Consensus + Innovations Approach for Online Distributed Multi-Area Inertia Estimation

The reduction of overall system inertia in modern power systems due to the increasing deployment of distributed energy resources is generally recognized as a major issue for system stability. Consequently, real-time monitoring of system inertia is critical to ensure a reliable and cost-effective system operation. Large-scale power systems are typically managed by multiple transmission system operators, making it difficult to have a central entity with access to global measurement data, which is usually required for estimating the overall system inertia. We address this problem by proposing a fully distributed inertia estimation algorithm with rigorous analytical convergence guarantees. This method requires only peer-to-peer sharing of local parameter estimates between neighboring control areas, eliminating the need for a centralized collection of real-time measurements. We robustify the algorithm in the presence of typical power system disturbances and demonstrate its performance in simulations based on the well-known New England IEEE 39-bus system.