Versatile Control of Unidirectional AC-DC Boost Converters for Power Quality Mitigation

This paper introduces a versatile control scheme for unidirectional ac-dc boost converters for the purpose of mitigating grid power quality. Since most power factor correction circuits available in the commercial market utilize unidirectional ac-dc boost converter topologies, this is an almost no-cost solution for compensating harmonic current and reactive power in residential applications. Harmonic current and reactive power compensation methods in the unidirectional ac-dc boost converter are investigated. The additional focus of this paper is to quantify the input current distortions by the unidirectional ac-dc boost converter used for supplying not only active power to the load but also reactive power. Due to input current distortions, the amount of reactive power injected from an individual converter to the grid should be restricted. Experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.