Investigation of inertia response and rate of change of frequency in low rotational inertial scenario of synchronous dominated system

Abstract

The shift to a sustainable energy future is becoming more reliant on large-scale deployment of renewable and distributed energy resources raising concerns about frequency stability. Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) is necessary as a system inertia metric in order for network operators to perform control steps to preserve system operation. This paper presents in a straightforward and illustrative way several relevant aspects of the inertia response and RoCoF calculation that could help to understand and explain the implementation and results of inertial response controllers on power converter-based technologies. Qualitative explanations based on illustrative numerical experiments are used to cover the effects on the system frequency response of reduced rotational inertia in synchronous dominated power systems. One main contribution of this paper is making evident the importance of the governor action to avoid the synchronous machine taking active power from the system during the recovering period of kinetic energy in an under frequency event.