Optimization of FACTS Devices: Classification, Recent Trends, and Future Outlook

Since the inception of industrialization, power system has been an indispensable aspect of economy. With the progression of time, technology has impalpably commingled into our lifestyle. Alongside blooming technologies, energy demand is proliferating and power companies are begetting energy at their best to quench it. Growing reliance on power system has brought its quality into more advertence. Various electronic devices and topologies have been invented to enhance power quality and reliability; numerous others are still underway. During the course, power system has grown to an intricate network of sources, loads and control devices, leading to various issues such as transmission congestion and high losses. This paper discusses ways to ameliorate congestion and gives an overview of relationship between our present energy resources and ecological threats like global warming. Moreover, it points out various power system problems such as energy losses and transients. The necessity of FACTS devices has also been elaborated alongside their classification and comparison. Finally, numerous topologies and optimization methods proposed in the technical literature have been classified and analyzed to alleviate power system conundrums, and a glimpse into future energy trends is presented.