Adaptive Balancing by Reactive Compensators of Three-Phase Linear Loads Supplied by Nonsinusoidal Voltage from Four-Wire Lines

A method of the design of an adaptive balancing reactive compensator in four-wire systems with linear loads and nonsinusoidal voltage is described in this article. The method of compensation is founded on the Currents’ Physical Components (CPC) – based power theory of three-phase systems with nonsinusoidal voltages and currents. The compensator is built of two sub-compensators of Y and  structure, respectively. The Y compensator reduces the reactive current and the zero sequence symmetrical component of the unbalanced current. The  compensator reduces the negative sequence symmetrical component of the unbalanced current. The positive sequence symmetrical component of the unbalanced current and the scattered current remain uncompensated. It is because shunt reactive compensators do not have any capability for that. Thyristor Switched Inductors (TSIs) enable the susceptance control of the compensator branches, referred to in the article as Thyristor Controlled Susceptance (TCS) branches. Periodic switching of thyristors in these branches causes the generation of harmonic currents, in particular the third-order harmonic. Moreover, in the presence of the supply voltage harmonics, a resonance of the equivalent capacitance of the compensator with the distribution system inductance can occur. These two harmful phenomena in the compensator suggested were reduced by the selection of a special structure of the TCS branches and their LC parameters. The presented method of the adaptive compensator synthesis was verified in the article with a numerical example and results of computer modeling of the load with an adaptive compensator.