Steady-state analysis of power flow controllers using the power controller plane

This paper presents a new approach which simplifies the steady-state analysis and design of power flow controllers (PFC). The method is independent of the size and complexity of networks. It introduces the power controller plane where two families of nearly decoupled active power characteristics are defined as a function of the phase angle across the PFC: one for the network and the other for the PFC. Limiting cases of each families are used to define a working area which contains all the operating points of a given PFC and where its most stressing operating conditions can be readily identified. With this approach, only a few network cases are needed to perform steady-state PFC studies for both pre- and post-contingency conditions. Because the method looks at networks from the PFC's point of view, it simplifies contingency analysis, the design of PFCs and the definition of simple network equivalents suitable for active power flow studies.