Speaker: Dr Cameron Hall
Title: Opportunities and challenges in optimising power grid stability
Abstract:
Decarbonising electricity generation is essential to any attempt to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions. However, the move to variable renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaics creates new challenges for ensuring the stability of power grids. A major reason for this is that variable renewable energy sources often have very low inherent inertia. Inertia in this context is a measure of the tendency of the grid to maintain its frequency, even when imbalances between power supply and power demand create a push for the frequency to change. Since power grids can only be stable when power frequency is maintained within a very narrow range, the low inertia of variable renewable energy sources tends to destabilise the power grid, leading to possible grid failures.