In this chapter, an overview of electric power systems is presented. The purpose is to describe the structure and operation of the power system and its evolution to the new smart grids. The first section gives an introduction about the electric grid and its evolution. Then, there is a section with a brief description of the different components of the electric power system: generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption. The third section is related to power system control, explaining why control actions are necessary in the power system to maintain the balance between supply and consumption and to keep constant the system frequency (at 50 or 60 Hz). In order to understand future applications of electric vehicles, it is important to present a fourth section related to fundamentals of the electricity markets. The chapter finishes with a description of the future power systems with high penetration of intermittent renewable energies, energy storage capacity, active demand management, and integration with telecommunication infrastructure.
STATCOM to improve the voltage stability of an electric power system using trajectory sensitivity analysis