In electrical engineering, a synchronous condenser (sometimes syncronous capacitor or synchronous compensator) is a device identical to a synchronous motor, whose shaft is not connected to anything but spins freely.[1] Its purpose is not to convert electric power to mechanical power or vice versa, but to adjust conditions on the electric power transmission grid. Its field is controlled by a voltage regulator to either generate or absorb reactive power as needed to adjust the grid's voltage, or to improve power factor. The condenser’s installation and operation are identical to large electric motors.
Increasing the device's field excitation results in its furnishing magnetizing power (kvars) to the system. Its principal advantage is the ease with which the amount of correction can be adjusted. The energy stored in the rotor of the machine can also help stabilize a power system during short circuits or rapidly fluctuating loads such as electric arc furnaces. Large installations of synchronous condensers are sometimes used in association with high-voltage direct current converter stations to supply reactive power.
Unlike a capacitor bank, the value of reactive power from a synchronous condenser can be continuously adjusted. In addition, reactive power from a capacitor bank decreases with voltage decrease, while a synchronous condenser can increase current as voltage decreases. However, it does have higher losses than a static capacitor bank.[1] Most synchronous condensers connected to electrical grids are rated between 20 Mvar and 200 Mvar and many are hydrogen cooled.
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As the load on a synchronous motor increases, the stator current Ia increases regardless of excitation. For under and over excited motors, the power factor (p.f.) tends to approach 1 with increase in load. The change in power factor is greater than the change in Ia with increase in load.
The magnitude of armature current varies with excitation. The current has large value both for low and high values of excitation. In between, it has minimum value corresponding to a certain excitation. The variations of I with excitation are known as V curves because of their shape.
For the same output load, the armature current varies over a wide range and so causes the power factor also to vary accordingly. When over-excited, the motor runs with leading power factor and with lagging power factor when under-excited. In between, the power factor is unity. The minimum armature current corresponds to unity power factor.
An over-excited synchronous motor has a leading power factor. This makes it useful for power factor correction of industrial loads. Both transformers and induction motors draw lagging currents from the line. On light loads, the power drawn by induction motors has a large reactive component and the power factor has a very low value. The current flowing to supply reactive power creates losses in the power system. In an industrial plant, synchronous motors can be used to supply some of the reactive power required by induction motors. This improves the plant power factor and reduces supply current.
A synchronous condenser provides step-less automatic power factor correction with the ability to produce up to 150% additional Mvars. The system produces no switching transients and is not affected by system electrical harmonics (some harmonics can even be absorbed by synchronous condensers). They will not produce excessive voltage levels and are not susceptible to electrical resonances. Because of the rotating inertia of the condenser, it can provide limited voltage support during short power outages.
The use of rotating synchronous condensers was common through the 1950s. They remain an alternative (or a supplement) to capacitors for power factor correction because of problems that have been experienced with harmonics causing capacitor overheating and catastrophic failures. Synchronous condensers are also very good for supporting voltage. The reactive power produced by a capacitor bank is in direct proportion to the square of its terminal voltage, where a synchronous condenser's reactive power declines less rapidly, and can be adjusted to compensate for falling terminal voltage. This reactive power improves voltage regulation in situations such as starting large motors, or where power must travel long distances from where it is generated to where it is used, as is the case with power wheeling, the transmission of electric power from one geographic region through another within a set of interconnected electric power systems.
Synchronous condensers may also be referred to as Dynamic Power Factor Correction systems. These machines can prove very effective when advanced controls are utilized. A PLC based controller with PF controller and regulator will allow the system to be set to meet a given power factor or can be set to produce a specified amount of reactive power.
On an electric power system, synchronous condensors can be used to control the voltage on long transmission lines, especially for lines with relatively high ratio of inductive reactance to resistance.[2]