A FACTS Devices Allocation Procedure Attending to Load Share

• Main Authors: Samuel Marrero Vera, Ignacio Nuez, Mario Hernandez-Tejera
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-04-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: FACTS allocation; power grids; voltage stability; load share; index-based optimization
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/8/1976

Power system stability is a topic which is attracting considerable interest due to the increase of both electrical demand and distributed variable generation. Since Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices are an increasingly widespread solution to these issues, it is important to study how their allocation procedure should be done. This paper seeks to assess the influence of load share in FACTS devices allocation. Despite this interest, researchers, as well as system planners, have mainly focused on studying single power system configuration rather than using a wider approach. Keeping this in mind, we have iteratively created several load share scenarios based on an IEEE 14-bus test system. Subsequently, we have applied an heuristic procedure in order to demonstrate how load share may affect the results of the FACTS devices allocation procedure. Additionally, we have compared results from two different objective functions so as to evaluate our proposal. Finally, we have proposed a solution to FACTS allocation which takes load share into account. Our tests have revealed that, depending on the distribution of load within the power system, the optimal location for a FACTS device may change. Furthermore, we have also found some discrepancies and similarities between results from distinct objective functions.