Grid forming and the expected regulatory changes:
How will standards develop?

Date

Tuesday morning
08 October 2024

08:30 – 13:10 CEST

Room: NORDIA

 

Venue

The Grid Forming Tutorial will be held at the workshop venue, the Scandic Marina Congress Center.

Please come to the main registration desk to collect your conference badge before going to the tutorial.

Tutorial Lecturers

Deepak Ramasubramanian
(EPRI, USA)

Daniel Duckwitz
(SMA, Germany)

Julia Matevosyan
(ESIG, USA)

Benjamin Joseph Braun
(Fluence Energy, Germany)

Olli-Pekka Janhunen
(Fingrid, Finland)

 

Preliminary Agenda

08:30 – 09:20

Lecture 1 (40 min.)
Grid Forming Inverters: Modeling, analysis, and road to performance standardization
Deepak Ramasubramanian (EPRI, USA)

With many power systems around the world rapidly going towards high percentage of inverter based resources, the concept of grid forming will be important. This tutorial will provide a detailed discussion on the notion of grid forming and what it entails. It goes beyond the aspect of voltage source behind impedance and showcases the importance of hierarchy of control within an IBR plant. Delivery of services and focus on performance is stressed. Further, the tutorial will walk through details of developing simulation models and identification of grid forming property from these models. Finally, through the use of application examples, a preliminary road to standardization will be discussed.

Discussion &  Short Break (10 min)

09:20 – 10:10

Lecture 2 (40 min.)
Comparison of Grid Forming Interconnection Requirements
Julia Matevosyan (ESIG, USA)

With grid forming controls being considered as one of the solutions for reliable integration of inverter-based resources (wind, solar, storage), there is a need to define interconnection requirements (or grid codes) and performance expectations for this technology. Around the world there is a handful of entities that has already started working on grid codes for grid forming technology, among those National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) in Great Britain, Australian Energy and Markets Operator (AEMO) and ENTSO-E. North American Reliability Corporation has also developed a white paper listing out grid forming capabilities and how a utility or a system operator wanting to deploy this technology today should test for grid forming capabilities through simulations. This part of the tutorial will cover capabilities sought from grid forming inverter-based resources by the system operators and compare various existing or proposed requirements.

Discussion &  Short Break (10 min)

10:10 – 10:25

Coffee Break

10:25 – 11:15

Lecture 3 (40 min.)
Grid-Forming Plant Controls: Bridging the Gap between Components and Grid Code Compliance
Benjamin Joseph Braun (FluenceEnergy, Germany)

Recent updates to the grid codes of key markets enabling grid-forming operation on the public network have opened a multitude of new applications. This in turn has exposed a gap between components level controls and complete code compliant solutions.

Historically, GFM applications have been largely limited to industrial black-start and isolated electrical systems. Such projects have provided countless lessons and improvements, but to date no component level standards defining GFM controls have been defined. Validation and bench-marking of manufacturer’s and integrator’s GFM capabilities is thus difficult.

This tutorial will highlight the current variations in component level GFM controls while recommending minimum technical requirements and testing regimes to allow for fair comparisons of suppliers in lieu of standards. Additionally, the required plant level integration considerations and controls needed to convert components into solutions compliant with the latest grid codes will be highlighted.“

Discussion & Short Break (10 min)

11:15 – 12:05

Lecture 4 (40 min.)
TSO experience on studies and requirements for grid forming BESS and STATCOMs
Olli-Pekka Janhunen (Fingrid, Finland)

Rapid increase of IBRs has caused new stability challenges, such as converter driven oscillations, in the Finnish power system. These stability challenges have already caused a need to limit IBR connection connections in certain areas, and curtailments of wind power during transmission line outages. Fingrid has also experienced several real-life converter driven oscillations.

Grid forming is seen as an emerging technology that has a potential to significantly improve the system stability. Fingrid has been one of the front-runners to take grid forming technology in to use. This includes detailed grid forming requirements for battery energy systems (BESS) and tendering two STATCOMs with grid forming controls.

This tutorial presents the Finnish TSO view on grid forming. The tutorial will include background motivation for grid forming by presenting the new stability challenges caused by increase IBR in Finnish power system. Electromagnetic transient (EMT) type study results on integrating grid forming devices into bulk power system will be presented. At last, an introduction for Fingrid’s grid forming BESS specification will be given in the tutorial.

Discussion & Short Break (10 min)

12:05 – 12:20

Coffee Break

12:20 – 13:10

Lecture 5 (40 min.)
Inertia Services from grid-forming BESS – Case study and overview on requirements and testing
Daniel Duckwitz (SMA, Germany)

Grid-forming BESS contribute to system stability in various aspects – by providing services like inertia, short-circuit level and voltage stability. Inertia is crucial for frequency stability. This tutorial contribution focuses on markets in United Kingdom and Germany. The UK stability pathfinder market is the most advanced inertia market, and the presentation will give insights on ongoing projects and compliance testing. In the second part, an outlook on the inertia market in Germany will be given – including a quantitative analysis regarding system needs, and specific aspects like asymmetric inertia provision and compliance testing approaches.

Discussion & Short Break (10 min)

 
 

Participation Fees & Registration

  • The Grid Forming Tutorial in not included in the general participation fee of the Wind & Solar Integration Workshop.
  • As the number of participants for the Tutorial is limited, tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.
  • The Tutorial can be canceled if less than 10 participants register.
  • Please note that the Finnish government has confirmed that the proposed VAT increase from 24% to 25.5% will go ahead on 1 September 2024.
  • All 24% VAT payments must be completed before the change on 1 September. Otherwise, a new invoice with the increased VAT rate of 25.5% will be issued.

Please register via the online registration platform:

About our Tutorials

In our tutorials, you have the opportunity to deepen your knowledge regarding crucial renewables topics in an intimate setting.

In intense presentations by specially invited experts you gain not only detailed knowledge but also a unique hands-on-experience.

The tutorial level will be advanced.