Not just volatile loads; also contingencies like a big generator tripping offline.
Inertia is the actual physical connection between frequency and gen-load imbalance. Without enough of it, even the fastest IBRs can't respond in time to arrest falling (or rising) frequency.
Yep, that's why I mentioned them earlier - they're just awful rare at the moment, and they need flywheels to supply fault current properly which not every installation is getting at the moment.
Well they also just cannot supply fault current, which is a consequence of them being power electronics and not a synchronous machine. Without that protection systems on the grid just stop working.
I've seen some interesting work about fast response from storage to arrest freq issues
Yeah, I'm curious about the role storage could play. If you had properly configured power electronics (that's a big if), it seems like the substantial amount of batteries we're likely to have on the grid would be capable of large current injections in aggregate.
Comments
- no they can't
What I'm talking about when I say inertia IBRs are physically incapable of providing
Inertia is the actual physical connection between frequency and gen-load imbalance. Without enough of it, even the fastest IBRs can't respond in time to arrest falling (or rising) frequency.
Been running stability pathfinders on that in GB - if you’d like to check it out, there’s a summary here:
https://youtu.be/2m11uCU9IUU?si=n-c-_zIxbDbdmTnO
I've seen some interesting work about fast response from storage to arrest freq issues
Grid forming inverters
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/90256.pdf