Utilization of three-phase thyristor-controlled AC/DC converters for reactive power compensation with minimum losses

This paper presents a new control method for three-phase, thyristor-controlled reactors for reactive power compensation applications. A conventional AC/DC, three-phase, phase-controlled, bridge power converter is utilized. A relatively small inductance is used for a discontinuous rated inductor current. This results in reducing the inductor size, cost and loss, and greatly reduces the power converter switching losses. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method