Circuit-level comparison of STATCOM technologies

This paper performs a comprehensive circuit-level evaluation of four modern STATCOM systems, namely true-48-pulse and quasi-48-pulse STATCOMs, cascade multilevel and binary multilevel inverters. The comparison is based on a number of factors including circuit topology, harmonic distortion, system losses, GTO quantities, their specific applications, and other considerations. The theoretical results are verified by simulation with the use of MATLABSimulink Power System Blockset.