Unified Power Quality Management for Traction Substation Groups Connected to Weak Power Grids

Abstract

In remote areas, weak power grids, fewer grid access points, and power quality (PQ) problems dominated by excessive voltage unbalance (VU) and lower power factor (PF) have been prominent obstacles in single-phase 25 kV AC traction power supply systems. To achieve a long-distance power supply with a high PQ, a traction substation group connected to a weak remote power grid is introduced, where the electrical structure is composed of multiple slave traction substations using single-phase traction transformers (TTs), a master traction substation (MTS) using a combination of TTs and a power flow controller (PFC) adopting a modular multilevel converter (MMC). Then, a unified mathematical model of the proposed system suitable for different TT wiring types revealing the effect of asymmetrical grids on the PFC is established. The negative sequence current (NSC) caused by multiple traction stations at the point of common coupling (PCC) and the PF can be improved effectively based on power conservation theory. In addition, to reduce the compensation capacity, an optimization compensation strategy is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by simulation and a case study. The installed capacity of the PFC is 18.5% lower than that of traditional compensation.