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Active Power and Frequency Control Considering

Large-Scale RES

Chapter in Green Energy and Technology · March 2014

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-4585-30-9

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Elyas Rakhshani Pedro Rodriguez

Delft University of Technology Loyola University Andalucia
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Active Power and Frequency Control
Considering Large-Scale RES

Elyas Rakhshani and Pedro Rodriguez

Abstract Renewable energy sources (RES) like wind and PV are dependent on
weather conditions and geographic location and as results their stochastic behavior
can significantly influence power systems performance. These effects will be more
relevant in case of large-scale penetration of RES. Therefore, modern power plants
based on RES should both deliver power as conventional generators and contribute
to support the grid services by providing ancillary services and in this way
applications of advanced technology are very important to reach this goal. Active
power and frequency controls are known as essential ancillary services that should
be provided by generation units in large power plants. Therefore, controlling this
type of grid interactive power plants is critical issue to achieve large-scale inte-
gration of RES in distributed power systems. In consequence, it is necessary to
take advantages of new technologies and advanced control concepts in order to
configure more intelligent and flexible generation systems, which should be able
to improve the performance and stability of grid. A brief review on conventional
active power/frequency control issues and complete investigation on adapted
scenarios of active power/frequency control considering liberalized markets, high
penetration of RES and coexistence of AC and DC networks will be explained in
this chapter.

Keywords Active power
Frequency control
Automatic generation control

Advanced optimal control
Deregulated power market

E. Rakhshani (&)
P. Rodriguez

ABENGOA Campus Palmas Altas, Building G, Energia Solar 1 St 41014 Seville, Spain
e-mail: elyas.rakhshani@research.abengoa.com
P. Rodriguez
Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) GAIA Building, Rambla Sant Nebridi S/n 08222
Terrassa-Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: prodriguez@ee.upc.edu; pedro.rodriguez@research.abengoa.com

J. Hossain and A. Mahmud (eds.), Large Scale Renewable Power Generation, 233
Green Energy and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-4585-30-9_9,
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014
234 E. Rakhshani and P. Rodriguez

1 Introduction

Energy is a very important issue all around the world and during the last few
decades, energy demands increased rapidly. Beside all problems related to coal
energy, the new trends in the world are to increase the application of renewable
energy sources to provide more green electrical energy. The concept of deregu-
lation and competition in power market of energy is another important issue that
forced the scientists to think more about the challenges related to modification of
conventional large-scale power system [1].
Solar power is a type of energy with great future potential. As reported by EPIA
(European Photovoltaic Industry Association), the world cumulative installed solar
energy capacity was 22,900 MW in 2009, a change of 46.9 % compared to 2008.
Renewable type electricity will be faced with a remarkable growth by 2030 [2, 3].
This suggests RE could participate in several ancillary services like frequency
support and play important roles in transition to a sustainable energy economy.
However, in order to have more DGs systems as a major source of energy,
advanced development of technologies are very important.
These days we are facing with growth and extension of AC systems and as
result with more complexity and more stability problems. In new scenarios of
modern power system with high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES),
the role of advanced technologies will be so important. For example, HVDC can
essentially improve the reliability of complex interconnected systems. Further-
more, HVDC is a kind of firewall against cascading disturbances and in this way, it
prevents blackouts. For these reasons, in some parts of the world, HVDC or hybrid
interconnections, consisting of AC and DC interconnections, became already the
preferred solution. The first commercial application of HVDC was between the
Swedish mainland and the island of Gotland in 1954 [4]. Since then, there has been
a huge increase in the application of HVDC transmission.
Based on this brief introduction, that is clear the future power system is a very
challenging issue with high penetration of RES, DC transmission, and high
complexity. Scientists and engineers have intensified their research efforts during
the last decade to change such pessimistic electrical scenario. Technological
advances, such as the use of modern power processing systems, energy storage and
control techniques in high-power systems, as well as some last decade socioeco-
nomic factors, such as the large-scale penetration of renewable energy sources, the
generalized liberalization of electrical markets and the strategic importance dis-
pensed to the security in supply, have led to a reformulation of the conventional
power systems, moving toward a more flexible distributed generation scheme.
The organization of the chapter is as follows: Section 2 presents the conven-
tional story for frequency/active power control with a complete model of automatic
generation control (AGC) for active power control and Sect. 3 presents adapted
scenarios considering market environment for adapting the conventional model of
AGC model in the deregulated environment of power system. Detailed model of
AGC considering the effects of renewable resources like PV and also the effects
 Active Power and Frequency Control Considering Large-Scale RES 235

of adding the HVDC links on the active power responses will be discussed and
presented. Then new applications of advanced control concepts for active power
and frequency control issues will be presented in Sect. 4. It should be noted that to
have a better understanding for each concept of this chapter; several simulation
examples with different scenarios are presented. Finally, Sect. 5 closes the chapter
with the main conclusions and possible solutions for modern future power system.

2 Conventional Scenario in Active Power Control

The frequency of the system is dependent on active power balance and any mis-
match between load and generation will be reflected into the system with changing
the frequency [4]. The control of generated power and frequency in large-scale
power systems is commonly referred as load–frequency control (LFC).

2.1 Primary Active Power/Frequency Control

As frequency is a common factor throughout the system, a change in active power

demand at one point is reflected throughout the system (Fig. 1). This issue is
mainly related with LFC concept.
Primary frequency control is a very well-known concept in power system
studies [4–8]. As shown in Fig. 2, the first reaction of speed governors of gener-
ation units will be reflected to primary control or load frequency control. At this
stage, the system will try to stabilize load change and contingencies. As shown in
this figure, later by applying secondary supplementary frequency control the
steady state error of frequency will be covered to the desired values [6].

2.2 Supplementary Higher Level Control

In addition to primary control, another higher level control which is known as

AGC will be applied to ensure the area absorbs its own load change and also to
maintain net interchanges and frequency at their schedule values.

2.2.1 Area Control Error

The area control error (ACE) will present the imbalance of generated power and
load demands within the control area. By means of ACE, any power/frequency
mismatched though the interconnected system will be checked. ACE could be a
linear combination of frequency deviation and net interchange [7, 8].
ACEi ¼ DPtie;ij þ bi Df ð1Þ

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