Development of a laboratory model of hybrid static VAr compensator

With the steady increase in the demand for electric power, there is an expansion in the transmission and generation capacity of the existing power systems. For the enhancement of the power transfer capability, voltage stability and also the dynamic stability of the existing transmission corridors, flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) are now being extensively used. The shunt type of FACTS controllers are used to either absorb or inject vars into the system thereby providing appropriate reactive power compensation. This paper deals with the design, fabrication and testing of hybrid static VAr compensators comprising of thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) and thyristor switched capacitor (TSC). They are designed to be applied on the existing scaled down laboratory model of a long transmission line. The test results of the TCR and TSC demonstrate their capability to improve the system performance