International Journal of Conceptions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 2, Issue. 1, April 2014; ISSN: 2345 - 9603

Enhancement of voltage profile and reduce power

system losses by using FACTS devices
A Hemasekhar

Dr. A Lakshmi Devi

Research Scholar, Department of EEE,

SVU College of Engineering, Tirupati.
Associate Professor, SVPCET,
Puttur, AP, India.
ahemasekar@yahoo.com

Professor, Dept. of EEE,

Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering,
Tirupati, India.
Energylak123@yahoo.co.in

Abstract The continuous change in power demand and

supply altered the power flow patterns in transmission

networks in such a way that some of the corridors get over
loaded. This raises serious challenge in operating the
power system is insure and reliable manner, Voltage
instability is one of the phenomena which have result in
major block out. To cope with this problem flexible AC
transmission system (FACTS) is used. It plays a very
important role in improving the power system operating
performance but these devices are costly and need to be
placed optimally in power system. This paper suggests a
new sensitivity based approach to locate thyristor
controlled series compensator (TCSC), static VAR
compensator (SVC) and unified power flow controller
(UPFC) for enhancing the power system loadbility.
FACTS devices can regulate the active and reactive-power
control as well as adaptive to voltage magnitude control
simultaneously by their fast control characteristics.
This paper presents a genetic algorithm (GA) based
allocation for FACTS devices. The effectiveness of the
proposed method is tested and illustrated by IEEE 30-bus
system for optimal allocation of FACTS devices and
results are presented.
Keywords- FACTS devices, Genetic algorithm, Optimal
allocation, Voltage stability.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The operation mechanism of power system becomes more

and more complicated due to the continuously increasing load
demand which leads to an augmented stress of the
transmission lines and
higher risks for faulted lines.
Therefore, power system can be operated in less secure state
following unexpected line congestions and low voltages.
Construction of new transmission lines can be one solution for
leading more stable and secure operation of power systems.
But it becomes a time-consuming process due to political and
environmental reasons. A new solution to improve the stability
and security of the power system is the Flexible AC
transmission systems FACTS devices can improve the

stability of the power network, reduce the flows of heavily

loaded lines by controlling their parameters, and maintain the
bus voltages at desired level. Consequently they can improve
the power system security in contingency.
So control of power flow in order to have more efficient,
reliable, and secure system is in the interest of the
transmission system operator (TSO). To overcome this
problem, FACTS devices are introduced. FACTS devices can
improve both transient and small signal stability margins.
Controlling the power flows in the network, under normal and
abnormal conditions of the network, can help to reduce flows
in heavily loaded lines, reduce system power loss, and so
improve the stability and performance of the system without
generation rescheduling in the network [1]. Because of the
considerable costs of the FACTS devices, it is so mementos to
find out the optimal location for placement of these devices to
improve voltage stability margins and enhance network
security.
Effect of FACTS devices on power system security,
reliability and loadability has been studied according to proper
control objectives [2] Voltage stability index has been used to
find the suitable location of UPFC to improve power system
security/stability after evaluating the degree of severity of
considered contingencies. This paper presents a novel
heuristic method based on GA to find optimal location of
FACTS devices to enhance voltage stability level considering
investment cost these devices and power system losses.
The direct analysis of the circuit is not possible. The load
flow study comprises of magnitudes and phase angles of load
bus voltages, reactive powers and voltage phase angles at
generator buses, real and reactive power floe on transmission
lines together with power at the reference bus being specified
by using Newton-Raphson method. It is indeed the practical
method of load flow solution of large power networks.
Genetic algorithm is previously used for many optimization
problems like optimal power floe, economic dispatch and
controller optimization, congestion management and etc in
power systems [3]. Proposed method is tested on IEEE 30 bus
system and results are presented.

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International Journal of Conceptions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 2, Issue. 1, April 2014; ISSN: 2345 - 9603
II.

FACTS DEVICES MODEL

A. FACTS devices
In this paper, three different FACTS devices have been
selected to place in suitable location to improve voltage
stability margins in power system. These are: TCSC (Thyristor
Controlled Series Capacitor), SVC (Static VAR Compensator)
and UPFC (Unified Power Flow Controller). These are shown
in Fig. 1.

shunt element of transmission line. Mathematical models for

FACTS devices are implemented by MATLAB programming
language.
TCSC:TCSC acts as the capacitive or inductive compensator by modifying reactance of transmission line. This
changes line flow due to change in series reactance. In this
project TCSC is modeled by changing transmission line
reactance as below:

Where Xline is reactance of transmission line and is

compensation factor of TCSC. Rating of TCSC is depended
on transmission line where it is located. To prevent
overcompensation, TCSC reactance is chosen between

SVC: SVC can be used for both inductive and capacitive

compensation. In this project SVC is modeled as an ideal
reactive power injection at bus:

Figure 1. Considered FACTS Devices (a) TCSC (b) SVC (c) UPFC

Power flow through the transmission line i-j namely Pij is

depended on line reactance Xij, bus voltage magnitudes Vi, Vj,
and phase angle between sending and receiving buses i-j.
This is expressed by Eq.1.

UPFC: Two types of UPFC models are reported in this

project. One is coupled model and other is decoupled
model[27-29]. In the first type, UPFC is modeled with series
combination of a voltage source and impedance in the
transmission line. In decoupled model, UPFC is modeled with
two separated buses. First model is more complex compared
with the second one because modification of Jacobian matrix
in coupled model is inevitable. While decoupled model can be
easily implemented in conventional power flow algorithms
without modification of Jacobian matrix elements, in this
project, decoupled model used for modeling UPFC in power
flow study (Fig.2).

TCSC can change line reactance and SVC can be used to

control reactive power in network. UPFC is the most versatile
member of FACTS devices family and can be applied in order
to control all power flow parameters (i.e. line impedance, bus
voltage, and phase angle). Power flow can be controlled and
optimized by changing power system parameters using FACTS
devices. So optimal choice and allocation of FACTS devices
can result in suitable utilization in power system.
B. Mathematical model of FACTS devices
In this project steady state model of FACTS devices are
developed for power flow studies. So TCSC is modeled
simply to just modify the reactance of transmission line. SVC
and UPFC are modeled using the power injection models [35]. Models integrated into transmission line for TCSC and
UPFC and SVC is modeled is incorporated into the bus as

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Figure2. Decoupled model for UPFC

International Journal of Conceptions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 2, Issue. 1, April 2014; ISSN: 2345 - 9603
UPFC controls power flow of the transmission line where
is installed. To obtain UPFC model in load flow study, it is
represented by four variables: Pu1, Qu1, Pu2, Qu2. Assuming
UPFC to be lossless, real power flow from bus I to bus j can
be expressed as:

Although UPFC can control the power flow, but cannot

generate the real power. So:

Each reactive power output of UPFC Qu1,Qu2, can be set

to an arbitrary value depend on rating of UPFC to maintain bus
voltage
III. VOLTAGE STABILITY INDEX
Consider a power network where n is the total number of
buses with 1, 2, , g generator buses, and g+1, , n
remaining (n g) buses. For a given system operating
condition, using the load-flow (state-estimation) results, the
voltage-stability L index is obtained as [20, 30]:

magnitude and angles change near maximum-power-transfer

condition and the propensity of voltage-stability is to be close
to unity, indicating that the system is close to voltage collapse.
The L index gives a scalar number to each load bus. Among the
various indices for voltage-stability and voltage-collapse
prediction, the L index gives fairly compatible results. The L
indices for given loads conditions are calculated for all the load
buses and the maximum of the L indices gives the proximity of
the system to voltage collapse.
IV.

PROPOSED GENETIC ALGORITHM

Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of the most famous metaheuristic optimization algorithms which is based on natural
evolution and population. Genetics which is usually used to
reach to a near global optimum solution. In each iteration of
GA (referred as generation), a new set of string (i.e.
chromosomes) with improved fitness is produced using genetic
operators (i.e. selection, crossover and mutation).
A. Population
Each chromosome consists of genes and each gene encodes
a trait. A set of chromosome is called genome and a particular
set of genes in genome is called genotype. Genetic algorithm
starts with generating sets of chromosomes called population.
B. Chromosomes structure
Chromosome structure of GA is shown in Fig. 5.3. This
involves rating and location of FACTS devices.
16
TCSC location

Where j = g+1, , n and all the terms inside the sigma on

the right-hand side of (7) are complex quantities. The complex
values of Fij are obtained from the Y-bus matrix of power
system. For a given operating condition:

Where IG, IL, and VG, VL, represent complex current and
voltage vectors at the generator nodes and load nodes. [YGG],
[YGL], , [YLL], and [YlG] are corresponding partitioned
portions of the Y-bus matrix. Rearranging (8).
For stability, the index Lj must not be more than one for
any of the nodes j. Hence, the global index L demon-starting
the stability of the complete sub-system is given by L=
maximum of Lj for all j (load buses). An L-index value far
away from 1 and close to 0 indicates improved voltage
stability. For an unloaded system with genera-tor/load buses
voltages, the L for load buses are close to zero, indicating that
the system has maximum voltage stability margin. For a given
network, with the increase in load/generation, the voltage

12

UPFC location

SVC location

0.3
t-TCSC

-0.5

0.1

-0.15

P-UPFC

Q-UPFC

Q-SVC

Figure3. A typical chromosome

C. Selection
In proposed GA, method of tournament selection is used for
selection [4]. This method chooses each parent by choosing
(tournament size) players random-ly and choosing the best
individual out of that set to be a parent. In this paper is chosen
tntn.4=tn
D. Cross Over
Cross over allows the genes from different parents to be
combined in children by exchanging materials between two
parents. Cross over function randomly selects a gene at the
same coordinate from one of two parents and assign it to the
child. For each chromosome, a random number is selected. If
this number is between 0.01 and 0.3, two parents are
combined; else chromosome is transferred with no cross over.
E. Mutation
GA creates mutation children by randomly changing the
genes of individual parents. In this project, GA adds a random
vector from a Gaussian distribution to the parents. For each
chromosome, random number is selected. If this number is

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International Journal of Conceptions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 2, Issue. 1, April 2014; ISSN: 2345 - 9603
between 0.01 and 0.1, mutation process is applied; else
chromosome is transferred with no mutation.

This results show the installation of one device in network

could not lead to improve voltage stability margin of power
system and reduction in power system losses simultaneously.
So FACTS devices should be placed in optimal location to
both improve enhance voltage stability margin and reduce
losses in network. Table II shows optimal location of devices
in scenarios. Voltage profiles are shown for different scenarios
in fig.4.

Figure.4 Genetic algorithm

Figure.5.Voltage profiles for different cases

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
Simulation studies were done for different scenarios in
IEEE 30 bus power system. Foue different scenarios are
considered.
Scenario2: One TCSC is installed.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper a novel approach for optimal placement of
facts devices based on genetic algorithm (GA) is presented.
Simulation of IEEE 30 bus test system for different scenarios
shows that the placement of FACTS devices leads to improve
in voltage stability margin of power system and reduce losses.

Scenario3: One SVC is installed.

REFERENCES

Scenario1: With out FACTS device installation.

Scenario4: One UPFC is installed

1.

The first scenario is normal operation of network without

installing any device. In second, third and fourth scenario just
installation of one device is considered. Each device is placed
an optimal location obtained by GA introduced in chapter IV
TABLE-1: SIMULATION RESULTS FOR DIFFERENT CASES

Scenario

LIJ

Losses(MVA)

For all load

buses

2.

3.

4.

18.15

28.36

17.92

24.91

17.67

26.3

16

23.09

5.

6.
7.

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F.D. Galiana, K. Almeida, M. Toussaint, J. Griffin, and D. Atanackovic:

Assessment and Control of the Impact of FACTS Devices on Power
System Performance, IEEE Trans. Power Systems, Vol. 11, No. 4, Nov
1996
S.Gerbex, R.Chekaoui, A.J. Germond, Optimal location of multi-type
FACTS devices in a power system by Means of Genetic Algorithm,
IEEE Trans. On power systems, vol. 16, August 2001,pp..537-544.
R. Gerbex, A. Cherkaoui, and J. Germond, Optimal Location of MultiType FACTS Devices in a Power System by Means of Genetic
Algorithm, IEEE Trans. on Power Systems, 2001, Vol. 16, pp. 537-544.
C.R. Puerle-Esquivel and E.Acha, A Newton-type algorithm for the
control of power flow in electrical power networks, IEEE Trans. Power
system, vol. 12,no.4,pp.1474-1480,Nov.1997.
Ushasurendra and S.S.Parthasarathy,Congestion management in
deregulated power sector using fuzzy based optimal location technique
for series FACTS devices, Journal of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering Research, Vol.4(1),00. 12-20, August 2012.
Text book by N.G. Hingorani & Lazlo Ghyghi.Undestanding FACT
Concept and technology of FACT
Power System Analysis by Hadi Saadat, Tata MC Graw-Hill-edition.

International Journal of Conceptions on Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 2, Issue. 1, April 2014; ISSN: 2345 - 9603

TABLE-II: FACTS LOCATION AND SIZES RESULTS

Device
Type

UPFC

TCSC

SVC

Size

Size

Location

Size

Location

Size

Location

/location

(MVA)

(Bus no-bus no)

(MVA)

(Bus no-bus no)

(MVA)

(Bus no)

TCSC

SVC

UPFC

Multi-type

70.72

2-6

89.62

3-4

50

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