The Impact of Grid-Forming vs. Grid-Following Converters on Frequency Regulation: Comparing Centralised or Distributed Photovoltaic Generation

Giuseppe Marco Tina, Giovanni Maione () and Domenico Stefanelli
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Marco Tina: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica e Informatica, Università degli Studi di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Giovanni Maione: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica e Informatica, Università degli Studi di Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Domenico Stefanelli: Enel Energy and Commodity Management Italia, 00198 Roma, Italy

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Energy transition strategies point to energy systems that rely mostly on renewable sources, with photovoltaics being the most commonly used and emphasised. The transition from the past to the future of electrical system is characterised by the contrast between centralised and distributed generation, as well as the differences between synchronous machines and static converters and thus by their way to deliver services required for proper system operation, frequency regulation and transient stability. This paper compares the two converter control strategies, grid following and grid forming, for providing frequency regulation service while considering bulk photovoltaic generation at the HV level and MV-connected distributed by PV generation. The analyses reveal the equivalence between large plants and distributed resources for frequency regulation purposes, highlighting the relevance of grid-forming converter and their ability to supply inertia to the system. These results are obtained for the IEEE 14-bus system implemented in Dig Silent PowerFactory.

Keywords: frequency regulation; distributed generation; grid-forming inverters (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: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/23/5827/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/23/5827/ (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:17:y:2024:i:23:p:5827-:d:1526149

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 ().