Analysis of requirements in insular grid codes for large-scale integration of renewable generation

Abstract

Large-scale deployment of renewables in island power systems is attracting local attention of grid operators as a way of reducing fuel fossil consumption. Planning a grid based on renewable power plants poses serious challenges to the normal operation of a power system, namely on frequency and voltage stability. Regardless of its inherent problems, there is a consensus that in a future not far away, the green energy could supply most of local needs with less production based on fuel burning. In past grid code compliance, wind turbines did not require services for supporting grid operation. To shift to large-scale integration of renewables, the island grid code should incorporate a new set of requirements in order to regulate the inclusion of these services. Hence, this paper focuses on grid code requirements for large renewable energy integration based distributed generation in island power systems. The paper also discusses additional requirements such as “virtual” wind inertia for improving regulation capability of wind farms and electric energy storage applications for better renewable generation performance. Moreover, a comparative analysis of insular grid code compliance to these requirements in European context is presented.