Evaluating the synthetic inertia of a real solar photovoltaic power facility

As renewable energy integration on a large scale continues to expand, the inherent inertia within power systems diminishes, leading to an acceleration in the rate of frequency changes and diminishing the system’s ability to promptly adapt to these fluctuations. Consequently, there arises a pressing demand for novel renewable energy installations to provide inertia to the system, a concept termed ‘synthetic inertia’. This research delves into the examination of synthetic inertial response exhibited by an operational solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant situated in Spain, in compliance with the national grid code. Compliance with the synthetic inertia requirement by the generating unit is assessed through dynamic simulations, which are conducted at the Power Generation Unit (PGU) level. The dynamic simulations were performed using a validated model of a PV power system. The testing is conducted under three conditions: 1) At a load ranging from 0.25 to 0.50 times the nominal power (PN) of the PGU; 2) At a load exceeding 0.80 timesPNof the PGU; and 3) At a load belowPNof the PGU. In addition, the three test cases are studied under both increases and decreases in frequency.