Transmission Services Improvement by FACTS Control

Abstract

Generally speaking, transmission services should be provided in a way to support all the required functions of transmission systems reliably: there include electric power delivery to customers, possessing flexibility for changing system conditions, providing emergency support from other areas during critical situations, reducing the need for installed generating capacity and accommodating economic exchange of electric power among systems and so on. In recent decades, technological developments with rapid industrial growth have resulted in a dramatic increase in the demand for electric power. More importantly, in the last few years there has been a world-wide move towards deregulation to facilitate the development of a competitive electricity market. In effect, for transmission systems, it requires non-discriminatory open access to transmission resources, therefore, sufficient transmission capacity for transmission services supporting is a great demand. On the other hand, the set of economic, environmental and social problems faced by the utility industry, hamper the expansion and construction of power generation and transmission facilities. This situation has brought about new unprecedented challenges to electric industries all over the world. To satisfy the open access to transmission networks requirement, and to meet the demand for a substantial increase in power transfers among utilities as a major consequence of electricity market, a much more intensive utilisation of existing transmission resources is needed. Obviously, these aspects have motivated the development of strategies and methodologies to improve transmission services: there include available transfer capability (ATC) boosting, increasing the auction revenue of financial transmission rights (FTR) of the existing transmission networks, transmission congestion elimination, and system stability enhancement by flexible and rapid system control and so forth.