Mitigating Congestion in a Power System and Role of FACTS Devices

Abstract

Congestion management refers to avoiding or relieving congestion. In transmission lines, congestion management is one of the most important issues for the reliable operation of power system in the deregulated environment. Restructuring has brought considerable changes in all possible domains including electric supply industry. By virtue of restructuring, electricity has now become a commodity and has converted into a deregulated one. The traditional regulated power system has now become a competitive power market. In the present scenario, the real time transmission congestion is the operating condition in which the transfer capability to implement all the traded transactions simultaneously is not enough due to either some expected contingencies or market settlement. Thus, congestion is associated with one or more violations of the physical, operational, and policy constraints under which grids operate. Thus, congestion management is about managing the power transmission and distribution among valuable consumers priority-wise. Placement of FACTS (Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System) devices for generation rescheduling and load-shedding play a crucial role in congestion management. FACTS devices are used to enhance the maximum load ability of the transmission system. FACTS increases the flexibility of power system, makes it more controllable, and allows utilization of existing network closer to its thermal loading capacity without jeopardizing the stability. FACTS technology can boost the transfer capability in stability limited systems by 20–30%. As a result, more power can reach consumers with a shorter project implementation time and a lower investment cost. This review work unites the various publications on congestion management in past few decades.