Distinctive study of UPFC and fault analysis under

simulated environment
Md. Saifur Rahman Chowdhury1

Md Masum Howlader2

M.Sc in Energy Technologies

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Karlsruhe, Germany
engr_saifchowdhury@yahoo.com

Assistant Professor, Dept of EEE

University of Asia Pacific (UAP)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
unique_masum@yahoo.com

A K M Kamrul Hasan3

Md. Rasel Ferdaus4

M.Sc in Energy Technologies

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Karlsruhe, Germany
kamdaq@live.com

M.Sc in Energy Systems

FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences
Aachen, Germany
r_ferdaus@yahoo.com

Abstract This paper investigates the dynamic behavior of

Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) in a nonlinear power
system oscillation trajectory. Different control strategies ie. CLF
(control Lyapunov function) and Power Oscillation Damping
(POD) with residue technique are applied in a simulation model
to regulate the oscillation. On a base of 4 machines 11 bus system
validity of aforementioned methods are simulated. In the event of
a large and small transient fault system behavior is quantified on
the basis of power flow and voltage profile on bus. It was clearly
observed that UPFC dynamically controls the voltage stability
and controlling technique was further enhanced with POD and
CLF methods.

These two devices are two voltage source inverters (VSI)

which are connected respectively in shunt with transmission
line through a shunt transformer and in series with the
transmission line through a series transformer, connected to
each other by a common DC link including a storage capacitor
as well.

KeywordsUPFC; FACTS; CLF; POD; SIMPOW; TCSC

I. INTRODUCTION
Power systems are generally interconnected for economic,
security and reliability purpose. Day-by-day electricity demand
is increasing and it becomes difficult for utility company to
build new transmission facility because of some environmental
issues of public and cost etc. So, there is a trend to load the
transmission facilities to their upper limits, which eventually
increases the stresses of power system. As a result, more and
more power systems are being operated close to their stability
boundary. Unified power flow controller (UPFC) is such a
multi-variable power system controller, now a day it is
important to analyze its effect on power system operation [1]
Unified Power flow controller (UPFC) is one of the devices
which can control simultaneously all three parameters such as
series, shunt and phase angle compensation. It has ability to
control real and reactive power flow in a transmission line
while simultaneously regulating the voltage of the bus to which
it is connected. It comes from two old FACTS devices
STATCOM and SSSC.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Figure 1. Basic configuration of UPFC. [2]

These two devices are two voltage source inverters (VSI)

which are connected respectively in shunt with transmission
line through a shunt transformer and in series with the
transmission line through a series transformer, connected to
each other by a common DC link including a storage capacitor
as well.
The Shunt inverter is used for regulating voltage at the
point of connection injecting an opportune reactive power flow
in to the line and to balance the real power flow which is
exchanged between the series inverter and the transmission
line. The series inverter can be used for controlling the real and
reactive line power flow inserting an opportune voltage with
controllable magnitude and phase in series with the
transmission line [2]. Many distributed FACTS devices could

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be eliminated by using a UPFC, thereby reducing capital cost.

From the industrial point of view, the unified power flow
controller promises reduction in equipment size, simplified
design and improvements in system performance [4]
II. DESIGN AND WORKING PRINCIPLE OF UPFC

III. CONTROL SYSTEM

A. Shunt converter control system
The de-coupled control is used in the shunt converter which
is shown in Fig-3. This control system has two axis which are
D & Q.[3]

The UPFC system is controlled by the two voltage source

controller which can be also denoted by the shunt and series
inverter. Shunt inverter and series inverter can generate
reactive power independently.

Figure 2. Design of UPFC. [1]

These two inverters are connected with the DC link capacitor

which allows for all the three functions namely series, shunt
and phase angle compensation to be unified in one unit. The
shunt transformer is connected by shunt inverter which can
perform the function of a variable reactive power source and it
is also charge the DC link capacitor. On the other hand series
inverter is connected with the series transformer which can
provide series or phase angle compensation. The DC link
capacitor voltage will preferably be constant. In such case
series can perform alone because series inverter only
supplies/consumes reactive power not real power.
The function of phase angle compensation, the transmission
line current Isc is related with the series voltage source Vsc
according to the arbitrary phase relation which provide real
and reactive power to the transmission line. Under this
circumstances, when the dc link capacitor starts to discharge
then series inverter generate real power. In this condition
voltage will decrease which reflect as a load on shunt inverter
.when the dc link capacitor starts to charge then series inverter
consume real power. Shunt inverter provide necessary real
power to the dc link capacitor for charging and excess power
(Psh) return to the line through the shunt transformer. So, the
UPFC provides an alternate path for the real power i.e. from
the bus to which the shunt transformer is connected, through
shunt inverter to the capacitor, through series inverter and to
the transmission line through the series transformer [1]

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Figure 3. De-coupled D-Q axis shunts converter control system. [3]

The D-Q axis current in the transmission line is

individually controlled allowing for independent control of real
and reactive power flow [7][8].The task of D-axis control
system is to control the dc link capacitor voltage (Vdc). The
UPFC bus voltage (Vupfcbus)/ shunt reactive power is controlled
by the Q-axis control system. The de-coupled control system
has been designed based on linear control system techniques
which has two control system loops. The outer loop control
system that sets the reference for the inner control system loop
whether the inner control system tracks the reference [3]. The
details of the de-coupled control system design can be found in
[5], [6].
B. Series converter control system
The series converter consists of two power flow control
systems which are real and reactive (Fig-4). The component of
the series voltage in quadrature with the UPFC bus voltage
(VseQ) controls the transmission line real power flow
(Pline).Variation of modulating the transmission line side bus
voltage reference(Vlineref) reflagged to the transmission line
reactive power (Qline). The transmission line side bus voltage
is controlled by injecting a component of the series voltage in
phase with the UPFC bus voltage (VseD) [3]

252

Pline
Qref
Qline

VseQ

PI

Pref

Vline ref
PI

+
PI

Vline

Outer control system

loop

VseD

Inner control system

loop

Here A is the state matrix, B is the input matrix, C the output

matrix and D is the feed forward matrix. x is the state vector,
y is the output vector and u is the input vector. The
matrices of the open loop transfer function are obtained for a
particular input and output variables using software of
simulation (SIMPOW).To investigate this network with the
two particular scenarios, simulations were executed twice
where at the first simulation modal matrix was obtained while
network contains no FACTS device and at the second
simulations another modal matrix was obtained while network
contains TCSC and UPFC. From these two observations two
modal matrix are compared side by side to figure out how the
system behavior dynamically changes with the presence of
FACTS devices. To demonstrate this only the significant
modes are compiled in the following table
TABLE I.
COMPARISON OF UPFC AND NO FACTS DEVICE ON
THE BASIS OF DAMPING, FREQUENCY AND VOLTAGES

Figure 4. Series converter real and reactive power flow control system. [3]

Device

IV. SIMULATION AND RESULT

A. Power Flow Analysis
In this study a model of a simple 11 Bus power system
containing 4 generators connected to a power grid according
the two axis-model and the two loads are modeled as power
loads are illustrated in the following figure. To enhance the
control of bus voltage and the power flow through the
transmission network two FACTS devices i.e Thyristorcontrolled Series Compensation (TCSC) (TCSC) and UPFC is
installed .

Figure 5. Power system network of UPFC

B. Modal Analysis with UPFC

Simulations regarding the network mentioned and also the two
faults are carried out using the software called SIMPOW. It
can run the power flow, can give the modal analysis, the
ABCD matrix and can simulate the time behavior of the
system just after the faults. By linearizing the power system
dynamics around an equilibrium point, we obtain the
following equations:

= +

= +

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

No
FACTs

UPFC

Mode
1
2
3
1
2
3

Damping
%
1.05
14.58
12.94
0.63
14.65
12.94

Frequency
(HZ)
0.5826
1.0076
1.0374
0.6079
1.0133
1.0439

Voltage per
unit
Bus7 0.988
Bus8 0.935
Bus9 0.967
Bus7
1
Bus8
1
Bus9 0.984

From a modal analysis of the system without FACTS

devices it is shown that there is one inter-area mode and two
local modes. The frequencies of inter-area oscillations are
typically in the range of 0.2 Hz to 0.8 Hz. In the table Mode no.
1 is the inter-area mode, 2 and 3 is local modes. Poorly damped
inter-area oscillations become more pronounced in risking system
stability when fault occurs into the system. When FACTS device
is included in the system the bus voltage improves
significantly which is quite clear from the table but the
damping is very poor particularly for the inter-area mode.
Because of the implementation of UPFC bus voltage improves
by 1% but the damping is decreased by 40% which could lead
to complete instability during the event of fault situation.
Clearly the inter-area mode needs better damping even after
the FACTS have been included
C. Power Oscillation Damping (POD)
Just adding a FACTS device without control, the damping
has not increased compared to without controllable
components. To increase the damping of the inter-area mode,
Power System Damping (POD) will be used. In this work
POD is designed using the residue technique and Control
Lyapunov Function (CLF). With the residue technique two
POD designs will be considered, one for the active power and
one for SIME. It can be mentioned that the existence of CLF
is necessary and sufficient to ensure stability of a system with
control input. On the other hand, existence of Lyapunov

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function is necessary and sufficient to stabilize a system

without control input. Applying CLF based control law in the
controllable components described in section II for MMPS we
get the same expression of the POD CLF for every device.
1/2

Figure 6. Block Diagram of POD signal.

Caution must be taken when the gain of the POD is designed.

If the gain of the controller is chosen to large it may affect the
local modes in a negative way.
TABLE II.

Figure 8. Large Disturbance at bus 9.

DAMPING OF DIFFERENT POD DESIGN

POD Design

Mode

Damping %

CLF Sig 1

Inter Area
Local
Inter Area

24.08
13.39
1.04

CLF Sig 2

Designing the appropriate gain the damping of the modes in

frequency range 0.1 2 Hz was observed in an iterative way
to obtain as good damping of all modes as possible.

Placing the UPFC at bus 7 it is shown that the bus voltage will
be raised from a low level to a normal level. Even though the
transient stability is increased when introducing FACTS in the
system the damping is still very poor. Without a POD the
system will be instable for relatively small disturbances.
Introducing a POD damping can be increased significantly.

D. Fault Analysis
To ensure capturing both the transient stability and small
signal stability of the following network two faults have been
simulated. The large disturbance is considered a three phase to
ground with a clearing time of 0.25 seconds.

Figure 7. Power system with fault.

Large Disturbance:
Small Disturbance:

Three Phase to Ground Fault at bus 9

Load change of 10 % at bus 7

For the large disturbance it is clear that the remote signal CLF
give the best behavior. The active power also provides good
damping of this fault. For the small disturbance all POD
designs provide very good damping of the oscillations.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Figure 9. Small disturbance at bus 7.

If the controller is damping the inter-area mode very much,

one of the local modes may be the critical mode instead.
A POD designed with the residue method using the remote
signal and the CLF method provides the best response for

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both large and small disturbances. Using the local signal of

active power will also increase the damping of the
oscillations of the small disturbance in a good way but not as
good for a large disturbance.
A UPFC including a POD can improve both the voltage and
small signal stability of the power system by the voltage at
one bus.
V. CONCLUSION
Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is mainly used to
maintain and improve power system operation as well as
stability. Several fault conditions have been simulated and
analyzed on the basis of their property which will pave the way
for further research on UPFC. The significance of Power
Oscillation Damping (POD) has also been discussed here. A
study case of 11 bus system containing 4 generators has been
evaluated here. This paper will give a detail idea about some
sort of disturbances whenever using of UPFC. The simulation
results show that the normal operating condition of UPFC
could no longer be maintained following a severe disturbance.
The simulation also shows that the UPFC can control the
voltage and the power flow of the system effectively as well.
The design of an overall control strategy and fault analysis to
combine all of the desirable control objectives in one UPFC
device is a prospective research topic.

ISBN: 978-1-4799-5680-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

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