FACTS: Modelling and Simulation in Power Networks

Enrique Acha, Claudio R. Fuerte-Esquivel, Hugo Ambriz-Pérez, César Angeles-Camacho.

John Wiley & Sons, 1 edition, 2004



This book presents a general introduction to the modeling of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) for use in power system simulations in steady state, spiced with other topics such as Three-phase Power Flow, and Optimal Power Flow (OPF).



FACTS mentioned include Thyristor-controlled Reactor (TCR), Static Var Compensator (SVC), Thyristor-controlled Series Compensator (TCSC), Voltage Source Converter (VSC), Static Compensator (STATCOM), Solid State Series Compensator (SSSC), Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC), and High-Voltage Direct-Current Voltage Source Converters (HVDC-VSC). Their mathematical modeling is given relating currents, voltages, and firing angles of individual components. Then the models are presented in matrix form, relating currents and voltages through corresponding admittance matrices, which permits including the devices in a general power flow formulation to be solved by Newton-Raphson techniques.



Though the book includes the description and modeling of the conventional power flow problem, it does not attempt to be an introductory text, and so many explanations are rather terse. A previous understanding of the power flow problem, by reading other books, should be required.



The greatest controversy regarding this book is in the amount of Matlab code that is provided.

Even if plagued by typos and formatting horrors, most of the code given in small amounts is fairly easy to "fix" by those with some knowledge of the power flow problem.

The exception is the appendix which includes a complete Optimal Power Flow (OPF) program to minimize power generation costs. This is a big block of code which becomes totally unreadable. The code, if used exactly as is, will not work because there are several undeclared variables and errors which may be hard to spot. If you've done any serious programming before, you'll be pulling your hair out.

The code lacks enough commenting and the chapter discussing the OPF problem does not explain with enough detail the algorithm implemented.



The last chapter, concerning Power Flow Tracing, doesn't really fit within the rest of book, and only seems like an attempt to fill more space.

With that said, this book is extremely short, and it does not justify a price over USD $100, being barely 420 pages long, all the code included.



Over all, it seems like the authors wanted to be extremely brief when presenting the topics.

It would have been better if this same book, covering the same topics, was expanded to be 100 pages longer in order to include better, more elaborate treatment of the subjects, more worked out examples, and nicely formatted and working code.