A Fuzzy-based Technique for Series and Shunt FACTS Placement in a Distribution System

The control of reactive power in any transmission network is important to ensure voltage stability of the entire power grid. Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) have proven to be efficient in providing controllability to reactive power for voltage stability management. However, the performance of the FACTs devices largely depends on the installation location. A fuzzy logic technique for finding the optimal location for the Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) and Static Var Compensator (SVC) FACTS devices with specific security indices is proposed in this paper. The proposed indices for SVC placement are the Loss Sensitivity Factor (LSF) and critical voltage, while the considered indices for TCSC placement are the loss sensitivity factor (LSF) and line stability index (LSI). The indices are fuzzified to obtain a suitability index which determines the suitable line(s) and node(s) accordingly. The proposed approach is implemented on the IEEE 30 bus network. The SVC reduced the overall transmission loss by 1.6%, while the TCSC reduced the transmission loss by 4.94 %. The loading margin also improved by 24.87% and 2.92% using SVC and TCSC, respectively. The voltage profile also remained close to 1 p.u under varying load conditions. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed technique at reducing transmission loss, improving voltage stability and improving voltage profile simultaneously.