Scalable Optimal Placement and Sizing of FACTS Devices Using AC Power Flow Model

Decentralized electricity markets and even more integration of renewables demand expanding the existing transmission infrastructure to accommodate variabilities in power flows inflected by them. However, such expansion is severely limited in many countries due to political and environmental issues. Hence, Transmission System Operators have to use the existing grid creatively, in particular taking advantage of new technologies such as associated with the Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) devices discussed in this manuscript. Motivated by these developments we formulate and solve investment planning problem which seeks to place and size FACTS devices over a large power transmission system optimally. The non-linear, non-convex and multiple scenario based optimization is resolved through an efficient heuristic algorithm, consisting of a sequence of Quadratic Programmings. Efficiency and scalability of the approach is illustrated on the IEEE 30-bus model and 2736-bus Polish model.