Investigation on GaN HEMTs Based Three-Phase STATCOM with Hybrid Control Scheme

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Power Electronics
• Renewable Energy Systems

Background:

• Decarbonization trends drive demand for advanced renewable energy (RE) and distributed generation (DG) systems.
• Modern technologies like Industry 4.0 and electric vehicles (EVs) necessitate enhanced power converters.
• Wide-bandgap (WBG) devices, including Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC), offer superior performance over traditional Silicon (Si) devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the performance of a 2kVA three-phase Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) utilizing GaN HEMTs.
• To develop and evaluate a novel neural network-based hybrid control scheme for the GaN-based STATCOM.
• To assess the system's dynamic capabilities for fast reactive power control in advanced power systems.

Main Methods:

• Design and implementation of a 2kVA three-phase STATCOM using a GaN HEMTs-based voltage-source inverter (VSI).
• Development of a hybrid control scheme combining Proportional-Integral (PI) controllers with a Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) controller.
• Control scheme designed in the synchronous reference frame (SRF) for efficient reactive power management.
• Validation through both simulation and hardware implementation.

Main Results:

• The GaN HEMTs-based STATCOM demonstrated effective operation.
• The proposed RBFNN-assisted hybrid control scheme achieved excellent dynamic performance.
• Superior reactive power tracking control was confirmed for the three-phase STATCOM system.

Conclusions:

• The GaN HEMTs-based STATCOM with the RBFNN hybrid control scheme is a viable solution for future power systems.
• The advanced control strategy significantly enhances the dynamic response for reactive power compensation.
• This technology supports the integration of renewable energy and the demands of modern industrial applications.