Available transfer capability enhancement with FACTS devices in the deregulated electricity market

Abstract

In order to facilitate the electricity market operation and trade in the restructured environment, ample transmission capability should be provided to satisfy the demand of increasing power transactions. The conflict of this requirement and the restrictions on the transmission expansion in the restructured electricity market has motivated the development of methodologies to enhance the available transfer capability (ATC) of existing transmission grids. The insertion of flexible AC transmission System (FACTS) devices in electrical systems seems to be a promising strategy to enhance single area ATC and multi-area ATC. In this paper, the viability and technical merits of boosting single area ATC and multi-area ATC using Thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC), static VAR compensator (SVC) and unified power flow controller (UPFC) in single device and multi-type three similar and different device combinations are analyzed. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to obtain the optimal settings of FACTS devices. The installation cost is also calculated. The study has been carried out on IEEE 30 bus and IEEE 118 bus systems for the selected bilateral, multilateral and area wise transactions.