Impact of DER Communication Delay in AGC: Cyber-Physical Dynamic Co-simulation

Distributed energy resources (DERs) providing frequency regulation is a promising technology for future grid operation. Unlike conventional generators, DERs can use open communication networks to exchange signals with control centers, possibly through DER aggregators; therefore, the impacts of communication variations, including latency, on the system frequency stability need to be investigated. This paper develops a cyber-physical dynamic simulation model based on the Hierarchical Engine for Large-Scale Co-Simulation (HELICS) framework to evaluate the impact of communication variations, such as delays in DER frequency regulation. The feasible delay range can be obtained under different automatic generation control (AGC) parameter settings. The results show that the risk of instability generally increases with the communication delay and that the different impacts of delays in the AGC provided from DERs and conventional generation units should be recognized when designing frequency regulation controllers.