VSC based FACTS and HVDC: ABB's experience

Pinaki Mitra, Associate Scientist, Grid Systems R&D, ABB Chennai In recent years Voltage Source Converters (VSC) are being used extensively in FACTS and HVDC applications. With the developments in semiconductor devices like insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) and control equipments, VSC based technology has become a very popular solution. In the area of FACTS technology, ABB provides VSC based solutions in the name of SVC Light
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, which is a STATCOM with IGBT based switching. Similarly, in the domain of HVDC, ABB's solution is popularly known as HVDC Light
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.