Flexible Generator: Generation Unit Integrated by Energy Storage System and Synchronous Generator

Energy storage systems (ESSs) have been applied in power systems for a long time. It participates in the grid frequency control at two levels, the primary frequency control and the secondary frequency control. In this paper, a control strategy that integrates one synchronous generator (SG) and ESS as one single generation unit named flexible generator (FG) is proposed, allowing ESS to participate in primary frequency control. The main trick is that the proposed control strategy not only adopts SG's frequency as the ESS control input but also feeds back FG's total output power to control the ESS. FGs have more substantial damping and stability than SGs. The proposed control strategy has a superior performance compared to traditional PID control and fuzzy control strategies of ESSs. The flexible control parameters are determined by the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) with disturbance suppression. The ESS's capacity is discussed and determined. Simulation results of the New England 39-bus system verify the advantages of FGs both in load changes and faults. The HIL experiment results also illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the flexible control.