Assessment of techno-economic contribution of FACTS devices to power system operation

In contemporary power system studies, the optimal allocation and utilization of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices are important issues primarily due to their cost. In this study four types of FACTS devices (Static VAr compensator (SVC), Thyristor-Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC), Thyristor-Controlled Voltage Regulator (TCVR), and Thyristor-Controlled Phase Shifting Transformer (TCPST)) are optimally placed in a multi-machine power system to reduce the overall costs of power generation. The placement methodology considers simultaneously the cost of generated active and reactive powers and cost of selected FACTS devices for a range of operating conditions. The optimal power flow (OPF) and genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization procedure are employed to solve the allocation task. The net present value (NPV) method is used to assess the economic value of the proposed methodology. In addition to net reduction in generation cost allocated FACTS devices increased power transfer across the network and improved damping of electromechanical oscillations.