Effect of Unified Power Flow Controller on Power System Performance: A Case Study of Maryland 132/33/11 kv Transmission Station

This work examines the effect of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) on power system performance using Maryland 132/33/11 kV transmission station as a case study. The transmission network consists of Alausa, Police Training College and Mushin 33 kV feeders and T1A-15 MVA, T2A-15 MVA and T3A-15 MVA 33/11 kV tertiary transformers with their respective peak load designated A-F. The developed model equations for the network without and with UPFC were implemented using Matlab/Simulink software (R2009b Version). The system’s performance was further examined by introducing a fault condition on D and E transformers. With A-F as 25, 37.5, 12.5, 12.5, 12.5 and 37.5 MW respectively, the average voltage improved from 0.95297, 0.93832, 0.93952, 0.93123, 0.91937 and 0.95297 p.u. respectively without the UPFC to 0.96142, 0.95560, 0.94782, 0.93838, 0.92755 and 0.96142 p.u. respectively when the UPFC was applied. Similarly, the average power improved from 3.55883, 6.85067, 9.8335, 12.4735, 14.74483 and 6.85067 MW respectively without the UPFC to 3.62233, 6.97133, 10.0095, 12.6952, 15.0113 and 6.97133 MW respectively with the UPFC. Also, for the earth fault introduced on D and E transformers, the average voltage improved from 0.4467 and 0.84005 p.u. respectively without the UPFC to 0.4507 and 0.8475 p.u. respectively with the UPFC. The average power similarly improved from 1.9435 and 5.3665 MW respectively without the UPFC to 1.9775 and 5.4625 MW respectively when the UPFC was applied. The results of this work showed that the application of UPFC on the Maryland transmission network appreciably improved the voltage and power profiles of the system