Adjustable VAr compensator with losses reduction in the electric system

Among the existing power quality problems, the reactive power compensation plays a key role once it helps to maintain the system stability and increases the efficiency. Currently, there are many solutions for reactive power compensation, which unfortunately present a wide variety of problems as larg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electrical engineering 2018-12, Vol.100 (4), p.2165-2175
Main Authors: Brito, M. E. C., Cavalcanti, M. C., Limongi, L. R., Neves, F. A. S., Azevedo, G. M. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capacitor banks
Capacitors
Compensation
Economics and Management
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Machines and Networks
Energy management
Energy Policy
Engineering
Original Paper
Power Electronics
Power flow
Reactive power
Reduction
Systems stability
Topology
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Among the existing power quality problems, the reactive power compensation plays a key role once it helps to maintain the system stability and increases the efficiency. Currently, there are many solutions for reactive power compensation, which unfortunately present a wide variety of problems as large inrush currents, non-continuous compensation and harmonics injection in the system. The application of devices like static VAr compensator, static synchronous compensator or unified power flow controller has demonstrated to be an effective solution for reactive power compensation. However, it is important to note that these options are rarely used in distribution systems by companies that prefer to assimilate the drawbacks of switched capacitor banks instead of investing in more expensive, sophisticated and complex solutions. Despite the large number of proposed devices in distribution systems, there is a lack of solutions with emphasis on cost reduction. Therefore, this paper presents a new topology for reactive power compensation and voltage control in distribution systems. The proposed topology has several interesting features as reduced switching losses, small capacitors and simple control scheme. In addition, the proposed solution uses already existing capacitor banks which makes possible its usage in distribution companies with minimum modifications. Experimental results have been obtained on a 6-kVA prototype to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed solution.
ISSN:0948-7921
1432-0487
DOI:10.1007/s00202-018-0692-x