Abstract
Future power grids will be operating a large number of heterogeneous dynamical actors. Many of these will contribute to the fundamental dynamical stability of the system, and play a central role in establishing the self-organized synchronous state that underlies energy transport through the grid. We derive a normal form for grid-forming components in power grids. This allows analyzing the grids’ systemic properties in a technology neutral manner, without detailed component models. Our approach is based on the physics of the power flow in the grid on the one hand, and on the common symmetry that is inherited from the control objectives grid-forming power grid components are trying to achieve. We provide an initial experimental validation that this normal form can capture the behavior of complex grid-forming inverters without any knowledge of the underlying technology, and show that it can be used to make technology-independent statements on the stability of future grids.
- Received 27 January 2022
- Revised 20 April 2022
- Accepted 9 May 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXEnergy.1.013008
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Popular Summary
The stable transport of energy across continental-scale power grids depends on an intricate self-organizing dance of dynamical actors. A central component of this is the synchronous state established amongst these actors. As we transition from large-scale power plants that anchor the system with their giant turbines to small-scale and distributed renewable generation, we need to ensure the stability and resilience of this self-organizing process and the synchronous state.
Soon, next-generation renewables will not just use the grid but will be its foundation. Today we do not know precisely how this fully-renewable power grid will be created; therefore modeling and specifying future systems is a challenge. This paper brings ideas from complex system science and synchronization theory to bear on this challenge. The authors develop a normal form for describing the behavior of many types of "grid-forming" power grid actors. This allows them to identify and parametrize exactly those aspects of the dynamics of these actors that are most relevant to the overall systems behavior. Thus, this work provides a foundation to study the complex collective phenomena and resilience of future power grids.
