A Case Study on Control Application of PV-STATCOM for Reactive Power Compensation during Day and Night in a Transmission Network

Abstract

Solar Farms are absolutely idle in the night and even during daytime operate below capacity in early mornings and late afternoons. Thus, the entire expensive asset of solar farms remains highly unutilized. This paper presents novel technologies for utilization of PV solar farm inverter in nighttime for providing multiple benefits to power systems, as well as accomplishing the same objectives during the daytime from the inverter capacity left after production of real power. The new technology transforms a solar farm inverter functionally into a dynamic reactive power compensator known as STATCOM, and termed PVSTATCOM. Novel PVSTATCOM control is employed to significantly enhance the power transfer limit of a long transmission line both in the nighttime and also during daytime even when the solar farm is producing a large amount of real power. This technology can open up new avenues for solar farms to earn revenues apart from the sale of real power.