Unified Power Flow Controller Based on Autotransformer Structure

This paper proposes a new unified power flow controller (UPFC) topology. A single phase of them system with the proposed topology consists of an N:2 transformer with a center tap at the low-voltage side and a power converter module comprising full- and half-bridge converters. A three-phase system can be implemented with three devices. While the conventional UPFC topology uses two three-phase transformers, which are called series and parallel transformers, the proposed topology utilizes three single-phase transformers to implement a three-phase UPFC system. By using an autotransformer structure, the power rating of the transformers and the voltage rating of switches in the power converter module can be significantly decreased. As a result, it is possible to reduce the installation spaces and costs compared with the conventional UPFC topology. In addition, by adopting a full- and half-bridge converter structure, the proposed topology can be easily implemented with conventional power devices and control techniques. The techniques used to control the proposed topology are described in this paper. The results obtained from simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed UPFC topology.