Control of UPQC based on steady state linear Kalman filter for compensation of power quality problems

A frequency lock loop (FLL) based steady state linear Kalman filter (SSLKF) for unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) control in three-phase systems is introduced. The SSLKF provides a highly accurate and fast estimation of grid frequency and the fundamental components (FCs) of the input signals. The Kalman filter is designed using an optimized filtering technique and intrinsic adaptive bandwidth architecture, and is easily integrated into a multiple model system. Therefore, the Kalman state estimator is fast and simple. The fundamental positive sequence components (FPSCs) of the grid voltages in a UPQC system are estimated via these SSLKF-FLL based filters. The estimation of reference signals for a UPQC controller is based on these FPSCs. Therefore, both active filters of a UPQC can perform one and more functions towards improving power quality in a distribution network. In addition to the SSLKF-FLL based algorithm, a bat optimization algorithm (based on the echolocation phenomenon of bats) is implemented to estimate the value of the proportional integral (PI) controller gains. The bat algorithm has a tendency to automatically zoom into a region where a promising alternative solution occurs, preventing the solution from becoming trapped in a local minima. The complete three-phase UPQC is simulated in the Matlab/Simulink platform and the hardware is tested under various power quality problems.