Asking for fast terminal voltage control in grid following plants could provide benefits of grid forming behavior

Abstract

Conventional inverter based resource (IBR) plants generally have control loops with high bandwidth which enable them to maintain tight control of the active and reactive power injected by the IBR device into the grid. These control loops, if not tuned appropriately, can suffer from instability under reduced system stiffness. To bring about an increase in stability of a power network with large percentage of IBRs, recent research done around the world has resulted in the emergence of multiple different types of so-called grid forming inverter control architectures. But, in order for inverter manufacturers to break the circular (or chicken-and-egg) problem, exact performance requirements must be known, which can only be specified either through standards and/or interconnection requirements. Through the use of both electromagnetic transient (EMT) time domain and linearized state space small signal analysis, this paper will provide a way to define interconnection requirements that are agnostic to the specific type of grid forming or grid following IBR control. Further, the benefit of defining grid forming interconnection requirements even when short circuit ratio is not low will be showcased.