Abstract: With the development of high voltage direct current transmission, the problem of reactive power compensation has become increasingly prominent. The large synchronous condensers are ideal for reactive power compensation because of fast reactive response and fault crossing ability. Firstly, project background of synchronous condenser is introduced. Secondly, control strategies including static frequency converter(SFC) starting method, coordinated control strategies of reactive power-voltage and power system voltage regulator (PSVR) control method in excitation system are described. Finally, experiments are designed and performed to validate proposed control strategy. The results show that proposed control strategy can be used to meet starting and operation requirements of synchronous condenser.