1
Application of SVCs to Satisfy
Reactive Power Needs of Power Systems
H. K. Tyll, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—In the early days of power transmission problems
like voltage deviation during load changes and power transfer
limitation were observed due to reactive power requirements of
the transmission system. Today these problems have even higher
impact on reliable and secure power supply in the world of
globalisation and privatisation of electrical systems and energy
transfer. Fast and highly reliable power electronic devices
(thyristor valves) in Static Var Compensators (SVC) and HVDC
applications proved their effectiveness in HV transmission
systems to reduce energy transfer limitations. Influence of
reactive power unbalances on the transmission systems and
application of dynamic shunt compensation [1,2,3,4] ie SVC is
discussed. Detailed information about the used components in
SVCs is provided.
Index Terms—SVC, Reactive Power Compensation, FACTS
I. INTRODUCTION
P OWER transmission based on three phase systems started
in the late 19th century. The supply of electrical energy
developed from separated utilities to large interconnected
systems. In former times distributed power generation
supplied load centers within a limited supply area. These
smaller systems were operated at lower voltage levels.
Nowadays there is increased power exchange over larger
distances at highest system voltages allowing reserve sharing
and competition. Electrical energy shall be made available at
most locations at minimum cost and at highest reliability.
Following problems have been observed in three-phase-
systems already at early times of power transfer:
ƒ Voltage control at various load conditions
ƒ Reactive power balance (voltage, transmission losses)
ƒ Stability problems at energy transfer over long distances
ƒ Increase of short circuit power in meshed systems
ƒ Coupling of asynchronous systems
ƒ Coupling of systems with different system frequencies
The last two problems can be solved using HVDC technology
and the upper ones can be solved by proper use of reactive
power compensation based on FACTS devices.
H. K Tyll is with Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany
High Voltage Division, PTD H16
Reactive Power Compensation and FACTS devices
(e-mail: heinz.tyll@siemens.com).
II. EFFECTS OF REACTIVE POWER ON SYSTEM OPERATION AND
HOW IT CAN BE INFLUENCED
Reactive power is made available by components which are
included in the system itself and by other components which
are added to the system for balancing the system reactive
power.
1) Types of Var Sources
a) System components
ƒ Inductances in electrical machines,
transmission lines, transformers, reactors
ƒ Capacitances in transmission lines, cables
b) Compensation components
ƒ Mechanically switched reactors and capacitors
ƒ Synchronous condensers
ƒ Thyristor controlled shunt and series compensation [1]
ƒ Converter controlled shunt and series compensation
2) Influences in steady state system operation
The influence on voltage from reactive power changes can be
described simplified by the equation:
∆Q
∆V =
Psc
∆V is the voltage change in pu at a point in the system with an
effective short circuit power Psc and a injected reactive power
of ∆Q. An inductive power change with neg. sign result in a
voltage drop, a capacitive power change results in an increase
of voltage.
Figure 1a shows a simplified transmission line represented by
its line constants having a sending end and a receiving end.
Figure 1b shows the voltage at the end of the transmission line
with different kinds of load connected. The cos(φ) of the load
varies from 0.9 lagging to 0.9 leading.
Transmission Line
S=P+jQ
VS Line constants: x’, r’, c’, g’ VR
Sending end Receiving end
Figure 1a Simplified transmission line
 2

3) Influences in transient system operation

Figure 3 below shows the case of load rejection. The voltage

rises rapidly in will be reduced by the voltage control means
of the system ie voltage controllers in power plants. If a SVC
is connected close the voltage will also rise rapidly but will be
reduced in only a few cycles by the fast reaction of a SVC.
The first peak cannot be influenced because the SVC control
must first abserve the increase and can only react afterwards.

Figure 1 b Voltage at the end of the line at various power

transfer levels P/PSIL and different load factors

Using an appropriate compensation the voltage can be kept

const for most load conditions. Above curve shows also that
there are power transfer limits beyond no stable power Figure 3 Action of a SVC on load rejection
transfer will exist. Above curves are based on a 200 km long
transmission line. A safe distance to the "noses" of above Figure 4 below shows a transmission system with strong
curves should be used to avoid instability problems at active power oscillations after a severe line fault followed by
transient system events. fault clearing and switch off the faulted line.
Figure 2 below shows a power plant which is connected to a
larger system via a double line transmission system(upper
part). The lower part of the figure shows simplified the
voltages at the end of the transmission system for various load
cases :
¾ heavy load
¾ light load
¾ outage of one line during heavy load condition
¾ load rejection at the end of the line
According to the loading conditions voltage decreases and
increases will occur with larger deviations at contingency
conditions. An SVC will be typically designed in size to limit
voltage deviations during normal load conditions and a good
voltage profile is kept for this operation. At other contingency
conditions larger voltage deviation will occur due to the sizing
for normal conditions. Figure 4 Damping of power oscillations by SVC
System Conditions:
230 kV - 300 km Load Grid a Heavy load Without a SVC the oscillations continue at low damping for a
b Light load long time. Using a SVC with voltage control already helps in
c Outage of 1 line
(at full load) damping of the oscillations and reducing the oscillation time.
V1 V2 d Load rejection Using an SVC with a specific POD (power oscillation
at bus 2
SVC damping) control function will even damp out the oscillations
a b c d quite faster and increase thus the margin in system stability.
1.2 Providing damping to the system as the primary purpose
1.1 during this critical system condition means that voltage
without SVC
V2 1.0 control is no longer the main task and deviations from the
with SVC anticipated system voltage is allowed.
V2N 0.9

0.8
III. SVC TECHNOLOGY
Figure 2 Voltages at the end of a transmission system under
1) Tasks of SVCs
various operating conditions
• Voltage control at steady-state and during transient
system conditions
 3

• Dynamic reactive power control for dynamic loads and The figure 6 below shows a set of harmonic currents based on
Var management 1% neg. seq. voltage content and a firing angle unsymmetry of
• Damping of active power oscillations
• Improvement of system stability 10
• Voltage symmetrization
1
2) Basic branches of an SVC
0.1
The dynamic controllable branches of an SVC are the TCR
(Thyristor-controlled-reactor) and the TSC (Thyristor-
switched-capacitor). 0.01
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
Figure 5 below shows the basic circuit of a TCR.

Characteristic Harmonics of TCR

I Odd Harmonics due to Negative Sequence
Even Harmonics due to Tolerances

Vsys ± 0.1°.
Figure 6 Characteristic and noncharacteristic harmonic
currents
The x-axis shows the harmonic number, the y-axis shows the
amount of harmonic content in % related to the 90°-current of
Vsys the TCR.

I90 Figure 7 below shows the basic circuit of a TSC.

I
a = 90°
I120
a = 120° Vc
Vsys

Figure 5 Basic circuit of a TCR

Antiparallel connected thyristors are series-connected with a Vc

reactor of high quality (very low losses). A sinusoidal voltage
will result in a sinusoidal current when the thyristors are
continuously conducting (α = 90°). By delaying the start of
the current in each halve cycle by delaying the firing signal
for the thyristors the current will start later and end earlier as
seen in the lower part of figure 5 (example for α = 120°).
Such a chopped current wave form contains fundamental and
harmonic currents. The advantage of the TCR is the fine
control of its installed reactive power from full load to zero
and vice versa.
The chopped current waves contain all harmonics of order 3,
5, 7, 9, 11, 13 etc within the single branch of a TCR. By
connecting three TCR branches in delta all triplen harmonics
will be suppressed. In reality the line current does not only
contain the so-called characteristic six pulse harmonic currents
but also non-characteristic currents which arise mainly due to
negative sequence voltage content in the system voltage (all
triplen harmonics) and even harmonics which result from
tolerances on the firing pulses in positive and negative
direction.
I Vsys
blocking switch-in
Figure 7 Basic circuit of a TSC
Here the reactor of the TCR is replaced by a capacitor. At full
conduction of the valves the synusoidol voltage Vsys results
in a 90° phase shifted capacitive current I. If the thyristors are
no longer switched by firing pulses the current I through the
capacitor stops and the voltage Vc of the capacitor does no
longer follow the system voltage Vsys and remains at the
voltage at the time of blocking. The best time to reconnect the
capacitor is at the point of time where system voltage and the
capacitor voltage are equal. At that point only minimum
transients due to switching-on will occur. At all other times
more or less strong transients will occur and therefore only
step-wise control of the TSC is allowed.
 4

3) Configurations of SVCs V <36 kV

Using TCR-, TSC- and Filter (or so-called fixed connected:

FC) branches result in possible configurations as shown LF1 LF2 LF3 LTCR
below: 2
CF1 CF2 CF3

Filter 1 Filter 2 Filter 3

LTCR
2

TCR
be slightly larger than the TSC branch to avoid hunting at
switch-over points.
Figure 8c Direct connection
TCR, FC TCR, TSC, FC TSR, TSC
Figure 8a Six pulse arrangements Direct connection of TCR and Filter branches may also be
used for system voltages below 36 kV.
HV

4) V / I Characteristics of SVCs

13 kV LV1 LV2 13 kV All SVCs based on the described configurations have a V/I
characteristic similar to figure 9.
VHV
1.3
LF1 LTCR1 LTCR2 LF2 Restriction
to 150 MVar pu
2 2 10 %
1.1
2%
CF1 CF2 1.0 5%
5% Inductive
2% design point
Filter 1 Filter 2 10 %
Capacitive 75 MVar
design point at 1.02 pu
-150 MVar
at 0.95 pu
LTCR1 LTCR2
2 2 0.5 VBase = 400 kV
IBase = 100 MVA
Minimum
TCR 1 TCR 2 operating
voltage Continuous Operation
Restricted Operation

Figure 8b Twelve pulse arrangements -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 IHV [pu]
Cap. Range Ind. Range
Figure 8a shows a combination of TCR and FC without using
a TSC branch. The TCR branch must be designed to Figure 9 Typical V/I Characteristic as seen from the high
compensate the FC branch and in addition to absorb reactive voltage system
power from the system if required. In the arrangement TCR,
TSC and FC the capacitive installed power is sub divided in a The V/I characteristic is limited by a straight line on the left
TSC branch and the FC branch. The FC branch typically will side according to the installed capacitive power of the SVC.
be arranged as two filters tuned to 5th and 7th harmonic. The The straight line on the right side is the limitation according to
inductive operating point will now be reached together with a the required inductive design point. At low voltages the SVC
smaller rated FC branch . The TCR branch is therefore output follows the capacitive limitation, at higher voltages the
designed on a lower power level. The power of the TCR must SVC output follows the inductive limitation. The SVC will
work on a controlled basis in a typical system operating
voltage range between reference voltages of 0.95 to 1.05 pu.
 5

VLV
Restriction
to 150 MVar 1.3

pu
2%
1.1
10 %
5%
1.0
10 % 5%
Capacitive 2% Inductive
design point design point
-150 MVar 75 MVar
at 0.95 pu at 1.02 pu

Minimum 0.5
operating VBase = 14 kV
voltage IBase = 100 MVA

Figure 12 Single phase transformers separated by fire

Continuous Operation
protection walls
Restricted Operation

Reactors
-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 ILV [pu] • Single phase air core reactors • Continuous operating range
Cap. Range Ind. Range in different 3phase arrangement • Short time overload
• Iron core reactors with air gaps • Harmonic stresses
as three phase units • Spare parts
Figure 10 Typical V/I Characteristic as seen from the low • Transportation limitations
voltage SVC bus • Environmental conditions

At capacitive operation the secondary side voltage increases The decision for single phase reactors (TCR) is based
due to the leakage inductance of the transformer winding. At typically on spare part requirements.
this operating points any saturation of the transformer must be
avoided. Contrary to typical system transformers this results in
magnetization knee point of 1.2 to 1.4 pu depending on
specified operating requirements.

5) Design considerations for SVC main components [5]

The tables below summarizes main tasks of the various

components on the left side and show also some design
aspects on the right side.
Transformer
• Matching to the system • Continuous operating range
• Single or three phase units • Short time overload
or 3-winding transformers • Harmonic stresses
• short circuit impedance • Spare parts
• Transportation limitations
• Environmental conditions

The decision of three phase or single phase transformers are Figure 13 Typical arrangement of double-stacked TCR
typically based on spare part considerations ie availability reactors
constraints. Environmental conditions like noise requirements
sometimes lead to noise shielding. Capacitors
• Series and parallel connection of • Continuous operating range
small units • Overload requirements
• Outdoor / indoor installation • Harmonic stresses
Figure11 • Internal / external fusing • Protection systems
Three phase transformer
enclosed by a brick wall Figure 13
building for noise reduction Capacitor
bank
(externally
fused)
 6

¾ Power oscillation damping control to improve system

Valves
• TCR, TSR or TSC valves • Continuous operating range stability
• Optimum use of thyristor ratings • Overload requirements ¾ Reactive power control direct compensation of large
• Stresses during system faults and industrial plants or in conjunction with Var
false firing events
• Insulation co-ordination management schemes
¾ Degraded operating control modes to increases the
Figure 14 (below) total operating flexibility of the SVC
Thyristor valve phase modul based on ¾ Automatic gain adjustment to provide in all system
8 kV, Light triggered thyristors, integrated situations best control response.
overvoltage protection on silicon wafer

IV. SUMMARY
Major surplus or lack of reactive power in transmission
systems can result in severe voltage stability and/or power
transfer problems. Dynamic shunt compensation devices like
the SVC help to overcome these problems also during critical
system conditions. More than 80 % of these dynamic Vars are
using highly reliable thyristor based configurations.
It is most important to specify [6] the required operating
characteristics correct together with system conditions on
harmonics and fault level to be sure that the devices will
function as expected.

V. REFERENCES

Papers Presented at Conferences (Unpublished):

[1] H. K. Tyll, "FACTS Technology for Reactive Power Compensation and
System Control", presented at IEEE T&D Conference Sao Paulo, 2004

Control and protection Books:

• ON / OFF control • Type of control [2] Y.H. Song and A.T. Johns, "Flexible ac transmission systems (FACTS)",
• Local / remote control • Control requirements IEE 1999, ISBN 0-85296-771 3
• Control characteristics • Harmonic instability [3] N.G. Hingorani and L. Gyugyi, "Understanding FACTS", IEEE PRESS,
− Voltage control • System characteristics ISBN 0-7803-1196-6
− Reactive power control − Network impedance [4] T.J.E. Miller, Reactive Power Control in Electric Systems, John Wiley
− Power oscillation damping − System unbalances &Sons, 1982
− Symmetrization
• Use of conventional protection • Component design ratings Technical Reports:
[5] H.K.Tyll et all, "Design considerations for the Eddy County Static Var
Compensator", 93-SM-450-7 PWRD

HV Standards:
Power System
VT [6] IEEE Functional Specification sand Application of Static Var
LV Compensators, IEEE Standard 1031-2002

VI. BIOGRAPHY

TSC TCR/TSR Heinz Karl Tyll (M’88, SM’93) was born in

Controller Controller Hof, Federal Republic of Germany on May 15,
1947. In 1968 he graduated in Electrical
FC TCR TSC BSVC Engineering from Coburg Polytechnikum. In 1974
he received the Diplom degree from the Technical
System Vact ∆V
Voltage Voltage University of Berlin. After joining Siemens AG, he
Evaluation Controller worked in their High Voltage Transmission
Vref
Engineering Department since 1975 in the field of
network and SVC system analysis with transient
Figure 15 Simplified voltage control block diagram network analyzer and digital programs. In 1988 he
transferred to the System Engineering Group of the
HVDC and SVC Sales Department. Since 1996 he
In most cases SVCs are used for system voltage control ie fast is responsible for Basic Design of SVC, SC and FACTS applications. He
capacitive support in critical system conditions. In some contributed to CIGRE WG 38 TFs and to relevant IEEE WG. He is member of
conditions additional control functions may be included for IEEE and VDE.
better system control: