The improvement of power electronics and its application in Power Systems introduced a new technology denominated FACTS - Flexible AC Transmission Systems. The FACTS concept includes equipment for reactive compensation, voltage regulation and static and dynamic control of the active power flow in transmission lines. The FACTS equipment under recent researches is showing new perspectives for power systems controlling, which were not achieved with conventional compensators. Among the researched FACTS equipment, there is the Unified Power Flow Controller. The UPFC provides a simultaneous and independent control of the active power flow and the voltages in the system. The main objective of this study is to analyze the steady state operation of the UPFC applied to long lines, specially the case fo a 2400 km line. Two extreme cases are discussed: compensation under rated load and compensation under load rejection. The obtained results with the UPFC are compared with previous results from a compensation performed with series capacitors and shunt reactors. Thus, this study presents the advantages of the UPFC in regard of other equipment and the possibilities offered to the transmission systems due to the new provided alternatives for power flow controlling.