scholarly journals On the Electrostatic Inertia in Microgrids with Inverter-Based Generation Only—An Analysis on Dynamic Stability

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Sanduleac ◽  
Lucian Toma ◽  
Mircea Eremia ◽  
Irina Ciornei ◽  
Constantin Bulac ◽  
...  

Microgrids are about to change the architecture and the operation principles of the future power systems towards smartness and resiliency. Power electronics technologies are key enablers for novel solutions. In this paper we analyze the benefits of a “microgrid by design” architecture (MDA), using a solid-state transformer (SST) as a low-voltage grid-former and inverter-based generation only. In this context, the microgrid stability is maintained with the help of “electrostatic energy inertia” that can be provided by the capacitor connected to the DC busbar behind the SST inverter topology. This happens in a natural way, alike the mechanical inertia in power systems with synchronous machines, however without depending on frequency and without the need of a rotational inertia. This type of microgrid always operates (both fully connected to the main grid or in islanding mode) with all the necessary mechanisms needed to maintain the microgrid stable—no matter of the perturbations in the upstream of the point of common coupling (PCC). In the case of microgrids with inverter-based generation only (including the energy storage systems), there is no mechanical inertia and different stability mechanisms need to be applied compared to the stability principle of the classical power systems. Our proposed mechanism differentiates from the recently proposed stability assessments of microgrids based on virtual synchronous generators from the control theory perspective. This paper is a continuation of our previous work where the MDA was first introduced. The use-cases and scenarios are based on realistic and yet reasonable complexities, by coupling the disturbance magnitude with the voltage stability limit in power grids. The paper finds meaningful disturbances to test the electrostatic energy inertia at the boundaries of grid stability, as guidance to understand the range of voltage variation for extreme conditions. The results show that in microgrids with inverter-based generation only and passive loads (RLC type) the operation is no longer frequency dependent. The energy of the DC busbar capacitor as electrostatic energy inertia of the MDA has a role similar to that of the rotational machines in classical grids in terms of maintaining dynamic stability, however impacting two different types of stability.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2115
Author(s):  
Mostafa Abdollahi ◽  
Jose Ignacio Candela ◽  
Andres Tarraso ◽  
Mohamed Atef Elsaharty ◽  
Elyas Rakhshani

Nowadays, modern power converters installed in renewable power plants can provide flexible electromechanical characteristics that rely on the developed control technologies such as Synchronous Power Controller (SPC). Since high renewable penetrated power grids result in a low-inertia system, this electromechanical characteristic provides support to the dynamic stability of active power and frequency in the power generation area. This goal can be achieved through the proper tuning of virtual electromechanical parameters that are embedded in the control layers of power converters. In this paper, a novel mathematical pattern and strategy have been proposed to adjust dynamic parameters in Renewable Static Synchronous Generators controlled by SPC (RSSG-SPC). A detailed dynamic modeling was obtained for a feasible design of virtual damping coefficient and virtual moment of inertia in the electrometrical control layer of RSSG-SPC’s power converters. Mathematical solutions, modal analysis outcomes, time-domain simulation results, and real-time validations of the test in IEEE-14B benchmark confirm that the proposed method is an effective procedure for the dynamic design of RSSG-SPC to provide these dynamic stability supports in grid connection.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meysam Saeedian ◽  
Bahram Pournazarian ◽  
S. Sajjad Seyedalipour ◽  
Bahman Eskandari ◽  
Edris Pouresmaeil

Integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into power systems is growing due to eco-friendly concerns and ever-increasing electricity demand. Voltage source converters (VSCs) are the main interface between RESs and power grids, which have neither rotational inertia nor damping characteristics. Lack of these metrics make the power grid sensitive to frequency disturbances and thereby under frequency, to load shedding activation or even large-scale collapse. In this regard, the contribution of this paper is to develop a new control technique for VSCs that can provide virtual inertia and damping properties with the DC-link capacitors inhered in the DC-side of grid-tied VSCs. The applied VSC is controlled in the current controlled model, with the capability of injecting extra active power with the aim of frequency support during perturbations. The dynamics assessment of the proposed platform is derived in detail. It is revealed that the control scheme performs in a stable region even under weak-grid conditions. Finally, simulations are conducted in MATLAB to depict the efficacy and feasibility of the proposed method. The results show that frequency deviation is mitigated under step up/down changes in the demand, and the rate of change of frequency is improved by 47.37% compared to the case in which the synthetic inertia loop is canceled out.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Efim Sturov

<p>Modern electrical networks are transformed through the use of intermittent sources of energy, such as small-scale photovoltaic installations and wind turbines. By reducing the carbon footprints associated with centralised power grids, they are made more vulnerable to contingent under-frequency events. The renewable energy sources can't provide the required rotational inertia to make the power grid's frequency stable and to be able to assist in restoring the frequency. In New Zealand, Transpower (system operator) is responsible for normalising the frequency in case of contingent events to avoid blackouts in the networks.    In case of contingent events in power grids, additional power must be delivered to the networks with the use of primary frequency support systems. Internationally these systems are represented by under loaded power plants, where power output can be adjusted by controlling the primary governor output. This approach incurs no-load running costs and to avoid these costs generation units should be maintained at rest. The most efficient and technically feasible solution is to use synchronous generators that are already present in the power grids or can be additionally delivered to the grids as stand-alone units. However, with the use of the traditional synchronisation method, the generators cannot be synchronised with power grids in a short timeframe (up to 10 s in some countries).   To overcome this disadvantage, a novel synchronisation approach should be designed to synchronise synchronous generators from rest of the electrical networks. This thesis proves that it can be achieved by a ballistic synchronisation approach (and then the improved 2-stage ballistic approach), which computes and follows an acceleration trajectory which simultaneously synchronises both phase and frequency. To achieve this fast acceleration a novel environmentally friendly small-scale compressed air energy storage (ss-CAES) system has been designed. This system utilises a hydraulic drivetrain which transmits very high torque directly to the shaft of a synchronous generator, thus enabling its rapid acceleration.  The hydraulic drivetrain is composed of a proportional throttle valve and a variable-displacement hydraulic motor. The central controller from National Instruments outputs a voltage that controls the opening of the proportional valve. It changes the flowrate in the main hydraulic circuit, meaning that it is possible to control the output torque and velocity of the hydraulic motor. Since it is coupled to a synchronous generator, the control system can control the dynamics of the drivetrain by changing its voltage output.   Computer simulations indicate that this approach enables very rapid synchronisation of a model system to the grid in < 1.5 s at a 100-kW scale. The modelling of the prototype helped to verify the control parameters of the system before the implementation of the algorithm built into the hardware. It should be noted that this model was simulated with the use of the corresponding manufacturer's data. To increase the accuracy of the mathematical model and verify the control parameters, the system components were experimentally characterised with the use of a ubiquitous high-speed data acquisition system.  It resulted in a realistic and accurate mathematical model of the complex electro-hydraulic system, despite the well-known challenges of modelling the hydraulic domain. This model was utilised for the tuning of the control parameters of the system before its experimental testing. Experimental runs confirmed the feasibility of the proposed acceleration and synchronisation approach for synchronisation from the rest of the generator in < 4 s.</p>


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 3412
Author(s):  
Asghar Sabati ◽  
Ramazan Bayindir ◽  
Sanjeevikumar Padmanaban ◽  
Eklas Hossain ◽  
Mehmet Rida Tur

Voltage collapse in power systems is still considered the greatest threat, especially for the transmission system. This is directly related to the quality of the power, which is characterized by the loss of a stable operating point and the deterioration of voltage levels in the electrical center of the region exposed to voltage collapse. Numerous solution methods have been investigated for this undesirable degradation. This paper focuses on the steady state/dynamic stability subcategory and techniques that can be used to analyze and control the dynamic stability of a power system, especially following a minor disturbance. In particular, the failure of one generator among the network with a large number of synchronous generators will affect other synchronous generators. This will become a major problem and it will be difficult to find or resolve the fault in the network due to there being too many variables, consequently affecting the stability of the entire system. Since the solution of large matrices can be completed more easily in this complex system using the Householder method, which is a small signal stability analysis method that is suggested in the thesis, the detection of error and troubleshooting can be performed in a shorter period of time. In this paper, examples of different rotor angle deviations of synchronous generators were made by simulating rotor angle stability deviations up to five degrees, allowing the system to operate stably, and concluding that the system remains constant.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 2998-3003
Author(s):  
M. A. Aman ◽  
S. Ahmad ◽  
B. Noor ◽  
F. W. Karam

Electric power systems are enforced to operate near to their stability limit due to the fast increase in power demand. Therefore, voltage stability has become a primary concern. The main cause of voltage variations is the imbalance between generation and consumption. In order to mitigate variations in voltage profile, most of the modern electric power systems are adopting new emerging technologies such as distributed generation. Validation of standard voltage optimization is a difficult task when distributed generation is integrated to medium and low voltage networks. Integration of distributed generation (DG) will have diverse impacts on voltage levels when connected un-deterministically to the electric distribution system. This paper analyzes both the impacts of un-deterministic large and small size DG on voltage profile. Feasible solutions by incorporating reactors and increasing cross sectional area of cables, variation in voltage profile were mitigated. Detailed simulations were performed in ETAP by modeling and evaluating Kohat road grid station situated in Peshawar, Pakistan. The results anticipated that this approach can be useful to ensure standard voltage profile and better utilization of un-deterministic DG units.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Sun ◽  
E. de Jong ◽  
Xiongfei Wang ◽  
Dongsheng Yang ◽  
Frede Blaabjerg ◽  
...  

To prepare for the future high penetration level of renewable energy sources, the power grid’s technical boundaries/constraints for the correct operation of powerelectronics interfaced devices need to be further examined and defined. This paper investigates the challenge of integrating Voltage Source Converters (VSC) into low inertia power grids, where the system frequency can vary rapidly due to the low kinetic energy buffer available, which used to be provided by the rotational inertia of synchronous generators. The impact of rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) on the PLL dynamics and its subsequent influence on the VSC power stage output is explained. The Bonaire island network is presented as case study. The performance of the VSC is analyzed under a fast ROCOF event, which is triggered by a short circuit fault. A down-scaled experiment is used to validate the Bonaire island network simulation results. It shows that the phase angle error measured by the synchronous-reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) is proportional to the slope of the ROCOF and inversely proportional to its controller integral gain constant.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Efim Sturov

<p>Modern electrical networks are transformed through the use of intermittent sources of energy, such as small-scale photovoltaic installations and wind turbines. By reducing the carbon footprints associated with centralised power grids, they are made more vulnerable to contingent under-frequency events. The renewable energy sources can't provide the required rotational inertia to make the power grid's frequency stable and to be able to assist in restoring the frequency. In New Zealand, Transpower (system operator) is responsible for normalising the frequency in case of contingent events to avoid blackouts in the networks.    In case of contingent events in power grids, additional power must be delivered to the networks with the use of primary frequency support systems. Internationally these systems are represented by under loaded power plants, where power output can be adjusted by controlling the primary governor output. This approach incurs no-load running costs and to avoid these costs generation units should be maintained at rest. The most efficient and technically feasible solution is to use synchronous generators that are already present in the power grids or can be additionally delivered to the grids as stand-alone units. However, with the use of the traditional synchronisation method, the generators cannot be synchronised with power grids in a short timeframe (up to 10 s in some countries).   To overcome this disadvantage, a novel synchronisation approach should be designed to synchronise synchronous generators from rest of the electrical networks. This thesis proves that it can be achieved by a ballistic synchronisation approach (and then the improved 2-stage ballistic approach), which computes and follows an acceleration trajectory which simultaneously synchronises both phase and frequency. To achieve this fast acceleration a novel environmentally friendly small-scale compressed air energy storage (ss-CAES) system has been designed. This system utilises a hydraulic drivetrain which transmits very high torque directly to the shaft of a synchronous generator, thus enabling its rapid acceleration.  The hydraulic drivetrain is composed of a proportional throttle valve and a variable-displacement hydraulic motor. The central controller from National Instruments outputs a voltage that controls the opening of the proportional valve. It changes the flowrate in the main hydraulic circuit, meaning that it is possible to control the output torque and velocity of the hydraulic motor. Since it is coupled to a synchronous generator, the control system can control the dynamics of the drivetrain by changing its voltage output.   Computer simulations indicate that this approach enables very rapid synchronisation of a model system to the grid in < 1.5 s at a 100-kW scale. The modelling of the prototype helped to verify the control parameters of the system before the implementation of the algorithm built into the hardware. It should be noted that this model was simulated with the use of the corresponding manufacturer's data. To increase the accuracy of the mathematical model and verify the control parameters, the system components were experimentally characterised with the use of a ubiquitous high-speed data acquisition system.  It resulted in a realistic and accurate mathematical model of the complex electro-hydraulic system, despite the well-known challenges of modelling the hydraulic domain. This model was utilised for the tuning of the control parameters of the system before its experimental testing. Experimental runs confirmed the feasibility of the proposed acceleration and synchronisation approach for synchronisation from the rest of the generator in < 4 s.</p>


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Nasser Hosseinzadeh ◽  
Asma Aziz ◽  
Apel Mahmud ◽  
Ameen Gargoom ◽  
Mahbub Rabbani

The main purpose of developing microgrids (MGs) is to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into the power grid. RESs are normally connected to the grid via power electronic inverters. As various types of RESs are increasingly being connected to the electrical power grid, power systems of the near future will have more inverter-based generators (IBGs) instead of synchronous machines. Since IBGs have significant differences in their characteristics compared to synchronous generators (SGs), particularly concerning their inertia and capability to provide reactive power, their impacts on the system dynamics are different compared to SGs. In particular, system stability analysis will require new approaches. As such, research is currently being conducted on the stability of power systems with the inclusion of IBGs. This review article is intended to be a preface to the Special Issue on Voltage Stability of Microgrids in Power Systems. It presents a comprehensive review of the literature on voltage stability of power systems with a relatively high percentage of IBGs in the generation mix of the system. As the research is developing rapidly in this field, it is understood that by the time that this article is published, and further in the future, there will be many more new developments in this area. Certainly, other articles in this special issue will highlight some other important aspects of the voltage stability of microgrids.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4776
Author(s):  
Seyed Mahdi Miraftabzadeh ◽  
Michela Longo ◽  
Federica Foiadelli ◽  
Marco Pasetti ◽  
Raul Igual

The recent advances in computing technologies and the increasing availability of large amounts of data in smart grids and smart cities are generating new research opportunities in the application of Machine Learning (ML) for improving the observability and efficiency of modern power grids. However, as the number and diversity of ML techniques increase, questions arise about their performance and applicability, and on the most suitable ML method depending on the specific application. Trying to answer these questions, this manuscript presents a systematic review of the state-of-the-art studies implementing ML techniques in the context of power systems, with a specific focus on the analysis of power flows, power quality, photovoltaic systems, intelligent transportation, and load forecasting. The survey investigates, for each of the selected topics, the most recent and promising ML techniques proposed by the literature, by highlighting their main characteristics and relevant results. The review revealed that, when compared to traditional approaches, ML algorithms can handle massive quantities of data with high dimensionality, by allowing the identification of hidden characteristics of (even) complex systems. In particular, even though very different techniques can be used for each application, hybrid models generally show better performances when compared to single ML-based models.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1688 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Birk Jones ◽  
Matthew Lave ◽  
William Vining ◽  
Brooke Marshall Garcia

An increase in Electric Vehicles (EV) will result in higher demands on the distribution electric power systems (EPS) which may result in thermal line overloading and low voltage violations. To understand the impact, this work simulates two EV charging scenarios (home- and work-dominant) under potential 2030 EV adoption levels on 10 actual distribution feeders that support residential, commercial, and industrial loads. The simulations include actual driving patterns of existing (non-EV) vehicles taken from global positioning system (GPS) data. The GPS driving behaviors, which explain the spatial and temporal EV charging demands, provide information on each vehicles travel distance, dwell locations, and dwell durations. Then, the EPS simulations incorporate the EV charging demands to calculate the power flow across the feeder. Simulation results show that voltage impacts are modest (less than 0.01 p.u.), likely due to robust feeder designs and the models only represent the high-voltage (“primary”) system components. Line loading impacts are more noticeable, with a maximum increase of about 15%. Additionally, the feeder peak load times experience a slight shift for residential and mixed feeders (≈1 h), not at all for the industrial, and 8 h for the commercial feeder.


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