Voltage, power and current ratings of series voltage controllers

M.H.J. Bollen, Senior Member, IEEE

Chalmers University of Technology
41296 Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract: The active power injection requirements are calculated for discussed for controllers using energy storage as well as for
a series voltage controller (or DVR) under various system and load series controllers obtaining the active power from an
conditions, for different fault types, for three-phase load and for additional shunt-connected controller.
single-phase load. It is shown that the power requirement depends
on the sag magnitude and phase-angle jump as well as on the power
factor of the load. For controllers with an energy reservoir the
voltage-tolerance curve of the load-controller combination is II. ACTIVE POWER REQUIREMENTS
obtained. For a combined shunt-series controller the current rating
of the shunt controller is found. Finally the voltage rating of the A. Controller model
series controller is assessed.

Keywords: power quality, voltage sag, custom power. Throughout this paper an “ideal controller” will be consider
in accordance with Fig. 1. For the series controller, the load-
side voltage equals the system-side voltage plus the voltage
I. INTRODUCTION injected by the controller. Using complex phasors instead of
time domain voltages, this gives:
Several methods are available to prevent equipment mal-
operation due to voltage sags. The two obvious solutions, at
first sight, are a reduction of the number of faults and
improvement of equipment immunity. However, experience
has shown that in many practical cases neither of these
methods is suitable. The most common mitigation method + ,-@LT+
remains the installation of additional equipment between the
power system and the equipment, either directly with the
equipment terminals or at the customer-utility interface. The
uninterruptable power supply (UPS) has traditionally been -I
the method of choice for small power, single-phase
Fig. 1, Circuit diagram model of power system, controller and load.
equipment. For large equipment several methods are in use
and under development, one of which is the series voltage The voltage at the load-side of the controller remains
controller, also known under the name “dynamic voltage constant, and equal to 1 pu. The voltage does not show any
restorer” or DVR [1,2]. phase-angle jump.
The series voltage controller injects a voltage in series with
the supply voltage. This voltage is chosen such that the load-
side voltage remains constant during faults in the system. To The voltage at the system-side of the controller (i.e. the
maintain the voltage at the load-side, the series controller has during-sag voltage) is characterized through a magnitude V
to inject a certain amount of active power. In this paper, and a phase-anglejump K,I
expressions are derived for the active power requirements as -
a function of the sag characteristics (magnitude and phase Vsog = V cosy + j V sin y . (3)
angle jump). Expressions are derived for balanced sags, for The load current is equal to 1 pu, with a lagging power factor
unbalanced sags, for three-phase controllers and for single- cos@:
phase controllers.
I;oad =cos@-jsin@, (4)
The active power injection requirements are an important part
in the design of a series voltage controller. The consequences So that the active power taken by the load is:
of the active power injection requirements for the design are 4wd = cos$ (5)
From (1) and (2), the voltage injected by the controller is
found:

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The current through the controller equals the load current: For single-phase equipment, the (complex) voltages in the
individual phases are needed to determine the behavior.
f,, = e-’@. (7) These are for a type A sag:
The complex power injected by the controller is obtained G=V
from ( 6 ) and (7):
- q E L 2j JT & ,
vb=-p (13)
s,,,,= (I - Eug )eJ@. (8)
=-Lr++jPJ;j
2
The active power injected is the real part of the complex
power, leading to the following expression, by using (5):

(9)

For zero phase-angle jump, the injected power is independent

of the load power factor:
pco,, = P - VIP,, . (10)
The effect of the power factor and the phase-angle jump will
be discussed below.

B. Voltage sag model

The voltage during a sag can be obtained from the so-called

voltage divider model [3,4]: C. Balanced sags, three-phase controllers
-
-7

Balanced voltage sags are due to three-phase faults, leading

where TF is the impedance between the fault and the point-
of-common coupling (pcc) of the fault and the load, is zs
the source impedance at the pcc, the pre-event voltage is
considered equal to 1 pu, and all load is assumed to be of the
constant-impedance type. Equation (1 1) can be written as
follows:
I- I < - .
. This expression can be
used to get corresponding values for sag magnitude and
phase-angle jump for a given feeder, i.e. for a given value of
the “impedance angle” a. Theoretical consideration [3] as
well as measurements [7] indicate values between zero and
-60” for the impedance angle.
to sags of type A. The three voltages for a balanced sag are
given by expression (13). The event is identical in the three
phases, so that ( 8 ) and (9) hold for each phase with the
characteristic voltage being the sag voltage vSug in all
three phases. The total injected power is thus three times the
power injected in each phase. The total load power is also
three times the power taken in one phase, so that (9) holds
with Pen, the total injected power and eoad the total (active
power) load. This expression is used to calculate the injected
power as a function of the load power factor and the
impedance angle of the faulted feeder. Some of the results are
shown in Fig. 2. Sag magnitude and phase-angle jump have
been calculated from (12) with a = -60’ and for 2 between
zero and infinite.
I

The voltage-divider model gives the so-called “characteristic

voltage” for the voltages in the three phases. The model can
be applied directly to study the effect of voltage sags on
three-phase equipment. A distinction needs to be made
between three types of sags: type A is due to three-phase
faults; types C and D are due to non-symmetrical faults
[5,6,71.

Sag magn. in pu

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 Fig. 2, Injected power for impedance angle -60" and four values of the load The total apparent power is again equal to 1 pu, to enable a
power factor: I .O (solid line); 0.9 (dashed); 0.8(dash-dot); and 0.7 (dotted). direct comparison with the balanced case. This leads to the
It follows from Fig. 2 that the injected power decreases for factor in the expressions for the load currents. From (16)
decreasing power factor. The active part of the load was kept the following expression is obtained:
constant here, so that the load current will increase for -
decreasing power factor. Note that, for zero phase-angle sco,,= { - $
(C + iic + z2E)JJ@. (1 8)
jump, the injected power is independent of the load power This expression is identical to (9), with complex sag voltage
factor, according to (IO). The reduction in injected power, replaced by the positive-sequence voltage:
with decreasing power factor, is explained in Fig. 3. Due to
the phase-angle jump, the voltage' at the system side of the ysog =$(E +a5 +a2<).
controller, becomes more in phase with the load current. The
amount of active power taken from the supply thus increases From (14) and (15) it follows that for both a type C and a
and the active power requirement of the controller is reduced. type D sag, the positive sequence voltage Eag
is obtained
This holds for a negative phase-angle jump and a lagging
power factor. For a leading power factor, a negative phase- from the characteristic voltage 7 by using the following
angle jump increases the amount of active power that needs expression:
-
to be injected by the controller.
vsag= ++fr. (19)
Substituting (19) into (9) gives an expression for the complex
power injected by the controller during an unbalanced sag:
LI
sag without load
phaseangle jump voltage
L
Rul
The injected power during an unbalanced sag is half the
amount injected during a balanced sag with the same
phase-anglejump characteristic magnitude and phase-angle jump. Fig. 2 and
the conclusions drawn from it, thus also hold for unbalanced
sags. From the above it also follows that the zero-sequence
and negative-sequence voltage do not affect the injected
power requirements of the series controller.
I
E. Single-phase controllers

Fig. 3, Phasor diagram with (dashed) and without (solid) phase-angle jump. For single-phase controllers, the voltages in the individual
phases need to be considered, according to (1 3) through (1 5).
Like before, complex characteristic voltage has been
D. Unbalanced sags, three-phase controllers calculated from (12), after which the voltages in the three
individual phases are obtained from (13) through (1 5). These
For an unbalanced sag (type C or type D), expressions (8) voltages are inserted in (9) to get the injected power for each
and (9) need to be applied to each phase separately, where it phase. This results in five curves: three for type D sags, two
is important to consider that the load-side voltage and current for type C. The third phase for a type C sag is not affected so
are also shifted over 120" compared to each other. The total that the injected power is zero. A three-phase fault (sag type
injected power is found by adding the injected powers in the A) will give the same result as one of the phases for a type D
three phases: sag. Some of the results are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, where
solid lines are due to sags of type D, and dashed lines due to
gco", +sb +&, (16) sags of type C. Note that the single-phase controller cannot
distinguish between sags of type C or type D. This
where classification has only been used to represent the origin of the
-
S, = (I-c k e j @, sags as experienced by the single-phase equipment.

and

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0 0.5 1
Sag magnitude
Fig. 4, Injected power for single-phasecontrollers, for load power factor 1.0
(left) and 0.7 (right), for zero phase-angle jump. Solid lines correspond to a
sag of type D, dashed lines to a sag of type C.
Fig.4 gives the results for zero impedance angle. For unity
power factor the five curves combine to three curves and the
injected power is roughly proportional to the drop in voltage.
For 0.7 lagging power factor five different curves appear. The
sag magnitude is no longer a good indication for the injected
power. For some sags the controller even needs to absorb
active power. Also note that the worst case is no longer for a
zero-magnitude sag, and that the injected power may exceed
the active power taken by the load. A non-zero impedance
angle, Fig& gives more or less the same result.
4.2t . ---._
0 0.5
Sag magnitude
Fig. 5, Injected power for single-phasecontrollers, for load power factor 1.0
(left) and 0.7 (right), for an impedance angle equal to -30". Solid lines
correspond to a sag of type D, dashed lines to a sag of type C.
I l l . VOLTAGE RATINGS, VOLTAGE TOLERANCE
The voltage injected by the series controller is not equal to
the drop in voltage magnitude, but to the complex difference
between the system-side voltage and the load-side voltage.
For a sag with zero phase-angle jump this is still equal to the
drop in voltage magnitude. This problem has been discussed
in several other publications [1,2,3]. By using a voltage rating
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for the controller equal to 1 pu, it would be possible to
mitigate all voltage sags, as long as the energy storage
cap'acity is sufficient. But a smaller voltage rating may be
significantly cheaper without leading to many additional
equipment trips.
A. Voltage tolerance: magnitude and phase-angle jump
To assess the effect of the voltage rating, the sag voltage in
the complex plane needs to be considered. This is shown in
Fig. 6. This plot shows the complex plane: real versus
imaginary part of the sag voltage in (3). It is assumed cog
that the equipment without controller is able to operate for a
certain range of magnitude and phase-angle. The effect of the
series-voltage controller is that this range is enlarged by an
amount equal to the maximum voltage that can be injected.
Note that the injected voltage is limited in magnitude, but not
in phase angle. In Fig. 6, a hypothetical range of complex sag
voltages is plotted. The actual range needs to be determined
beforehand for the specific supply, or some general range
needs to be used. Part of this range is not covered by the
controller in combination with the load. For these sags the
equipment will still trip, despite the series controller.
Note that it is assumed in Fig. 6 that all sags are of equal
duration. This is obviously not correct. For a correct analysis
a three-dimensional voltage-tolerance plane is needed. This is
considered outside of the scope of this paper, but is clearly
something which needs to be addressed in the future.
,*' voltage tolerance of
j equipment
areanot :
, protected i
range of
possible sags ~
voltage tolerance of
equipment +controller
------..--* 4
--.--___
---._
Fig. 6, protected part of the complex voltage plane, for a given Qoltagerating
of the controller.
B. Voltage tolerance: magnitude and duration
The more classical voltage-tolerance curve is shown in Fig. 7.
Magnitude of the sag is plotted against the duration of the
sag. The voltage-tolerance curve divides the sags into those
that lead to mal-operation of the equipment and those that do
not. The voltage-tolerance curve for many devices has a
rectangular shape as indicated by the dashed line in the figure
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[8]. The voltage-tolerance curve of the combination of
controller and load, depends on the way in which the
controller obtains the energy needed to -inject the reactive
power.
0.2-
"0 2 4 6 8
Duration in seconds
Fig. 7, protected part of the magnitude-duration plane, with (solid line) and
without (dashed line) series controller.
If the controller is equipped with an energy reservoir, there
will be a maximum duration for which the deepest sag can be
compensated. The deepest sag is here defined as the lowest
during-sag voltage for which the equipment to be protected
will not trip. This duration can easily be calculated from the
expressions derived before. For simplicity the zero-phase-
angle-jump case is considered here. From (10) we find the
energy needed to ride through a sag of magnitude V and
duration T:
E=(I-V)TP,,,.
Let (T0,Vo) be the design point as indicated in Fig. 7, so that
the total stored energy is:
4nax = (1 - vo )TOpl,Cld -
The minimum sag magnitude for a given sag duration T is
found from combining (21) and (22), leading to the following
expression for the voltage-tolerancecurve:
T
v = l - ( l - v o )A
T
This is the curve from the design point to the right in Fig. 7.
The voltage-tolerance curve of the load-controller
combination obtains its final shape by realizing that any sag
tolerated without controller can also be tolerated with
controller. The area between the curves is the gain in voltage
tolerance due to the controller.
IV. CURRENT RATINGS
It was assumed in the derivation of Fig. 7, that the controller
has a limited energy reservoir. However, some suggested
designs only have a very small energy reservoir but instead
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obtain the active power from a shunt controller. The result is
that the sag duration no longer affects the voltage-tolerance
of the load-controller combination. Each sag with a
remaining voltage above a certain minimum value will be
tolerated. One of the criteria to obtain the minimum voltage is
according to Fig. 6. The voltage rating of the series controller
should be sufficient to bring the voltage on load-side of the
controller within the voltage-tolerance of the load. The
second criterion is that the current through the shunt
controller should not exceed its rating.
It is assumed that the shunt controller takes a current in phase
with the system voltage during the sag:
-
Ishunt = Ishunt COSY + .ilshunt sin w 9 (24)
so that the active power taken from the supply is maximal:
&hunt = V1shunt . (25)
The shunt current can be calculated by setting the shunt
10 power equal to the power injected by the series controller.
For three-phase faults and three-phase controllers we get:
This current is plotted in Fig. 8, as a function of the
characteristic magnitude, for an impedance angle equal to
-60", and four different values of the load power factor. The
effect of the load power factor is relatively small, as the
behavior is dominated by the first term in (26). For a given
current rating of the shunt controller, the minimum remaining
voltage can be calculated. For a proper design, this minimum
remaining voltage should be similar to the minimum
(21) remaining voltage obtained from the voltage rating of the
series controller.
i
(22)
-3
6
2
OO
1
Fig. 8, current requirements for a shunt-series controller, impedance angle -
60". Load power factor equal to 1.0 (solid), 0.9 (dashed), 0.8(dash-dotted),
0.7 (dashed).
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 V. CONCLUSIONS
It is shown that the active power requirements of a series
voltage controller depend on magnitude and phase-angle
jump of the sag as well as on the power factor of the load.
The general trend is that the injected power increases with
decreasing sag magnitude. A negative phase-angle jump with
a lagging load power factor reduces the injected power.
It is shown that the active power requirement for a three-
phase controller only depends on the positive-sequence
voltage. For unbalanced sags, the injected power is half the
injected power during a balanced sag with the same
characteristic magnitude and phase-angle jump.
For single-phase controllers, the sag magnitude is no longer a
good indication of the injected power. For low load power
factor, the worst case occurs for a magnitude around 50% of
nominal. For some shallow sags the controller has to be able
to absorb active power.
It is shown that the voltage tolerance of the load-controller
combination depends on the voltage rating and the amount of
stored energy of the controller. For combined shunt-series
controllers also the current rating of the shunt controller
affects the voltage tolerance.
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Vi. REFERENCES
[I] N.H. Woodley, L. Morgan, A. Sundaram, Experience with an inverter-
based dynamic voltage restorer, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,
Vo1.14,NO.3, July 1999,pp.1181-1186.
[2] S,W. Middlekauf, E.R. Collins, System and customer impact:
considerations for series custom power devices, IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery, Vo1.13, No. 1, January 1998, pp.278-282.
[3] M.H.J. Bollen, Understanding power quality problems: voltage sags and
interruptions, New York, IEEE Press, 1999
[4] IEEE Recommended practice for the design of reliable industrial and
commercial power systems, IEEE Std.493-1997. Chapter 9: Voltage sag
analysis.
[5] M.H.J. Bollen, Characterization of voltage sags experienced by three-
phase adjustable-speed drives, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,
Vo1.12, No.4, October 1997, pp.1666-1671.
[6] L.D. Zhang, M.H.J. Bollen, A method for characterizing unbalanced dips
(sags) with symmetrical components, Power Engineering Review, Vol. 18,
N0.7, July 1998, pp.50-52.
[7] L.D. Zhang, M.H.J. Bollen, Characteristics of voltage dips (sags) in
power systems, IEEE Int. Conf. On Harmonics and Quality of Power
(ICHQP), October 1998, Athens, Greece.
VII. BIOGRAPHY
Math Bollen (M’94, SM’96) is an associate professor in
the department of electric power engineering, Chalmers
university of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He
obtained the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Eindhoven
University of Technology in The Netherlands. Before
joining Chalmers in 1996 he was research associate in
Eindhoven and lecturer in UMIST, Manchester, UK.
His research interest includes power system reliability
and various aspects of power quality. Math is co-chair
of the IEEE-IAS power system reliability subcommittee.
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