System Role of Generation

Leslie Bryans & Alan Kennedy

Generators contribute to
System stability and power quality
Inertia and fault level

Reactive power balance

SONI will discuss

Active power balance

SONI will discuss

What is Inertia
It is the energy stored in generators because they are rotating.
They continue to rotate after the energy source is removed

Inertia
Large spinning machines provide stored energy due to the rotating mass of their rotor, driving turbine shafts etc. Engineers model this as a number of rotating masses. When a disturbance occurs e.g. the unanticipated loss of a generator, the stored energy is released into the system and arrests the rate at which the system speed or frequency changes.

System Frequency Issue

Without wind

With wind

Restorative power

smaller

smaller

Solutions wind farms to contribute to restorative power and system inertia?

Frequency trace NI system only - low inertia

182MW loss 852MW system load
300 250 200 MW 150 100 50 0 -10 -5 0 5 10 Time (secs) 15 20 25 30 50.2 50

unit2

49.8 49.6

frequency

49.2 49 48.8

unit1

48.6 48.4

Hz

49.4

Frequency trace for the combined NI & RoI System - higher inertia
165MW loss 970MW system load
250 50

unit1
200

49.9 49.8 49.7

150 MW

freq

49.6 49.5 Hz

100

49.4

unit 2
50

49.3 49.2 49.1

0 -10 -5 0 5 10 Time (secs) 15 20 25 30

49

Why is the rate of change of system frequency important?

We need to understand this better as it likely to be a limiting factor in accommodating higher levels of wind.
ROCOF protection
Question could this become backup Loss of Mains protection? (DG&SEE with Prof. Jim McDonald)

System effects e.g. traditional generation auxiliary plant trips; CCGT flame outs.
Raised with DG&SEE as requiring investigation

Wind turbines
Fixed speed turbines seem to deliver an inertia of around 4.3MWs/MVA which is similar to traditional plant; so do not reduce system inertia. DFIGs and Fully converted wind farms are presently thought to deliver close to 0MWs/MVA; so at present reduce system inertia.

Work done
In order to understand the problem, we have explored what happens to inertia and rate of change of frequency with very high levels of penetration of wind power on the island of Ireland. This is to understand what we need to tackle rather than alarm the present position.

Inertia, Rate of change of frequency and frequency nadir

80% wind operating (40% energy target)

Inertia summer min (~ 80% wind)

Inertia - winter (~ 80% wind)

400MW trip in Winter 80% wind

50.20 Hz 0.14Hz/s 50.00 49.80 49.60 49.40 No Wind 49.20 49.00 48.80 48.60 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0 WTGs lift 10% in 3 secs WTGs lift 10% in 6 secs WTGs lift 5% in 3 secs WTGs lift 5% in 6 secs WTGs don't lift

400MW trip in Summer 80% wind

50.10 Hz No Wind WTGs lift 10% in 3 secs WTGs lift 10% in 6 secs 49.90 49.80 49.70 49.60 49.50 49.40 49.30 49.20 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0 WTGs lift 5% in 3 secs WTGs lift 5% in 6 secs WTGs don't lift 50.00

Enlarged Graph section 400MW trip in summer 80% wind

50.10 Hz No Wind WTGs lift 10% in 3 secs 0.5Hz/sec 49.90 49.80 49.70 49.60 49.50 49.40 49.30 49.20 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 WTGs lift 10% in 6 secs WTGs lift 5% in 3 secs WTGs lift 5% in 6 secs WTGs don't lift 50.00

Work by UMIST for DG&SEE

DFIGs could deliver inertia as required but require control modifications Hardware transient loading is not an obstacle. ( Prof. Jenkins says that the transient loading on gearboxes, drive trains etc. falls well within that needed for dynamic braking of the turbines.)

Our Proposal
To seek a modification to the NI Grid Code to require wind turbines to provide inertia at 4 6MWs/MVA. This would need to be harmonised with an equivalent provision in the EirGrid Grid Code and Distribution Codes. This will be a world first and waiting does not seem an option.

Fault level
With wind farms

What is Fault level?

Fault level is measured in current or MVA. When a short circuit occurs a large current flows this causes the operation of protective devices (fuses and circuit breakers open) to isolate the fault. Protection systems are designed to isolate only the faulty section of network. Fault level is also a measure of system stiffness which determines power quality issues.

High and Low fault level

Too high fault currents can be hard to interrupt. Too low and the protective devices may not operate. The problem with high penetration of wind farms is too low fault levels. (Work is on-going with DG and SEE for the UK Grid. They are going to study NI as well).

Power quality
Very low fault level results in excessive voltage dips when equipment is switched on.

GB results
With the expected penetration of wind farms in GB 2010 the minimum fault level is reduced by a few percentage points on average. In some places because traditional generation is off-the bars the fault level is reduced by 70%. This leads to problems with distance protection (the main 110kV system protection). In particular, resistance faults may result in mal-operation of distance protection. The NI situation is likely to be much worse because we only have 3 traditional generating units operating at periods of low fault level.

Our proposal
To ensure that the fault level tools developed by DG&SEE (which assess fault level throughout the range of generation dispatches) are applied to the NI network and to consider what further action may be needed. At the extremewe may need to convert the distance protection schemes to unit schemes which is very expensive. Also, DG&SEE have not considered the knockon effect of low fault level on the distribution protection systems. This may be more serious and potentially intolerable. Further work is required.

Reactive power

Reactive Power Balance

Static Balance To ensure an adequate voltage everywhere on the system and provide reactive power requirements to load
More heavily loaded transmission system requires relatively more reactive power due to IX losses Reactive power doesnt travel well on a transmission system due to the high X/R ratio, but NI transmission system is small.

Studying the reactive power balance is more complex when embedded generation is included

Static Reactive Power

Gen AVR controls terminals to approx 1pu voltage Lines & Cables capacitance Q = V/Xc

~
Transmission System

Capacitor banks Q = V/Xc

Gen transformer tapped to pump reactive power into the transmission network. Consumption of Reactive Power

Problem with Embedded Gen

P Q G Back-bone transmission network Step-down Transformer R P&Q R X load X Gen Bus

Max limit at EG Voltage

Min limit at load

 Static Reactive Power Balance

- Within reason this could be achieved with suitably sited capacitors but there are technical difficulties with many capacitors installed

Dynamic Reactive Power Balance

- Needed during and after system disturbances - Quantity depends on many factors but rule of thumb is dynamic = static - Synchronous generators can supply high levels of dynamic reactive power - Reactive power output of DFIGs and fully-converted wind turbines is limited to ~ rated MVA, but even this is of limited use on the transmission system - Need for alternative forms of dynamic reactive support on transmission system eg. SVC, STATCOM, synch-comp