Optimal Reactive Power Control Strategy of a Hybrid Power System Using Sine Cosine Algorithm and STATCOM-POSICAST Controller

Reactive power mismatches in power systems can cause serious problems, especially making the system unstable. This instability can damage the power grid very quickly, in just a few milliseconds. So, it’s very important to manage reactive power properly during disturbances to keep the system operating safely. Reactive power in power systems is managed by the proper use of FACTS devices. They precisely modify reactive power to correspond with the demands of the system’s load. This study has applied an alternative optimal reactive power management technique to enhance system performance and stability in the presence of minor disturbances. The main goal of this work is to improve reactive power regulation in a standalone wind diesel hybrid power system. It takes advantage of a POSICAST controller and a FACTS device known as a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM). The desired results obtained through the proposed control strategy are compared with the model without using the controller. To modify the controller parameters, similar comparisons are made between the outcomes and the used soft computing algorithms, such as the Sine- Cosine Algorithm (SCA) and Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA).