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FACTS
The concept of FACTS was first introduced in the mid-1980s. In traditional power systems, at
remote locations far from generating plants, network voltage is controlled by either switching
mechanically switched shunt devices (capacitors and reactors) or by changing taps on on-
load tap-changing transformers. These methods of voltage control can be sluggish and rather
coarse (i.e., result in step changes in voltage rather than smooth, continuous regulation).
Under severe contingen-
cies, particularly those
occurring near load cen-
ters remote from genera-
tion, such slow and
coarse voltage control
can result in an inability
to regulate voltage fast
enough and may lead to
voltage instability or
voltage collapse. One of
the major causes of such voltage collapse conditions is the use of modern air conditioning. As
air conditioning has become a necessary comfort of the typical household, the on-peak
summertime load in many electrical power systems has grown. To further exacerbate the prob-
lem, air-conditioning load is characterized by light electrical motors at the heart of the air-con-
ditioning systems. During major system disturbances, these motors have a tendency to stall and
become a significant drain of reactive current, resulting in local voltage collapse that may lead to
wide-area cascading outages. To address such problems, the solution often tends to be a combina-
tion of faster protection systems (that is, an ability to remove the faulted line as quickly as possible
from service) and the addition of fast-acting dynamic reactive power devices. With the advent of
modern power electronics, shunt devices, such as static var compensators (SVCs) and static compen-
sators (STATCOMs), can be implemented to provide the necessary fast and smooth dynamic reactive
support. These devices also boast other system performance benefits, such as improving transient stabili-
ty and small-signal stability as well as significant operational benefits.
Other FACTS controllers include the series devices such as the thyristor-controlled series capacitor (TCSC).
Series FACTS devices can also be used to enhance the damping of interarea modes of oscillation between gener-
ating plants while improving transient stability and providing a means of controlling power flow on parallel ac
transmission paths.
At the heart of FACTS devices is either the thyristor valve or the gate-turn-off device. The thyristor valve has been
around since the 1970s and is a four-layered junction semiconductor device. The thyristor is line commutated and, while its
turn-on time can be controlled, turn-off occurs only when the line current reverses. This means that thyristor-based devices are
controlled passive components. That is, through controlled switching of thyristors, the effective impedance of a series or shunt
figure 1. Building blocks for shunt FACTS devices such as the SVC or STATCOM.
device can be quickly and smoothly changed to result in con- Shunt FACTS Devices and Voltage Control
trol of a power system parameter. More advanced technolo- Shunt FACTS devices such as SVCs or the static compen-
gies use gate-turn-off thyristors (GTOs), insulated gate bipolar sator (STATCOM) can be used to provide significant
transistors (IGBTs), or insulated gate-commutated thyristors improvements in voltage control and stability. Shunt FACTS
(IGCTs). These power electronic devices allow controlled devices have been applied at voltages ranging from 35735
switching both on and off. As such, extremely fast switch- kV to improve system dynamic voltage performance.
ing frequencies (kilohertz) can be used to fully control the The SVC is an impedance device that uses thyristor
output of the device. In this manner, through forced commuta- valves to control the effective impedance applied to the sys-
tion, a truly active voltage-source device can be designed. In tem. By regulating the devices impedance as a function of
the following sections, these technologies and their benefits in measured system voltage, vernier voltage control can be
reducing the risk blackouts are described in more detail. effected. In addition, by integrating the control of other
nearby mechanically switched capacitor banks (which may
already exist in the system), a fully integrated static VAr
system (SVS) can be implemented to provide much greater
flexibility and control. Such a design ensures that the
switching of the mechanically switched capacitor (MSC)
banks and the SVC is fully coordinated and automated,
thereby removing the need for operator action (and possible
operator error) following a major disturbance.
Another shunt FACTS device is the STATCOM, which is
based on voltage-sourced converter technology. Under cer-
tain system conditions, these devices present additional
benefits since, once at its reactive limit, a STATCOM is a
constant-current device, while an SVC is a constant-imped-
ance device. However, it is possible to build SVC and
STATCOM devices having equal system performance pro-
figure 2. A 100-MVAr STATCOM installed in a U.S. city vided that the individual device rating is different. In most
center to provide dynamic voltage support following the utility transmission applications, the decision for SVC or
retirement of generation adjacent to the STATCOM site. STATCOM technology is typically not driven by electrical
The power electronics are enclosed in a two-story building system performance since both devices have similar per-
to reduce the footprint and reduce audible noise to the formance. However, while SVCs have generally proven to
surrounding area. have lower equipment costs and lower losses, STATCOMs
HVDC (voltage Transmission of power over Same benefits as conventional dc with the added advantage of
source converter) long distances or between being able to control both real and reactive power independently
asynchronous systems at each converter, thereby providing voltage support/regulation.
This type of dc link also allows for black-start, that is, load can
be picked up without any other source of power but the dc
converter.
SVC/STATCOM To provide local voltage These shunt devices can provide a number of potential benefits:
support in heavy load Improve/ensure voltage stability and regulation
centers remote from Improve/ensure transient stability when placed
generation; to improve appropriately on long transmission paths
power transfer on long Improve small-signal stability through the proper
transmission paths, by tuning and application of supplemental damping
providing fast voltage controls.
support midline and, thus,
improved transient stability
margins
TCSC To allow for control of This technology can mitigate SSR for series capacitor
power flow on parallel applications. In addition, through the application of
ac paths. To mitigate supplemental power oscillation damping controls, it can be used
subsynchronous resonance to enhance small-signal stability. Clearly, the series capacitor
(SSR) itself provides significant improvements in transient stability margins.
reactive support, reliability issues such as voltage collapse orgized. Thus, if an MSC is inserted following a contingency
widespread loss of load (blackout) can arise. The smoothly and then taken off line, it cannot be reinserted for several
controllable dynamic nature of FACTS devices makes them minutes. The span of a dynamic event can range from mil-
an increasingly common substitute for dynamic reactive com- liseconds to minutes, reducing the effectiveness of an MSC
pensation, which was formerly supplied by a generator locat- to actively compensate for typical postcontingency voltage
ed close to a load center. perturbations. An SVC or STATCOM can vary its output on
Shunt FACTS devices have also been applied at bulk a millisecond basis without limitation.
transmission voltages since the 1980s to improve power Another means of reducing the cost of an SVC or
transfer capability by improving transient stability margins, STATCOM is by designing a short-term or overload rat-
postfault voltage recovery, and damping power oscillations. ing. The reason for having a short-term rating is that, in
In terms of cost per MVAr, MSCs can be an order of some applications, the FACTS device may only be needed
magnitude less costly than FACTS devices. Given these for a short time following contingencies. However, care
economics and the fact that MSCs work well to control must be taken in applying this approach. Following a criti-
steady-state voltage, it is often desirable to automate the cal contingency, it may take operators minutes or hours to
operation of MSCs with an SVC or STATCOM. The vernier establish the impact on load and generation and redispatch
output of the FACTS device can be used to smooth the volt- the system appropriately. While dynamic simulations may
age profile between MSC switching steps, while the output demonstrate that a device rated with short-term rating of
of the SVC or STATCOM is held within a small bandwidth seconds is appropriate to recover system voltage immedi-
close to zero to conserve its dynamic range for severe ately following a critical contingency, it is often advanta-
events. However, when combining shunt FACTS devices geous for system operation to have a fully rated device. For
with mechanically switched devices such as capacitor example, blocks of load may trip during a fault and then
banks, it is crucial to confirm that the mix of the smoothly automatically reconnect several seconds or minutes follow-
controllable reactive support under the control of power ing the contingency. A fully rated FACTS device can be
electronics versus discrete mechanically switched reactive used during this period to stabilize voltage during these
components is appropriate. For example, MSC banks typi- types of operations, while a short-term device may be at its
cally must be discharged for several minutes once deener- limit due to the initial contingency.
For an SVC, short-term rating
can range from an additional
fraction of the steady-state rating
to several times the steady-state
O1 JXC O2 O1 O2 rating. Depending on the SVC
JXL
P1 P2 component being thermally over-
Q1 Q2 loaded, the duration of an SVCs
short-term rating can be on the
order of 510 s or 24 h. A STAT-
Power Transfer Without Power Transfer with
Series Compensation Series Compensation
COM can also be designed to
have a short-term rating of several
U1 U2 U1 U2 U1 U2 times its steady-state rating for
P2 = sin P2 = sin = sin several seconds.
XL XL Xc XL(1k)
conventional series capacitor reduces the effective reactive Other benefits of a TCSC are the ability to regulate
impedance of a transmission line. Since a capacitor is the flows between parallel transmission paths and the ability to
dual of an inductor, a series capacitor acts to cancel part of improve small-signal stability. Through dynamic control of
the impedance inherent in a transmission line, thereby mak- the effective impedance of the series device, the impedance
ing the effective electrical distance between load centers and of a transmission path can be varied relative to other paral-
power plants appear shorter. In this way, a series capacitor lel paths, allowing some control of the power flow. This
can improve system stability. The principles behind series can be particularly useful after a major disturbance, when
compensation are illustrated in Figure 3. lines become overloaded due to the redistribution of power.
Although series capacitors are
widely used in many power sys-
tems (such as the Western Electric-
R
ity Coordinating Council of the
L
North American power system),
one of the concerns with series
capacitor application is that of sub- IV
synchronous resonance, which is a F
resonance between the series-com- C
pensated electrical network and the IL +
mechanical shaft of nearby turbine- uc
generators. There are, however,
many established means of 0.5
addressing this issue, including
iL (kA)
1 3 5
UIa Uca I
++ +
Ua
UIb Ucb I
++ +
Ub
UIc Ucc Ic
++ +
Uc
figure 6. Rapid city tie with modular 2 100 MW capacitor commutated converters.
distance limitation on HVDC cable systems using fewer stopped at the asynchronous interface with Quebec. Que-
cables than with ac cable systems, whose capacity dimin- bec was unaffected. The weak ac interconnections between
ishes with distance due to their charging current. Because New York and New England tripped, but the HVDC links
of their controllability, HVDC links offer firm capacity from Quebec continued to deliver power to New England.
without limitation due to network congestion or loop flow Conventional HVDC transmission employs line-
on parallel paths. commutated converters with thyristor valves. These convert-
With HVDC transmission systems, interconnections can ers require a relatively strong synchronous voltage source to
be made between asynchronous networks for more eco- commutate. The conversion process demands reactive
nomic or reliable operation. The asynchronous intercon- power, which is supplied by mechanically switched ac fil-
nection allows interconnections of mutual benefit but ters or shunt capacitor banks that are an integral part of the
provides a buffer between the two systems. Often these converter station. Any surplus or deficit in reactive power
interconnections use back-to-back converters with no trans- must be accommodated by the ac system. This difference in
mission line. The asynchronous links act as an effective reactive power must be kept within a given band to keep the
firewall against propagation of cascading outages from ac voltage within the desired tolerance. The weaker the sys-
one network to another. Many asynchronous interconnec- tem or the further away the HVDC is from generation, the
tions exist in North America between the eastern and west- tighter the reactive power exchange must be to stay within
ern interconnected systems, between the Electric the desired voltage tolerance.
Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and its neighbors Converters with series capacitors connected between the
and between Quebec and its neighbors. The August 2003 valves and the transformers were introduced in the late
Northeast blackout provides an example of this firewall 1990s for weak-system back-to-back applications. These
against cascading outages provided by dc asynchronous converters are referred to as capacitor-commutated convert-
interconnections. As the outage propagated around the ers (CCCs). The series capacitor provides some of the con-
lower Great Lakes and through Ontario and New York, it verter reactive power requirements automatically with load
udc1 udc2
i
uac1 i uac2
uac-ref2
uac-ref1
+
udc-ref1 udc-ref2
+ ac
ac + Voltage
Voltage dc dc Control
Control Voltage Voltage
Control Control
PWM PWM
Internal Internal
Current Current
qref1 Control pref1 pref2 Control qref2