Intelligent local and hierarchical control of FACTS devices

This paper presents an overview of the applications of intelligent control techniques on local and hierarchical control of FACTS devices. These control techniques are superior to the conventional linear/nonlinear control schemes in the sense that they are independent of any mathematical model of the power system to be controlled. In addition, they do not depend on the operating conditions and the configuration of the system to which the FACTS device is connected. A Static Compensator (STATCOM) is used as the example in order to compare the performances of the proposed intelligent controllers with those of their linear counterparts. Nevertheless, the ideas put forth in this paper are applicable to other shunt or series FACTS devices as well. Two different control schemes are evaluated: a fuzzy logic based local controller and a neuro-fuzzy hierarchical controller for a STATCOM in a multimachine power system.