News & Blog

As with most new technologies, the early versions of wind and solar inverters and associated plant control systems were rather simple. Today’s versions, however, are some of the most advanced devices on the grid, using digital controls, power electronics, and advanced communications systems that can provide a wide range of features and grid services. For…

Regions such as Hawaii, South Australia, Ireland and Texas have recently experienced significant growth of inverter-based renewable generation, mainly wind and solar, and are now operating with very high instantaneous penetration in excess of 50-60%. As this penetration increases globally, several regions have identified limitations and challenges which indicate that it may not be feasible…

The majority of devices that are based on power electronics (Statcoms, HVDC links, batteries, wind plants, PV solar plants, variable speed motors, converter-based loads, etc.) do not contribute synchronous inertial response to the system. As the grid transforms from the retirement of conventional thermal generation and additions of converter-based resources, it is prudent to consider…

The 10th anniversary edition of the ESIG forecasting workshop returned to the scene of the inaugural workshop in St Paul, MN on June 19-21, 2018.  To many of those that attended the first workshop on Feb. 21-22, 2008, it was apparent that there have been significant but in some cases subtle changes over the past…

Synchronous inertia characterizes the ability of a power system to oppose changes in electric frequency after large and sudden changes in active power production or consumption. The level of inertia present in a system at any time is dependent on the amount of kinetic energy stored in rotating masses of synchronously-interconnected machines: both generators and…