An Economic Hybrid Shunt Compensator for Power Factor Correction and Mitigation of Large Unbalance as in HV Traction Distribution System

Abstract

This paper presents a delta-connected hybrid shunt FACTS compensator along with its control architecture for unbalance mitigation and power factor correction in high voltage (HV) distribution systems consisting of single-phase traction loads. The compensator comprises of static VAr compensator (SVC) in series with static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) in each of its delta branch. Design and control strategy of the SVC and the STATCOM is formulated such that STATCOM rating reduces substantially. The proposed compensator can be an economical alternative to STATCOM only solution when applied in HV systems. Simulations are carried out in PSCAD/EMTDC platform to validate the unbalance mitigation and power factor correction capability of the compensator under different single-phase traction loading conditions. Further, experiments are carried out on a scaled down laboratory prototype and results are presented.