Using CSP to Improve Frequency Stability of Power Grid
November 26, 2018 -- The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and General Electric (GE) have joined forces to tackle an issue that is relatively new ground for the power industry. Five years ago, most people couldn't envision high penetration on the grid of variable-generation renewables such as photovoltaics (PV) and wind. But now, this scenario is becoming a reality, so the topic of maintaining grid stability is huge.
Kara Clark, a former NREL researcher, collaborated with Nicholas Miller and Slobodan Pajic of GE Energy Consulting in a recently published study, 'Concentrating Solar Power Impact on Grid Reliability.'
'The overall problem in their crosshairs was whether the reliability and stability of the power grid is negatively impacted by increased penetration of solar and wind variable-generation technologies,' said Paul Denholm, principal energy analyst at NREL. 'One element of grid stability concerns maintaining frequency within tight system tolerances. PV and wind generators—which are 'non-synchronous' or inverter-based technologies—do not provide traditional inertial and primary frequency response in the same way as conventional thermal and hydro generators. And this difference can decrease the ability of the grid to arrest changes in frequency resulting from large contingency events.'
The NREL/GE study simulated scenarios in which the Western Interconnection of North America meets about 33% of annual demand with solar and wind, and where instantaneous penetration of variable generation on this system is up to about 60%. The system has an historical peak demand of about 152 gigawatts and serves about 80 million people.
Using the industry-standard Positive-Sequence Load Flow model, the researchers explored the impacts on frequency when a large generator goes down. The base case examined only non-synchronous PV and wind. A second case replaced a fraction of the PV with concentrating solar power (CSP) and examined CSP's ability to provide frequency-responsive services. And in a third case, a governor was added to the CSP, where the governor is a device that allows the generator to respond to frequency directly and automatically.
Click here to read full story
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also of Interest from SGO: 3rd Smart Cities International Symposium, January 22-24, 2019, Chicago >> visit website
-
Most popular related searches
Customer comments
No comments were found for Using CSP to Improve Frequency Stability of Power Grid. Be the first to comment!