Power systems security in the case of contingencies is ensured by maintaining adequate "short-term generation reserve". This reserve must be appropriately activated by means of the primary frequency control (PFC). Because the generation is an electro-mechanical process, the primary control reserve controllability is not as fast as required, especially by modern power systems. Since the new improvements achieved on the conventional control methods have not been enough to satisfy the high requirements established, the necessity of enhancing the performance of the PFC has arisen. At present, the new energy storage systems (ESS) are a feasible alternative to store excess energy for substituting for the primary control reserve. In this way, it is possible to combine this new ESS with power converter based flexible ac transmission systems (FACTS). This allows an effective exchange of active power with the electric grid and, thus, enhances the PFC. This paper presents an improved PFC scheme incorporating a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) coupled with a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device. A detailed full model and a control algorithm based on a decoupled current control strategy of the enhanced compensator are proposed. The integrated STATCOM/SMES controller topology includes three level, multi-pulse, voltage source inverters (VSI) with phase control and incorporates a two quadrant, three level, dc-dc chopper as the interface between the STATCOM and the SMES coil. A novel three level control scheme is proposed by using concepts of instantaneous power in the synchronous rotating d-q reference frame. The dynamic performance of the presented control algorithms is evaluated through digital simulation performed by using SimPowetsystems of SIMULINK/MATLAB (TM), and technical analysis is performed to obtain conclusions about the benefits of using SMES devices in the PFC of the electric system. Presently, a laboratory scale prototype device based on digital signal processors (DSP) is being implemented. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.