A New Control Strategy of Hybrid Reactive Power Compensation System in Distribution Network

Abstract

Reactive power compensation is an important measure to improve the power quality of distribution networks, especially with the increasing connection of distribution transformers, heavy industrial electrical equipment, and asynchronous motors, which generate a large amount of reactive power demand. Traditional reactive power compensation devices, such as fixed capacitors (FC) and thyristor switched capacitors (TSC), have some drawbacks, such as low response speed, harmonic generation, and switching shock. A static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) is a flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) device that can provide fast and continuous reactive power compensation, but it also has some limitations, such as high cost, large capacity requirement, and low utilization rate. Therefore, hybrid reactive power compensation systems that combine FC or TSC with STATCOM have attracted much attention in recent years. Many researchers have proposed and studied different topologies and control methods of hybrid systems to overcome the disadvantages of single devices and achieve better performance. However, most of the existing hybrid systems are designed for low or medium-voltage distribution networks, and their performance under high-voltage distribution networks is still unclear. Moreover, the coordination control strategy of the hybrid system and its subsystems is also a key issue that affects the effectiveness and efficiency of reactive power compensation. In view of this, this paper aims to propose a TSC+STATCOM hybrid reactive power compensation system for high-voltage distribution networks, which optimizes the shortcomings of traditional reactive power compensation devices. The system uses the synergistic effect of TSC and STATCOM to achieve large-scale static reactive power and small-scale dynamic reactive power compensation and adopts a switching strategy based on an expert decision system. This paper introduces the working principle of each subsystem of the hybrid reactive power compensation system in detail and builds a simulation model of the hybrid reactive power compensation system under a high voltage distribution network on Matlab/Simulink platform. The simulation results verify the feasibility and excellent performance of the system control method in reactive power compensation and improving power quality.