The grid of the future and what regulators need to know about it

Janusz Bialek and Mark O’Malley

Chapter Chapter 12 in Handbook on Electricity Regulation, 2025, pp 269-283 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The following features have characterised traditional grids: (i) they were powered by large thermal/hydro/nuclear power stations whose output was fully controllable and therefore predictable; (ii) their technical characteristics were determined by the physics of synchronous machines used to convert mechanical/thermal energy into AC electricity. However, the combined drivers of decarbonisation and reduced costs of variable renewable resources (VRE), such as wind and solar photovoltaics stations, led to increased penetration of VREs with the following consequences: (i) the output of VRE plants is no longer controllable or fully predictable due to vagaries of weather (ii) the system technical characteristics are determined by control algorithms of inverters which connect VRE plants to the grid. This chapter covers the challenges the inverter-based grids pose for power system operation and planning. In particular we cover the resources adequacy challenge and the services challenge (synchronisation, frequency control, voltage control, damping, protection, blackstart and restoration).

Keywords: Renewable energy; Electricity grids; Inverters; Ancillary services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035314348
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