Performance Comparison Between the UPFC and a Coordinated Operation of Separated STATCOM and SSSC for Stability Improvement

Electricity demand is rapidly increasing, causing severe stress on the grid. This can lead to voltage and transient stability issues, which can lead to system-level failures. FACTS devices provide an efficient solution to mitigate potential stability problems. This paper considers improving the voltage and transient stability of the IEEE 14-bus system by installing a Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC). Furthermore, the UPFC is compared to the combined operation of two devices: the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) and the Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC). A new configuration is also proposed, in which the operation of the STATCOM and SSSC subcomponents of the UPFC are coordinated while connected to different busses. Results show that this configuration performed superiorly over the other FACTS devices. The main findings show that the coordinated operation of FACTS devices provides additional improvements in system stability, reducing the average voltage drop and frequency deviations occurring due to disturbances.