Multi-mode Operation of Converter for Power Quality Improvement

In today’s dynamic world Electrical Power System has become much more fragile because of its dynamic demand and supply, making power quality maintenance a major challenge. An attempt is made in the present work to develop a new control algorithm for a Four-Legged voltage source converter as a shunt compensator for a three-phase four-wire distribution system. In the proposed algorithm, first, the dominant power quality issue is found dynamically; then, the control algorithm modifies itself accordingly to tackle that dominant power quality problem by generating suitable reference compensator currents. As a result of this flexible algorithm, single device is able to tackle the dominant power quality problem contrary to the conventionally existing solution where different devices are used for different power quality problems making it a non-feasible and costly solution. Whereas in the proposed work due to its capability to perform multiple functions the cost effectiveness is significantly improved. In the present work, two major power quality problems are as follows: poor power factor and poor voltage regulation are considered for the purpose of concept proofing. MATLAB is used for the simulation purpose. Thoroughly analyzed results along with the system design are presented in this work.