Power quality improvement by using modular multilevel cascade converter based STATCOM

Quantity of the output power delivered from the utilities has become major concern of the modern industries for the last decade. The power quality associated problems are voltage sag, flicker, voltage imbalance, interruption and harmonics problems which results in the malfunctutioning of equipment's in the industries by affecting the microprocessor based loads, sensitive electric components which are highly sensitive to voltage level fluctuation. The power consumed by the heavy load creates unsymmetrical currents which results in reduced power quality in the electrical grid. The stimulating functions of Flexible AC Transmission system (FACTS) estimate the critical clearing time, voltage regulation, steady state power flow and oscillation damping control. The main objective of this paper is the application of modular multilevel cascade (MMC) converter based Static synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) for reactive-power control and improved power quality. The complete simulation of this system is performed in the MATLAB software and the PI control is used for the controlling.