Application of Synchronous Condensers for Enhanced Resilience of a Renewable Energy dominated Electric Grid

The extensive integration of renewable sources of energy has caused the number of conventional power plants to go down. This in turn causes a reduction of the system resilience, i.e. the ability of a system to recover from a fault. Synchronous condensers, when included in the grid, contribute to the fault current and provide voltage support thereby enhancing dynamic voltage recovery. This article summarizes the capacity of a synchronous condenser, when connected to the power grid with wind or solar power plants to compensate for reactive power compensation and injection of active power at their point of common coupling. A case, based on a local distribution network, is developed on a 33kV transmission line that feeds into several inductive loads. Simulations are performed in PSIM to display the enhancement of system stability and reduction in power losses while supplying reactive power by activating synchronous condensers to the grid with given practical grid rules.