Identification of Critical Buses for FACTS Integration into Nigerian Grid

The transmission component of power system network spans over very large area, covering long distances is highly susceptible to various technical challenges capable of disrupting continuous supply of electric power to load centers. To effectively and efficiently operate the system, all insecure operating states that could result to cascading outages must be quickly detected and mitigated. Consequently, this work investigates the insecure operating states within the Nigeria power grid system considering the integration of Static Var Compensator (SVC). Power flow analysis is performed on the system and line stability index is deployed to monitor the system while gradually increasing reactive power at load buses. The voltage collapse point for all load buses are determined and the weakest identified for compensation. Thus the results obtained show that active and reactive power losses reduce as the bus voltages improve to acceptable limits. The results validate the technical and cost effectiveness of SVC.