Impact of hybrid FACTS devices on the stability of the Kenyan power system

Flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) devices are deployed for improving power system’s stability either singly or as a combination. This research investigates hybrid FACTS devices and studies their impact on voltage, small-signal and transient stability simultaneously under various system disturbances. The simulations were done using five FACTS devices-static var compensator (SVC), static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), static synchronous series compensators (SSSC), thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC) and unified power flow controller (UPFC) in MATLAB’s power system analysis toolbox (PSAT). These five devices were grouped into ten pairs and tested on Kenya’s transmission network under specific contingencies: the loss of a major generating machine and/or transmission line. The UPFC-STATCOM pair performed the best in all the three aspects under study. The settling times were 3 seconds and 3.05 seconds respectively for voltage and rotor angle improvement on the loss of a major generator at normal operation. The same pair gave settling times of 2.11 seconds and 3.12 seconds for voltage and rotor angle stability improvement respectively on the loss of a major transmission line at 140% system loading. From the study, two novel techniques were developed: A performance-based ranking system and classification for FACTS devices.