Simulation and Hardware Implementation of Multilevel STATCOM for Smart Grid

The increase in penetration of intermittent renewable energy source has created the need to investigate problems encountered with grid connection. Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) controllers have proved to be effective in improving system stability of interconnected power system. This paper investigates the improvement of system stability in smart grid using Multi Level STATic COMpensator (MLS) with penetration of Wind Turbines. The control algorithm for improving the dynamic response of the system is implemented using FPGA processor. The Hardware-In-Loop (HIL) testing facility of MATLAB combined with xilinx FPGA was used to represent a real time STATCOM control. The designed hardware for multilevel STATCOM was tested on an IEEE 13 Bus system using the HIL feature, for various operating conditions.