Virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control for converters has been proposed as a method to provide virtual inertia from power electronics connected generation and storage. Most works to date have analyzed VSG control under the assumption that the VSG dynamics are much slower than that the converter. This work shows that when converter and line dynamics are taken into account the virtual inertia and damping settings are constrained by stability considerations. These conditions for stability are analyzed based on a simple transfer function approach. It is shown that for the VSG to be stable and validly approximated by a second order system, the ratio of damping to virtual inertia is a key parameter. This paper quantifies how these VSG parameters are constrained by stability. The transfer function analysis is validated using full switching model simulations of stable and unstable cases.

This paper proposes an on-line estimation method able to track the inertia of synchronous machines as well as the equivalent, possibly time-varying inertia from the converter- interfaced generators. For power electronics devices, the droop gain of the Fast Frequency Response (FFR) is also determined as a byproduct of the inertia estimation. The proposed method is shown to be robust against noise and to track accurately the inertia of synchronous generators, virtual synchronous genera- tors with constant and adaptive inertia, and wind power plants with inclusion of energy storage-based frequency control.

The Virtual Power Plant (VPP) has been proposed to aggregate Distributed Generations (DGs) to act like a single power plant, thus, also has functions on the frequency and voltage support. The previous models of the VPP are static and focus on the energy trading and management. For the system transient response analysis, a dynamic VPP model must be needed. The paper proposes a reduced-order yet accurate aggregated model to represent VPP transients for the stability analysis of power systems. The goal is to provide a model that is adequate for system studies and can serve to the Transmission System Operator (TSO) to evaluate the impact of VPPs on the overall grid. The proposed model can accommodate the transient response of the most relevant controllers included in the distributed generators that compose the VPP. Using a comparison with a real-time detailed Electro-Magnetic Transients (EMT) models of the VPP confirms the validity of the proposed aggregated model. The case studies based on the IEEE 39-bus system verifies the accuracy of the proposed aggregated model on the system stability analysis.

The synchronization instability in the presence of a fault is a main issue for the dynamic behavior and control of grid-feeding converters. In the literature, the synchronization stability assessment is carried out considering the dynamics of Phase-Locked Loops (PLL) but the transients of converter currents are neglected. The letter shows that such a simplification leads to inaccuracies and, thus, the current transients cannot be neglected. The letter proposes a model that captures the effect of such current transients on the converter synchronization. This model allows assessing the transient behavior and, hence, the stability, of power electronics converters with high accuracy, comparable, in fact, to EMT models. The fidelity of the proposed model is duly discussed in the case study.

As the traditional generation is gradually replaced by inverter-based resources, a lack of rotational inertia is now a common issue of modern power systems, which leads to an increasingly larger rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) following contingencies and may result in frequency collapse. As a crucial index of the frequency security and stability of power systems, the accurate estimation of the RoCoF can be a foundation for the development of advanced operations and control techniques of the future power system. This paper firstly analyzes the role of the RoCoF in typical blackouts occurring in recent years and discusses the physical and numerical nature of the RoCoF; then, by introducing the frequency spatial distribution of the power system, the paper discusses the concept of the “center” RoCoF that can present the frequency security and stability of the entire system. The estimation and prediction techniques of the maximal power system RoCoF following a contingency and the existing real-time tracking techniques of the power system RoCoF are comprehensively reviewed. Finally, the open questions and related research topics of the RoCoF estimation are discussed.

It is well known that grid-feeding converters that synchronize to the grid through a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) can become unstable after a fault. An often-neglected element that plays an important role in the converter synchronization stability is the PLL frequency limiter. While it slows down the phase change during the fault, the frequency limiter also constrains the error of the PLL input, thus leading to a longer settling time. This letter investigates the mechanism of the converter synchronization stability caused by the frequency limiter and provides a taxonomy to evaluate its impact on the overall system dynamic response.