Frequency Stability Evaluation in Low Inertia Systems Utilizing Smart Hierarchical Controllers

Minas Patsalides, Christina N. Papadimitriou, Venizelos Efthymiou, Roberto Ciavarella, Marialaura Di Somma, Anna Wakszyńska, Michał Kosmecki, Giorgio Graditi and Maria Valenti
Additional contact information
Minas Patsalides: FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Christina N. Papadimitriou: FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Venizelos Efthymiou: FOSS Research Centre for Sustainable Energy, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Roberto Ciavarella: ENEA–Energy Technologies Department, 00196 Rome, Italy
Marialaura Di Somma: ENEA–Energy Technologies Department, 80055 Portici (Naples), Italy
Anna Wakszyńska: Department of Automation and System Analysis, Institute of Power Engineering (IEn) Gdańsk Division, PL80-870 Gdańsk, Poland
Michał Kosmecki: Department of Automation and System Analysis, Institute of Power Engineering (IEn) Gdańsk Division, PL80-870 Gdańsk, Poland
Giorgio Graditi: ENEA–Energy Technologies Department, 80055 Portici (Naples), Italy
Maria Valenti: ENEA–Energy Technologies Department, 80055 Portici (Naples), Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-20

Abstract: The high penetration of the Renewable Energy Sources and other emerging technologies likely to be installed in future power grids will pose new operational challenges to grid operators. One of the main issues expected to affect the operation of the power grid is the impact of inverter-based technologies to the power system inertia and, hence, to system stability. Consequently, the main challenge of the future grid is the evaluation of the frequency stability in the presence of inverter-based systems and how the aforementioned technology can support frequency stability without the help of the rotating masses of the traditional power grid systems. To assess the above problem, this paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the frequency stability in a projection of the real distribution grid in Cyprus with the time horizon to be the year 2030. The power grid under investigation is evaluated with and without the presence of smart hierarchical controllers for providing support to the power system under disturbance conditions. The advanced controllers were applied to manage the available power resource in a fast and effective manner to maintain frequency within nominal levels. The controllers have been implemented in two hierarchical levels revealing useful responses for managing low-inertia networks. The first is set to act locally within a preselected area and the second level effectively supporting the different areas for optimal operation. After undertaking a significant number of simulations for time-series of one year, it was concluded from the results that the local control approach manages to minimize the frequency excursion effectively and influence all related attributes including the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF), frequency nadir and frequency zenith.

Keywords: frequency controller; frequency stability; low inertia; distributed energy resources; disturbance conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3506/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3506/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:13:p:3506-:d:381556

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().