2017 International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Power System
October 2-5, 2017, Bali, Indonesia
Criteria for Integration of Intermittent Renewable
Energy to the Java Bali Grid
Eko Yudo Pramono1, Suroso Isnandar
PT. PLN (Persero) Pusat Pengatur Beban (Load Dispatching Centre)
Gandul, Cinere, Indonesia
1
ekoyudopramono@gmail.com
2
suroso.isnandar@pln.co.id
Abstract— Java Bali Grid has now reached the highest peak
load ever at 25,325 MW on 15th September 2017, and the trend is
going higher in the future. The fuel mix is dominated by fossil
fuel such as coal and gas, and about 8.8% comes from
dispatchable renewable energy of hydro and geothermal.
Government has set a progressive target of 23% renewable
energy in 2025 which may come from dispatchable and
intermittent renewable energy. In order to maintain the smooth
operation of Java Bali Grid, criteria for integrating the
intermittent renewable energy must be set and stipulated through
Grid Code. This criteria based on three basic pillars of system
operation principle, which to fulfill the reliability and security of
supply, the quality of supply and economic operation of the
power system. This paper discuss the required criterias for
integrating intermittent renewable energy to the Java Bali. The
novely of this paper is as currently there is no standar has been
set for integration of intermittent renewable energy to the Java
Bali Grid, this paper proposes an approach to set criterias and
requirements for the grid integration of renewable energy
sources.
Keywords : renewable energy, fuel mix, dispatchable and
intermittent generation, power system reliability, system operation
criteria
I. INTRODUCTION
Currently the Java Bali Grid has reached its peak load at
25,325 MW on the 15th September 2017 at 18.00, and this
trend will continue to rise in the future, following the economic
development of Indonesia which has been growing consistently
at the level of more than 5% annually. To sustain this economic
development, Government of Indonesia has launched a
capacity development program in electricity sector, and aim to
build 35.000 MW of new generation plants, more than 46.000
kms of transmission line 500 kV and 150 kV, and addition of
new transformer up to 120.000 MVA, all should accomplished
within the next 5 years [1].
In doing so, government has also set a target of improving
fuel mix by introducing more of renewable energy into the
system. It is envisaged that by 2025 renewable energy must be
accounted for 25% of all electricity generated in Indonesia [1].
For Java Bali Grid system, to achive this much portion of
renewable contribution, it must be installed at least 15.000 MW
renewable power plant on top of currently around 3.500 MW
of hydro and geothermal power plant. From those 15.000 MW
978-1-5386-0945-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
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new renewable power plants, it will consist of dispatchable and
intermittent generators.
The maturity level of technology of renewable energy
power plants has been reaching the commercial level of
application and will be much reliable, cheaper technology
available in the coming years. It even has been reported that
some solar farm has reached a significant low cost of
generation and comparable to those of coal power plants [2].
Apart on that, government has also set a target for PLN
Pusat Pengatur Beban (Load Dispatching Centre) as the Java
Bali System Operator, to bring down the cost of electricity
generation as low as practically possible, in order to be able to
give attractive tariff for industries and business in a such way
to sustain and maintain the economic growth of Indonesia. The
tariff subsidy which has been given in the past is gradually
withdrawn by government so the tariff must reflects the
economic and real cost of generating electricity. This will add
more complication in running and operating the Java Bali Grid.
As there is currently no standar has been set for integration
of intermittent renewable energy to the Java Bali Grid, this
paper proposes an approach to set criterias and requirements
for the grid integration in Java Bali interconnected system.
II. POWER SYSTEM OPERATION CRITERIA
Java Bali Grid as the same as other electricity network is
operated by adhering the three basic pillar of system operation,
which are reliability and security of supply, quality of supply
and economic operation of the system as depicted in Figure 1.
Reliability and security dictates that a power system should
have an ability to maintain its stability when there are some
disturbances occurred in the system without losing its ability
to supply electricity and preventing any interuption, partial
black out or total collapse of the system. Meanwhile quality
must be adhered to in term of there is no violation of service
quality boundaries, such as voltage level remaining in certain
range, frequency does not vary wildly, and there is limited and
controllabe harmonic distortion and irregularities. The third
principle is economic operation of power system, meaning a
grid must be operated to achieve cost of generation as low as
possible.
 - Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) or Defense Scheme
The system keeps stable in
steady state and able to avoid Protection
the load shedding/blackout
during the system disturbance Manual Load Shedding (f<49,5 Hz)
The system operates with
Reliable UFR (48,4 < f < 49,0 Hz, in 7 steps)
Islanding Mode (48,1 < f < 48,3 Hz)
minimum cost

Over Generation Shedding

Over Load Shedding
- Grid Limitation / Constraint
Economic Quality This network congestion occured when there are
imperfect network configuration due to the lack
progress of new lines or because some major
The system operates with a
disturbance on the network.
good standard quality
b. Service Quality Criteria
The quality of supply can be seen from following criteria :
- Voltage Stability (Grid Code OC 4.0)
Figure 1. Three Basic Pillars of System Operation Principle
The voltage range in customer end for 150 kV and
66 kV system must fall between ranfe of +5% and -
10%, for 500 kV system must be kept in the range
III. CRITERIAS FOR INTERMITTENT RENEWABLE ENERGY of +/- 5%.
INTEGRATION INTO JAVA BALI GRID This voltage stability is maintained through
procedure of reactive power management either
The system operation criteria is achieved by dispatching from generation side or compensation techniques,
and regulating all the power plants connected to the Java Bali and transmission operation management.
system. For dispatchable power generators either fossil-fuel or - Frequency Stability (Grid Code OC 3.0)
renewable energy such as geothermal and hydro, those basic Frequency range which still can be accepted and as
principles could be achieved quite straightforward without governed by Jawa Bali Grid Code is 49.80 – 50.20
much difficulties. However this might not the case for Hz, and during 2016 a record of 97,7% was
intermittent renewable energy sources, as the nature of achieved in one year.
intermittent power generator is vary widely depending on the To maintain the frequency within this range, P2B
characteristic of local wind and solar insolation. These type of (Load Dispatching Centre) uses two methods, using
power plants are not dispatchable, so they must be taken as Load Frequency Control with participating
they are available and can not be dispatched at will. generators approximately 559 MW and Governor
Therefore they will add difficulties in operating the grid Free Mode with participat about less than 30% from
especially if their amount is quite significant to have adverse total 252 units power plants in Jawa Bali Grid.
impacts on the grid. In this case a set of criteria to be fulfilled
by these type of power plants must be stipulated in order to c. Economic Operation Criteria for Java Bali Grid
mitigate and manage the adverse impact it could have on grid Java Bali Grid is a growing and expanding electricity
operation. network and until now still experience some serious
a. System Reliability Criteria congestion due to the slipping finishing date of
transmission and substation project. Therefore in operating
PLN P2B (Load Dispatching Centre) sets an Reliability the grid P2B (Load Dispatching Centre) needs to consider
Criteria for running the Java Bali Grid as follows : following aspects :
- Maintaining reserve margin at minimum of 30% - System Constraint :
Reserve Margin (RM) on 15th September 2017 was 1. Stability
= (Nett Capacity - Peak Load)/Peak Load 2. Primary energy Take or Pay Contract and
= (33.439 – 25.225)/ 25.225 = 32,7% Pipe Line Pack limitation (gas, geothermal)
- Normal System Operation Criteria 3. Transmission congestion
Normal Criteria is Spinning Reserve fulfilled at least 4. Long distance power transfer (voltage
as same as the biggest unit size of power plant in Java stability)
Bali system. (Grid Code OC 2.2). Current minimum 5. Losses
spinning reserve in Java Bali is 815 MW. - Power Plant Constraint :
- Alert Condition Criteria 1. Power plant mode of operation (base load,
During the alert condition, System Reserve will be load follower or peaker)
maintande at least as twice as the biggest unit size. 2. Availibility condition of power plant (FOR,
(1630 MW) derating)
3. Minimum technical loading
- Economic Dispatch :

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 1. Hydro thermal coordination
2. Merit order

60 MW

60 MW
TML
SolarPLTS
/ Wind Farm Unit Back Up
Figure 3. Technical Minimum Load (TML) and Back-up Unit

Figure 3 shows the characteristics of the back-up units,

Figure 2. Load Profile of Java Bali System
Figure 2 shows the load profile of Java Bali System with
average load factor is more than 80%. This short of pattern
will likely to change if the penetration of renewable energy
reaching the capacity as targeted. In other country whereas
penetration level of renewable energy has reached significant
amount, the load profile will change to a new pattern.
IV. ASPECTS AND IMPACTS OF INTERMITTENCY TO THE
JAVA BALI GRID
when they have to reduce output due to the production of the
renewable power plant. However there are limitation on how
much it should be reduced, as there is constraint of Technical
Minimum Load (TML) of the back-up power plant at certain
level. If the generation fall below TML, then unit will be
tripped and can not immediately started again.
For aspect of maximum capacity allowable at one site, some
consideration must be given for the following item :
- Ramping up / down capability of thermal units
- TML and regulation capabilty of thermal units
- Response time fo starting up / down of thermal units
and time needed in between
Power Plant Type Ramp Rate
Coal-fired 1 – 5 MW/min

There are some aspects and impacts of intermittency needs Gas Combined Cycle 5 - 8 MW/min

to be considered to keep the grid operating as intended. These
include variable output, back-up unit needed, maximum unit
capacity allowable at one location for solar and wind farm,
stability, power balance, defect to frequency, defect to voltage,
voltage regulation and economic aspect.
The variable output of renewable power plant is entirely
depended on the availibility of solar and wind, which are given
by nature and can not be controlled. The potential for solar and
wind farm in Java Bali Grid still need to be verified and studied
further. Although there are some proposal has been put forward
by developer, the feasibility study still need to be confirmed.
However PLN has signed a power purchase agreeement with
a 70 MW wind farm in Yogyakarta, Central Java, although
later is terminated due to some difficulties in project execution.
This shows some potential exists and commercially attractive.
Gas Open Cycle 5 – 8 MW/min
Hydro 20 MW/min
Figure 4. Ramping Characteristic of Thermal Unit in Java Bali Grid
Figure 4 shows characteristic of ramping up/down of the
thermal unit in Java Bali Grid. Coal-fired has the slowest
response of 1-5 MW/minute, the gas power plants are between
5–8 MW/minute, and the quickest is hydro unit of 20 MW/min.
Therefore considering the current condition of the thermal
ramping characteristic and its effect on frequency, the
maximum renewable intermittent Java Bali Grid can absorb
currently at maximum of 300 MW.
Hz
52,00

The intermittency nature call for some mitigation, including 50,20

Normal operation, frequency 50 + 0,2 Hz
some back up units to be ready to run any moment for
50,00
49,80
Excursion, + 0,5 Hz, brown-out
compensating the loss generation and prevent further frequency 49,50 Manual load shedding scheme A and B (625 MW + 625MW)

drop in the system. 49,00

Load shedding stage 1 s.d 7 (5.760 MW), frequency 49,00 s.d. 48,4 Hz
48,40
48,30
Islanding Operation, 48,30 - 48,10 Hz
48,00

47,50 Host-load operation of power plants

Figure 5. Frequency Excursion Range for Java Bali Grid

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Figure 5 depicts the range of frequency tolerance in Java Bali
system.The normal range of frequency is between 49,8 – 50,2
Hz and P2B (Load Dispatching Centre) will always try to
achieve this range all the time. Any variation in renewable
energy output should not bring the frequency out of this range,
and this is become one of the grid primary concern in
accommodating the intermittent renewable energy.
The other conern is the characteristic of inertia-less of
intermittent renewable energy power plant. This will bring
down overall system inertia as the intermittent will be the
quickest unit to disconnect from the grid if not regulated
specifically, the overall of the trip of units will affect and
compromise overall stability.
The higher level of renewable energy penetration will also
push down the capacity of existing power plant in a such way,
creating new pattern of loading of thermal stations, with lower
capacity running during the day and back to normal loading
during evening, creating the steep increase on loading to
thermal units in a very narrow time. Currently in Java Bali the
difference of coal fired unit loading during the day and
compared to evening time can be as much high as 4.000 MW.
This number will be even more with the penetration of
renewable energy in the future.
Voltage and and frequency quality will also be affected
substantially, including the reactive power regulation. As the
reactive power regulation from the intermittent plants are
somewhat limited and not as wide as the conventional plants,
this issue needs also to be dealt with and reflected on the Grid
Code in order to accommodate the connection of the units.
V. CONCLUSION
It is unavoidable that intermittent renewable energy will be
one of the dominant sources of electricity and will contribute
significantly to the fuel-mix. Government policy has enabled
the proliferation of the renewable energy sources, and this will
have an adverse impact to the grid if not mitigated properly.
There are some aspects and impacts of intermittency needs
to be considered to keep the grid operating as intended. These
include variable output, back-up unit needed, maximum unit
capacity allowable at one location for solar and wind farm,
system stability, power balance, defect to frequency, defect to
voltage, voltage regulation and economic aspect.
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PLN P2B (Load Dispatching Centre) has set the operation
parameters that should not be violated when integrating the
new intermittent generation. This will be refelected in the
coming revision of Java Bali Grid Code and should be adhered
by any parties to connect the new plants to the grid, in order to
achieve the main objective of system operation by bring down
the cost of electricity, at the same time fulfilling the standard of
service : reliability and security, quality and economic of
supply.
The approach to set criterias and requirements for
intermittent connection the grid has been proposed based on
the basic principles of power system operation. Such criterias
must be adhered in order to fulfil the system reliability criteria
and service level criteria.
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