Impact of High PV Penetration on Out-of-step Instability and Regional Electromechanical Wave Propagation

Abstract

The increase of renewable generation is a key feature of current power grids in worldwide. Due to different generator dynamics between synchronous generators and inverter-interfaced generation, the high PV penetration will influence the system out-of-step instability and regional electromechanical wave propagation. To better understand the high-PV impacts on these two issues and improve system reliability under high PV penetration, this paper uses the high PV grid dynamics model developed based on the actual U.S. Eastern Interconnection system to perform a simulation study. The study results found that high PV penetration reduces the stability margin for the FRCC-EI and increases the vulnerability of out-of-step instability. In addition, it is found that the wave propagation speed increases nonlinearly with the decrease of inertia: increasing faster for the same amount of inertia reduction when the system inertia is lower.