Maintaining Voltage Stability in Power System using FACTS Devices

Modern power systems are prone to widespread failures. With the increase in power demand, operation and planning of large interconnected power system are becoming more and more complex, so power system will become less secure. Operating environment, conventional planning and operating methods can leave power system exposed to instabilities. Voltage instability is one of the phenomena which have result in a major blackout. Moreover, with the fast development of restructuring, the problem of voltage stability has become a major concern in deregulated power systems. To maintain security of such systems, it is desirable to plan suitable measures to improve power system security and increase voltage stability margins. FACTS devices can regulate the active and reactive power control as well as adaptive to voltage-magnitude control simultaneously because of their flexibility and fast control characteristics. Placement of these devices in suitable location can lead to control in line flow and maintain bus voltages in desired level and so improve voltage stability margins. Performance evaluation is supported by the simulation results on IEEE 14 bus system under different loading conditions using MATLAB.