Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has developed the SVC-DiamondTMstatic synchronous compensator (STATCOM), a voltage source converter (VSC) shunt reactive power compensator with a modular multilevel converter (MMC). The commercial launch is targeted sometime in or after 2016.
The new SVC-DiamondTM helps strengthen the power network when renewable energy resources such as solar and wind are introduced. Since renewable energy is derived from natural sources, any solution is required to solve power-quality issues, such as voltage variation and voltage transmission stability. SVC-DiamondTM, as a reactive power compensator, deploys the most effective method for responding to such issues.
Furthermore, Mitsubishi Electric will perform the precise system studies matched to user needs to provide optimum solutions and maximum quality based on real-time simulations.
Renewable energy businesses, including wind and photovoltaic power generation, are rapidly growing worldwide. In the USA, renewable energy installed capacity is expected to quadruple from 81 gigawatts in 2011 to 321 gigawatts in 2030. In Europe, offshore wind power market is rapidly growing, and is expected to increase from 5 gigawatts in 2012 to 40 gigawatts in 2020.
One of the key issues for utilities, however, is renewable energy output is unstable due to generation based on natural phenomenon, and thus necessary to improve power quality such as controlling harmonics and fluctuating voltages. Mitsubishi Electric’s dynamic reactive power compensation capability is expected to realize optimum solutions that respond to the need for improved power quality. The market scale is expected to reach US$ 2 billion level in 2018 with annual 5% growth rate.