Firefly Algorithm based STATCOM Controller for Enhancement of Power System Dynamic Stability

Nowadays, oscillation due to low frequency is a very serious issue in power system. It affects steady state power transfer which hampers security and economic operation of the system. FACTs devices play a key role to mitigate the low frequency oscillations. Therefore, in this paper STATCOM and its associated controllers are considered in order to damp out oscillations produced due to low frequency in power system and Firefly Algorithm (FA) is also used to optimize the gain values of STATCOM controllers. An extensive simulation of the study system has been implemented using MATLAB/Simulink platform. System responses have been obtained with PSS and also with compensator comprising of both PSS and STATCOM. Time domain simulation studies are utilized to check effectiveness of the FA based proposed controllers. The simulation results obtained revealed that PSS with STATCOM has excellent capabilities in damping power system oscillations with low frequency.