Impact of Low Rotational Inertia on Power System Stability and Operation

By Andreas Ulbig, Theodor S. Borsche, Göran Andersson. 2013

834 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Large-scale deployment of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) has led to significant generation shares of variable RES in power systems worldwide. RES units, notably inverter-connected wind turbines and photovoltaics (PV) that as such do not provide rotational inertia, are effectively displacing conventional generators and their rotating machinery. The traditional assumption that grid inertia is sufficiently high with only small variations over time is thus not valid for power systems with high RES shares. This has implications for frequency dynamics and power system stability and operation. Frequency dynamics are faster in power systems with low rotational inertia, making frequency control and power system operation more challenging. This paper investigates the impact of low rotational inertia on power system stability and operation, contributes new analysis insights and offers impact mitigation options.

Subfields: Control and Systems Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/39ef22c9b9480214c514016342cd62f1e3e615cd

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Control and Systems Engineering

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Research Roadmap on Grid-Forming Inverters (2020, background): “Reduced inertia results in a larger rate of change of frequency and more volatile system dynamics, and it also necessitates faster control actions to arrest frequency swings (Ulbig, Borsche, and Andersson 2014).”
Placement and Implementation of Grid-Forming and Grid-Following Virtual Inertia and Fast Frequency Response (2018, background): “In [22], [23] time-domain and spectral metrics such as RoCoF, nadir, and damping ratios are considered.”
Foundations and Challenges of Low-Inertia Systems (Invited Paper) (2018, methodology): “oscillations, one may speculate that the spatial distribution of rotational inertia is very relevant and not just the total system inertia, as shown in the case studies [90], [110], [114].”
An Overview of Assessment Methods for Synchronization Stability of Grid-Connected Converters Under Severe Symmetrical Grid Faults (2019, positive): “Eventually, the rotational inertia, which provides the immediate response to a grid frequency disturbance, will be lost in a power electronic-based power system as power electronic converters do not inherently provide inertia [3], [4].”
Power systems with high renewable energy sources: A review of inertia and frequency control strategies over time (2019, background): “By considering Figure 2: Histogram of equivalent inertia Heq in the German power system during 2012, [32]”
Short term fluctuations of wind and solar power systems (2016, background): “It has also been a practical topic to study how the stability of the power grid can be kept in the lower rotational inertia case (because of high penetration of renewable sources) using some faster control reserves [11, 12].”
High-Level Penetration of Renewable Energy Sources Into Grid Utility: Challenges and Solutions (2020, background): “ch activates load-shedding controller, even at small load-generation mismatch [27]. Furthermore, reduction in reserve power, due to replacement of reserve generating units, causes frequency deviation [28]. Thus, it is imperative to design new controllers for RESs to emulate the behavior of synchrono”