Comparative Study of Evolutionary Computation Based PI, FOPI and NN Controllers for DSTATCOM

In this paper, nature inspired search algorithms, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) are used to design fractional order proportional and integral (FOPI) and artificial neural network (ANN) controller based distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) and electronic load controller (ELC) for power quality improvement. Improvement in power quality is achieved using DSTATCOM and an ELC. DSTATCOM is designed using FOPI and ANN based controllers, as opposed to conventional PI controllers which are comparatively less efficient. PSO and GA techniques are employed to determine the optimal parameters for the controllers. The improvement in the performance of the ANN and FOPI as compared to PI controller for the DSTATCOM and ELC is validated using MATLAB based modeling and simulations. Linear consumer loads were used to perform a comparative study in terms of maximum percentage error. Further, we analyzed the system for a nonlinear load and demonstrated decrease in the harmonic distortion.