POWER QUALITY ENHANCEMENT USING DVR

1. INTRODUCTION

Power quality is the delivery of sufficiently high grade electrical services to the customer.
A power quality problem is an occurrence manifested as a non-standard voltage, current or
frequency that results in failure or operation of end user equipment’s. Power distribution
systems, ideally should provide customer with an uninterrupted flow of energy at smooth
sinusoidal voltage at the contracted magnitude level and frequency, but in practice
distribution systems, have nonlinear loads, which affects the purity of waveform of supply.
A momentary disturbance for sensitive electronic devices causes voltage reduction at load
end leading to frequency deviations which results in interrupted power flow, scrambled
data, unexpected plant shutdowns and equipment failure. Some events both usual (e.g.
Capacitor switching, motor starting) and unusual (e.g. Faults) could also inflict power
quality problems. Under heavy load conditions, a significant voltage drop may occur in the
system. A dip is usually taken as an event lasting less than one minute when voltage
decreases to between 0.1 and 0.9 p.u. (dip greater than 0.1 p.u. is usually treated as an
interruption) or a Voltage sag can occur at any instant of time, with amplitudes ranging
from 10-90 % and a duration lasting for half cycle to one minute.

Power quality in the distribution system can be improved by using DVR, as assures
pre-specified quality and reliability of supply. This pre-specified quality may contain a
combination of specification of following: low phase unbalance, low harmonic distortion
in load voltage, no power interruptions, acceptance of fluctuations, and poor power factor
loads without significant effect on the terminal voltage, low flicker at the load voltage,
magnitude and duration of overvoltage and under-voltage within specified limits.

Electrical energy is the simple and well-regulated form of energy, can be easily
transformed to other forms. Along with its quality and continuity has to maintain for good
economy. Power quality has become major concern for today’s power industries and
consumers. Power quality issues are caused by increasingly demand of electronic

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equipment’s and non-linear loads. Many disturbances associated with electrical power are
voltage sag, voltage swell, voltage flicker and harmonic contents.

Due to complexity of power system network voltage sag/swell became the major
power quality issue affecting the end consumers and industries. It occurs frequently and
result in high losses. Voltage sag is due to sudden disconnection of load, fault in the system
and voltage swell is due to single line to ground fault results in voltage rise of unfaulted
phases. The continuity of power supply can be maintained by clearing the faults at faster
rate. Other power quality issues i.e. voltage flickering, harmonics, transients etc., has to be
compensated to enhance the power quality

To solve this problem, custom power devices are used. One of those devices is the
Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR), which is the most efficient and effective modern custom
power device used in power distribution networks. Its appeal includes lower cost, smaller
size, and its fast dynamic response to the disturbance. It can provide the most commercial
solution to mitigation voltage sag by injecting voltage as well as power into the system. In
this project we will be modeling, analysis and simulation of a Dynamic Voltage Restorer
(DVR) using MATLAB. The efficiency of the DVR depends on the performance of the
efficiency control technique involved in switching the inverters. In this model a PI
controller and Discrete PWM pulse generator is used.

1.1. Project Objectives

For an economic operation of power system power quality should be maintained properly.
Voltage sag/swell has been concerned as major power quality issue. The main objectives
of this project are:-

1. Detection of voltage sag/swell in the power system network.

2. To mitigate the power quality issue using DVR and its behavioural study.

3. To select the best suitable control technique for DVR.

4. To control the device in order to obtain desired performance

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2. DYANAMIC VOLTAGE RESTORER (D.V.R)

DVR is a series connected solid state device that is used for mitigating voltage
disturbances in the distribution system by injecting voltage into the system in order to
regulate the load side voltage. DVR maintains the load voltage at a nominal magnitude and
phase by compensating the voltage sag/swell, voltage unbalance and voltage harmonics
presented at the point of common coupling. The DVR is a series conditioner based on a
pulse width modulated voltage source inverter, which is generating or absorbing real or
reactive power independently

Figure 2.1 – Circuit diagram of DVR

It is normally installed in a distribution system between supply and critical load feeder.
These systems are able to compensate voltage sags by increasing the appropriate voltages
in series with the supply voltage, and therefore avoid a loss of power. Voltage sags caused
by unsymmetrical line-to line, line to ground, double-line-to-ground and symmetrical three
phase faults is affected to sensitive loads, the DVR injects the independent voltages to

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restore and maintained sensitive to its nominal value. Its primary function is to rapidly
boost up the load side voltage in the event of a disturbance in order to avoid any power
disruption to load

2.1. Basic components of a DVR:

DVR can be applied for medium voltage and in low voltage application. The DVR
components have been discussed in Figure shows conventional circuit configuration of the
DVR. DVR basically consists of following parts:

 An Injection/ Booster transformer

 A Harmonic filter
 Storage Devices
 A Voltage Source Converter (VSC)
 DC charging circuit
 A Control and Protection system

Figure 2.2. - Equivalent circuit diagram DVR

 Series Voltage Injection/booster Transformers:

The injection/booster transformer limits coupling of noise and transient energy from
primary to secondary side. Generally High voltage side of the injection transformer is
connected in series to the distribution system and the power circuit of the DVR can be

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 POWER QUALITY ENHANCEMENT USING DVR

connected at the low voltage side. When unbalance fault occur in the high voltage side, the
zero sequence current flowing is almost zero, if the distribution transformer connection is
Δ-Y with the grounded neutral. In such connection, the DVR only mitigate the positive and
negative sequence components.

 Harmonic Filter:

The main task of harmonic filter is to keep the harmonic voltage content generated by the
VSC to the permissible level.

 Voltage Source converter (VSC):

A VSC is power electronic system consists of a storage device and switching devices. It
generates a sinusoidal voltage at any required frequency, magnitude, and phase angle. The
function of an inverter system in DVR is used to convert the DC voltage supplied by the
energy storage device into an AC voltage and to temporarily replace the supply voltage or
to generate part of supply voltage which is missing. Various circuit topologies are available
for VSC. Widely used method is two level or multilevel three-phase converter which shares
a dc capacitor between all phases, which absorbs harmonic ripple and has a relatively small
energy storage requirement.

 Storage devices

The DVR needs real power for compensation during voltage disturbances in the
distribution network which must be supplied by energy storage when the voltage
disturbances exit.

Storage devices supply the necessary energy to the VSC via a dc link for the generation of
injected voltages. The application of the energy storage in DVR depends on the design
rating required and total cost. The capacity of the stored energy directly determines the

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duration of the sag which can be mitigating by the DVR. There are different kinds of energy
storage devices:
Superconductive magnetic energy storage (SMES) has been used for very critical
applications, but its cost limits its use to industries where the losses are great if there is a
disturbance e.g. semiconductor fabrication.

Batteries can be highly effective if a high voltage battery configuration is used, and have a
short lifetime which requires battery management system, which can be costly.
Storage systems with auxiliary supply are used to increase the system performance when
the grid of DVR is weak.

Ultra-capacitors have a wider voltage range than batteries and can be directly paralleled
across the input bus and have a specific energy density less than that of a battery, but a
specific power greater than a battery, making them ideal for short (up to several seconds)
pulses of power.

 DC charging circuit:

The dc charging circuit has two main functions: The first is to charge the energy source
after a sag compensation event and second is to maintain dc link voltage at the nominal dc
link voltage. To charge the dc-link various topologies are used.

 Control and protection:

The control process generally consists of hardware with programmable logic. In past it
consists of Digital Signal Processing boards which provide controls like detection and
correction. Filters can also be used. There are different types of filter algorithm: Fourier
Transform (FT), Phase-Locked Loop (PLL), and Wavelet Transform (WT), out of which
Fourier Transform is the most common type. Direct feed forward type control architecture
maximizes dynamic performance of DVR and compensation of voltage sags can be
achieved in a fast response time (approximately 1ms).

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2.2. Operating principle of DVR

The basic function of the DVR is to inject a dynamically controlled voltage VDVR
generated by a forced commutated converter in series to the bus voltage by means of a
booster transformer. The momentary amplitudes of the three injected phase voltages are
controlled such As to eliminate any effects of a bus fault to the load voltage. The DVR has
three modes of operation which are: protection mode, standby mode, injection/boost mode.

Protection Mode :If the over current on the load side exceeds a permissible limit due to
short circuit on the load or large inrush current, the DVR will be isolated from the systems
by using the bypass switches (S2 and S3 will open) and supplying another path for current
(S1 will be closed).

Standby mode: (VDVR= 0): In the standby mode the booster transformer’s low voltage
winding is shorted through the converter. No switching of semiconductors occurs in this
mode of operation and the full load current will pass through the primary

Injection/Boost Mode: (VDVR>0): In the Injection/Boost mode the DVR is injecting a

compensating voltage through the booster transformer due to the detection of a disturbance
in the supply voltage

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3. REFERENCES

1. D. Ranjith Perera and S. S. Choi, “Performance Improvement of the Dynamic Voltage

Restorer With Closed-Loop Load Voltage and Current-Mode Control”
2. Chan K, “Technical and Performance Aspects of a Dynamic Voltage Restorer”, In IEE
Half Day Colloquium on Dynamic Voltage Restorers—Replacing Those Missing
Cycles, 1998
3. IEEE paper- “Power Quality Improvement using Dynamic Voltage Restorer, An
Overview,” Priyanka Kumari, Member IEEE, Vijay Kumar Garg, Member IEEE.
4. D. M. Vilathgamuwa, A.A.D.R. Perera, S.S. Choi, Voltage sag compensation with
energy optimized dynamic voltage restorer, IEEE Trans. Power Deliver.18(3) (2003)

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