ANALYSIS OF SERIES COMPENSATION

FROM DIFFERENT ASPECTS

Ayhan A. Mutlu

Elham B. Makram

IEEE, Student Member

IEEE, Senior Member

Clemson University
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Clemson, South Carolina 29634-091 5
ABSTRACT: This paper introduces methods to find the location and size of series
capacitor. The methods use Reactive Power Loss Sensitivity Index (RPLSI) to find the
location of series capacitor, and calculate the degree of series compensation to maximize
the power flow. It is also shown that series compensation can be represented in Zbusby
adding a new parallel line. Finally the line flows of the compensated system is calculated
using the base case power flow of the original system and the decoupled form of Jacobian
matrix.
LINTRODUCTION
In recent years, the highly increasing cost of building new transmission lines, compounded by the
difficulty to obtain new transmission corridors, has led to a search for increasing the transmission
capacity of existing lines. The use of series capacitors has proven to be very effective means to
increase the power transmission capacity [ 11.
Series capacitors reduce the total reactance of the transmission line, which is often the main
reason for their application. This improves power system stability, reduces reactive power losses
and improves voltage regulation of the transmission line.

v, !SI

I
Figure 1.Simple Two-Bus System

The power flow along the transmission line is directly proportional to the difference of the phase
angle and inversely proportional with the magnitude of the reactance. This concept can be
demonstrated by using simple two bus losseless system as shown in Figure 1 with bus 1 having a .
voltage magnitude V I at an angle 6,and bus 2 having a voltage V, at an angle F,. If the voltage
magnitudes are fixed the real power flow is given by [3]:

where X, is the transmission line reactance.

Notice that the reactance associated with the line limits the power transfer through the system.
However, the value of X, could be decreased, to increase the power transfer, by adding series
capacitance as seen in eqn 1. Instead of using load flow solution after series compensation, the
new line flows can be calculated using base case data and modified Jacobian matrix of the
system. The aim of this paper is
1. To find a suitable line to place the capacitor that improves system performance.
2. To find the required degree of compensaton for maximum power transfer.
3. To include the series compensation by modifying the bus impedance matrix (Z,,,).
4. To update the line flows in a faster way after the series compensation is added to the system.

0-7803-4391-3/98/$10.00

1998 IEEE

100

11. APPLIED THEORY

1. Finding the line to place the series capacitor

In the event of a contingency in the system, the lines are required to carry an even larger load.
With the increase of power flow due to heavy loading, the system reactive power losses increase
dramatically; this loss of reactive power may eventually lead to instability [2].
One of the important results of series capacitor application is the reduction of the reactive power
losses in the system especially in the compensated line. This is used to find the line to place the
capacitor, by finding reactive power loss sensitivity indexes (RF'LSI) in each line. The RF'LSI is
the rate of change in reactive power loss due to line reactance. It is definitely known that series
compensation decreases Q losses, by this index the most suitable line, from the reduction of
reactive power losses point of view, for the series compensation can be found.

Bus n

R+jX

Bus m

Figure 2.Power flow in a transmission line

Loss equation of the line, given in Figure 2, can be written as:

Ploss+ j Q I o s s= C Y

where
0 = (V,'

+ vi - 2v,vmcos(b, - 8,))

then RPLSI is
aQLoss

axL

-0

R 2- X t

(3)

(R2+Xt)Z

2. Power Flow Maximization by Series Compensation

In this section, the goal is to investigate the use of series Compensation to maximize the power
transfer capability of the transmission line [4].
Consider a transmission line that is represented as only series impedance, as shown in Figure 2.
The net effect of series compensation is often noted by letting X represent the net reactance.
X = (1 - k)X,
(4)
where X, the equivalent inductive reactance of the line, and k is the "degree of compensation".
The parameter k can be any value between zero and 1 depending on the series capacitive
reactance added to the line. In the following formulations, the parameter X is always interpreted
as the lumped parameter denoted by eqn. (4).
The terminal voltages at the ends of the line are defined as:
V, = V,ej'n =v,(cos~, + jsin6,)
(5)
vm = vme'*, = V,(COS~, + j s i n b m )
Let, the voltage at bus m be the reference and define 6 = 6, - 6,, then, the power from bus m to
bus n can be given as [3]:

P,, +jQ,, -7
Z

101

The transferred power from bus n to m can also be expressed as:

"

+ jQ,

P,

= LLvm- [cos<$- S>

+ + j sin $1

+ j sin($ - S>I- -(cos

v;
Z

(7)

where

X,U- k)
(b = tan- 1x
- = tan-'

R
R
One of our goals is to maximize this transferred power. This power is a function of voltage
magnitudes at the both ends of the line, the angle 6, and the line impedance. It can be maximized
with respect to any of these variables. The voltage magnitudes are not varying over a wide range,
therefore they are limited in their net effect on the power transferred. Here, the effect of
maximizing the transferred power with respect to the voltage angular difference and the
impedance will be examined.
The maximum power transferred with respect to the angular difference can be obtrained by taking
the derivative of eqn. (7) with respect to 6.

The result of eqn. (9) is 6=$. Therefore for the given line parameters the maximum power can be
transferred by adjusting the power angle equal to the line impedance angle. This adjustment can
be done by using series compensation, which reduces the line impedance angle. The required
degree of compensation for this condition is
R
k = 1--tan 6
X
3.Method for adding a series capacitor to Zbur,using its building algorithm
Consider the simple line representations between buses i and j given in Figure 3
Z,= R, *jX,

j
R

jX,

-jX,

jx,

(a)

(b)

Figure 3. Two equivalent representations of series compensated line

In this figure, R+jX, is the original line impedance, which becomes R+j(X,-X,) after introducing
the series capacitor (Figure 3a). Mathematical equivalent of this system is given in Figure 3b.
Here, the series compensation of the line between buses i and j is represented by adding a parallel
line to the existing line. Formulation of this process is,

R + j(X,

- X,)

(R, + j x , ) ( R + j X , )

R + R , +j(X, +X,)
solving this equality yields
1-k
1 R2
x,=--x
k

kX,

and

R,

2-k

=-

4. The line flows after a series compensation is added

This algorithm assumes the results of a base case power flow before the series compensation is
added. The Jacobian matrix is a function of the elements of the nodal admittance matrix Y as well

102

as bus voltage magnitudes and phase angles. The new values of line flows after series
compensation is added can be obtained by using Newton Raphson Load Flow as:

where

In normal operating conditions, introduction of series capacitor to the system has little effect in
the magnitude of bus voltages. Moreover, it is observed that
- Change in the voltage angle at a bus primarily affects the flow of real power P in the
transmission lines and leaves the flow of reactive power relaitively unchanged.
- Change in the voltage magnitude V at a bus primarily affects the flow of reactive power Q in the
transmission lines and leaves the flow of real power P relatively unchanged.
Based on the observations above, for the systems in normal operating conditions the effect of
series compensation in the bus voltages can be approximated by the change of their angles. So,

~6 = H-W

(15)

then

'new
= 'old +"
(16)
If the system is heavily loaded, then the change in voltage magnitude also has to be included, to
find the new voltages. This gives,

AV = lVlL-'AQ
then

(17)

yew=yld+Av

(18)

Then new power flow can be calculated from the new values of the voltages and currents.

111. SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS

IEEE-14 bus system is used for the simulations of the proposed methods. The system is available
in literature. First RPLSI values are calculated for all lines. The highest three values are presented
in Table1 below.
Table 1. WLSI values for different lines.

k
0.9716
0.9618
0.9680

4
4.95"
7.52"
7.68"

3.48"
4.40"

103

2-3

The change of power flows with series compensation of the selected lines is presented in Figure
5. As seen in the figure, the flows reaches to maximum at some degrees of compensation, which
are consistent with the ones found using eqn. (lo). Nevertheless, these results are theoretical only,
in practice there are some limitations in the degree of compensation.
Reactive Power Loss

14

250

Real Power Flow

. .....

50

.......-.
...........-.A+- IIW
._
-.
. -.

1.5

...

line 2-3

0
0%

$6

,6$

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

0%

Degree of Compensation
Figure 5 . Line Flows for different degrees of
compensation

Degree of Compensation

Figure 4. Line reactive power losses for different

degrees of compensation

There are two common methods for introducing series capacitor to Zbus.The first method is to
change the line impedance data of the system and rebuild the Zbusmatrix. This requires too much
computer time and memory especially for large scale systems. The second one is to remove the
original line and add the compensated line. The later one takes less time with compared to the
prior one, but two steps with kron reduction are required.
This paper introduces a new method, which can be used to modify the Zburin a faster way after a
series compensation. The proposed method models the compensated line as the parallel
combination of the original and the new line, which has the impedance value, calculated by eqns
(12)-(13). Thus, Zbusis modified by one step which is adding the new line to the original bus
impedance matrix. The resulting matrix found to be the same with the results of the previously
defined methods.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, RPLSI is used to find the location of series capacitor in the system. The maximum
reduction in reactive power loss occurs in the line, which has the highest RPLSI.
Different compensation schemes are considered in the selected lines from the maximum power
transfer point of view. The power transfer increases with the increasing the series compensation.
At a specific value of compensation, which provides the equality between the power factor angle
and line angle, the flow reaches to its maximum value.
A new method is proposed and tested for the addition of series capacitor to Zbus.The main
advantage of the new method is that it requires less computation which means less CPU time.

References
[ 11 Coursol, M., Nguyen, C., Lord, R., Do, X., Modeling MOV-Protected Series Capacitors for
Short Circuit Studies." IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1993, pp. 448-53.
I'

[2] Reason, J. "Voltage security: The hidden threat to transmission networks." Electrical World,
April 1989, pp.51-53.
[3] Anderson, P.M., Farmer, R.G., "Series Compensation of Power Systems", PBLSH, Inc., 1996.
[4] Breuer, G.D., H. M. Rustebakke, R. A. Gibley, H. 0. Simmons, "The Use of Series Capacitors
to Obtain Maximum EHV Transmission Capability", IEEE Trans. on Power Apparatus &
Systems, v. PAS-84, Nov. 1964, pp. 1090-1 101

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