Assessment of Reactive Power Management Technologies Considering Their Impacts on Grid Operation

A little noticed aspect of the energy transition process is the necessity of reactive power management in the transmission grids. In Germany, the energy generation from decentralized generation increases drastically especially in distribution and sub-transmission voltage levels. the capacity of big conventional power plants is being reduced in transmission voltage level. Additionally, all nuclear power plants are planned to be switched off within the energy transition actions. The decentralized generators from renewable energy sources are able to provide reactive power to the distribution and sub-transmission grids, if they are operated properly. Since conventional and nuclear power plants are major reactive power sources in transmission grids, additional reactive power compensation technology will be necessary to ensure long- and short-term voltage stability of the transmission grids. Therefore, the performance of commonly used compensation technologies in transmission grid is compared in terms of tackling voltage instability phenomena. As a result, it is shown that the performance of each technology differs significantly in relieving long- and short-term voltage surges.