electricity is a highly engineered
FACTS                                                   product, it is increasingly being
                                                        considered and handled as a commodity.
                                                        Thus, transmission systems are being
                                                        pushed closer to their stability and
Document By                                             thermal limits while
SANTOSH BHARADWAJ REDDY                                 the focus on the quality of power
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ABSTRACT                                                operation of the power system with
       This paper provides a summary of                 respect to generation, transmission, and
one of the three planned presentations on               distribution. Now, more than ever,
the topic of“ FACTS Fundamentals ,”for                  advanced technologies are aramount for
a session                                               the reliableand secure operation of
  Sponsored by the DC and FACTS                         power systems. To achieve both
Education Working Group, under the                      operational reliability and financial
DC and FACTS Subcommittee of the                        profitability, it has become clear that
T&D Committee. This paper is on Part I                  more efficient utilization and control of
of the session and focuses on a summary                 the        existing transmission system
of the issues and benefits of applying                  infrastructure is required. Improved
FACTS controllers to AC power                           utilization of the existing power system
systems. The overall process for system                 is provided through the application of
studies and analysis associated with                    advanced control technologies. Power
FACTS installation projects and the need                electronics based equipment, or Flexible
for FACTS controller models is also                     AC Transmission Systems (FACTS),
discussed. Finally, an introduction to the              provide proven         echnicalsolutions to
basic circuits of several FACTS                         address these new operating challenges
controllers is provided with a focus on                 being      presented      today.     FACTS
their system                                            technologies allow for improved
Performance characteristics. This paper                 transmission system operation with
is designed to be accompanied by the                    minimal       infrastructure     investment,
presentation material. Index Terms                      environmental            impact,         and
Flexible AC Transmission Systems,                       implementation time compared to the
FACTS,                                                  construction of new transmission
Power Electronic Equipment, Power                       lines.Traditional solutions to upgrading
System Stability, Power System Control.                 theelectrical      transmission       system
                                                        infrastructure have been primarily in the
I. INTRODUCTION                                         form        new        transmission lines,
With the ongoing expansion and growth                   ubstations, and associatedequipment.
of the electric utility industry, including             However, as experiences have proven
deregulation             in           many              over the past decade or more, the process
countries,numerous         changes      are             to permit, site, and construct new
continuously being introduced to a once                 transmission lines has become extremely
predictable       business.       Although              difficult,expensive, time-consuming, and
                                                        controversial. FACTS technologies
                                                                                                  1
provide advanced solutions as cost-             When        discussing    the    creation,
effective       alternatives     to      new    movement, and utilization of
transmission line construction.                 electrical power, it can be separated into
The potential benefits of FACTS                 three areas, which
equipment are now widely recognized by          traditionally determined the way in
the power systems engineering and T&D           which electric utility
communities. With respect to FACTS              companies had been organized. These
equipment,voltage sourced converter             are illustrated in
(VSC) technology, which utilizes self-          Figure 1 and are:
commutated thyristors/transistors such as        G eneration
GTOs, GCTs,IGCTs, and IGBTs, has                Transmission
been successfully applied in a numberof         Distribution
installations world-wide for Static
Synchronous                   Compensators
(STATCOM) [1-5], Unified Power
FlowControllers        (UPFC)      [6,    7],
Convertible Series Compensators(CSC)
[8], back-to-back dc ties (VSC-BTB) [9,
10] and VSCtransmission [11]. In
addition to these referenced and other
applications, there are several recently        Although power electronic based
completedSTATCOMs in the U.S., in               equipment is prevalent in each of these
the states of Vermont [12, 13],California       three areas, such as with static excitation
[14], and Texas [no references                  systems for generators and Custom
available]. In addition, there are newly        Power equipment in distribution systems
planned STATCOMs in Connecticut                 [23], the focus of this paper and
[15] and Texas, as well as a small              accompanying presentation is on
STATCOM (D-VAR)planned for BC                   transmission, that is, moving
Hydro [16] and several other locations.         the power from where it is generated to
Other installations of power electronic         where it is utilized.
equipment          includes     Distributed
Superconducting         Magnetic     Energy     B. Power System Constraints
Storage units(D-SMES) [17]. These               As     noted      in    the    introduction,
aforementioned transmission system              transmission systems are being pushed
installations are in addition to the earlier    closer to their stability and thermal limits
generation of power electronics systems         while the focus on the quality of power
that utilize linecommutated thyristor           delivered is greater than ever. The
technology for Static Vac Compensators          limitations of the transmission system
(SVC) [18] and                                  can take many forms and may involve
Thyristor           Controlled         Series   power transfer between areas
Compensators (TCSC) [19-22].                    (referred to here as transmission
                                                bottlenecks) or within a single area or
                                                region (referred to here as a regional
II. CONTROL OF POWER SYSTEMS                    constraint) and may include one or more
A.Generation   , Transmission ,                 of the following characteristics:
Distribution :                                  • Steady-State Power Transfer        Limit
                                                • Voltage Stability Limit
                                                                                          2
• Dynamic Voltage Limit
• Transient Stability Limit
• Power System Oscillation Damping
Limit
• Inadvertent Loop Flow Limit
• Thermal Limit
• Short-Circuit Current Limit
• Others
Each transmission bottleneck or regional
constraint may have one or more of these
system-level problems. The key to
solving these problems in the most cost-
effective and coordinated manner is by
thorough systems engineering
analysis, as described later in this paper.
C. Controllability of Power Systems
To illustrate that the power system only
has certain variables that can be
impacted by control, consider the basic
and well-known power-angle curve,
shown in Figure 2.
Although this is a steady-state curve and
the implementation of FACTS is
primarily for dynamic issues, this
illustration demonstrates the point that
there are primarily three main variables      With the establishment of “what”
that can be directly controlled in the        variables can be controlled in a power
power system to impact its performance.       system, the next question is “how” these
These are:                                    variables can be controlled. The answer
• Voltage                                     is presented in two parts: namely
• Angle                                       conventional equipment and FACTS
• Impedance                                   controllers.
One could also make the point that direct     Examples of Conventional Equipment
control of power is a fourth variable of      For Enhancing
controllability in power systems.             Power System Control
                                              • Series Capacitor
                                              -Controls impedance
                                              • Switched Shunt-Capacitor and Reactor
                                              -Controls voltage
                                              • Transformer LTC
                                              -Controls voltage
                                              • Phase Shifting Transformer
                                              -Controls angle
                                              • Synchronous Condenser
                                              -Controls voltage
                                              • Special Stability Controls
                                                                                    3
-Typically focuses on voltage control but    illustration of a few cycles of voltage at
can often                                    power system
include direct control of power              frequency. This figure shows that the
• Others (When Thermal Limits are            speed of mechanical switches (primarily
Involved)                                    circuit breakers) for conventional
-Can included reconductoring, raising        equipment solutions can be as fast as a
conductors,                                  couple of cycles of 60 (or 50) Hz. This
Dynamic line monitoring, adding new          speed of switching in and of itself may
lines, etc.                                  be
Example of FACTS Controllers for             fast enough to solve many power system
Enhancing Power                              constraints.
System Control                               Although there is a vast improvement in
• Static Synchronous Compensator             switching time from mechanical to
(STATCOM)                                    power electronic based solutions (Figure
-Controls voltage                            3illustrates that the speed of power
• Static Var Compensator (SVC)               electronics switches is a fraction of a
-Controls voltage                            cycle), the main benefit that FACTS
• Unified Power Flow Controller              controller solutions provide is the
(UPFC)                                       cycling/repeatability” and “smooth
• Convertible Series Compensator (CSC)       control” that accompanies the power
• Inter-phase Power Flow Controller          electronic based switching. In other
(IPFC)                                       words, a mechanically switched based
• Static Synchronous Series Controller       (conventional) solution is usually a “one
(SSSC)                                       and done” or “on or off” impact to the
-Each of the aforementioned (and             power system in the time frame needed
similar) controllers impact voltage,         for power system stability, whereas the
impedance, and/or angle (and power)•         power electronic based solution can
Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator      provide a smooth, continuous, and/or
(TCSC)                                       repeatable option for power system
-Controls impedance                          control. Thus by applying power
• Thyristor Controlled Phase Shifting        electronic based solutions to alleviate
Transformer (TCPST)                          power system constraints, it is not just
-Controls angle                              “speed” but “cycling” and “smooth
• Super Conducting Magnetic Energy           control” that is gained.
Storage (SMES)
-Controls voltage and power
As mentioned earlier, the key to solving
transmission system problems in the
most cost-effective and coordinated
manner is by thorough systems analysis.
This includes comparing the system
benefits available by conventional
Equipment and from FACTS controllers.
There is an important distinction to make
when considering the differences in
these two solution options. Figure 3 is an
                                                                                     4
                                            (magnitude and duration)
D. Benefits of Control of Power Systems     • Transient Stability Criteria
Once power system constraints are           • Power System Oscillation Damping
identified and through system studies       -e.g., Minimum damping ratio
viable solutions options are identified,    • Others
the benefits of the added power system
control must be determined. The
following offers a list of such benefits:
• Increased Loading and More Effective
Use of
Transmission Corridors
• Added Power Flow Control
• Improved Power System Stability
• Increased System Security
• Increased System Reliability
• Added Flexibility in Siting New           IV.OVERVIEWOFFACTSCONTROLL
Generation                                  ERCIRCUITS
• Elimination or Deferral of the Need for
New                                         This section provides a sample of some
Transmission Lines                          of the FACTS controller circuits and
The advantages in this list are important   system performance characteristics that
to achieve in the                           will be discussed during the presentation
overall planning and operation of power     that accompanies this paper. The focus
systems. However,                           of the presentation will not be on the
for justifying the costs of implementing    detail circuit topologies, but rather on the
added power system                          limitations and
control and for comparing conventional      controllability of ac systems using the
solutions to FACTS                          FACTS controllers
controllers, more specific metrics of the
benefits to the power
system are often required. Such benefits
can usually be tied
back to an area or region for a specific
season and year at a
defined dispatch (usually given by an
ISO or equivalent) while
meeting the following criteria, for
example:
• Voltage Stability Criteria
-e.g., P-V voltage or power criteria with
minimum margins
-e.g., Q-V reactive power criteria with
minimum margins
• Dynamic Voltage Criteria
-e.g., Avoiding voltage collapse
-e.g., Minimum transient voltage dip/sag
criteria
                                                                                      5
along with its basic attributes and
configurations.
                                        Unified
                                      Power
                                      Flow
                                      Controller
                                      Figure 9 shows the basic circuit for a
                                      Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC)
                                      and Figure 10 shows a Static
                                      Synchronous       Series     Compensator
                                      (SSSC). Figure 11 shows the phasor
                                      diagrams depicting the UPFC operation
                                      and its impact on the power system, and
                                      Figure 12 illustrates the control modes of
                                      the series compensator (UPFC or SSSC)
                                      (the characteristics of the shunt portion
                                      of the UPFC is similar to Figure 8).
                                                                              6
These, along with the V-- X phasor          a focus on their system performance
characteristics will be                      characteristics. This paper was designed
Discussed in details in the presentation     to be accompanied by the presentation
that will accompany this paper.              Material.
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 SUMMARY
This paper provided a summary of one
of the three presentations on the topic of
“FACTS Fundamentals,” for a session
sponsored by the DC and FACTS
Education Working Group, under the
DC and FACTS Subcommittee of the
T&D Committee. This paper was on Part
I of the session and focused on a
summary of the issues and benefits of
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applying FACTS controllers to AC
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                                             and Commissioning,” CIGRE Paper 14-
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Proceedings of the IEEE PES Winter         Engineeringpapers.blogspot.com
Power Meeting, New York, January           More Papers and Presentations available on above site
2002.
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