Proton Synchrotron Compensation Using Voltage Source Converter Technology

This paper studies the use of voltage source converter (VSC) technology for the compensation of CERN's proton synchrotron (PS) particle accelerator. The PS accelerator load demands periodic, active and reactive power pulses of about 2s duration and an amplitude of up to 45 MW and 65 MVAr. The use of a conventional STATCOM is firstly investigated and the results show that very good reactive power compensation and voltage control is achieved. Since the Proton Synchrotron draws also large active power pulses from the grid, a study is performed with large DC capacitors connected to the DC side of the STATCOM. Such element is capable of storing over 16 MJ of energy and it requires an additional control system for regulating the active power exchange. The simulation results, performed using PSCAD/EMTDC, show that very good simultaneous compensation of active and reactive power is possible. With such compensator, the network sees PS as essentially a constant load and only minimal disturbances on AC voltage will occur.