Increasing the Transfer Capacity of a Corridor Through Power Flow Control

Transmission congestions limit market activities, cause reliability and security problems. To increase the transfer capacity of a corridor, the conventional approach has been to compensate the corridor to the extent possible and to support the voltage through the use of appropriately positioned reactive or VAr compensation. Achieving full control of the power flow on the power grid requires that the impedance of the power lines or the phase angle of the voltage across individual power lines be made variable and controllable. The paper investigates smart alternatives to this problem.