverse concepts for the next generation of power distribution system. The
objective is to bring distribution engineering more closely aligned to smart grid philosophy. Issues
of design, operation, and control are discussed with regard to new system theoretic as well as
component/materials advances. In particular, two transmission engineering techniques are
modified for use in distribution engineering: state estimation, and locational marginal pricing. The
impact of electronic control in distribution systems is discussed. Because education and training
have a great impact on distribution engineering, these topics are discussed as well.

[3] K. Chen, “The Impact of Energy Efficient Equipment on System Power Quality,” in Proc. IEEE Ind.
Appl. Conf., 2000, vol. 5, pp. 3240–3247.

This paper presents the design of a micro grid. The proposed micro grid consists of a photovoltaic array
which represents the main generation unit in the microgrid and proton exchange membrane fuel cell is
supplement the variable power generated by the photovoltaic array. a lithium ion battery is included in
the microgrid for reduce the burden of the power generated by the microgrid during the peak period. The
all those different dg’s units is coordinate to operate the energy management systems during the grid
connected operation. The overall system improves the power quality and reliability of the power
distribution system that the microgrid is connected to. The control design employs the output regulation
(OR) theory. Kalman filters used to extract the harmonic component of the distorted source voltage and
load current, and estimate the state observer gain and frequency tracking .The simulation studies verified
through different test case.

[4] H. Fujita and H. Akagi, “The unified power quality conditioner: The Integration of Series-
and Shunt-Active Filters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 315-322, Mar. 1998.

This paper deals with unified power quality conditioners (UPQCs), which aim at the integration of series-
active and shunt-active power filters. The main purpose of a UPQC is to compensate for voltage
flicker/imbalance, reactive power, negative-sequence current and harmonics. In other words, the UPQC
has the capability of improving power quality at the point of installation on power distribution systems or
industrial power systems. This paper discusses the control strategy of the UPQC, with a focus on the how
of instantaneous active and reactive powers inside the UPQC. Experimental results obtained from a
laboratory model of 20 kVA, along with a theoretical analysis, are shown to verify the viability and
effectiveness of the UPQC.

[5] Y. Kolhatkar and S. Das, “Experimental Investigation of A Single-phase UPQC with

Minimum VA Loading,” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 371-380, Jan. 2007.
The paper deals with an optimized unified power-quality conditioner (UPQC), which aims at the
integration of series active and shunt active power filters with minimum volt-ampere (VA) loading of the
UPQC. The series active filter is a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR), which regulates the voltage at the
load end with minimum VA loading of the overall UPQC by injecting the voltage at an optimum angle.
The proposed scheme is validated by an experimental prototype in the laboratory. Selected experimental
results are reported along with analytical findings, which show the effectiveness of the proposed UPQC

UNIFIED POWER QUALITY CONDITIONER

I. INTRODUCTION

The term “power quality” (PQ) has gained significant attention in the past few years. The advancement in
the semiconductor device technology has made it possible to realize most of the power electronics based
devices/prototypes at commercial platform. The development of power electronic technology makes it
possible to realize many kinds of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems devices to obtain
high quality electric energy and enhance the control over power system. UPQC is one of them. This
paper deals with unified power quality conditioners (UPQC‟s) [1-6] which aim at the integration of
series active and shunt active filters. The main purpose of a UPQC is to compensate for supply voltage
flicker/imbalance, reactive power, negative-sequence current, and harmonics. In other words, the UPQC
has the capability of improving power quality at the point of installation on power distribution systems or
industrial power systems. The UPQC, therefore, is expected to be one of the most powerful solutions to
large capacity loads sensitive to supply voltage flicker/imbalance.This paper presents a general UPQC for
power distribution systems. It consists of a series active and shunt-active filter. The series-active filter
eliminates supply voltage flicker/imbalance from the load terminal voltage. The shunt-active filter
performs dc-link voltage regulation, thus leading to a significant reduction of capacity of the dc capacitor.

GENERAL UPQC
Unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) is the powerful tool to settle the power quality problem. The
general configuration of the UPQC is shown below.

The UPQC has the capability of improving power quality at the point of installation on power
distribution systems or industrial power systems. The UPQC, therefore, is expected to be one of the most
powerful solutions to large capacity loads sensitive to supply voltage flicker/imbalance. With ideal
compensation, the voltage at PCC is the fundamental positive sequence sinusoidal voltage of the power
source side. The currents of the source are sinusoidal current and the phase angles of them are the same
as the fundamental voltage in phase respectively. In another words, with the function of the UPQC, the
load is equal to a resistance. As the UPQC is a combination of series and shunt active filters, two active
filters have different functions. The series active filter suppresses and isolates voltage-based distortions.
The shunt active filter cancels current-based distortions. At the same time, it compensates reactive current
of the load and improves power factor. There are many control methods to determine the reference value
of the voltage and the current, the most famous is the instantaneous active and reactive power theory (the
pq theory) that Akagi proposed in and now the most popular is the dq0 method developed from the
instantaneous reactive power theory. But the method of them needs Transformation like Clarke
Transformation (abc to ab), Park transformation (abc to dq0) and the control circuits are more complex,
the calculation is huger. The simpler, the more robust to the control system, so the new methods are
developed incessantly in recent years.

. THE UPQC CONTROL STRATEGY

The control strategy can be separated to shunt strategy, series control strategy and DC capacitor control.

A. Shunt control strategy:

The shunt active power filter is provided the current and the reactive power (if the system need)
compensation. It acts as a controlled current generator that compensated the load current to force the
source currents drained from the network to be sinusoidal, balanced and in phase with the positive-
sequence system
B. Series control strategy:

The series active power filter is provided the voltage compensation. It generates the compensation
voltage that synthesized by the PWM converter and inserted in series with the supply voltage, to force the
voltage of PCC to become sinusoidal and balanced.

. The DC voltage regulator:

In compensation process, the DC side voltage will change because UPQC compensates the active power
and the losses of switches, etc. If the DC voltage is not the same as the rating value, the output voltage of
the
series active filter will not equal to the compensation value. The compensation will not correct. It is the
same with the shunt active filter. The DC voltage regulator shown in Fig.4 is used to generate a control
signal to keep the voltage be a constant. It forces the shunt active filter to draw additional active current
from the network.

Vcref idc
PI controller

Vc

Fig. 4. The DC voltage regulator

The study of the regulation of the continuous voltage at the boundaries of the storage capacity showed
that a compromise must be done between filtering and the speed in the control of this voltage. For that,
the studied regulator, proportional integrator (PI) is more suited to assure an optimal filtering
characteristic and an optimal cost.
REFERENCES:

[1]H. Akagi, H. Fujita, “A New Power Line

Conditional for Harmonic Compensation in
Power systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol.
10, No. 3, pp. 1570–1575, Jul. 1995.
[2] H. Fujita, H. Akagi, “The unified power
quality conditioner: The integration of series
and shunt-active filters,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 315–322, Mar.
1998.
[3] H. Akagi, E. H. Watanabe and M. Aredes,
Instantaneous Power Theory and Applications
to Power Conditioning. Wiley-IEEE Press.
April 2007.
[4] V. Khadkikar, A. Chandra “A New Control
Philosophy for à Unified Power Quality
Conditioner (UPQC) to Coordinate Load-
Reactive Power Demand Between Shunt and
Series Inverters”. IEEE Trans. on Power
Delivery, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2008
[5] C. Benachaiba, O. Abdelkhalek, S. Dib, M. Haidas,
„Optimization of Parameters of the Unified
Power Quality Conditioner Using Genetic
Algorithm Method‟,
Information Technology and Control (ITC)
2007, Vol. 36, N°2, pp. 242-245.
[6] C. Benachaiba, B. Ferdi, S. Dib and M.
Rahli, ' Impacts of Short-circuit Power on
Hysteresis Control of UPQC ', European
Journal of Scientific Research (EJSR), Vol 37,
No 4 (2009), pp.525-534.
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