A Review on Power System Voltage Stability and Optimization Techniques

Power system voltage stability is a one of the major focused areas in recent days due to mismatch between generation and demand. Maintenance of voltage stability is a challenging issue in planning and security assessment of power systems. Voltage stability is the ability of a power system to maintain steady acceptable voltages at all buses in the power system under normal operating conditions and after being subjected to a disturbance. Long-term voltage instability problems can occur in heavily loaded systems where the electrical distance is large between the generator and the load. Timely application of reactive power compensation or load shedding may prevent this type of voltage instability. System reactive power handling capacity can be improved with Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices. Identification of critical system locations to undertake appropriate remedial measures in operation is the concern. This paper reviews the performance of various types FACTS controllers in power system voltage stability problem and focuses on different optimization methods implemented for optimal placement and sizing of FACTS devices to minimize power losses