Hitting a moving target with relocatable SVCs

Many electric utilities find themselves able to satisfy their slowly varying VAr demand (caused by the daily load cycle) and to maintain a good long-term control of power system voltage, by switching in and out banks of capacitors and reactors. Some utilities have made widespread use of SVCs to support their transmission systems, because they provide good local voltage control and rapid VAr support in emergencies. This paper describes how, by incorporating features into the design of an SVC which facilitate its future relocation, the risk is removed that these valuable plant items will become redundant, yet will be stranded on the power system at a point where they can no longer contribute usefully to its system operation. The flexibility resulting from relocatability can therefore be of great assistance to power system planners (and accountants) when they seek to identify the value of SVCs for their systems.