Modeling and Comparison of Synchronous Condenser and SVC

Abstract

In this thesis, a synchronous condenser is modeled in PSCAD/EMTDC and compared with the PSCAD built-in model. After the model verification, a comparison between a conventional synchronous condenser and a superconducting synchronous condenser is made by simulating different cases in a grid setup. Finally, comparison between a conventional synchronous condenser, a superconducting synchronous condenser and an SVC is made in a grid setup by simulating different factors that affect the performance of reactive power compensation units. The simulations have shown that the difference in the results between the implemented synchronous condenser model and the PSCAD built- in model was less than 5~\%. Moreover, by increasing the order of the solver, more accurate results were obtained. Also, during the faults, injection of more reactive power by the superconducting synchronous condenser than the conventional synchronous condenser due to its low synchronous reactance was observed. As the SVC injects reactive power proportional to the square of its terminal voltage, during faults that cause less voltage drop on its terminals, such as the case observed in single phase to ground faults, it showed a better performance, whereas, during severe faults, such as two phase to ground and three phase to ground faults, synchronous condensers brought the load voltage to the nominal value quicker.