Control of D-STATCOM during unbalanced grid faults based on DC voltage oscillations and peak current limitations

Abstract

The safe operation of grid connected power converters during abnormal condition is a key issue in order to guarantee its operation and to avoid undesired trips. In this paper different control methods for the operation of a D-STATCOM are evaluated, where the reference currents are determined in such a way that none of the phase currents goes over the limits, as well as the DC voltage fluctuations remain in safe operation limit. Therefore, the contribution of this paper lays on the combination of the DC voltage oscillations and the current limit control. As it is shown in the following, three different control strategies are evaluated. The amplitude of the oscillations which are superimposed on the DC voltage as well as peak amplitude of the phase currents are calculated for each, considering a generic imbalance in the network. The effectiveness of the presented control strategies are verified by simulating a D-STATCOM tied to an industrial distribution network. Moreover a scaled scenario has been reproduced experimentally which shows that the results cope well with the analytical equations and the simulation results.