System interaction studies in real-time for the Birchtree SVC

This paper reports on the real-time power system simulator tests that were performed on the actual controls of the Birchtree SVC. The Birchtree SVC and close to 500 km of new 230-kV transmission lines are being placed in service in 2011 to accommodate the firm interconnection of a new 200 MW hydro generating facility in northern Manitoba. The real-time simulator model represented the Manitoba Hydro network in detail within approximately 300 km of the SVC including the Ponton SVC and machine dynamics of several hydro generators. The network was equivalanced outside this area. The main results verify that the two SVCs are electrically-close and required voltage regulator gain adjustment to ensure no adverse interaction. The power oscillation damping (POD) controller was shown to not work well in an islanded configuration. Rather than have dual stabilizer settings, it was decided to disable the POD when operation in the island mode was detected. The SVC controls were confirmed to be immune to severe harmonic distortion caused by geomagnetic induced current.