An Evaluation of the IEEE Std 1547-2018 for Power Systems Interconnected on Lunar Habitats

From commercial, national, and international efforts, there are multiple developments underway to return humans to the Moon and to establish permanent Lunar habitats. The electrical power system (EPS) demands for such installations are expected to far exceed any previous spacebased power system. The future growth and expansion may inevitably lead to the need for interconnections and standardization. With the diversity of energy resources suitable for a Lunar habitat (e.g. solar, nuclear, hydrogen fuel cells, and chemical battery storage) the coordination and interoperability of these resources will need to be defined and standardized. This is further challenged by crew safety and the unique challenges of the Lunar environment. The effects of radiation, space charging, meteorite impacts, surface contaminants (e.g. Lunar dust), among other environmental factors, result in further need to provide coordinated operation and flexible protection mechanisms. This paper evaluates the applicability of the existing terrestrial IEEE interconnection standard for use in future Lunar habitats. IEEE Std. 1547-2018 is the most recently enacted standard on this topic and covers the interconnection and interoperability of distributed energy resources to a bulk power system. This study focuses on the challenges of power quality, voltage stability, frequency stability, and protection schemes addressed in IEEE Std 1547-2018 and how they can apply to Lunar power systems. The assessment will show that despite the unique challenges of large-scale Lunar power systems, some relevant requirements from terrestrial power systems can be applied and can potentially mitigate risk to future habitats.