Estimation of Reactive Power Compensation in the European Transmission System

In order to perform AC load flow modelling of the European transmission system, information regarding installed reactive power compensation is required. Due to reasons of commercial sensitivity, such information is rarely made publically available by European TSO’s. Therefore, European models presented in the literature are often limited to DC load flow calculations, whereby voltage magnitudes and reactive power flows are neglected. So as to facilitate full AC modelling of the European system, the following paper presents a method through which the locations and amounts of installed reactive power compensation are estimated. For multiple demand scenarios, the compensation required to facilitate realistic voltage profiles and power flows in the synchronous European transmission system is calculated. The combination of these results provides an estimate of the installed compensation and can therefore be used to pursue AC load flow calculations for various loading and feed-in scenarios in Europe.