A Novel Control Architecture for Hybrid Power Plants to Provide Coordinated Frequency Reserves

• Main Authors: Daniel Vázquez Pombo, Florin Iov, Daniel-Ioan Stroe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: hybrid power plant; control architecture; coordination of reserves; frequency support; frequency control dead band; fast frequency response; frequency containment reserve
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/5/919

The inertia reduction suffered by worldwide power grids, along with the upcoming necessity of providing frequency regulation with renewable sources, motivates the present work. This paper focuses on developing a control architecture aimed to perform frequency regulation with renewable hybrid power plants comprised of a wind farm, solar photovoltaic, and a battery storage system. The proposed control architecture considers the latest regulations and recommendations published by ENTSO-E when implementing the first two stages of frequency control, namely the fast frequency response and the frequency containment reserve. Additionally, special attention is paid to the coordination among sub-plants inside the hybrid plant and also between different plants in the grid. The system’s performance is tested after the sudden disconnection of a large generation unit (N-1 contingency rules). Thus, the outcome of this study is a control strategy that enables a hybrid power plant to provide frequency support in a system with reduced inertia, a large share of renewable energy, and power electronics-interfaced generation. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the model has been developed in discrete time, using relevant sampling times according to industrial practice.