Enhancing the response of thyristor-controlled reactor using neural network

In this paper, a neural network controller is proposed to retrieve the voltage balancing conditions in three-phase power systems. The neural network is suggested to calculate the required set of firing angles for the thyristor-controlled reactor accurately to balance the three-load voltages quickly. The proposed controller is fed by different parameters within different feeding techniques, namely, root mean square (RMS) values of the three load voltages, RMS value of the space vector signal calculated from the three load voltages, and the RMS values of both the three load voltages and their associated space vector. The intentions of the proposed techniques are to combine between reducing the number of measured parameters and providing the controller with qualitative data about system status. The influence of the measured parameters on the neural network performance is examined by calculating the regression coefficients through several test cases. Accordingly, only the effective parameters are utilized to reduce the neural network complexity and to enhance the controller response time. Additionally, the calculations of the controller input parameters are made in terms of space vector cycle, which is half of system sinusoidal cycle. Consequently, the calculation time is reduced significantly. The Aqaba-Qatrana-South Amman power system is considered and modeled as a real case study. In addition, several test cases have been conducted to test and validate the ability of the proposed neural network controller in retrieving the voltage balance conditions precisely and quickly. The results have revealed the ability of the proposed neural network controller to calculate the firing angles quickly within 10 milliseconds and achieve very low voltage unbalance factor.