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This study presents a low-cost thyristor-controlled LC compensator scheme for the improvement of overall power quality in the distribution system. The parameters of the compensator have been designed and optimal triggering angles for thyristor switching have been obtained for reducing the unbalanced condition and harmonic injection at a high power factor. Compared to the traditional static VAr compensator schemes, the proposed technique can significantly reduce the harmonic injection into the system. The particle swarm optimization technique has been applied to compute the optimal triggering angles, and different aspects of the power quality factor have been assessed through rigorous simulations. Power quality assessment has been further validated through an experimental setup in the laboratory. Finally, a comparison of the proposed scheme with other similar schemes has been carried out to highlight its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a scheme for improvement of power quality in electrical distribution systems using a static VAr compensator (SVC). The switching of the SVC has been controlled with an objective to improve the overall power quality at the distribution level. The reduction of the degree of unbalance and improvement of power factor along with minimisation of harmonics injected into the system due to the operation of SVC are identified as the objectives of the SVC switching scheme. The proposed scheme can minimise a wider range of harmonics injected into the system without any external filter. The optimised switching angles have been calculated using the particle swarm optimisation technique. An artificial neural network has been designed to predict the optimum triggering angles and the performance of the scheme for fast changing loads has been evaluated in the laboratory using a data acquisition system. Practical evaluation of power quality has been carried out at each stage of simulation and experimentation to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The results obtained from the proposed scheme have been compared with other recent works to prove the efficacy of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]