Power System Stability of a Small Sized Isolated Network Supplied by a Combined Wind-Pumped Storage Generation System: A Case Study in the Canary Islands

Abstract

Massive integration of renewable energy sources in electrical power systems of remote islands is a subject of current interest. The increasing cost of fossil fuels, transport costs to isolated sites and environmental concerns constitute a serious drawback to the use of conventional fossil fuel plants. In a weak electrical grid, as it is typical on an island, if a large amount of conventional generation is substituted by renewable energy sources, power system safety and stability can be compromised, in the case of large grid disturbances. In this work, a model for transient stability analysis of an isolated electrical grid exclusively fed from a combination of renewable energy sources has been studied. This new generation model will be installed in El Hierro Island, in Spain. Additionally, an operation strategy to coordinate the generation units (wind, hydro) is also established. Attention is given to the assessment of inertial energy and reactive current to guarantee power system stability against large disturbances. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is shown by means of simulation results. OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2012, 5 2352

State of the Art and Future Trends in Grid Codes Applicable to Isolated Electrical Systems

“…It is noted that the voltage at various close nodes of the network is practically the same, as expected for this small grid. Figure 3b shows how the voltage dip is seen in the electrical system of another Canary island, in this case, Gran Canaria, a much larger system (1120 MW) [6]. A short circuit at the output of the 66 kV power station affects the entire network and no node is capable of staying within the permissible voltage limits of the system.…”

“…These circumstances determine the characteristics of the voltage dips which are usually present in isolated power systems: they are very deep and their area of propagation is very wide-spread. Figure 3a shows the time-domain profile of a typical voltage dip in the 20 kV distribution network of the isolated system of the island of El Hierro [6]. This system, located in the Canary Islands, has an installed capacity of 11.5 MW [7].…”

Overview of insular power systems under increasing penetration of renewable energy sources: Opportunities and challenges

“…Grid code changes have been proposed and many different applications of energy storage systems in island systems already exist [15,71,72].…”

An Integrated Start-Up Method for Pumped Storage Units Based on a Novel Artificial Sheep Algorithm

“…In addition, PSUs have good performance in peak load shaving, frequency regulation and emergency response in power systems [7]. In recent years, with the increasing scale of RE-integrated power systems, a considerable amount of work [8][9][10][11] has been carried out to study large-scale pumped storage facilities integrated with the grid-connected wind or solar power systems. In [8], joint operation of REs and energy storage devices like PSUs is studied in the energy and ancillary service market.…”