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One step toward breaking the chicken-and-egg problem of wider deployment of GFM IBRs is the development of clear technical specifications for grid-forming capability and performance. Such specifications provide more certainty and clarity to manufacturers, informing their research and development process. Some system operators and research and regulatory organizations have already published their versions of technical requirements for GFM capability. This page tracks most recent versions of these requirements.

The graphic below gives the landscape of grid-forming specifications at a glance:

Source: Adapted by Julia Matevosyan (ESIG) based on GFM Inverter Technology Specifications: Review of Research Reports and Roadmaps published by UNIFI.

 

The specifications can be further differentiated into those defined and enforced by a system operator or a regulatory body and those defined by a research organization or an industry working group, in the form of recommendation to whomever has authority to specify interconnection requirements.The requirements above include the following elements:

  • High level vs. detailed functional specifications
  • Functional specifications vs. test-based vs. both
  • Split into “core” and advanced capabilities vs. not split
  • Voluntary vs. mandatory
  • For all resources vs. all IBRs vs. just battery energy storage (recognizing that the latter is lower-hanging fruit for GFM application)
The map below was prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy funded project the Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters (UNIFI) and shows the locations of various GFM policies and standards. Click on the map to be taken to the live version, and note the options in the upper right to view GFM projects, policy/standards documents, or both.

The ESIG webinar “Overview of Grid Forming Interconnection Requirements” from September 2023 provides a high-level overview of the specifications available at that point in time.

The Global Power System Transformation Consortium’s document Summary of GFM Capability and Performance Requirements Driven by System Needs provides a summary and comparison of available grid-forming specifications published through January 2024.