Simply the FACTS

By ABB Communications

Given the global economic slowdown , many utilities, especially in North and South America have been actively working to strengthen grid reliability and enhance power capacity without resorting to high infrastructure spending.

Their focus has been modernizing or upgrading the existing grid to increase capacity, improve stability and integrate renewable energy sources like wind power. Some of these efforts have also received an extra push from the stimulus spending plans of various governments across the world.

Smooth project execution

“Based on the success of orders in 2008, we had a significant backlog to execute and put some strong processes in place to ensure a smooth and efficient project execution and commissioning of installations” said Per Eckemark, system group manager for FACTS within ABB's Grid Systems business.

“ABB commissioned 17 FACTS installations during the first half of 2009, and many more are on the way to completion. Successful and timely commissioning of projects not only helps us build customer satisfaction but also helps to ensure a healthy margin,” Eckemark said.

Installed and recently commissioned by ABB, the SVC (FACTS) installation at the Parkdale substation, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas is the world’s largest cluster of SVC technology. ABB is a global leader in the growing field of FACTS (flexible AC transmission systems) technologies, and has more than 700 such installations in operation or under construction across the world. ABB’s family of FACTS help enhance the capacity, security and flexibility of power transmission systems, making an important contribution to the development of more reliable and smarter grids.

“In addition to the traditional FACTS solutions we offer, we are also focussing on offshore wind parks, a potential growth area where we offer a package solution to connect the wind farms through a submarine cable system and then feed the power into the onshore grid by way of a sea-based substation”, said Per Haugland, BU manager of Grid Systems.

Resilient, higher capacity grids

ABB’s FACTS devices optimize power flow to maximize the capacity of power lines and improve voltage stability by compensating for reactive power (see Reactive power and Power factor compensation at www.abb.com/glossary). In some cases, network capacity can be more than doubled. The equipment also makes the system more resilient to ‘system swings’ and other disturbances.

Based on the order intake so far in 2009, the expected help from stimulus packages and the anticipated market potential, this business is expected to grow further in the foreseeable future. To meet this growth, the lead centre team in Sweden and the local FACTS units around the world have been strengthened and around 50 specialized engineers have recently been inducted into the PS Engineering Centre in Chennai, India.

FACTS technologies allow more power to reach consumers with minimal environmental impact, lower investment costs and shorter implementation times than the traditional alternative of building new transmission lines or power plants. FACTS technologies also address voltage and stability issues and enable the transmission system to run more efficiently.

FACTS (Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems)

FACTS refers to a group of technologies that enhance the security, capacity and flexibility of power transmission systems. The technologies can be installed in new or existing power transmission lines. Examples of FACTS products are: Static VAr compensation (SVC), uses an electrical device (see Static VAr compensator) to regulate and stabilize voltage in bulk power systems. The most advanced version of this technology is called SVC Light™ and has additional features, in particular more powerful flicker compensation to stabilize high and rapidly fluctuating electricity loads, for example arc furnaces, and to smooth flicker voltage. Series Compensation can be fixed or controllable. The latter is called Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC). Series compensation is a straight forward and cost effective way to preserve voltage stability, particularly in bulk transmission corridors. Thyristor-controlled series compensation is especially useful in stabilizing voltages at interconnections between transmission girds.