Looking for optimal number and placement of FACTS devices to manage the transmission congestion

Abstract

Some applications of FACTS devices show that they are proper and effective tools to control the technical parameters of power systems. However determination of optimal number, location, size and type of these devices is a difficult problem. Moreover, applying a suitable objective function for optimal placement of FACTS devices plays a very important role in economic improvement of a power market. In this paper optimal placement of parallel and series FACTS devices is studied. The STATCOM is selected as a parallel FACTS device and SSSC as a series one. The optimization problem is formulated in regard to restructured environment and a new objective function is defined so that its minimization can alleviate the congestion and provide fairer conditions for power market participants. Moreover, an index based on objective function value is presented to determine the optimal number of each FACTS device in a specific designed algorithm. The power injection models for STATCOM and SSSC are adopted by applying neural models based on the averaging technique. This model takes the converter power losses into account and produces the required PQ-phasor that is suitable for power system steady state analysis. The proposed method is applied on modified IEEE 14-bus, 30-bus and 118-bus test systems and the results are analyzed.