Application of series capacitors to the east-central tie lines in Saudi Arabia

The paper presents the planning and development aspects for the application of series capacitors to increase the power transfer capabilities of the transmission tie lines between the east and central regions of Saudi Arabia. At present, there are two main 380 kV connections between the east and central power systems which have a stability limit of about 2100 MW under double contingency criteria. A decision was made to install 50% series compensation on these lines to increase the transfer capability of these lines by about 500 MW. The effect of series compensation on the overall system stability is evaluated for different power transfer levels.