Analysis of Power Deployment Characteristics and Costs of Energy Storage Systems for Frequency Regulation in Renewable-Rich Power Grid

The implementation of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind for electricity production has picked up an enormous pace in recent years, which not only gives rise to a more sustainable process of electricity production but also minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. However, the intermittent behaviour of the sources coupled with the absence of kinetic energy contribution to the electrical grid introduces a negative impact on the frequency stability of the grid. Hence, the grid requires further reinforcements in its infrastructure, and one such promising solution lies in the usage of grid-connected Energy Storage Systems (ESS) as a source of Frequency Containment Reserve for Disturbance (FCR-D) ancillary service for frequency regulation in Europe. This paper presents an extension of our previous work [1] to realize ESS as a favourable candidate for FCR-D service. In our previous work, we showed the benefits of ESS in terms of performance and cost compared to hydro turbines. However, the extended research takes a deeper dive into the characteristics of ESS and shows how the deployment characteristics, such as delay and power level, affect the frequency trajectory of an electrical grid with variable renewable energy penetration (REP) levels after an N-1 disturbance. The research found that ESS adhering to FCR-D deployment characteristics for the same disturbance yields diminishing impact at higher peak power levels, and with an increase in delay of deployment, the peak level must be increased by around 0.8MW to 5.08MW for per second increase in delay as the REP level of the grid rises to 30%. The study also found that the deployment delay must be reduced by up to 33.33% to keep the same level of impact of the disturbance. Finally, the total cost of FCR-D support may increase by up to 148.8% depending on the FCR-D deployment and grid characteristics.