Optimizing the Impact of Flexible Resources on Primary Frequency Response Services in Power Systems with High Penetration of Renewable Energy Resources

The increasing investment on renewable energy resources like wind farms will be followed by lower share of conventional generation units on the electricity generation side in power grids and consequently lower inertia of the power system. In this paper, the impact of decreasing inertia on the frequency response of power grids as well as the potential of flexible resources in improving the primary response of the system are discussed. The flexible resources studied for providing frequency service are the conventional generation unit, pumped hydro storage, electrical energy storage, as well as alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. The primary frequency response of the system is studied via different case studies to examine the impact of inertia and these flexible resources on the transient features of the frequency response consisting of nadir point, and settling time. Respectively, two different disturbances namely load disturbance and wind power ramping are considered to study the frequency response of the system in different operational conditions. Moreover, the frequency response is studied in systems with zero inertia. Based on the results, considering a combination of flexible resources and optimizing their control parameters will result in achieving improved frequency response of the system.