Communication‐free decentralized power flow control of unified power flow controllers and phase‐shifting transformers in high voltage transmission systems

Conventional phase‐shifting transformers (PST) have been utilized for power flow control in transmission networks for many years. Compared to the slow reacting PSTs, recently trending unified power flow controllers (UPFC) enable much faster power flow control. This paper introduces a decentralized power flow control scheme for power flow controllers (PFCs) without the need for communication between the PFCs. For each PFC, an influence area is defined. The line loading of the transmission lines in this influence area is monitored in real‐time operation and if there is an overloading of a line, a feedback control scheme is used to mitigate the overloading of the line. As the power flow control of UPFC is dependent of the network topology and the UPFC converter limit, additional control measures are introduced to circumvent potential critical scenarios. Supplementary control measures are also developed to increase the robustness of control scheme for the simultaneous operation of UPFC with slow reacting PST. Using RMS simulation in DIgSILENT PowerFactory, the developed control method is validated in the IEEE 68‐Bus NETS/NYPS test bench network. The method is also validated for UPFCs with overlapping influence areas and the combination of fast acting UPFCs and slow acting PST devices.