2016 Biennial International Conference on Power and Energy Systems:Towards Sustainable Energy (PESTSE)

Transformerless Dynamic Voltage Restorer for

V oltage Sag Mitigation
v. Ansal, K. Ravikumar, P.Parthiban
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
NITK, Surathkal
Mangalore, India
ansal. [email protected]

Abstract- Dynamic Voltage Restorers are identified to be be the most effective, economical and technically advanced
cost effective solution for protecting sensitive loads from voltage device for this problem [4].
related power quality issues. The extension of cost reduction and
efficiency can be improved by eliminating the injection The main intention of the DVR is to protect sensitive loads
transformer. This paper discusses a transformer-Iess dynamic
from all supply side voltage disturbances like voltage sag,
volta ge restorer based on three-single phase Voltage Source
Inverters(VSI). Since the DVR does not have an injection voltage swell, voltage flicker, harmonics etc,. Basic working
transformer, it has lower loss, lower cost and it is less bulky. The principle of the DVR is shown in Fig. I. The DVR injects a
DVR control is implemented using Synchronous Reference rectifying voltage in required magnitude, frequency and phase
Frame(SRF)theory. Estimation of the reference load voltage is voltage in series with the source to nullify the disturbances.
carried out using unit vectors. The simulation results carried out The compensating voltage is injected in series to the supply
in MATLAB shows the effectiveness of the DVR in compensating using three single phase transformers or a single three-phase
the voltage sag. trans former.
Keywords -Dynamic Voltage Restorer(DVR), transformerless,
voltage sag, SRF theory, VSl.
The type of tluctuation determines the magnitude and phase of
the voltage to be injected. This is achieved by the exchange of
real and reactive power between the DVR and the distribution
I. INTRODUCTTON system or the sensitive load. The magnitude and phase of the
Out of all voltage quality related issues, voltage sag is injected voltage decides the amount of real and reactive power
identified as the most frequent and dangerous. Voltage sag is supplied/absorbed. Only reactive power injection is required
defined as a momentary reduction in voltage from O.lpu to 0.9 to compensate voltage sag to a certain extend. Active power
pu for a duration of half a cycle to few cycles[5], [6]. The injection is required when there are transients due to system
average duration of sag is six line frequency cycles. Voltage disturbance [I]. The DVR can generate the reactive power by
swell is defmed as a short duration increase in voltage in the its own, but it requires energy storage to supply real power.
range 1.1 pu to l.8 pu of the nominal power supply. Sudden This decides the compensation rang of the DVR. The energy
removal of large loads and switching of large capacitors are
storage device can be a battery, tlywheel energy storage or a
the major causes. The major cause of voltage sag is short-
super capacitor.
circuit faults, start up of large loads such as high power
induction motors. The voltage sag leads to malfunctioning of
sensitive loads and ac coil relays [2]. The major reason for Various topologies for the DVR have been discussed in
equipment failure and damage is found to be the subsequent literature. Based on energy feed to the DVR, the discussed
current surge followed by a voltage sag recovery [8]. So the topologies can be broadly classified as energy storage based
voltage disturbance may cause process malfunction or and power from the supply based. Energy storage based DVR
complete equipment failure. This leads to big economical loss uses an energy storage such as Battery, super-capacitor or
due to quality degradation of the product or complete SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage). For
shutdown of the plant itself. second category, an ac/dc/ac converter, which is connected
either to supply side or to the load side, is used to supply
There are various types of devices which can compensate the
power required for the DVR.
voltage disturbances. Most of the sag correctors available are
based on voltage source inverters. The voltage compensation
To avoid the impact of voltage disturbances on sensItIve
is done through injection of current in shunt compensators and
equipments and to avoid the interruption, the identification
through injection of voltage in series compensators. Most of
and the compensation ofthe disturbance has to be done in very
the series compensators use series-injection transformer to
short time, usually less than one-eighth of a line cycle. The
inject the compensating voltage. Dynamic sag correctors,
CBEMA curves, revised ITIC curve, the SEMI F47 standard
DSTATCOM, DVR are few ofthem. The DVR is identified to
are the few standard criteria used for ride through of the

978-1-4673-6658-8116/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

equipments [3]. Transformer-Iess DVR is superior to T,

conventional transformer coupled one by removing the voltage

drop, phase shift and harmonic loss. Since the transformer is
operating at line frequency, by eliminating the transformer, the
I"jcc.ion lnjcclion
size and the cost of the DVR also can be minimized [7]. Also Trnsfonncr-A TmsfonnC'r-ß
after each sag-restoration cycles, the transformer suffers from
dc magnetic-flux bias. The transformer cross-sectional area of
the core has to be doubled to avoid the magnetic-flux
saturation [9]. Inrush current is also a problem present in
Transformerless DVR.

A three-phase transformer-less DVR is discussed in this paper.

The circuit configuration of conventional DVR is explained in
the first section and that of transformer-less DVR in the
second section. The control strategy is detailed in the third
section. Finally the effectiveness of the proposed DVR on
voltage sag compensation is verified using the simulation
carried out in MATLAB/Simulink software.
11. CONVENTlONAL DVR STRUCTURE
omßKOl1

The conventional DVR power circuit basically consists of DC-Link

Fig.l Schematic diagram for conventional DVR.
converter, filter, energy storage device, injection transformer
and by-pass switch. The basic function of the DVR is to higher-order switching harmonics generated by the PWM
compensate voltage disturbances in the supply. DVR detects VSC and improve the quality of the energy supply. Inverter
any voltage disturbances in the supply and injects the required side and line side filtering are the basic types of filtering
voltage to the supply to maintain the load voltage constant. schemes.
For voltage sag DVR supplies reactive power to the load and
for voltage swell reactive power is absorbed from the power D. lnjection Transformer
supply. Fig. 1 shows the power circuit of the conventional The primary functions of the transformer are to boost the
DVR. voltage generated by the VSI and to isolate and couple the
A. The Converter DVR to the distribution system. The maximum effectiveness
and reliability can only be ensured by proper selection of the
Converter is used to produce required voltage for electrical parameters of the injection transformer. The turns
compensation from fixed voltage. For DC link energy storage ratio, MV A rating, primary winding voltage and current
voltage source inverter (VSI) is used. A stiff DC voltage ratings, and the short-circuit impedance values of trans formers
supply of low impedance at the input is used to energize the are required for proper interconnection of the injection
VSI. The output voltage of the converter is independent of the transformer into the DVR.
load current. The capacitor used in the VSI reduces the
variations in output voltage. Graetz bridge inverter and III. TRANSFORMERLESS DVR
Neutral point clamp inverter are two common inverter
The schematic of the proposed DVR is shown in Fig. 2. Here
connections used for three phase DVR. H-bridge inverter is
the injection transformer is excluded. The two major problems
the common method used for single phase DVRs. in excluding the injection transformer are the lack of voltage
boost and isolation.
B. Energy Storage Device
The required ac voltage to be injected to the grid is In a conventional three-phase DVR based on three single
synthesized from a stiff dc-link. The energy storage is required phase VSIs, diagonally opposite switches in the VSIs will be
to provide active power injection to the load to restore the on/off simultaneously. There may be conduction overlapping
supply voltages during deep voltage dips. Lead-acid batteries, within the three single phase inverters. Since an isolation
Super Conducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES), transformer comes in between the phases, in a conventional
flywheel or Super-capacitors can be used for energy storage. DVR the risk of short circuit is less. This is not the case with a
The depth and duration of the sag decides the capacity of the transformer-Iess DVR. Once the transformer is removed from
energy storage required for the DVR. the conventional DVR circuit, the overlapping switches will
make a short circuit between the phases and the dc-link. This
C. Filtering Unit shortcoming is overcome by using separate dc-link for each of
The inverter output of the DVR is distorted and contains lots the single phase inverters as shown in Fig. 2. The second
of harmonics due to the nonlinear characteristics of the challenge is with the boosting up the voltage. In a onventional
semiconductor switches used. The filter unit is used to filter DVR Compensation of maximum sag depth is possible with
minimum DC-link voltage by properly selecting the turns ratio (5)
of the injection transformer. DC-link voltage can be adjusted
flexibly for a given sag depth by properly selecting the turns Two PI controllers are used to regulate the error between
ratio ofthe injection transformer. actual and reference DVR voltage. Inverse park's
T,
transformation is used to get reference DVR voltages in abc
reference frame.
Soon;c
V;vra] r cos8
sin8
T,
r *
vdvrb
v;vrc 3 cos(8 _
/3 sin( 8 + 2j'j')
-_ -2 cos (8 - 27[/)
2j'j')
(6)

sin( 8 + 2j'j'
Gating pulses for the VSI is generated using reference DVR
voltage and actual DVR voltage.

I) -Li nk-C

Fig.2 Transfonnerless DVR with separate De-Iinks.

___________________ 1

The maximum voltage injected by a transformer-less DVR is

decided entirely by the dc-link voltage. This shortcoming can
be overcome certain extent by using cascaded inverters. The
major drawback of the conventional DVR use of a bulky and
expensive injection transformer, which contributes to the total Fig. 3. SRF method used for the control ofthe DVR
losses of the DVR. The transformer also adds complexity to
DVR system from the operation and maintenance point of TABLET
view.
DVR parameters
IV. DVR CONTROL Description Abbreviation Value
The control block using SRF control theory to control the Three phase line to line voltage Vs 415V
DVR is shown in Fig 3. The reference signal is estimated Active load power P 8kW
using SRF theory [10]. The load voltage VL and source voltage
vsare used to produce the PWM pulses for the VSI. The Reactive load power Q 6kVA
derived unit vector is used to generate the load reference
voltage. Park's transformation is used to convert the load
voltages from abc frame to dqO frame as V. SIMULATlON RESULTS

:~:~=:~~ ::::::~~;11: : l
This section is a demonstration of the results against voltage

r:;: L~r:~::
sag to illustrate the performance of the DVR. The DVR
(1) parameters used for the study are shown in Table. 1. A three

lvLJ li li li lVLcJ phase volts balanced source is used for the simulation study.
The load is considered to be purely resistive. The voltage sag
The reference load voltages (VLa *, V Lb *, VLc *) and the source is generated creating a resistive fault at the source side.
voltages are also converted to the rotating reference frame in MA TLAB/Simulink is used for the simulation studies. Fig. 2
the same manner. The DVR voltages can be expressed in the shows the topology of the system used for the study. The
dqO frame as performance ofthe DVR is demonstrated for a three-phase sag
of depth 40%. Fig. 4 shows the load reference voltage of the
(2) DVR. A voltage sag of 0.4 pu and of duration 0.2 s is created
at an instant 0.15 s. This is shown by Fig. 5. It can be observed
(3) from Fig. 7 that the load voltage is maintained at reference
voltage amplitude during the sag condition by the injection of
In the similar way the reference DVR voltages in the dqO required voltage. The voltage injected to the system by the
frame can be expressed as DVR is shown in Fig. 6.
*
V Dd = V Sd
* -V
Ld (4)
 VI. CONCLUSION
Cost reduction of dynamic voltage restorers makes it more
attractive. Large cost reduction is possible by the elimination
of the injection transformer. The paper has analyzed the
feasibility of a tranformerless DVR. The operation principle
and the control of the DVR have been discussed. Method of
unit vectors is used to [md out the reference load voltage. The
MA TLAB results show that the proposed DVR can
compensate the voltage sag satisfactorily. The main advantage
ofthe transformer-Iess DVR over the conventional DVR is the
reduction in cost and size. The isolation for the proposed DVR
Fig. 4. Load reference voltage is done with separate DC-link. The transformerless DVR
however does not provide voltage boosting.

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Fig. 7. Load voltage with DVR.