In recent decades, the rapid rise in electricity demand has compelled transmission and distribution systems to operate at almost their maximum capacity. This can pose numerous technical challenges such as excessive power losses, voltage and transient instabilities, as well as reduced power quality and reliability. Employment of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) devices can be an effective approach to obviate such challenges and reinforce the power system functionality. Nevertheless, FACTS devices require a high initial investment, and hence their optimal allocation in terms of various aspects such as type, size and location is of utmost importance. This cannot be achieved without the deployment of optimization techniques. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing proposals for the enhancement of power system performance adopting FACTS devices. Adhering to that, an in-depth analysis is carried out, in which the most pertinent options are classified into specific groups based on their optimization objectives. Finally, a comparative analysis is accomplished in which the main attributes and drawbacks of each optimization technique are presented.

Since the inception of industrialization, power system has been an indispensable aspect of economy. With the progression of time, technology has impalpably commingled into our lifestyle. Alongside blooming technologies, energy demand is proliferating and power companies are begetting energy at their best to quench it. Growing reliance on power system has brought its quality into more advertence. Various electronic devices and topologies have been invented to enhance power quality and reliability; numerous others are still underway. During the course, power system has grown to an intricate network of sources, loads and control devices, leading to various issues such as transmission congestion and high losses. This paper discusses ways to ameliorate congestion and gives an overview of relationship between our present energy resources and ecological threats like global warming. Moreover, it points out various power system problems such as energy losses and transients. The necessity of FACTS devices has also been elaborated alongside their classification and comparison. Finally, numerous topologies and optimization methods proposed in the technical literature have been classified and analyzed to alleviate power system conundrums, and a glimpse into future energy trends is presented.