A Simple Method for Detection of Voltage Sags and their Mitigation using a Dynamic Voltage Restorer

Power quality is the major focus of progressive nations.In the era of smart grid,power quality receives a lot of thrust at all voltage levels namely,medium ,high and low.The objective of this paper is to present a simple and cost effective method of sag detection and mitigation in three phase systems at the consumer's end. The use of the concept of space vector representation of three phase quantities, effectively in the detection ,quantification and mitigation of short duration voltage disturbances such as sags in three phase supply systems under both balanced and unbalanced conditions of operation is presented.Three phase balanced quantities can be represented by a synchronously rotating space vector of constant magnitude .The two phase equivalent of which on a stationary reference frame are orthogonal to each other.When balanced sags occur,the magnitude of the rotating space vector obtained as a resultant of its orthogonal components is sensed for magnitude deviations from its constant nominal value.A trigger signal of varying amplitude is generated in proportional response to the detection of the deviation in its magnitude . In case of sags occurring on one or two phases of the supply, (unblanced),the positive sequence components of the unbalanced three phase quanities are determined using mathematical transformations and the magnitude of the resultant is found out. This resultant is sensed and its deviations from nominal value are measured and used to generate the trigger after processing.The trigger thus generated, initiates the control system of a Dynamic Voltage Restorer(DVR).When a sag is detected,the trigger signal generated, switches on the control circuit of the inverter which uses the space vector pwm control using sampled phase amplitudes of the control signal to generate the modulating wave in proportion to the deviation of the sag voltage from the reference value.The fundamental component of the output voltage which in proportion to the deviation from the nominal value is injected in series with the three phase disturbed signal through a transformer of suitable gain .The results show the successful operation of the DVR in maintaining nominal value of the voltage across the load through out the duration of the disturbance for all cases of balanced and unbalanced operation. The paper presents the detection algorithm as well as the control algorithm for restoration of voltage which are simple and easy to implement .