Technical and economic considerations for applying power electronic equipment in transmission and distribution systems

Summary form only given. FACTS and Custom Power technologies can enormously increase the number of options available for reinforcing the transmission and distribution systems. This, however, may add more complication to the decision process for such reinforcements. Furthermore, there are few or no useful standards that enable the users and suppliers to communicate all performance requirements for these specific technologies in an unambiguous manner. This may lead to user expectations that are not always met even if the equipment performs as expected. So far, the long-term experience for the utilization of power electronic equipment is limited to few users. There is also an apparent reluctance to disclose such experience even if it is positive but definitely no open discussion of negative experiences. In this respect many, however, believe that a competitive advantage can be gained if the know-how on applying such technologies is not made available to others. In fact this instead is hurting everyone; it is hindering the application of power electronic equipment on a large scale because every utility and end user that might consider installing them to solve the specific problem at hand lacks the complete practical information on how to do it. Therefore, no sufficient confidence exists to proceed all the way. The suppliers, in turn, could interpret this as a stagnant market that lacks the fast development pace needed to bring up production volumes and bring down costs. Consequently, market prices are not coming down as would be expected if the number of installations is increased