Hybrid Reactive Power Compensation System for Low Voltage Applications

This book presents a design of three-phase hybrid STATCOM prototype (Static synchronous compensator) that provide reactive power for power factor correction in the low voltage distribution system. The system consists of capacitor banks and an inverter. This system has a master controller that controls the RP reference of inverter and switching of power capacitors with the capability to reduce capacitors switching events to increase the life of power components. There are three key objectives: theoretical, simulation study and experimental work. The theoretical part discusses the harmonics mitigation, inverter topology and control, filter topology and the performance of the overall system. Simulation is performed on Matlab/Simulink platform, for experimental verification a prototype is also developed in the lab to prove the effectiveness of the designed filter, controllers and grid synchronization method. The Opal RT-lab hardware in the loop is used for hardware testing, which provides a good solution for the analysis of design and laboratory prototype implementation.