Multilevel STATCOM: power quality control in mining applications

Power quality is an umbrella term for a number of measures related to the ideality of the currents and voltages supplied to an electricity consumer. Examples of deleterious influences on power qualih are the presence of current and voltage harmonics, three phase swells and dips in voltage levels, and the presence of negative sequence components (also known as unbalance) in current and voltage waveforms. Such effects adversely influence both the quality and quantity of industrial production, and can be exacerbated in the mining industry due to the unique issues related to the location of mining sites and the equipment being used. This paper will present an overview of the effects of power quality, and then focus on how they can be alleviated using a H-bridge based multilevel STATCOM currently being developed at the University of Newcastle