D om inion Energy ®

Real-Time Testing of STATCOM and

SVC Controllers

Rebecca Rye

1 1 November 2017
Acknowledgements

Kyle Thomas Murat Sezer

Dr. Hung-Ming Chou Arnold Rischer

Chathura Patabandi Hezi Touaf

Adam Sparacino

2 1 November 2017
Power Electronic Devices in Power
Systems
High Voltage
Solar farm Direct Current
(HVDC)

SVC & STATCOM

Wind farm (for voltage
regulation)

3 1 November 2017
Types of Shunt Devices for Voltage
Regulation Fixed Cap/ SVC STATCOM
Fixed Reactor

Switch mechanism Mechanical Power Electronics Power Electronics

Reactive power (Q)
Manual / Automatic Automatic Automatic
control method

Q change step size Large Small Small

Both capacitive &

No Yes Yes
inductive?

Need harmonic filter? No Large filter Small filter

4 1 November 2017
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Experiments on
RTDS GTAI
RTDS
Converter
States
GTFPI Breaker
GTDI Signals

Circuit

model GTAO V&I

STATCOM or SVC
controller
Signals

5 1 November 2017
Introduction to the
S T ASynchronous
Static T C O M Compensator
A regulating device that can act as either a source or sink of reactive power using IGBTs

2-level converter 3-level converter

DC/AC
Multilevel converter

6 1 November 2017
Introduction to the
S T ASynchronous
Static T C O M Compensator
A regulating device that can act as either a source or sink of reactive power

Reactive power control

Reactive power control (1) Fixed Q mode / Manual mode
Current
reference (2) Voltage Control Mode
Current control
Duty
Switch control
ratio

7 1 November 2017
S T A T C O M RTDS
Tests
Functional Performance Tests (FPT) System diagram
- Operational behavior Voltag
e
source
 Start up and shut down
 V/Q characteristic
 Gain controller test
 Stability controller
 Redundancy switchover

DC/AC
converter

8 1 November 2017
S T A T C O M RTDS Tests
Mode transfer from fixed Q (FQM) to voltage control (VCM)

(1) In fixed Q (FQM) Q reference = 0

(2) Mode transfer
(3) Gain of VCM controller is adjusted
(4) Operation point in voltage control
(VCM)
𝑉𝑉
Q >0

Inductive Capacitive 𝑄
𝑄

9 1 November 2017
S T A T C O M RTDS
Tests System diagram
Dynamic Performance Tests (DPT)
- Transient behavior

 Faults
 Load switching
 External transformer energization

10 1 November 2017
S T A T C O M RTDS Tests
Dynamic performance of STATCOM in phase to phase fault

t1 : Line to line fault

t2 : STATCOM blocked
because of undervoltage

t3 : Fault is clear
STATCOM is unblocked

Digital Signals

t1 t2 t3
11 1 November 2017
Introduction to the
SVC VAR Compensator
Static
A device which regulates voltage by injecting or removing reactive
power using:
• TCR: Thyristor Controlled Reactor
• TSC: Thyristor Switched Capacitor
Light Triggered Thyristor:

V I V
②
① GATE
fires

GATE ②
①
I
fires
12 1 November 2017
Introduction to the
SVC VAR Compensator
Static
A device which regulates voltage by injecting or removing reactive power

Reactive power control

Reactive power control (1) Susceptance Control (Q-Mode)
Susceptance
reference (2) Voltage Regulator (AVR)
Susceptance control
Firing
Valve control
Angle

13 1 November 2017
SVC RTDS System diagram
Tests
System Verification Tests
Voltage source
w/ impedance

- Operation and static/dynamic characteristics 500 kV

 Start up & shut down 250 MVA

500 kV : 25 kV

 Protection
25 kV bus
 V-I characteristics
 Faults

Spare 5th & 7th

TCR TSC 5th & 7th 3rd
Harmonic Filter
-200 to 0 Mvar +200 or 0 Mvar Harmonic Filter Harmonic Filter
+50 Mvar
+50 Mvar +72
Mvar
14 1 November 2017
 V (pu)
SVC – V C
Mode
B A
Vref
Vsys1 SVC Dynamic
Characteristic

Linear Control Range

USED WITH EXPRESS AND

I (pu) SPECIFIC PERMISSION FROM
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
Capacitive Inductive CORPORATION

15 1 November 2017
SVC RTDS
Tests
Performance of SVC in phase to ground fault under voltage-control mode
1.05
1
t1 : L-G fault applied
V (pu)

0.95
0.9 V
0.85
0.8
2
Transformer Current A
t2 : SVC injects Q to
Current (kA)

1 Transformer Current B
0 Transformer Current C

-1
increase V
-2
300
200
SVC_Q t3 : Fault is clear;
Q (Mvar)

100 SVC’s Q brifely

0
-100
increases to regulate
40
Fault Current
voltage to 1 pu
20
Current (kA)

0
t4 : SVC injects less Q as
-20
-40
voltage is boosted to
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
t (s)
reference value
t1 t2 t3 t4
16 1 November 2017
 V (pu)
SVC – SC Mode
ref

A SVC Dynamic
Characteristic
SVC Steady-
State
Characteristic

Linear Control Range

USED WITH EXPRESS AND

I (pu) SPECIFIC PERMISSION FROM
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
Capacitive QA Qref Inductive CORPORATION

17 1 November 2017
SVC RTDS
Tests
Performance of SVC in phase to ground fault under susceptance-control mode
1.025
1.02
V_Actual
Qref = 50 Mvar
V (pu)

1.015
1.01
1.005
t1 : System voltage change;
1 SVC responds dynamically
0.15
I_Actual
0.12

0.09
t2 : System voltage settles;
I (kA)

0.06 SVC’s reactive power

0.03
begins to move to
0
140
SVC_Q
reference value
120
100
t3 : SVC’s reactive power
Q (Mvar)

80
60
40
returns to Qref value
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
t1 t2 t (s) t3
18 1 November 2017
RTDS Tests –
Conclusions
1) Real STATCOM & SVC controllers can be tested using hardware-in-the-loop technology
on RTDS racks.
2) Verified the functionality and operation of Dominion Energy’s new controllers per the
manufacturers’ specifications.
3) Understand the controllers and able to predict the response of the controllers in various
scenarios.
4) Further tested the functionality of the controllers by performing more protection
sequences and various kinds of faults in the simple model.

19 1 November 2017
Interaction of the S T A T C O M and
SVC

20 1 November 2017
 Interaction Assessment of the S T A T C O M and
SVC interaction - voltage recovery time during faults
Dynamic

No STATCOM nor SVC Only STATCOM Only SVC Both STATCOM & SVC

35.00

30.00

25.00
Recover time (ms)

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00
Bus 4 Bus 3 Bus 11 Bus 1 Bus 17
Location of recovery time
measurement
21 1 November 2017
Progress
 Individual simulations of the real SVC and STATCOM controllers are completed using the RTDS
simulation equipment and hardware-in-the-loop functionality.
 Operational and dynamic performances of the STATCOM and the SVC are tested and meet the
criteria from vendor reports.
 Using an equivalent system model of an urban area, the STATCOM and the SVC controllers are
successfully included in the same simulation. No negative interactions are found between the SVC
and STATCOM when in close proximity.
 All tests procedures & results obtained are documented; documentation can be used for training
purposes

Future work
(1) Build virtual STATCOM or SVC models in RTDS that emulate the real controller.
(2) Use the virtual models to study the interactions of multiple devices in the same network.
22 1 November 2017
 Thank you!

23 1 November 2017
 Appendicies

24 1 November 2017
Dominion Energy’s SVC - QCOMPONENT
Hardware 500 kV bus
Inductive
(Mvar)
Capacitive

+200

250 MVA
500 kV : 25 kV

25 kV bus +50
0
0 QSVC
+250 (Mvar)
-150 -50 0
-50

-100

-200

TCR TSC 5th & 7th HF 3rd HF

-200 to 0 Mvar +200 or 0 Mvar +50 Mvar +72
Mvar
-150 +250
25 1 November 2017
Using Reactive Power for Voltage
Regulation
Resistor Capacitor Inductor

⃗𝐼 𝐼 𝑉𝑉
𝑉𝑉 𝑉𝑉
⃗𝐼 𝐼
⃗𝐼 𝐼

26 1 November 2017
 Reactive Power for Voltage
Regulation
Original Capacitive compensation Inductive compensation
𝐿 𝐼
𝐼
𝐿 𝐿 𝐼
𝐼
𝐿 𝐿 𝐼
𝐼
𝐿

∆𝑉
𝑉 ∆𝑉
𝑉 ∆𝑉
𝑉
𝑉
𝑉
𝑔 𝐿 𝑉
𝑉
𝐿

𝑔 𝑉
𝑉
𝑔 𝑔 𝑉
𝑉
𝑔 𝑔 𝑉
𝑉
𝑔

∆𝑉
𝑉
𝐿 𝑉
𝑉
𝐿 𝐿 𝑉
𝑉
𝐿 ∆𝑉
𝑉 𝐿 𝑉
𝑉
𝐿
∆𝑉
𝑉
𝐿 𝐼
𝐼
𝐿
𝐼𝐿
𝐼𝐿
𝐿 𝐼
𝐼
𝐿
27 November 1, 2017