High voltage automatic power factor control/reactive power compensation systems are used everywhere that motors are still directly operated without power electronics, or other consumers with a low inductive cosφ place strain on the grid with reactive power in addition to their active-power requirements. Local supply of this reactive power by means of compensation systems relieves the burden on the supply grid and reduces losses.

A Static Synchronous Compensator/STATCOM/SVG is a voltage regulating device. It is based on a power electronics voltage source converter (VSC) and can act as either a source or sink of reactive AC power. It is a member of the flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) family which detects and instantly compensates for voltage fluctuations or flicker, as well as controls power factor.