What Is This Thing Called a STATCOM?

Whether you are a renewables engineer, power quality engineer, or an electrical engineer at a sensitive process plant, this tech talk will teach you what you need to know about STATCOMs and when to use them.

Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOMs) are similar in many ways to NEPSI’s reactive compensation products in that they control reactive power within a power system network. However, where NEPSI’s metal-enclosed solutions (capacitor banks, filter banks, and hybrid shunt reactor/shunt capacitor banks) are classified as a “passive” solution, STATCOMs are classified as an “active” solution and control reactive power based on power electronic devices. Like NEPSI’s “passive” solution, they are shunt connected and they supply both inductive and capacitive vars. 

Because of power electronics, the STATCOM is able to quickly (sub cycle) change its reactive power output by infinitesimal amounts in response to system changes (var/voltage changes). This is why they are often supplied into networks that require voltage sag mitigation and dynamic voltage support due to large dynamic loads changes and major system events, such as transmission line faults or generation outages.

In this Tech Talk Narend Reddy managing director of FACTS Solutions and Planning at AMSC discusses the basics of STATCOMs, their D-VAR system construction and their application in utility, industrial, and renewable power systems. Ratings, STATCOM topology, voltage sag ride-through, flicker, cost, the application of hybrid STATCOM/Capacitor Bank application, and more are discussed.

If you want a meeting invite for future NEPSI Tech Talks click here. You can view this session directly on YouTube here and all NEPSI Tech Talks are recorded so you can watch at any time. For a list with links, click here.

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