Efficient Transformer-less DVR
Efficient Transformer-less DVR
Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt
   Abstract— Achieving high voltage quality for electrical power                   applying a post-fault compensation strategy. The main
system with small size device and low cost has a great interest                    disadvantage of the all DVR topologies aforementioned
recently. This paper proposes a three-phase transformer-less dynamic
voltage restorer (DVR) system that can mitigate the voltage
                                                                                   above is large number of components, which cause high cost,
disturbances in electrical distribution network. The proposed DVR                  high losses, high size and have complex control systems. This
system depends on the multilevel inverter (MLI) with twelve power                  paper proposes an economic transformer-less DVR, the
electronic switches producing 49 levels in the output voltage. The                 multilevel inverter used in this DVR has only twelve switches
present DVR is characterized by low cost and small size where the
number of switches is lower than other DVR systems, and eliminate                  producing 49-level of voltage in the output. The proposed
the filter requirements. The proposed DVR presents a compensation                  DVR achieves low cost, low losses, low size and its control
scheme with optimal utilization of energy. The DVR system is                       system has low running cost at any fault occurs. The proposed
modeled using PSCAD/EMTDC software and the simulation results
                                                                                   DVR with the power circuit configuration as well as
are discussed. A high performance with different fault types is
obtained using the proposed DVR system. With the help of the                       compensation strategy is presented. The PSCAD/EMTDC
dSPACE (DS1104) evaluation board, the prototype of the proposed                    software program is used to produce the simulation results,
DVR has been constructed and tested in laboratory.                                 that demonstrate the proposed DVR ability to compensate the
  Keywords—DVR, transformer-less, multilevel inverter (MLI),                       voltage sags and swells resulting from different faults.
voltage sag, voltage swell, power quality, voltage disturbance.
                                                                                                         2.    PROPOSED DVR SYSTEM
                           1.    INTRODUCTION                                          The proposed DVR system shown in Fig. 1 is used to voltage
    The voltage disturbances are considered one of the most                          correction. When the source side voltage (V1) changes, the DVR
common issues of the power quality in the medium networks.                           injects an appropriate voltage (Vdvr) in such a way that the desired
Voltage sags, swells, unbalanced voltage and transients have                         load voltage (V2) undisturbed regardless of source side
the most serious effects compared with other voltage                                 conditions. The proposed DVR consists of only two main parts;
disturbance phenomena [1]. Voltage sag (voltage dip according                        a- Energy storage unit
to IEC term) is drooping effective voltage value between 10%                           To compensate the voltages during the sag period, the DVR
and 90%. The voltage sag is the most voltage disturbance                             should be containing the energy source to provide active power to
occurs in the distribution system [2]. The increase of voltage                       the load. Two methods are used to deliver power to the
magnitude more than 10% is defined as voltage swells, these                          distribution system. One using internal DC source and another
problems have durations from half cycle to 1min. [3]-[6]. In                         using converter to supply DVR from the incoming supply. The
addition to the loads (electronic applications) become more                          energy storage units such as superconducting magnetic energy
sensitive to voltage disturbances, therefore it must have high                       storage (SMES) and flywheels supplies DVR. The super-
electrical power quality [7]-[8].                                                    capacitors and lead acid batteries also can be used as energy
    Dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) is capable of solving this                        storage devices.
problem efficiently and fast response [9]-[12]. Conventional                         b- Inverter circuit
DVR adjusts the voltage at load to the required value by                                The inverter is the core of the DVR. Multilevel inverter (MLI)
injecting a certain voltage value series through the line by                         in proposed DVR system performs the function of both inverter
injection transformer. However, this injection transformer                           and transformer in conventional DVR.
causes many different problems including large size, high cost,
more losses and weight. The transformer-less DVR eliminates                                               V1
                                                                                        line                                                         V2
the problems of the injection transformer by not using the
                                                                                                                       Vdvr
transformer in the conventional DVR configuration scheme
                                                                                                                                                          LOAD
[13]-[14],[29]. [15]-[16] presents different DVR topologies and
control strategies. The main part in the DVR construction is
inverter. The conventional DVR at the beginning was based on                              supply                                           Control
two-level inverters.                                                                                           Multilevel inverter         system
   Recently, the DVR depends on multilevel inverter types,
  because these types operates at high voltage levels with low
                                                                                                                     Energy
  harmonics [17]. In [18], the pre-fault compensation method                                                         Storage
  has been studied. This control strategy is maintaining the load                                                    Element
  voltage at the pre-fault value but has a disadvantage due to
  high real power injection during voltage compensation. In                                         Fig. 1 The main components of the proposed DVR.
PS =IL ( cos(ФL –θ2F )x–sin(ФL –θ2F )y ) (12) sin(ФL –θmin )x- cos(ФL –θmin )y=0 (25)
     PDVR =IL [3V2 cos(ФL )–V1a cos(θ1a –β )–V1b cos(θ1b –β )                                     A. Three-phase balanced voltage sag mitigation
                                                                                                   Figure 8 Shows the waveforms of the three-phase
              –V1c cos(θ1c –β )]                                                     (29)
                                                                                                 voltages at the supply side, the DVR output voltages and the
                                                                                                 waveforms of the three-phase voltages at the load side after
                4.    GENERATION THE REFERENCE SIGNALS                                           compensation when the distribution system is subjected to
  The reference signals required to switching system of MLI                                      three-phase balanced fault, that cause a small voltage sag to
can be generated from the difference between the                                                 89.7% for a interval of 0.2 sec from t=0.2 sec until t=0.4
uncompensated three-phase voltages of the source side and                                        sec. Figure 9 shows the pu values of the source and the load
three-phase waveform which generated with frequency 50                                           side voltages. These results clear the accurate performance
                                                                                                 for the DVR system where the DVR inject the appropriate
HZ, 1 per unit and phase angle θ2F such that:                                                    amount of missing voltage to recover the load voltage to its
                                                                                                 nominal voltage value during the sag event. The
                         v̅2a-star =1∠θ2F
                                                                                                 instantaneous active and reactive powers are shown in
                      { v̅2b-star =1∠(θ2F –120)                                    (30)
                        v̅2c-star =1∠(θ2F +120)                                                  figure 10. The DVR operates with no active power
                                                                                                 injection (no real power mode) and the reactive power
                                                                                                 injected is 0.342 MVAR during the sag event.
Then the reference signals which in modulation
                                                                                                                                 10
technique as follows:
                      vL                                                                                                             -5
                                 power
                                               α <=1 No real                    Va,b,c_ref.
                      iL         factor                power
                                                                                                                                -10
                           V1a                       injection.                                                                           0     0.05     0.1     0.15         0.2      0.25         0.3      0.35          0.4          0.45       0.5
                                                                                                                                                                                    Time(sec)
        v1a
                                                                                                                                                                        (a)
                           ϴ1a
                                                                                                                                8
                                                          ϴzero
          Calculation                                                          Generation of                                    6
            of RMS V1b Calculation of                      Generation of         reference
      v1b                                                                                                                       4
          values and        x, y and z      Calculate α   Va_star, Vb_star,   voltages va, vb,
          phase angle ϴ1b (13), (14), (17),    (21)           Vc_star                vc                                         2
                                                                                                  Vdvr(kv)
-4
                           ϴ1c                      Minimum                                                                 -6
                                                      active                  v1a v1b v1c                                   -8
                                                     power                                                                          0         0.05     0.1     0.15      0.2         0.25       0.3         0.35          0.4       0.45           0.5
                                               α >1 injection                                                                                                                  Time(sec)
                                                                                                                                                                        (b)
      Fig. 7 The block diagram of the proposed DVR control system.                                                          15
                                                                                                                            10
                5.    SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
                                                                                                 Load voltage(kv)
                                                                                                                                5
  The testing of the proposed DVR system was done by
considering different fault types which causes sags and swells                                                                  0
such as three-phase fault (symmetrical fault) and line to ground
                                                                                                                                -5
fault (unsymmetrical fault). The PSCAD/EMTDC simulation
package is used to implement the distribution system. The                                                              -10
parameters of proposed DVR system are given in table I.
                                                                                                                       -15
                                                                                                                                     0        0.05     0.1     0.15     0.2         0.25      0.3         0.35      0.4          0.45      0.5
                             Table I System parameters.                                                                                                                        Time(sec)
 Supply                                      Three phase 11kv (RMS,
                                             line to line voltage), 50hz
                                                                                                                                                                        (c)
 Load                                        P=1.35MW, Pf=82.67 lag                                                              Fig. 8. (a)Supply voltages. (b)DVR voltages. (c)Load voltages.
                                                                                                                                Respectively, in case the small three phase balanced voltage sag.
 First cell DC source of the                 V1=310 volte
 MLI
                             2                                                                                                                                               15
                                                                                                                  data1
                                                                                                                  data2
                                                                                                                                                                             10
    Perunit voltages(PU)
1.5
                                                                                                                                                     Load voltages(kv)
                                                                                                                                                                                     5
                             1
                                                                                                                                                                                     0
0.5 -5
                                                                                                                                                                         -10
                             0
                                 0       0.05    0.1   0.15    0.2      0.25       0.3     0.35     0.4         0.45       0.5
                                                                     Time(sec)                                                                                           -15
                                                                                                                                                                                              0            0.05         0.1          0.15     0.2       0.25       0.3         0.35      0.4    0.45         0.5
                           Fig. 9 Perunit values for load side and source side voltages during small                                                                                                                                                Time (sec)
                                             three phase balanced voltage sag.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     (c)
                                                                                                                                                                          Fig. 11 High balanced three phase voltage sag (a)Supply voltages.
                            0.5                                                                                                                                                        (b)DVR voltages. (c)Load voltages.
                                                                                                                       P
                            0.4                                                                                        Q                                                 2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Supply
      P(kw) and Q(kvar)
                            0.3
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Load
                                                                                                                                       Perunit voltages(PU)
                                                                                                                                                                1.5
                            0.2
                            0.1
                                                                                                                                                                         1
                                 0
                           -0.1
                                                                                                                                                                0.5
                           -0.2
                                     0    0.05   0.1   0.15    0.2      0.25       0.3     0.35     0.4         0.45       0.5
                                                                     Time(sec)                                                                                           0
                                                                                                                                                                                0                     0.05          0.1             0.15      0.2      0.25        0.3         0.35      0.4     0.45        0.5
          Fig. 10 Active and Reactive DVR output powers during small three phase                                                                                                                                                                    Time (sec)
                                   balanced voltage sag.                                                                                           Fig. 12 Per-unit values for load side and source side voltages during deep
                                                                                                                                                                      three phase balanced voltage sag.
    In case of deep voltage sag occurs, the DVR compensates                                                                                                                                   1.2
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        P
the deep voltage sag by operating in the minimum real power                                                                                                                                       1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Q
phase voltages at the supply side, the injected voltages by DVR 0.8
                            10
                                                                                                                                                    Fig. 13 Active and Reactive DVR output powers during deep three phase
                                                                                                                                                                           balanced voltage sag.
                                                                                                                             a
                                                                                                                                                         Single line to ground (SLG) fault is the most faults
                             0                                                                                               b                        which causes unbalanced voltage sag. The system is
                                                                                                                             c
                                                                                                                                                      subjected to phase 'a' to ground fault, this fault makes
                            -5                                                                                                                        voltage sag 50% in phase 'a' for 0.2 sec. from t=0.2 till t=0.4.
                                                                                                                                                      Figure 14 demonstrates that the DVR recovers the load
                           -10
                                 0       0.05    0.1    0.15    0.2         0.25     0.3     0.35         0.4      0.45          0.5
                                                                                                                                                      voltages to the pre-fault value by injecting the required
                                                                      Time(sec)                                                                       voltages in all phases to maintain the three phases balanced.
                                                                      (a)                                                                             The line voltages Vca and Vab will be affected whereas Vbc
                           10                                                                                                                         will not.
                                                                                                                                                                    10
                            5
DVR voltages(kv)
                                                                                                                                                                         5
                                                                                                                                        Supply voltages(kv)
                            0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      a
                                                                                                                                                                         0                                                                                                                                         b
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   c
                            -5
                                                                                                                                                                         -5
                           -10
                                 0       0.05    0.1   0.15    0.2      0.25        0.3     0.35     0.4          0.45       0.5                                -10
                                                                                                                                                                                0                         0.05          0.1          0.15       0.2         0.25         0.3          0.35     0.4      0.45           0.5
                                                                     Time(sec)                                                                                                                                                                        Time(sec)
                                                                      (b)                                                                                                                                                                            (a)
                                           2
                                                                                                                                                         common as the voltage sag.
                                           0
                                                                                                                                                           The condition {α= 3 cos (ФL )⁄Z ≤1 } can be applied for
                                      -2                                                                                                                 voltage swells. Thus, the DVR system may not absorb active
                                      -4                                                                                                                 power during swell compensate. Figure 17 shows the
                                      -6                                                                                                                 waveforms of a three-phase voltages at the supply side, the
                                      -8
                                               0         0.05     0.1     0.15     0.2       0.25      0.3     0.35     0.4          0.45      0.5
                                                                                                                                                         DVR output voltages and the waveforms of the three-phase
                                                                                           Time(sec)
                                                                                                                                                         voltages at the load side during the three-phase balanced
                                                                                            (b)                                                          voltage swell to 134.8 % for interval 0.2 sec from t=0.2 sec.
                                            15
                                                                                                                                                         until t=0.4 sec. Figure 18 shows the source side and load side
                                            10                                                                                                           per unit voltages, this figure confirms that the load voltage is
                                                                                                                                                         close to one per-unit. Figure 19 shows that the swell is
                       Load voltages(kv)
                                               5
                                                                                                                                                         compensated without passing active power through the DVR.
                                               0                                                                                                         The reactive power absorbed by DVR is 582.2 KVAR.
                                               -5
                                                                                                                                                                                    15
                                           -10
                                                                                                                                                                                    10
-15
                                                                                                                                                             Supply voltages(kv)
                                                    0      0.05     0.1     0.15     0.2      0.25     0.3     0.35      0.4        0.45       0.5                                   5
                                                                                           Time(sec)
                                                                                            (c)                                                                                                                                                                      a
                                                                                                                                                                                     0
    Fig. 14 Three phase voltages through unbalanced voltage sag(SLG fault). (a)                                                                                                                                                                                      b
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     c
     Waveforms of the supply voltages. (b) Waveforms of the DVR voltage. (c)
                                                                                                                                                                                     -5
                         Waveforms of the Load voltage.
                                           2                                                                                                                                        -10
                                                                                                                                    Supply
                                                                                                                                    Load                                            -15
                                                                                                                                                                                          0   0.05   0.1   0.15   0.2      0.25     0.3    0.35    0.4     0.45          0.5
                                  1.5
Perunit voltages(PU)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Time(sec)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         (a)
                                           1                                                                                                                                         10
                                  0.5                                                                                                                                                 5
                                                                                                                                                                 DVR voltages(kv)
                                           0                                                                                                                                          0
                                               0         0.05     0.1     0.15     0.2      0.25     0.3      0.35     0.4         0.45      0.5
                                                                                         Time(sec)
                                                   Fig. 15 Perunit values for load side and source side voltages during                                                              -5
                                                                unbalanced voltage sag (SLG fault).
                                           1.2
                                                                                                                                              P                                     -10
                                                                                                                                                                                          0   0.05   0.1   0.15   0.2      0.25     0.3    0.35    0.4     0.45          0.5
        P(MW)and Q(MVAR) powers
1 Q Time(sec)
                                           0.8
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         (b)
                                                                                                                                                                                    15
                                           0.6
                                                                                                                                                                                    10
                                           0.4
                                                                                                                                                         Load voltages(kv)
                                           0.2
                                                                                                                                                                                     5
0 0
                                     -0.2                                                                                                                                           -5
                                                   0      0.05     0.1     0.15      0.2      0.25      0.3     0.35         0.4      0.45         0.5
                                                                                           Time(sec)
                                                                                                                                                                                   -10
                                                   Fig. 16 Active and Reactive DVR output powers during unbalanced
                                                                       voltage sag (SLG fault).
                                                                                                                                                                                   -15
                                                                                                                                                                                         0    0.05   0.1   0.15   0.2       0.25     0.3    0.35     0.4      0.45             0.5
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Time(sec)
   Figure 15 demonstrates that the system succeeds in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         (c)
regulating the load side voltage to the nominal value with the                                                                                                                     Fig. 17 Three phase waveforms during voltage swell. (a)supply voltage.
DVR running in control mode which achieves zero injection                                                                                                                                            (b)DVR voltage. (c)Load voltage.
real power and reactive power 900 KVAR as shown in Figure
16.
                                     2
                                                                                                                                         Supply                                                    Table II Experimental System parameters
                                                                                                                                         Load
                                                                                                                                                               Supply Phase voltage                                               50V/50HZ
                                    1.5
  Perunit voltages(PU)
                                                                                                                                                                  (peak value) Vs
                                     1
                                                                                                                                                               Load Inductance (LL)                                                   50 mH
                                                                                                                                                               Load Resistance (RL)                                                  20 ohm
                                    0.5                                                                                                                       Switching frequency (Fs)                                               10 KHZ
                                                                                                                                                               Last cell DC source of                                                  42 V
                                     0
                                          0        0.05     0.1        0.15     0.2           0.25
                                                                                           Time(sec)
                                                                                                       0.3    0.35          0.4         0.45      0.5                 the MLI
    Fig. 18 Per-unit values for load side and source side voltages during voltage swell.
                                     0.6
                                                                                                                                               P
                                                                                                                                                          Figure 22 shows the voltage source with unbalanced
         P(MW) and Q(MVAR) powers
0.4 Q
                                     0.2
                                                                                                                                                        voltage sag, where the voltage sag occurs in one phase. The
                                          0
                                                                                                                                                        interval of the 20% voltage sag continues for 12 cycle. As
                                    -0.2
                                                                                                                                                        shown in figure 23, The load voltage is constant at the
                                    -0.4
                                    -0.6
                                                                                                                                                        nominal value where the proposed DVR system succeeded
                                    -0.8
                                                                                                                                                        in voltage sag compensation. Figure 24 shows the voltage
                                              0     0.05      0.1       0.15         0.2       0.25     0.3    0.35         0.4         0.45      0.5
                                                                                           Time(sec)                                                    supply with deep voltage sag 54% for 17 cycles. The load-
              Fig. 19 Active and Reactive DVR output powers during voltage swell.
                                                                                                                                                        side voltage is constant at 50 volt (peak) with deep sag
                                                                  6.      EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS                                                          occurs as shown in figure 25. All experimental results are
                                                                                                                                                        saved by dSPACE and sketched by MATLAB soft wear.
 The experimental verification is achieved by constructing the
proposed DVR prototype. As shown in figure 20, the control
system of the proposed DVR is tested with the help of dSPACE
                                                                                                                                                        Supply voltage (V)
                                                                                                                                                                                    50
(DS1104) board. The sag is implemented by inserting a series
resistance (Rs). The voltage sag level in the prototype is
determined by the resistance (Rs) value. The prototype of the
DVR is executed to compensate only one phase as shown in                                                                                                                                 0
figures 24, due to the insufficient possibilities in laboratory.
Table 2 shows the values of all parts of the DVR prototype. The
construction of the prototype in laboratory is implemented by                                                                                                                  -50
three phase supply, resistances, inductances, DC sources,
                                                                                                                                                                                          0                   0.2              0.4               0.6
IGBTs, voltage sensors, current sensors, interface circuits and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Time (sec)
computer with dSPACE as shown in figure 21.
                                                   Vc                    v1c                                          Rlc         Llc                                               Fig. 22 The source side voltage with sag 20% for 12 cycles.
                                                   Vb                                                                 Rlb         Llb
                                                                               v1b
                                                   Va        Rs                                                       Rla         Lla
                                                                                                                                                                                    50
                                                                                                                                                        Load voltage (V)
                                                                                                                Personal
                                                                                                 DSPACE
                                                                                                 DS1104         computer                                                       -50
                                                                                                                                                                                          0                   0.2              0.4               0.6
                         Fig. 20 Experimental layout DVR system using DSP-DS1104 board.                                                                                                                         Time (sec)
                                                                                                                                                                                             Fig. 23 The load side voltage after compensation.
                                                                                                                                                                    Supply voltage (V)
50
                                                                                                                                                                                         -50
                                                                                                                                                                                               0            0.2          0.4          0.6          0.8
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Time (sec)
                                                  Fig. 21 The experimental system of the proposed DVR                                                                          Fig. 24 The source side voltage with sag 54% for 17 cycles.