Chopper Controller Based DC Voltage Control Strategy for Cascaded Multilevel STATCOM

The superiority of CMI (Cascaded Multilevel Inverter) is unparalleled in high power and high voltage STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator). However, the parameters and operating conditions of each individual power unit composing the cascaded STATCOM differ from unit to unit, causing unit voltage disequilibrium on the DC side. This phenomenon seriously impairs the operation performance of STATCOM, and thus maintaining the DC voltage balance and stability becomes critical for cascaded STATCOM. This paper analyzes the case of voltage disequilibrium, combines the operation characteristics of the cascaded STATCOM, and proposes a new DC voltage control scheme with the advantages of good control performance and stability. This hierarchical control method uses software to achieve the total active power control and also uses chopper controllers to enable that the imbalance power can flow among the capacitors in order to keep DC capacitor voltages balance. The operating principle of the chopper controllers is analyzed and the implementation is presented. The major advantages of the proposed control strategy are that the number of PI regulators has been decreased remarkably and accordingly the blindness of system design and debugging also reduces obviously. The simulation reveals that the proposed control scheme can achieve the satisfactory control goals.