2010 International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation

Comparison of high capacity SVC and STATCOM in real power grid

Ding Lijie, Liu Yang Miao Yiqun

Test and research institute College of Electrical Engineering
Sichuan electric power Zhejiang University
Chendu, China Hangzhou, China
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—Both SVC (Static Var Compensator) and costly and more complicated. In reality, SVC is used more
STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator) are important often than STATCOM as reactive compensation equipment
equipment of reactive compensation, which are compared in in transmission system of power grid, and the ratio is about
voltage supporting, improving the transient stability and 6.7:1.
transmission limit, and damping low frequency oscillation. This paper is organized as follows: Section II compares
Simulation results are presented as high capacity static var the voltage supporting, transient stability and transmission
system for SVC or STATCOM is placed on transmission path
of power system. Firstly, single SVC and STATCOM are
limit, and damping low frequency oscillation effect
limited in voltage supporting after fault occurrence, but separately for high capacity SVC and STATCOM when they
STATCOM is little better than SVC. Secondly, STATCOM is are located in transmission path of power grid. A conclusion
much better than SVC in improving the transient stability and is given in section III.
transmission limit. Thirdly, on the damping low frequency
oscillation, STATCOM is much better than SVC as SVC and II. COMPARISON OF HIGH CAPACITY SVC AND
STATCOM have the same capacity, and performs similarly STATCOM APPLICATION
with SVC as the two have the same controllable capacity. Si-Chuan power grid considered in this paper is part of
Lastly, the results also indicate that dynamical response speed
the China power grid. It has two voltage levels of 500 kV
effects the control result little though STATCOM responses
much faster than SVC. and 220 kV, contains over 500 buses and 100 generators. Si-
Chuan power grid introduces long-distance and large power
Keywords-SVC; STATCOM; voltage supporting; transmission sending out because of the abundant hydroelectric power
limit; damping control resource and its location across China. With the rise of the
national UHV (ultra high voltage) interconnected power
I. INTRODUCTION grid, the insufficiency of dynamic var compensation and
low frequency oscillation is more serious in Si-Chuan power
Recent advances in power electronics have led to the
grid.
development of the flexible alternating current transmission
Such a network is highly nonlinear and non-stationary
systems (FACTS). SVC (Static Var Compensator) and
STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator) are such a and normally prone to various faults and disturbances, such
kind of FACTS device which are used primarily for the as three phase short circuits, switching on/off shunt loads
purpose of reactive power support and voltage control. SVC and/or transmission lines and suchlike. Power system might
is basically a shunt connected static var generator/load whose suffer from internal instability or poor damping when
output is adjusted to exchange capacitive or inductive current exposed to transient and dynamic disturbances. As shunt
so as to maintain or control specific power system variables. FACTS device, SVC and STATCOM provide excellent
STATCOM is a voltage-source converter based device, dynamic performance, can be capable of voltage supporting,
which converts a DC input voltage into an AC output voltage improving the transient stability and damping low frequency
in order to compensate the active and reactive needs of the oscillation when fault occurs [4,5].
system. With the widespread use of FACTS device and the
rise of smart grid, SVC and STATCOM are paid more and A. Voltage Supporting
more attention [1,2]. Controlling the voltage at the point of connection to the
As reactive compensation equipment, high capacity SVC power network is one of the objectives of the SVC and
and STATCOM are used primarily for transmission system STATCOM, which can adjust reactive power output quickly
in power grid. Requirements for transmission system are as and continuously. To verify the influence for voltage
follows [3]: supporting in the transmission path by reactive compensation
1) Voltage supporting equipment, select 35kV bus of the 500kV substation to
2) Improving the transient stability and transmission limit install the reactive compensation equipment in Si-Chuan
3) Damping low frequency oscillation power grid. When 1 p.u. reactive current was injected into
Both SVC and STATCOM can meet these requirements. It the 35 kV bus, the output of 500kV bus Vc is about:
is pointed out in [2] that STATCOM are much better than Vc  Vc 0 | 0.007 I (1)
SVC in technique as the output characteristics, power loss,
response time, and harmonics, even though STATCOM is Where Vc 0 is the initial voltage of 500kV bus.

978-0-7695-4077-1/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE 993

DOI 10.1109/ICICTA.2010.586
 The sensitivity amplitude is only 0.007, which proves that stability limit observably, and STATCOM is about
voltage controllability by single SVC or STATCOM 0.11MW/Mvar, and SVC is about 0.07MW/Mvar.
installed in the transmission path is limited.
SVC and STATCOM perform similar in reactive power
output, and the main differences are as follows:
(1) Response speed: SVC is 0.05s, and STATCOM is
0.02s.
(2) Output of SVC is admittance limited, and output of
STATCOM is current limited.
When a 150Mvar SVC and a +150Mvar STATCOM are
separately installed in the 35kV bus of a 500kV substation,
the results of three-phase short circuit fault in 500kV line are
shown in Fig.1. Voltage upgraded by STATCOM is 0.007p.u.
(3.7kV), while voltage upgraded by SVC is 0.0037p.u.
Fig.2 Unstable example without compensator when P=2509MW
(1.9kV) after the first low voltage appears. The comparison
shows that SVC and STATCOM installed in the
transmission path do work but are not satisfied in
maintaining the voltage stability after fault occurrence, and
STATCOM performs better than SVC. Neither SVC nor
STATCOM could be useful if single one was installed.

Fig.3 Boundary stability with 150Mvar SVC when P=2518MW

Fig.1 Comparison of STATCOM and SVC in voltage control

B. Improving transient stability limit

If SVC or STATCOM is installed, power-angle
characteristics of power system can be improved to increase
the static stability limit, and if there is fault, appropriate
control strategy can be employed to increase the transient Fig.4 Boundary stability with 150Mvar STATCOM when P=2525MW
stability limit by decreasing the speed-up area and
increasing the speed-down area [6]. (2) Effect of the equipment response time
(1) Comparison of transient stability limit The effect of the SVC or STATCOM response time on
transient stability limit is studied for further. Take SVC for
Suppose a 150Mvar reactive compensation equipment is example, if the output delay increases to 100ms, the
installed at the sending side of hydroelectric power in Si- transient stability limit of tie-line power is 2516MW, which
Chuan power grid. Consider a three-phase short circuit fault means the variation is less than 2MW. The equipment
in the transmission path of hydroelectric power grid, and is response time has little influence on transient stability limit.
cut off after 0.1s. The tie-line active power without reactive
compensation equipment is showed in Fig.2. When tie-line (3)Effect of high compensation
power P=2509MW, system becomes unstable. The tie-line During transient process, transient stability limit can be
power with SVC or STATCOM installed is showed in Fig.3 increased if there’s transient high compensation. Transient
and Fig.4. If a 150Mvar SVC is installed, the boundary high compensation is defined that the reactive compensation
stability limit is 2518MW, while if a 150Mvar STATCOM equipment can be adjusted in real time to response the drop
is installed, the boundary stability limit is 2525MW. of primary voltage and the tie-line power. The scheme of
According to the comparison, reactive compensation transient high compensation is shown in Fig.5.
equipment as SVC and STATCOM can improve transient

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voltage at
control point Normal reactive to adjust the generator active power output by SVC or
1
Vc
1  S ˜ T1 Vc d Vlow , PLine d Plow :
output Q0 STATCOM reactive power output. If the SVC or
y 1 high compensation
ˇ
STATCOM reactive power output includes a part which is
power
1 else : y 0
for 1s ˇ
in direct proportion to the speed difference 'Z , then the
PLine 1  S ˜ T1 damping coefficient can be increased [7]. 'Z , 'Pe and 'f
Fig.5 Logic diagram for transient high compensation of generator can not be measured directly from the control
location that SVC or STATCOM installed, and the wide
When severe fault occurs, the voltage and tie-line power
area measurement signals should be introduced.
would drop. If Vc d Vlow and PLine d Plow , transient high The main difficulty for damping controller design is how
compensation is explored. Let Vlow 0.8 and Plow 0.8 P0 , to get the oscillation modes in regional power system and
where P0 is the normal line power. Transient stability limit the corresponding residue for determining SVC or
STATCOM input and phase compensating component. It is
is improved to 2526MW with 150Mvar SVC, which is
difficult for traditional analytical method to analyze the
8MW more than that without high compensation. Transient
eigenvalues of large scale system. In this paper, Prony
stability limit is improved to 2531MW with +150Mvar
analysis method is introduced to the study of signal input,
STATCOM, which is 6MW more than that without high
location selection and parameter design. Prony analysis is a
compensation. Simulation results point out that the transient
technique of analyzing signals to determine mode, damping,
high compensation in real time can bring a certain
phase and magnitude information contained in the signal [7].
meaningful importance.
It fits an output signal y(t) to a weighted sum of exponential
(4) Short time over load capability terms of the form
The stability in the first swing can be improved by n 1

improving the reactive power output with reactive y (t ) ¦ B eO

i 1
i
it
(2)
compensation equipment’s short time over load capability.
STATCOM has a good short time over current capability. in a least-square-error sense, where Bi is the signal residue
According to the manufacturer’s datasheet, short-time over associated with the mode Oi . Prony analysis does not
current is permissible for 2s in 1.5 times the rated current, identify the system transfer function directly. However, a
and is allowable for 30min in 1.15 times the rated current. In reduced order system transfer function can be obtained in
this paper, the short time over current is 1.4 times the rated
the form
current, and lasts for 1s. In this condition, the transient
Y ( s) n 1 Ri
stability limit is improved to 2537MW. SVC can’t provide
much more capacitive compensation as its equivalent output
G( s) ¦
I ( s) i 1 s  Oi
(3)
capacitance is limited by its fixed capacitance. STATCOM is Where, I(s) is the input signal and and Ri is the residue
obviously better than SVC in improving the transient associated with the identified mode Oi . The above approach
stability limit for its short time over load capability
Effects on the transient stability limit of reactive will be used to obtain the reduced order model of the power
compensation equipment as SVC, STACOM are list in systems for the purpose of controller design.
Tab.I. SVC or STATCOM would be installed in some important
500kV substation in Sichuan power grid, and the signals
TABLE I. EFFECTS ON THE TRANSIENT STABILITY LIMIT OF
REACTIVE COMPENSATION EQUIPMENT
Pline from the tie-lines of Sichuan to outside are considered
as candidate input signals to the controller. The output
Transient stability limit response of tie-lines power, y(t), can be measured when a
Mode
improved MW/Mvar reactive power of low-amplitude square-wave pulse, I(t), is
150Mvar reactive SVC STATCOM added to the bus that SVC or STATCOM is considered to
compensation install in. Transfer function G(s) can be obtained as the
0.07 0.11
output y(s) is identified by Prony analysis.
high compensation SVC STATCOM
(1) Input signal selection
for 1s 0.11 0.15
Short time over Suppose the reactive compensation equipment is installed
0.2(1.4 Ie) in a 500kV substation, SZ substation, and the tie-lines
load of STATCOM
power (power of line NT, line HW and line HB) are
C. Damping Low Frequency Oscillation separately taken as the input signal. Results by Prony
STATCOM can adjust node voltage within a certain analysis method are shown in Tab.II. It can be seen that
range by adjusting the injected reactive power fast, which there’s low frequency oscillation in Central China power
can not only damp the low frequency oscillation but also the grid, of which the frequency is 0.38Hz and the damping
sub-synchronous oscillation and the ultra-synchronous ratio is about 2.8%. When the power of line HB is taken as
oscillation. It is a development for PSS in generator control

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 D
the input, residue module is the largest, which means the about 60 , the number of the lead-lag blocks (n) can be
observability is the best. determined by taking the nearest larger number of  I / 60 ,
TABLE II. RESIDUES ON DIFFERENT INPUT SIGNAL where I is the required phase compensation of the
Residue module controller at the inter-area frequency range. Suppose the
Input signal Dominant eigenvalues ( Oi ) controller is a lag controller and n=2, the steps to determine
(|Ri |)
Line NT -0.067+2.3876i 0.0749 T2 and T3 are as follows [7,8]:
Line HW -0.072+2.3876i 0.0998 magnify and
Vt Access point voltage
Sampling delay washout filter Lead/lag
Line HB -0.067+2.3876i 0.0999 Pline 1 S ˜ Tw 1  S ˜ T2
time delay Bmax I max
1  S ˜ T2 K2 IQ
x1 ˜ x2
1  S ˜ T1 1  S ˜ Tw 1  S ˜ T3 1  S ˜ T3
(2) Location selection 1  S ˜ Ts
Bmin I min
According to the results above, take HB line as the input Fig.6 model of damping control
signal. Suppose SVC or STATCOM is installed in the
500kV substation of the transmission path from Si-chuan to I 180  I0
the outsides. Results on different location by Prony analysis I
T3 1  sin( )
method are as Tab.III: D 2
T2 I (4)
1  sin( )
TABLE III. RESIDUES ON DIFFERENT CONTROL POINT 2
1
Location Dominant eigenvalues Residue module T2
Z D
JS -0.074++2.3876i 0.0999 T3 D T2
SZ -0.067+2.3876i 0.0999 The calculated parameters of damping controller for
LW -0.076+2.3876i 0.1028 SVC and STATCOM are as Tab.V. Output of SVC is
TJW -0.075+2.3876i 0.0996 admittance limited, and output of STATCOM is current
HG -0.05+2.3876i 0.055 limited.
HY -0.05+2.3876i 0.0499
TABLE V. PARAMETERS OF DAMPING CONTROLLER
The results by Prony analysis indicate again that there’s
low frequency oscillation in Central China power grid, of Parameters T1 T2 T3 Kp Ts Bmax Bmin Imax Imin B B

which the frequency is 0.38Hz. From the analysis of the SVC 0.02 0.73 0.24 -5 0.05 1.5 0 99 -99
Residue Module in Tab.III, SVC or STATCOM installed in STATCOM 0.02 0.73 0.24 -5 0.02 99 -99 1.5 -1.5
JS, SZ, and LW substation can introduce finer
controllability, and the one in LW substation shows the best (4) Comparison of SVC and STATCOM with the same
results. capacity
According to the parameters in Tab.V, the adjustable
(3) Selection of control parameter capacitive capability of 150Mvar SVC is from 0Mvar to
According to the analysis of the observability and 150Mvar, while +150Mvar STATCOM is from -150Mvar to
controllability above, SVC or STATCOM is installed in LW 150Mvar when the voltage of injected bus (35kV bus of
substation, and line HB power is taken as the input signal. substation) is 1 p.u.. The comparison of STATCOM and
The transfer function G(s) can be obtained by Prony SVC against low frequency oscillation is showed in Fig.7
analysis. The phase of the open loop transfer functions G(s) and Tab.VI. When STATCOM and SVC have the same
between input signal and output signal is as Tab.IV. capacity, the damping control effect of STATCOM is much
better than SVC for the adjustable capability of STATCOM
TABLE IV. RESULT BY PRONY ANALYSIS METHOD
is nearly two times of SVC.
Input signal Location Dominant eigenvalues
line HB LW -0.076+2.3876i
Residue Module Initial phase Compensating phase
0.1028 136D 54D
To compare the effects of damping Oscillation, the
uniform control model of SVC and STATCOM damping
controller is built by UD (user-defined) modeling of PSASP
6.2, which is shown as Fig.6.
Tw is the washout filter time constant and its value can be
taken as a number between 5s and 10s. The value of T2 and
T3 can be determined by the method proposed in [7]. Since
the limit of phase compensation of the lead-lag block is Fig.7 Comparison of STATCOM and SVC in damping control with the
same capacity

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 TABLE VI. DAMPING RATIOS OF STATCOM AND SVC WITH THE III. CONCLUSION
SAME CAPACITY
Effects of SVC and STATCOM installed in power
Reactive transmission path are analyzed in this paper, and the
Without SVC STATCOM
compensation conclusions are as follow:
Damping ratios 0.8% 2.0% 4.2% (1) Single SVC or STATCOM installed in the transmission
path are not satisfied in maintaining the voltage stability
(5) Comparison of SVC and STATCOM with the same
after fault, and STATCOM performs better than SVC. To
adjustable capacitive capability
improve the voltage stability capability, SVC and
To compare the damping control effect of SVC and
STATCOM should be installed in multi-substation.
STATCOM with the same adjustable capacitive capability,
(2) SVC and STATCOM can improve transient stability
comparison of SVC and mixed STATCOM is studied.
limit observably, and STATCOM is obviously better than
Mixed STATCOM consists of a STATCOM and a fixed
SVC for its short time over load capability.
capacity in parallel. The adjustable capacitive capability of
(3) The damping control effect of STATCOM is much
a 150Mvar SVC and a +75Mvar mixed STATCOM with
better than SVC when they have the same capacity, and the
75Mvar fixed capacity, are both from 0Mvar to 150Mvar.
effect is almost the same when they have the same adjusting
The comparison is showed in Fig.8. The damping control
range.
effect of SVC and STATCOM with the same adjustable
(4) STATCOM responses faster than SVC, however, the
capability is almost the same.
response time has no obvious effect on the voltage
supporting, the transient stability improvement or the
damping control.
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Fig.9 Effect of time delay to damping control

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