No abstract

The Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) is one of the most currently used Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) devices utilized to control the voltage and power flow. This work proposed an application of the STATCOM devices to maintain the voltages within the specified limits and enhancing voltage deviation, as well as reducing the apparent power losses. The STATCOM device has been chosen using the minimum possible size of the reactive power injected or absorbed by the STATCOM devices while satisfying the stability limits. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of the Evolutionary Computation Techniques used to optimally determine the best locations and sizes of the STATCOM devices to be installed. The proposed approach has been examined and tested first on a 14-bus IEEE test system; the results obtained encouraged us to implement the same approach on the 27-bus Iraqi National (400kV) Super High Voltage Grid (INSHVG) System (part of the Iraqi power network), with different power system load conditions for all season in the year such as summer, winter, spring, and autumn to find the impact of the best location and size of each STATCOM device. A computer program, written in MatLab environment, was developed to represent the proposed method.

Heuristic approaches are traditionally applied to find the optimal size and optimal location of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices in power systems. Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique has been applied to solve power engineering optimization problems giving better results than classical methods. This paper shows the application of GA for optimal sizing and allocation of a Static Compensator (STATCOM) in a power system. STATCOM devices used to increase transmission systems capacity and enhance voltage stability by regulate the voltages at its terminal by controlling the amount of reactive power injected into or absorbed from the power system. IEEE 5-bus standard system is used as an example to illustrate the technique used. Results showed that the STATCOM was able to reduce the voltage deviation and the apparent power losses with minimum possible size of installation capacity for STATCOM devices. GA plays its own requirements by finding best location and best size of STATCOM devices.