1

Preventing voltage collapse by large SVCs

at power system faults.
Ahmed H. Al-Mubarak, Saleh M. Bamsak,
Bjorn Thorvaldsson, Mikael Halonen, Member, IEEE, Rolf Grnbaum, Member, IEEE

Abstract-- This paper shows how the performance of a power

grid in Saudi Arabia is improved by using SVCs to reduce the
risk for voltage collapse at short circuits. Full SVCs capacity is
needed during faults and for a short time following fault clearing
for system recovery. It is shown that SVCs can handle the phase
jumps at fault inception and clearing. The paper also deals with
control stability for large SVCs in weak networks.
Index TermsControl design, Motor stalling, Operational experience, PLL, Reactive Power, Speed of response, SVC, Temporary overvoltage, Voltage recovery

I. NOMENCLATURE
FACTS
SVC
TCR
TSC
PLL
RTDS

Flexible AC Transmission System

Static Var Compensator
Thyristor Controlled Reactor
Thyristor Switched Capacitor
Phase Locked Loop
Real Time Digital Simulator

III. SYSTEM AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

A. Saudi System
Saudi Electricity Company in the Western Region operates
a transmission system comprising 380 kV overhead lines and
underground cables. Generation is essentially in a few large
plants. There are numerous 380/110 kV bulk supply stations,
which feed local 110/13.8 kV substations through mostly underground cable circuits. The major load, the city of Jeddah,
is radially fed from some ten bulk supply stations. The grid is
shown in a simplified form in fig 1.

II. INTRODUCTION

ower systems having large contents of induction motor

load are prone to experience difficulties with slow voltage
recovery, motor stalling or even voltage collapse in conjunction with short circuits in the transmission or sub-transmission
networks. Air conditioners are normally run by induction motors. In the hot part of the world this type of load rapidly
increases. In Saudi Arabia the air conditioning load is as high
as 80% of the total. Simulations show that the power system
may not survive even single line to ground faults close to the
load centre during peak load conditions. By applying SVC
technology the system will ride through single line to ground
faults.

A. H. Al-Mubarak is with SEC, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

(e-mail:47648@se.com.sa).
S. M. Bamsak is with SEC, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(e-mail: sbamsak@se.com.sa).
B. Thorvaldsson is with ABB AB, FACTS, SE-721 64 Vsters, Sweden
(e-mail:bjorn.thorvaldsson@se.abb.com).
M. Halonen is with ABB AB, FACTS, SE-721 64 Vsters, Sweden
(e-mail:mikael.halonen@se.abb.com).
R. Grnbaum is with ABB AB, FACTS, SE-721 64 Vsters, Sweden
(e-mail: rolf.grunbaum@se.abb.com).

Fig. 1. Map and single line diagram.

Measures for voltage control, such as line/bus connected

reactors at 380 kV and 110 kV and capacitors/reactors at distribution levels are implemented, to maintain adequate voltages throughout the transmission grid. All power transformers
have tap changers. Still, the system continuously shows signs
of weaknesses from a reactive power planning point of view.
This system has a few specific characteristics:
A large difference between minimum and maximum (annual and daily) load.
Extremely high concentration of air-conditioning load
(Residential & Commercial), about 80% of the total load
High impedance in 380/110 kV and 110/13.8 kV power
transformers to limit short circuit currents.
Somewhat remote generation
These characteristics affect the operation of the system.
System performance and operational problems experienced
are:

978-1-4244-3811-2/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

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 Voltage Control between peak-load and off-peak load

conditions
Unacceptable Voltage Recovery after faults at medium
load conditions
Voltage Collapse situations at peak load conditions

y (pu)

1.0000
0.9950
0.9900
0.9850
0.9800
0.9750
0.9700
0.9650

The dynamic reactive power demand was calculated to

3000 MVAR. Installing five SVCs with a rating +600/-60
MVAR each at five different 110 kV buses resolves the a/c
motor load stalling problem and the daily load voltage control.
The first three SVCs at Madinah South, Faisaliyah and Jamia
substations were taken into service during the year 2008. The
two remaining SVCs are still not purchased.
B. Problem Definition
The system in the Jeddah, seen from one of the radially fed
load zones can be simplified to the following circuit, fig 2.

y (pu)

Faster fault clearing, to the extent possible, reduces the

dynamic reactive requirement.
A/C motor stalling for single line to ground faults can be
avoided by installation of dynamic reactive power support.
Dynamic reactive power support necessary only for a
short period - during the fault and for about a second following the fault clearing.
Reactive power support needed to counteract voltage
fluctuations due to daily load variations.

#1

#2

13.8 kV

#1

#2

IM

At a fault close to the city of Jeddah, on the 380 kV system

or directly in the 110 kV system, the positive sequence voltage initially drops to 0.7-0.8 pu. Induction motors in the air
conditioners lose torque. Almost instantaneously the motor
speed is brought down when the motors act as generators. The
decreased speed, results in large active and reactive currents
to the motors. The motor currents give large voltage drops in
the source impedances. A large part of the impedance is in the
110/13.8 kV power transformers, the voltage drop causes the
machines to lose more speed. In case of peak load condition
the motors have lost too much speed to be able to reaccelerate
following fault clearing, fig 3.

0.100

0.150

0.200

0.250

0.300

0.350

0.400

Fig. 3. Motor speed, torque and 110/13.8 kV voltage without SVCs.

C. Counteracting Motor Stalling with SVCs

The way to prevent the motors from stalling is obviously to
reduce the voltage drop during the fault and to restore the
voltage as quickly as possible after fault clearing. Such a task
requires a lot of reactive power support during a short period
of time. The closer to the motors the voltage support is applied the better. The most efficient locations are in each
110/13.8 distribution substation on the 13.8 kV level. This
would, though, result in a very large number of rather small
SVCs. The practical solution is a limited numbers of large
SVC on the 110 kV level.

1.0000
0.9950
0.9900
0.9850
0.9800
0.9750
0.9700
0.9650
1.75

Speed1

TE_HAM1

TM_HAM1

Vpos110

Vpos14

-0.50

y (pu)

Fig. 2. Simplified circuit.

Vpos14

y (pu)

110 kV

Vpos110
1.050
1.000
0.950
0.900
0.850
0.800
0.750
0.050

W
380 kV

TM_HAM1

-0.50

y (pu)

A comprehensive reactive planning study encompassing

380kV, 110kV and 13.8kV voltage levels was performed. The
most important conclusions affecting the system planning and
operation are:

TE_HAM1

y (pu)

1.75

Speed1

1.050
1.000
0.950
0.900
0.850
0.800
0.750

0.050

0.100

0.150

0.200

0.250

0.300

0.350

0.400

Fig. 4. Motor speed and 110 kV voltage with SVCs.

The initial drop in speed for the induction motors cannot

be avoided by SVCs. It will take one and a half cycle before
the SVCs are fully counteracting the voltage drop. With sufficiently large SVC the voltage can be supported to such an
extent that the motors do not lose speed following the initial
drop, fig 4. A new stable operating point is reached. It is,
during the fault, very difficult to increase the voltage to such
an extent that the motors accelerate. It is important to stop the
speed drop as quickly as possible. The sooner it stops the easier it becomes to reaccelerate the system following fault clear-

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3
VI-diagram se en from the primary side
1,6
M

1,5

Q = 6.0 pu

1,4

Q = 5.5 pu

1,3

1,2
1,1
Primary voltage (pu)

ing. A shorter response time for the SVC means fewer Mvars
needed. It has been shown in studies, that the motors are almost impossible to reaccelerate after fault clearing, in case the
SVCs were not running during the fault.
Directly at fault clearing the voltage jumps upwards in a
step. The reactive current to the motors instantaneously increases, in addition a large active current is needed for reacceleration. In case the voltage at the motors remains severely
depressed, the active current needed cannot flow and the voltage recovery in the system will be slow. In a worst case the
motors will get stuck. Supporting the voltage speeds up the
recovery.

A'
A

A-H design points for:

1 TCR, 2 TSC and 2 filters

0,9

L
K

0,8

I-M additional design

points f or:
1 TCR, 0 TSC and 1 f ilter

0,7
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0
-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

SVC current (pu)

IV. SVC PERFORMANCE

A. Characteristics of Jeddah SVCs
The three SVCs have each a rating of 600 Mvar capacitive
to 60 Mvar inductive power. They are connected to GIS substations on 110 kV. The nominal voltage on the SVC medium
voltage bus is 22.5 kV. There are two TSCs rated 215 Mvar
each and one TCR rated 230 Mvar, fig 5. The harmonic filters, totally rated 170 Mvar, are divided in two separate
branches. The branches are connected to the MV bus by circuit breakers. Each filter branch is built up by two double
tuned filters covering the 3:rd, 5:th, 7:th and 11:th harmonics.

Fig. 6. VI-characteristic.

B. Speed of Response
When it comes to the speed of response for an SVC it is
important to differentiate between large signal and small
signal behavior. The large signal response is when the SVC
responds to network faults changing the system voltage significantly. This is typically a line to ground fault in the SVC vicinity or a more distant three phase fault. The small signal
response is for minor changes in the system voltage such as
the effect from tap changer action or connection/disconnection of a line reactor or a capacitor bank. For
the utility type of SVCs it is mainly the large signal speed that
is of interest while most specifications deal with the small
signal speed.
An SVC can be simplified to a model as below, fig 7. It
consists of three major parts, voltage and current measuring
and processing circuits, an I regulator and finally the thyristor
valves and the conventional main circuit equipment.
Vref
V

1
1 + sT

1
sT

Fig. 5. SVC single line diagram.

The maximum voltage reference is 1.1 pu. A minimum

slope of 3.0 % on a 600 MVA base defines the VI diagram,
fig 6. In the very leftmost corner of the diagram a secondary
voltage limiter is applied. The total current is limited to 6.0
pu. The secondary voltage limiter has 1.0 s time constant and
the current limiter 10.0 s. The power transformer is designed
according to SEC standard, having a margin to saturation of
10 % in voltage above the secondary voltage limiter setting.
This allows unrestricted operation in the leftmost VI diagram
corner, determined by the voltage reference, the susceptance
and the slope, for the duration needed to restore the system
voltage following a severe voltage depression.

e sT

Network
response
(Gain)

Fig. 7. SVC model.

A utility SVC primarily controls the positive sequence voltage and in some special cases the negative sequence voltage.
For the control, measured instantaneous voltages have to be
separated into sequence values, additionally harmonic components in the voltage must be removed. Both these actions
require time. As a first approximation the voltage processing
can be seen as a first order low pass filter with a time constant
of about 10 ms. Slope is the positive sequence current multiplied with a constant. Control action is by a PI regulator (in
many cases just an I regulator). It works on the difference

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between a set voltage and the actual voltage modified by the

slope. The output is a signal that directly can be seen as a
susceptance order to the main circuit. Thyristor valves can
switch only once per half cycle and phase. A three phase
valve assembly can be modeled by an average time delay.
The fastest possible stable SVC response is determined by
the network voltage response to a change in SVC susceptance
(dV/dB) and the gain in the regulator, considering voltage
filtering time and the thyristor valve delay constant. The network may be seen as a Thevenin equivalent with a constant
reactance behind a fixed voltage source. In case the SVC rating is small compared with the network short circuit capacity,
the network displays constant gain. Later in this paper we will
see the effect of a larger SVC. The gain of the regulator is set
as high as possible reaching a result as shown in the IEEE Std.
1031-2000 [6].
Typically a response in the range of two cycles is achievable.
The stability of the control must be maintained at varying
network strength. Typically the short circuit capacity varies a
factor two between strong and weak condition. The regulator
is trimmed to give its fast response at the weakest network
condition. It is accepted that the SVC will be slower at the
strongest network. In case the system becomes even weaker,
automatic gain reduction algorithms are activated.
One common way to make the SVC response equal at varying network strength is to use a slope for the regulator. It is
a feedback signal, lowering the voltage reference in proportion to the SVC capacitive output. The function produces a
deviation in voltage at a change in SVC current, it can therefore be seen as a reactance in series with the SVC. In case the
artificial reactance in the regulator can be made large compared with the network reactance, it will dominate and the
SVC becomes insensitive to changes in the network strength.
A typical value for the slope (s) is 3% on full SVC capacity.
For an SVC being small compared with the network strength
(< 5 % of Ssc) the slope reactance is in the same size as the
network, eqv 1.
S Slope =

0.05 S
sc

0.05S
s

sc =

0.05

S
0.03 sc

(1)

When the SVC is large (> 10 % of Ssc) the slope reactance

becomes smaller than one third of the network and it starts to
become insignificant for the stability of the regulator. More
important, the assumption the network gain is constant becomes invalid. The combination SVC and network, more and
more, acts like a series resonance circuit. The network gain
increases with the SVC output eqv 2 and 3.

1
V =
svc

B
X

net

svc
+

1
B

1
1+ X

(2 )

net svc

svc

dV
svc =
dB

net

(1 + X net Bsvc )2

(3)

In the Saudi Arabian case each SVC has a size of 20 % of

the network strength. It is required by the utility that the response time should be no longer than 40 ms in a strong network. In case the regulator is tuned to this speed for a small
step, close to the inductive limit in the strong system, it becomes unstable for a step at its capacitive limit in the weak
grid. The action taken to handle this is to multiply the gain in
the regulator with the inverse of network gain in every time
step. PSCAD and RTDS simulations, fig 9, show that an almost constant response irrespective of the network strength
and SVC operating point is achieved by using an average
short circuit power in the equation above.

Fig. 9. Step Response.

Subplot 1, 2% voltage change in the weak system, Bsvc and 20 ms/div
Subplot 2, 2% voltage change for the strong system, Bsvc and 20 ms/div

The major task for a utility SVC is to quickly supply Mvars

at severe voltage drops at network faults. The most frequent
fault is a line to ground fault. The positive sequence voltage
typically drops to 0.7 pu for a close by fault and gradually
higher values for more remote faults. At such a large voltage
deviation the SVC regulator very quickly (in about one cycle)
reaches its capacity limit. This time is essentially the same
irrespective of regulator gain. The TSC valves will switch on
at appropriate points on wave and TCRs will cease conducting. The SVC will be fully conducting in one and a half cycle.
The TSC switching on time may be longer depending on its
precondition (charged or discharged). The most common condition is discharged capacitors.

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50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40

7.0

FSL : Graphs
Ebc2

Eca2

ArgAB

ArgBC

ArgCA

PhiAB

PhiBC

PhiCA

20
0
-20
-40
-60

7.0
6.0
5.0

Eca2

4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0

3.0
2.0
1.0

ArgCA

ArgBC

ArgAB

0.0
-1.0
-2.0

6.0

-3.0

5.0
y (rad)

Eab2

40

y (rad)

FSL : Graphs
Ebc2

Eab2

60

y (rad)

y (kV)

A. Dynamic response during faults

To efficiently counteract the risk for voltage collapse or
stalling motors it is important that the SVC runs fully capacitive already during the fault. The controllable branches in an
SVC i.e. TCRs and TSCs are both controlled by point on
wave switching. TCRs are fired on a certain voltage angle
giving a desired current. TSCs are switched on the voltage
angle giving minimal transients in its current. At network fault
initiation and clearing the voltage across the TCR and TSC
branches makes almost instantaneous angle changes. In addition to this higher order transient voltages appear. Line to line
faults are most severe, the three line to line voltages that were
120 degrees apart in steady state, now change to two voltages
180 degrees away from the third, fig 10. This is an almost
instantaneous 60 degree jump. The valve firing systems must
identify this angular change and move the instants for firing
pulses to the valves. In case it fails, the valve will misfire and
large transient currents may occur in the TSCs and a large DC
current in the TCRs.

The synchronization rapidly tracks changes in the angles

for the different phases. During the first half cycle following a
short circuit, though, it is a bit unclear what the angles are,
this is due to the fact that it takes some time to extract the
positive and negative phase sequences in the voltage.
The normal situation for the SVC is to run with both TSCs
blocked, i.e. it is running with filters and TCR with an output
in the range of +160 to -60 Mvar. At a network fault the control system will act and fire the TSCs, the time for this action
is about one cycle. At this time the synchronization is perfect.
At fault clearing the TSCs are running and must behave properly for the large phase jump.
Fig 11 shows the valve behavior at a line to ground fault.

y (kV)

V. SYSTEM FAULTS

3.0

0.140

0.120

0.100

4.0

0.200

0.180

0.160

Fig. 11. Line to ground fault.

2.0
1.0
0.0

3.0

PhiCA

PhiBC

PhiAB

2.0

y (rad)

1.0
0.0
-1.0
-2.0
-3.0
1.100

1.125

1.150

1.175

1.200

Fig. 10. Line to line fault.

V+

FSL : Graphs

40

DQ

LP

Eca2

Ebc2

Eab2

30
20
10
y (kV)

The valve firing synchronization system is based on a

phase locked loop (PLL) and a correction signal for negative
sequence voltage content and rapid angular changes in the
positive sequence voltage. The PLL works on the positive
sequence voltage on the SVC MV busbar.

At a three phase fault the change in positive sequence voltage angle is normally moderate. More interesting is that the
positive sequence voltage may become so low that it is impossible to define an angle, fig 12. A voltage below 0.3 pu is
considered inconclusive with regard to its angle. At such a
situation it is not possible to fire the thyristor valves. All
valves are blocked 20 ms after a low voltage is detected, they
are deblocked again 15 ms after a voltage recovery above 0.3
pu. At this point the synchronization is perfect again.

0
-10
-20
-30
-40
0.100

PLL

DQ

Fig 11. Synchronization system

LP

ab
bc
ca

0.120

0.140

0.160

0.180

0.200

Fig. 12 Three phase fault.

B. New Control Functions for Faster Voltage Recovery

During a short circuit in the power grid the positive sequence voltage is depressed. The SVC runs fully capacitive.

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6
Fig. 14. New control function.

The result of the action of the new control function is

shown below, fig 15.
JAM : Graphs
Vresp

y (pu)

1.50

0.70
Bprim

y (pu)

6.0

-1.0
Current TSC1 - Iab1

Current TSC1- Ibc1

Current TSC1-Ica1

Current TSC2 - Iab2

Current TSC2 - Ibc2

Current TSC2 - Ica2

Iba_TCR

Icb_TCR

Iac_TCR

y (kA)

12.5

-12.5
12.5

y (kA)

In case of a lightly loaded system, a temporary overvoltage

may occur at fault clearing. The primary reason for the overvoltage is that the power system cannot absorb the reactive
generation from the SVC. A standard control system has to
wait until the voltage has exceeded its set voltage until the
regulator can start reducing the susceptance order to the main
circuit. This inevitably results in an overvoltage with a duration of at least one cycle. In the studied system, voltages in
excess of 1.5 pu may occur. Many SVC around the world do
not run capacitively until after fault clearing because there
were no efficient ways to resolve this problem.
In the graph below, fig 13, a simulation of the temporary
overvoltage is shown

-12.5
5.0

Vresp

y (pu)

1.50

y (pu,kA)

JAM : Graphs

0.100

0.70

Current TSC1-Ica1

Current TSC1- Ibc1

y (kA)

Current TSC1 - Iab1

-12.5

Current TSC2 - Iab2

Current TSC2 - Ibc2

Current TSC2 - Ica2

Iba_TCR

Icb_TCR

Iac_TCR

y (kA)

12.5

-12.5

y (pu,kA)

5.0

-6.0
0.125

0.100

0.150

0.175

0.200

0.225

Fig. 13. Temporary overvoltage.

The need for faster switching out the TSC at fast voltage
recovery is evident. A new control function was developed
and implemented in the three Saudi SVCs, fig 14. It is shown
to be efficient in simulations, recordings from reality are still
to come. The TSCs are blocked at the first current zero crossing following the fault clearing. At short circuits, at least one
line to line voltage on the SVC MV bus becomes depressed.
This voltage is measured with a minimum time delay on the
large capacitors in one conducting TSC. The voltage is measured with a resistive voltage divider. The new function is triggered by the occurrence of a system fault and it is then
enabled until the expected backup fault clearing time in the
grid.
The capacitor voltage is rectified and low pass filtered. An
instantaneous capacitor voltage is compared with the one
processed. In case the instantaneous value exceeds 0.6 pu and
it is at least twice the processed voltage the firing orders for
the TSCs are cancelled. There is also a second stage where it
is sufficient that the voltage exceeds a certain value.
LP

0.150

0.175

0.200

0.225

VI. OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE

-1.0

12.5

0.125

Fig. 15. New TSC blocking function.

Bprim

y (pu)

6.0

Vcap

-6.0

1
K

LP

e sT

A
B

During the six months operation time elapsed, at the time

of writing this paper, the SVCs have experienced three line to
ground faults in the system. Two of the faults have been in the
Jeddah area, fig 16, 17, and one in Medinah, fig 18, 19. The
faults occurred in the summer of 2008 i.e. during the peak
load season.
The SVC responds quickly to the fault, it goes fully capacitive in one and a half cycle. During the fault the system voltage is constant or even increasing slightly. It can be noted
that the unfaulted phase voltages do not drop much. At the
fault clearing the faulted phase recovers instantaneously. The
SVC reduces its output somewhat (about 100 MVAR) and
runs at 500 Mvars for about 4 cycles, thereafter it gradually
reduces its output to about 200 Mvars during the next 5
cycles. It stays at this output during the recorded period of 30
s. One interesting thing to note is that the faulted phase does
not fully recover to its prefault value within 30 s.

B>A

&
B> X

Block

B >Y

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Fig. 16. TFR recording, Faisaliyah SVC.

At the instant of the fault the phase B to neutral voltage instantaneously drops. The measured positive sequence voltage
in the SVC drops with a time constant of about 10 ms. This is
the time needed for phase sequence separation and harmonic
filtering. The voltage regulator goes fully capacitive in just a
little more than one cycle. The time for the main circuit to run
fully capacitive on all three phases is one and a half cycle.
The delay is due to the sampling effect, each phase can only
start conducting on the zero crossing of their voltages. The
TSCs start to conduct with a minimum of transients. At fault
clearing the TSCs remain in service. The currents are still
with a minimum of transients.
The fault in Medinah (fig 18, 19) is similar to the one in
Jeddah. The major difference it that the fault occurs at 08.45
in this case compared with 04:45 in the previous. At this later
time the load in the system is heavier. There is a larger asymmetry during the faults, one of the unfaulted phases is depressed while the third one remains unaffected. The recovery
becomes somewhat slower and the SVC stays at full output
for a longer period of time. It should still be noted that full
capacity is needed only during some tenths of a second. The
sustained asymmetry after the fault is interesting. In the TSC
currents a second harmonic current can be seen clearly. The
source for this current is a slight saturation in the power transformer. It should then be noted that all transformers in Saudi
have a saturation voltage that exceeds the maximum operational by 10%, this is also the case with the SVC transformers.

Fig. 17. Zoomed TFR recording, Faisaliyah SVC.

Fig. 18. TFR recording, Medinah south SVC.

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The typical SVC large signal response time (from

zero to full output) is 1.5 cycles with discharged capacitors.
The typical SVC small signal response time is 2.5
cycles at a strong power system, resulting in 2 cycles
in the weak system without retuning.
SVCs having a rating larger than 10% of the network
strength requires a control gain that varies with the
SVC output.
VIII. REFERENCES

Periodicals:
[1]
[2]
Fig. 19. Zoomed TFR recording, Medinah south SVC.

J. Shaffer, Air Conditioner Response to Transmission Faults, IEEE

Trans. On Power System, Vol. 12, No. 2, May 1997.
R. Koessler, W. Qiu, M. Patel and H. Clark ,Voltage Stability Study of
the PJM System Following Extreme Disturbances, IEEE Trans. On Power Systems,Vol.22, No.1, February 2007

Books:
From the operational experience it can be concluded that
the SVCs are efficient in supporting the positive sequence
voltage during and following single line to ground faults. The
SVC reaction time is short and the TSCs behave correctly
during the disturbances. Supporting the positive sequence
voltage most efficiently means running all SVC phases fully
capacitive. The disadvantage is that also the unfaulted phases
may be raised above maximum continuous voltage. Such a
rise could saturate the SVC power transformer. During the
fault this is shown not to be a problem. The remaining unbalance after the fault was not expected. It can be seen that the
SVC transformer saturates slightly. Maybe, it would be advantageous to run the SVC unsymmetrically during a few minutes after fault clearing.

[3]

R. Mohan Mathur, R. K. Varma, Thyristor.based FACTS controllers for

electrical transmission systems, New York: Wiley, 2002.

Papers from Conference Proceedings (Published):

[4]

[5]

Saleh M. Bamasak, Rayed A. Al-Harthi and B. Thorvaldsson, Design,

operation and protection aspects of the three +600/-60 Mvar SVC project
at western network of Saudi Arabia, GCC-Cigr Power 2008, Manama,
Bahrain
D. Dickmander, B. Thorvaldsson, G Strmberg, D.Osborn, A Poitras, D.
Fischer, Control system design and performance verification for the Chester, Maine static var compensator, IEEE /PES 1991 summer meeting, San
Diego, California

Standards:
[6]

IEEE Guide for the Functional Specification of Transmission Static Var

Compensators, IEEE Standard Std 1031-2000, Jan. 2000

IX. BIOGRAPHIES
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The most important conclusions drawn from the project are:

Motor stalling or voltage collapse problems are evident in power systems with a high degree of induction motor loads such as systems with frequent use of
air conditioners.
SVCs are efficient in supporting the positive sequence voltage during faults. The speed of induction
motors can then be maintained at reasonable levels.
It is important that the SVCs run at a high capacity
during the faults. The quicker the SVC response the
smaller ratings are needed. In case the SVCs becomes active first after fault clearing very large ratings are required.
Short time rating is sufficient, only a few seconds
operation is needed.
SVCs are robust and can run during faults and during
fault clearing.
The SVCs need to be able to block TSCs immediately after fault clearing in order not to produce temporary overvoltages at light load situations.

Ahmed H. Al Mubarak was born in Al-Hassa,

Saudi Arabia in 1970. He did his B.S. Electrical
Engineering degree from King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in
1994. Mr. Ahmed is presently working as Manager
in Transmission Asset Development Dept., Saudi
Electricity Company, Dammam Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ahmeds main fields of interests are power
system analysis, FACTS devices & control, 380kV
Interconnection Study
Saleh Bamasak was born in Jeddah,
Saudi
Arabia in 1977. He received his B.S. and M.S. degree in electrical engineering from KFUPM (Saudi
Arabia) in 2001 and 2005 respectively.
He joined SEC-East protection engineering division in 2002. Mr. Bamasak is a member of Cigre
WG B5.10 and also secretary of GCC-Cigre Study
Commettee-3. He has published several papers in
different international conferences Cigre, IEEE,
UPEC, and PSCC. His research interest includes;
Protection systems, Application of FACTS devices,
Electricity market and deregulation.

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9
Bjrn Thorvaldsson was born in Gteborg,
Sweden in 1959. He received his MSEE degree from
Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden in
1983.
Mr. Thorvaldsson has been with ABB since
1983. He has spent most of his career in ABB
FACTSs research and development department in
Vsters Sweden. He holds a position as Senior
Specialist in Static Var Compensator system design.
His main interest is in SVC main circuit and control
system design. He has authored a number of technical papers.
Mikael Halonen (M2006) was born in
Vsters, Sweden, in 1970. He received his M.Sc.
degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal
Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 1996.
He currently is working for ABB within its FACTS
Division where he is involved in projects concerning
reactive power compensation for voltage stability and
control. He has performed numerous systems and
design studies to determine SVC size, component
rating and SVCs interaction with power systems. At
present he is one of the managers of the ABB
FACTS System Design group in Sweden.
Rolf Grnbaum (M2001), received his M.Sc.
degree in Electrical Engineering from Chalmers
University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
He is currently working for ABB AB within its Power Systems - FACTS Division, where he is Regional
Marketing Manager of FACTS and Reactive Power
Compensation Systems.
Mr. Grnbaum has been active in ABB and previously in Asea for a number of years. Before that,
he was employed by DISA Elektronik in Skovlunde,
Denmark, where he was involved in marketing of
scientific equipment for fluid flow research. He also
has held positions as Scientific Counsellor in the
Swedish Foreign Service.

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