An Operational Resilience Metric to Evaluate Inertia and Inverter-based Generation on the Grid

Abstract

In an effort to reduce carbon emissions there has been considerable effort to increase the penetration of inverter-based renewable energy sources. The adoption of renewable generation over conventional inertia-based generation sources is forming considerable challenges for the operation and stability of the power system. The reduced inertia in power systems has resulted in a grid where frequency changes occur more rapid after a disturbance. Because of this, it is important to understand the stability of the system and the size of disturbance it is capable of withstanding. Therefore, this paper presents a resilience metric that evaluates the maximum size of disturbance a systems can withstand based on the system inertia and the primary frequency control of inverter and inertia-based generation. The results are shown visually and are based on the real-time operation of generation units and their characteristics such as latency, ramp rates, and energy constraints. It is demonstrated that the real-time output of the generating units has an effect on the size of disturbance that a system can withstand. It is expected that this type of analysis can help operators increase the resilience of power systems in the future.