Design & Simulation UPQC with Minimum VA Rating for Power Quality Improvement

Abstract

The Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) is a versatile device which could function as both series filter and shunt filter. The main concern in this paper is to introduce a new concept of UPQC for mitigating different power system problems. This paper deals with “unified power quality conditioners” (UPQCs) which aim to integrate series active and shunt active filters. The main purpose of a UPQC is to compensate for voltage flicker/imbalance, reactive power, negative sequence current and harmonics. It protects the consumer at the load end from supply voltage sag, and provides unity power factor condition at the utility for different values of load power factor. During the unbalanced voltage sag/swell at the input side, the DVR maintains the rated voltage at the load side. It regulates the load voltage with minimum VA loading of the overall UPQC by an optimum voltage angle injection. Computer simulation by MATLAB/ SIMULINK has been used to support the developed concept.

Keywords: Power Angle Control (PAC); power quality; reactive power compensation; Active power filter (APF); unified power quality conditioner (UPQC); voltage sag and swell compensation; PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization).