A vision of electricity network congestion management with FACTS and HVDC

This paper at first reviews the needs of the advanced FACTS and HVDC applications for future power systems in Europe, then discusses general principles of congestion management, which depend on market models, market policy and electricity network conditions. In connection with this, congestion management approaches that have been applied in different electricity markets are reviewed and compared. Based on these discussions, the impact of renewable energy particularly wind generation on electricity network congestion management and the imposed challenges on congestion management are presented. It has been recognized that applications of the Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) and HVDC technologies together with the Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) may be cost effective and innovative control solutions to effectively manage the network congestion while ensuring the electricity network flexible enough to meet new and less predictable supply and demand conditions in competitive electricity markets.