Technical Risks and Solutions From Periodic, Large Surpluses or Deficits of Available Renewable Generation

666
Technical risks and solutions

from periodic, large surpluses or deficits of
available renewable generation
Working Group
C1.30
November 2016
TECHNICAL RISKS AND
SOLUTIONS FROM PERIODIC,
LARGE SURPLUSES OR DEFICITS
OF AVAILABLE RENEWABLE
GENERATION
WG C1.30
Members
C. Schorn, Convenor (DE), S. Loitz, Secretary (DE),

F.R. Alves (BR), J. Bebic (US), C.G. Diaconu (RO), P. Henneaux (BE), E. Kuroda (JP),
A.C. Morais (PT), D. Nikolic (AU), J. Odom (US), A. Tolea (RO), D. Vaughan (AU),
P. Vicini (IT), A. Wolny (FR)
Copyright © 2016
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ISBN: 978-2-85873-369-9
Technical risks and solutions from periodic, large surpluses or deficits of available renewable generation
Technical Risks and solutions from

periodic, large surpluses or deficits
of available renewable generation
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................6
1.1 Development of the power generation landscape ...............................................................6
1.2 Objective and scope of this study ........................................................................................7
1.3 Structure of the technical brochure .....................................................................................8
2 IMPACT OF THE INTEGRATION OF RES IN THE POWER SYSTEM ..................................9

2.1 Generation from RES is variable and non-programmable ..................................................9
2.2 RES units are typically installed geographically distant from load centers .........................9
2.3 RES units are typically small units and installed in the LV/MV grid ....................................9
2.4 RES are typically converter-based units .............................................................................9
3 ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNICAL RISKS ............................................................................ 10

3.1 Flexibility is needed .......................................................................................................... 10
3.1.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 10
3.1.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective ................................................................. 10
3.1.2.1 Photovoltaic penetration changes the daily form of residual demand .................... 10
3.1.2.2 Wind power penetration eliminates weekly periodicity of residual demand ........... 12
3.1.2.3 Global trends on residual load ................................................................................ 13
3.1.2.4 Challenges for dispatchable generation ................................................................. 14
3.1.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 15
3.1.4 Possible solutions ........................................................................................................ 19
3.2 Reserve capacity for short term balancing is needed ...................................................... 20
3.2.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 20
3.2.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian Perspective ........................................................... 20
3.2.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 22
3.3 System adequacy has to be maintained .......................................................................... 25
3.3.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 25
3.3.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective ................................................................. 25
3.3.2.1 Several countries (example for France: Western Europe) ..................................... 25
3.3.2.2 Different climatic conditions .................................................................................... 25
3.3.2.3 Availability of thermal power plants ........................................................................ 26
3.3.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 26
3.4 Voltage profile has to be kept ........................................................................................... 29
3.4.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 29
3.4.2 Analysis of the issue – Belgium perspective ............................................................... 30
3.4.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 30
3.5 System security has to be kept in maintenance situations ............................................... 32
3.5.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 32
3.5.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian perspective ........................................................... 32
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3.5.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 33

3.6 Congestion of the transmission system ............................................................................ 34
3.6.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 34
3.6.2 Analysis of the issue – USA perspective..................................................................... 35
3.6.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 36
3.7 Observability and controllability of a large number of RES Units ..................................... 40
3.7.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 40
3.7.2 Analysis of the issue – Portuguese perspective ......................................................... 41
3.7.2.1 Observability ........................................................................................................... 41
3.7.2.2 Controllability .......................................................................................................... 41
3.7.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 42
3.8 Small RES units have to behave system friendly ............................................................. 44
3.8.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 44
3.8.2 Analysis of the issue – United States perspective ...................................................... 44
3.8.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 45
3.9 Lack of short-circuit power................................................................................................ 46
3.9.1 Issue ............................................................................................................................ 46
3.9.2 Analysis of the issue – German perspective ............................................................... 47
3.9.2.1 Setup ...................................................................................................................... 47
3.9.2.2 Results 2019 ........................................................................................................... 47
3.9.2.3 Results 2023 ........................................................................................................... 48
3.9.2.4 Sensitivity of the external short circuit power ......................................................... 48
3.9.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 49
3.10 Lack of system inertia .................................................................................................... 50
3.10.1 Issue ......................................................................................................................... 50
3.10.2 Analysis of the issue – German perspective ............................................................ 50
3.10.2.1 Development of the system inertia ....................................................................... 50
3.10.2.2 Frequency limits.................................................................................................... 51
3.10.2.3 Rate of change of frequency ................................................................................ 51
3.10.2.4 Impact of reduced inertia on dimensioning case .................................................. 52
3.10.3 Assessment .............................................................................................................. 53
3.10.4 Possible solutions ..................................................................................................... 53
4 DESCRIPTION OF SOLUTIONS .......................................................................................... 54

4.1 Curtailment ....................................................................................................................... 55
4.2 Flexible conventional generation ...................................................................................... 55
4.3 Enlargement of balancing area ........................................................................................ 56
4.4 Demand Side Integration .................................................................................................. 56
4.5 Fast reacting and short term storage ............................................................................... 56
4.6 Improved Forecast ............................................................................................................ 57
4.7 Relaxing frequency standards .......................................................................................... 57
4.8 Power Exchange between Countries ............................................................................... 57
4.9 Long Term Storage ........................................................................................................... 57
4.10 Capacity Credits for RES ............................................................................................... 58
4.11 MV/LV Tap changer ....................................................................................................... 59
4.12 MV Substation Automation ............................................................................................ 60
4.13 Comprehensive monitoring ............................................................................................ 61
2
4.14 Reactive power from RES.............................................................................................. 61

4.15 System Security assessment ......................................................................................... 62
4.16 Advanced maintenance concepts .................................................................................. 62
4.17 Correlating maintenance and refurbishment.................................................................. 64
4.18 Grid Reinforcements AC/DC .......................................................................................... 64
4.19 Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) ................................................................ 64
4.20 Publish curtailment data................................................................................................. 65
4.21 Information exchange between system operators ......................................................... 65
4.22 Remote control of RES .................................................................................................. 66
4.23 Software to organise data (Big data) ............................................................................. 66
4.24 Adapt grid codes/ Set connection standards ................................................................. 67
4.25 Synchronous Generators ............................................................................................... 68
4.26 Faster primary frequency control ................................................................................... 68
4.27 Synthetic Inertia ............................................................................................................. 69
5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PLANNING PRINCIPLES ...................................................... 70
6 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK ........................................................................................... 71
7 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. 71
8 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ 71
9 LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 72
3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Following the “Energy-Transition” with a shift from conventional generation to more renewable
generation, the amount of renewable energy sources (RES) has increased to a significant level in
many countries of the world. In some grid areas the installed capacity of RES exceeds the customers
load. This results in a backwards infeeds of energy in more and more hours of the year in these areas.
With the focus on wind and PV the fluctuating, non-programmable nature of these generation units
lead to several challenging situations for the responsible system operator in the transmission grid and
also in the distribution grid. This can be summarised in large surpluses and deficits of RES infeed in
the power system and also high ramps between the different system conditions.
To be able to react and manage these risks, system operators must identify them at first. In a second
step they have to find solutions and implement them in their grid structure, in their technology and also
in the operational processes. The different possible solutions can be technical in nature but also
market based or regulatory. The technical solution means grid expansion up to the often discussed so
called copper plate but also installation of new technologies to get more information and
implementation of more automatization. Solutions in operational processes means to develop systems
like load-management or infeed-management to use the possible flexibility of the energy market. New
elements like storage can also be an opportunity to manage the upcoming risks. At least there has to
be regulatory standards and procedures to allow the system operator to act with these flexibilities and
also to finance the different solutions depending on the specific risks he has to face.
Depending on the area of the world we were looking to, there are different existing stages of installing
RES and also different economical and political constraints which lead to different developments in the
next decade. So the first step of this Cigré working group was the analysis of the existing spread of
RES in the involved countries and also the forecast for the development of this spread. Comparing this
development with the specific minimum and maximum load of these countries and having in mind the
local grid structure the working group could indentify different risks. There are also solutions in place
for some of these risks and a lot of studies under way to develop new solutions for upcoming future
risks.
At least not one single solution will manage one single risk, there will be combinations of risks, leading
to complex challenges for the system operator. On the other hand one solution can have impact on
different risks so the working group defined a so called risk-solution matrixto find a picture about the
total situation of risks and solutions which appears in the present situation, see chapter 4 on page 52.
The work of C1.30 neither covers the necessary market design, regulatory framework nor the
economic implications of the solutions. Focus is on describing possible technical and procedural
solutions.
Study Committee C1 has a strategic plan vision and focus to anticipate and plan a system that best fits
the paradigm shift brought about by rapid evolution in generation patterns and economics, demand
response, Information & Communications Technology, and in social, environmental, regulatory
frameworks and expectations.
Beside C1.30 there are five WGs that have published or are in the process of publishing Technical
Brochures in 2016 that deal with issues relating to distribution side generation, planning and
development. These six WGs compliment each other and focus on different aspects of the same
subject. The summary below should help readers understand the differences among these working
areas:
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1. C1.18/C2/C6 deals with solutions for coping with limits for very high penetrations of renewable
energy solutions.
2. C1.20 focuses on how to accommodate high load growth and urban development in future
plans.
3. C1.27 looks at the definition of reliability in light of new developments in various devices and
services that offer customers and system operators new levels of flexibility. The focus is on
how new developments should change the definition of reliability and adequacy used with
generation and transmission planning. The WG suggested necessary changes to the
definitions of reliability and adequacy.
4. JWG C1.29 looks at the requirement for a change in the conventional planning criteria for
future transmission networks as a result of an increased level of distributed energy resources
at MV and LV levels. The WG also assessed the adequacy of currently adopted, and/or those
in the process of being of delivered, transmission planning-methods.
5. C1.32 examines the demand and energy forecasting techniques currently being employed by
power systems around the world.
According to the named other work of Cigré we also analysed whether the discussed solutions just
solve a special singular problem or whether they could be the basis or element of a future version of
planning principles for transmission and distribution grids. So these results could work as input for
other working groups in Cigré like C1.22 considering the economic issues and joint Cigré-CIRED WG
C1.29 describing new planning principles.
Members of C1.30 are representatives of a wide area of the world but there are some areas left which
are also interesting for the risks and solutions discussion appearing from high penetration of RES.
Besides this, other countries, for example China and India could also be interesting areas for future
discussions if the work of the group does not cover the specific tasks in these additional areas.
5
1 Introduction
1.1 Development of the power generation landscape
Supported by policies aimed at enhancing energy security of supply and sustainability, renewable
1
energy sources (RES ) expanded at its fastest rate to date with 130 GW in 2014 and accounted for
more than 45 % of net additions to the world capacity. RES asset and installation costs continue to
decline in many parts of the world. As a result, wind and PV are expected to be the largest source of
net additions to power capacity over the medium term. They account for almost two thirds of the
expansion by 2020, with non-hydro sources nearly half of the total [1].
This general development also holds true for the areas of the participating members of working group
C1.30. Figure 1 shows the percentual shares of the total installed capacity of RES and conventional
generation. Additionally, the range of the hourly load values are shown, see the grey area which is
reaching from minimum load value to maximum load value per year . The countries are ranked
depending on their share of non-programmable installed capacity of wind and PV.
Figure 1: Share of net installed capacity in 2014
Taking hydro power into account Brazil has the highest share of installed RES capacity with more than
80 %. The highest share of volatile generation, which means Wind or PV, can be found in the German
power system with almost 40 % of the installed capacity.
It is remarkable that in the present situation all participating countries are theoretically able to supply
their minimum load with 100 % renewable energy. For some countries as Brazil, Germany, Italy,
Portugal or Romania the installed RES capacity is even larger than the maximum load so that these
countries are theoretically able to supply their load with 100 % renewable energy.
1
This report focusses on the impacts of non-programmable RES, i.e. wind and PV.
6
However, as the disposability and reliability of RES is low, especially for volatile generation from wind
and PV, the real shares of RES of the produced energy to serve the load over a years time is
significantly lower. This is illustrated in Figure 2. The countries are ranked depending on their share of
non-programmable produced energy of wind and PV. This results in a different ranking compared to
Figure 1.
Figure 2: Share of produced energy in 2014
Despite the high shares of the installed capacity, the share of RES in total produced energy is usually
lower than 50 %, except from Portugal and Brazil. The produced energy from wind and PV is lower
than 20 %, again except from Portugal which has a high share of wind energy but on the other hand
the smallest value of total produced energy. In Japan, since the start of the feed-in-tariff program in
2012, the installed RES capacity is increasing as well. At the time being we also see an increase of PV
and Wind in the world.
1.2 Objective and scope of this study

From the power system perspective, due to this transformation of the generation landscape, numerous
aspects have to be analysed closely with regard to the impact on the power system. In turn these
impacts result in risks and challenges for the power system which can roughly be summarized in large
surpluses or deficits of RES and high gradients between system conditions.
Solutions to these issues can be market-based, regulatory, technological or procedural in nature. The
technological solutions deal with means as grid expansion, storage or automatisation, the procedural
ones are e.g. load-management or infeed-management.
The working group aims to examine the nature and extent of those proposed or adopted solutions to
overcome the challenge of increased RES. Within this framework the working group seeks to analyse
the various challenges which are imposed by this transformation. For every risk there are different
7
possible solutions. The working group assesses these solutions and aims to give a structured
overview.
This report only considers technical solutions as market or regulatory means highly depend on the
country-specific market design. In general, it can be stated that the regulation has to enable technical
solutions on one side and the market opportunities used by the system operator on the other side.
1.3 Structure of the technical brochure

This technical brochure is the result of exchange and discussions within the working group C1.30. As
all countries have different environmental, technical, market and regulatory frameworks the working
group started with an examination of the RES situation in every country and based on this, with
definition of risks and solutions. Hereby, the working group developed a structure on the basis of the
principle of cause and effect. Within this definition the cause or impact deals with the characteristics of
RES integration into a power system, e.g. energy from RES is variable in nature. The effect deals with
the consequence coming from this characteristics. These effects can be reformulated in risks for the
existing power system.
This working group identified the following 10 main risks:
1. Flexibility is needed as the residual load can change very quickly.

2. Reserve capacity for short term balancing is needed as the forecast of the residual
load can be wrong.
3. System adequacy has to be maintained as RES generation can be low for a long
period of time.
4. Voltage profile has to be kept within the operational limits even under the influence of
changing power flows.
5. System security has to be kept in maintenance situations as system condition may
change very quickly.
6. Congestion of the transmission system occurs due to large power flows.
7. Observability and controllability of a large number of RES units is needed.
8. Small RES units have to behave system friendly due to their large numbers.
9. A lack of short-circuit power for system stability and protection purposes may occur.
10. Due to a lack of system inertia larger frequency deviations can occur.
These risks are analysed in section 3. Within this section at first it has been analysed in which country
a risk has a visible importance. Each risk has then been analysed from this country-specific
perspective. This perspective is assessed from the other member countries of the WG in order to
widen the view on this topic.
For each risk several solutions are presented. It was found out that there is always a set to possible
solutions for each risk. This is shown in a risk-solution matrix. Subsequently, the solutions are briefly
described in section 4.
The technical brochure closes with recommendations for planning principles, the conclusion and an
outlook.
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2 Impact of the integration of RES in the power system

2.1 Generation from RES is variable and non-programmable
Energy produced by RES units is based on the appearance of wind and solar – and not on schedules.
As the energy demand does not (yet) take this intermittence into account, conventional, plannable
power generation units have to balance the system in order to keep the frequency within its limits. This
is expected to be a challenge in the future as the power gradients strongly increase with a higher
share of RES in the power system. At the same time this balancing may occur in a short timeframe as
the forecasting of the RES generation might be inaccurate.
These quick changes of the system conditions also have an effect on maintenance planning which will
get more complex.
2.2 RES units are typically installed geographically distant from

load centers
RES can be differentiated between small units (e.g. rooftop PV) which are installed by customers for
different reasons and market based profit-oriented RES units. First ones are often located in rural and
semirural areas with low load. Second ones are typically installed at locations where their power
output is highest and which are also distant from the load centers. As a result large energy flows
between the generation and the load centers occur. Without grid expansion this may lead to
congestion and to possible overloading of equipment. At the same time this leads to a high reactive
power demand and also need of short circuit capacity which has to be met.
Another important topic with this new geographical layout of the power system leads to the fact that
significant cross-border flow and even loop flows may occur.
2.3 RES units are typically small units and installed in the LV/MV
grid
Except the large offshore wind power parks, a significant large amount of RES units are installed in the
MV/LV distribution grid. This results in a different utilisation of the distribution grid which has been built
as an “one way” grid to bring energy from the overlaying transmission grids to the end-customer. This
characteristic now changes to a “multi direction” utilisation with a higher capacity requested by the
distributed generation sites. Following this in the transmission grid overloading and voltage issues can
occur. Also, with many units installed in the grid fast changing power flows, grid management
becomes a complex issue for the DSO.
At the same time the TSO has a lack of observability and controllability as a central control of a huge
number of RES unit is neither wanted nor practical. This makes it necessary that these units should
ideally behave autonomously system friendly.
2.4 RES are typically converter-based units

Most of the wind units and all PV units are converter connected to the grid. By replacing conventional
power plants this fact reduces the system inertia. The system inertia determines the sensitivity of the
frequency to imbalances. With little inertia the system is sensitive to temporary power imbalances.
Additionally, converter-based units have a low short circuit current. The lack of short circuit power
makes the grid more sensitive to faults and voltage dips.
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3 Analysis of the technical risks

3.1 Flexibility is needed
3.1.1 Issue
This section deals with the variability of residual load under strong development of renewable energy
sources (RES), and with the challenges introduced for dispatchable generation.
The power system is operated in such a way as to ensure that supply is equivalent to demand at all
times. Historically, this matching of supply and demand has been achieved almost exclusively by
adapting generation to demand. The development of renewable energies modifies this division of
roles. In particular, wind and photovoltaic power are non-programmable, and their variability must be
factored into the operation of the power system.
Power system stakeholders are therefore being increasingly forced to find ways to manage other
resources at their disposal (thermal generation or hydropower plants, exchanges with other countries,
demand response or storage) based on trends in residual demand, i.e. gross demand from which is
subtracted the generation from wind and solar energy and run-of-river.
The greater the variability of residual demand, the more dispatchable generation must be flexible. So
trends in residual demand can be mirrored and the supply-demand balance maintained at all times. In
other words, flexibility requirements are intrinsically linked to the variability of residual demand.
3.1.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective
3.1.2.1 Photovoltaic penetration changes the daily form of residual demand

Photovoltaic power generation is very seasonal. Average monthly load factors range between 5 % in
December and almost 20 % in summer. On average, photovoltaic output is three times higher in
summer than in winter.
Photovoltaic output is also characterised by significant daily periodicity; its generation profile
resembles a bell curve with a peak in the middle of the day.
Figure 3: National photovoltaic load factor over one day in January (left) and August (right), between 2011 and 2014 (all
percentages are referred to installed capacity of PV)
10
In France, photovoltaic generation is concentrated primarily between 10am and 4pm in winter but
spread out between 8am and 7:30pm in summer. As illustrated in the charts below, at the national
level, cloud cover does not affect the form of photovoltaic output but it does impact volumes.
At a national level, as cloud cover usually does not vary greatly from one day to the next, photovoltaic
output changes relatively little day-to-day. On the other hand wide swings are seen from one hour to
the next, reflecting the solar cycle.
These characteristics are leading to the fact, that increasing photovoltaic penetration in the power
system alters the structure of residual demand.
Photovoltaic generation reduces residual demand during the day. This effect is particularly
pronounced during the summer, when demand in France is relatively low and photovoltaic output is
high. The following charts illustrate the impact photovoltaic power has on a typical August day in
France, in current conditions (5 GW of PV in France) and under “New Mix” scenario for 2030 (24 GW
of PV in France) included in the 2014 French Generation Adequacy Report.
Photovoltaic generation makes possible to smooth the morning peak, which is concentrated between
8am and 9am, and causes a valley to appear mid-afternoon. The 7pm peak is not very affected by
photovoltaic output, such that the gap between the mid-afternoon valley and the evening peak
increases with photovoltaic penetration.
Figure 4: Trend in electricity consumption net of photovoltaic power on a typical day in August in current conditions
(top) and “New Mix” scenario (bottom)
11
These effects are already visible today with about 5 GW of photovoltaic capacity installed: the
noontime peak in summer decreases significantly and residual demand at 4 pm moves closer to the
9pm valley, while the 7 pm peak changes very little.
These phenomena are more pronounced in a situation with higher photovoltaic penetration. Under the
“New Mix” scenario, the afternoon dip in residual demand in summer is as low on average as the 4 am
valley. On a day when PV output is significant, the afternoon dip can even be below the overnight
valley.
3.1.2.2 Wind power penetration eliminates weekly periodicity of residual

demand
Wind power output is also highly seasonal, with an average monthly load factor ranging between 15 %
in July and about 30 % in January. On average, wind power output is twice as high in winter as in
summer.
Unlike photovoltaic, wind power output shows no real periodicity. The effects of photovoltaic
generation are easy to assess due to its daily periodicity and characteristic production curve, but the
same cannot be said of wind power.
This absence of periodicity of the wind power load factor means it cannot structurally modify (in a
regular and periodic manner) the residual demand curve, and the hourly impacts of high wind power
output cannot be estimated beforehand. For instance, during the 7pm load peak in winter in France,
wind power output may be very high or almost non-existent.
The Figure 5 illustrates the absence of periodicity of wind power generation. On the whole, the wind
power load factor changes little from one hour to the next.
Figure 5: Variations in wind power load factor in France over two different weeks in winter
On the other hand, whereas demand and photovoltaic output are fairly regular over weekly periods,
wind power output fluctuates considerably from one day to the next. This means that a high level of
wind power capacity differentiates residual demand on each day of the week and partially eliminates
the business day/weekend weekly periodicity presently observed.
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3.1.2.3 Global trends on residual load

With high wind and photovoltaic penetration, substantial changes in the form of residual demand will
come. The following charts illustrate the changes of residual demand between current situation (9 GW
of wind power, 5 GW of solar power) and the “New Mix” 2030 scenario (37 GW of wind power and
24 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity in France).
Figure 6: Illustration of the residual demand on a current summer week
Figure 7: Illustration of the residual demand on a “New Mix” 2030 scenario summer week
The structure of residual demand is very different from today under this 2030 “New-Mix” scenario.
Indeed, with such a high level of installed capacity, must-run renewable generation is significant and
results in:
 A new dip in the middle of the day

 An attenuation of the weekly periodicity of demand, and large variability at the week
scale
 An increase of daily gaps between maximum and minimum residual demand
 A higher hourly gradient (difference between the residual load in h+1 and h)
 A sharp decrease in residual demand
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3.1.2.4 Challenges for dispatchable generation

With a high level of wind and solar power, dispatchable generation will represent a smaller amount of
the total generation than today. At the same time, it has to deal with more variability of residual load.
As a result, each thermal or hydro unit has to provide a bigger effort than today, and will need to ramp
up and down at greater rates than before.
Moreover, thermal or hydro power plants have dynamic constraints that must be respected: Minimum
Power Output, Start up time, hourly ramping (increase or decrease of production possible per time),
minimum duration of production. It means that sometimes, they will not be able to do exactly what
would be needed to follow the residual load, and so other solutions will have to be provided.
An example to illustrate one of the challenges with a lot of renewable generation is what happens on a
summer day in France, with a lot of sun and low electricity consumption.
30000
25000
Residual load (MW)
20000
Very high hourly
gradients
15000 Pmin dispatchable
generation
(illustration only)
10000
5000
0
0 5 10 15 20
Hour of the day
Figure 8: Illustration of the residual demand on a “New Mix” 2030 scenario summer day
The residual load is very low in the afternoon, and is not compatible with the minimum power output of
dispatchable production needed at 7pm to ensure adequacy. Indeed, if thermal plants are stopped,
they will not be able to be back at 7pm when there is no more solar output (because of their start-up
time). As a result, it is necessary to keep them online, and so there is a surplus of production. In this
case, a solution could be to export the surplus of production to other countries. However, if other
countries also have a lot of renewable installed, they could also have surplus of production at the
same time as France (even though there is a smoothing effect of renewable at a European scale). In
this case, exporting would not be a solution, and it would be necessary to store or curtail this surplus
of production.
Another challenge is the hourly gradient that dispatchable generation has to follow: it is quite a high
value, and there are not a lot of dispatchable plants in present operation to make it. Each plant has to
modify its generation very quickly.
14
3.1.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
Power generation in Belgium still relies strongly on nuclear units (about 6 GW for a peak load of about
13 GW) that were not initially designed to be flexible (baseload units) as they are e.g. in France. At
some moments, the load is low while the RES generation is high: either during the night (the load is
always low and a high wind generation could occur) or the Sunday afternoon, during the spring, when
the sun shines (low load and high PV generation). Note that there is a large variability of PV
generation at a national level from one day to the next, as shown in Figure 9. Indeed, Belgium is a
small country and cloud covers over the PV panels are highly correlated. When the load is low and
RES generation is high, RES must be curtailed (mainly offshore wind farms) such that nuclear units
continue to produce at their nominal power and conventional units needed for spinning reserve are at
their technical minimum. To limit this effect, nuclear units are adapted to become more flexible.
Figure 9: PV generation for a week of May 2016 in Belgium. Source: Elia.
GERMANY
On 20 March 2015 a partial solar eclipse occurred in Germany. This eclipse had a big influence on the
electric power system due to the high share of PV. As illustrated in Figure 10 the PV-injection at the
end of the eclipse raised only in the south-west of Germany from 6 GW up to 19 GW within 2 hours.
This rise of 13 GW corresponds to the power of around 13 large power plants. This high power ramp
had to be handled and balanced by the flexible conventional generation. To manage this the TSOs in
Germany ordered an far higher amount of balancing energy than in normal operation conditions. This
lead to significant higher costs at this specific day.
15
Figure 10: PV Injection in the balancing area of TransnetBW. Source: TransnetBW
ITALY
In Europe, Italy has played a central role in the process of decarbonisation of the power sector, having
seen a very massive penetration of photovoltaic and wind generation in a very short period of time.
The largest share of wind plants is connected to the transmission grid and the total power installed
was around 8.7 GW [2] at the end of 2014. Photovoltaic plants are generally connected to the
distribution grid and at the end of year 2014 the total power installed in Italy was 18.6 GW [2]. In such
context, the energy produced from non-programmable RES plants has covered the 38.9 % of the
power demand.
Figure 11: Historical evolution of the load netted by pv and wind generation in Italy known as duck-curve. source :
Terna
16
On the other hand, due to the recent economic downturn the national electric consumption has not
followed the increase in generation.
The combination of these two factors has deeply modified the daily patterns of the electricity demand
as already discussed in the French perspective. Nevertheless, in Italy the change of the net load
patterns has been much higher. As illustrated by the following figure, which reports the historical
evolution of the load netted by the wind and photovoltaic generation in Italy during the week-ends and
holydays, the electricity load to be covered by conventional generation has constantly declined during
the years and has shown a new shape, characterized by very low consumption during the day, even
lower than the night.
As already discussed for the French situation, the need of keeping on-line a certain amount of
conventional generators could produce surpluses of generation. Furthermore, considering that Italy
has a market-zonal structure the assurance of the generation-load balancing is even more challenging
due to transmission constraints.
As a result of the described trends, in 2013 the Italian TSO had to curtail around 80 GWh of wind
generation connected in the transmission network, for avoiding surplus of generation [2] and in the
most critical days had also to strongly reduce the import from the Northern frontier for assuring a
minimum level of conventional generation.
In the future the situation could be even more critical. In fact, market simulations on the target year
2024 performed for preparing the Long term Italian Transmission Plan have shown interesting results
[2] [3]. The scenario considered is characterized by an annual demand of 334 TWh and a
development of RES generation up to 16 GW for Wind and 30 GW for PV, consistently with the 2020
decarbonisation targets.
The results of simulations showed that in the Business As Usual case, the total potential surplus of
generation is around 5 TWh, concentrated mainly in the period from April to October and during the
holidays (where the load is lower and the RES generation is higher). The duration curve of the
potential generation surplus is reported in the Figure 12 below. The surplus reaches peaks of 5 GW to
6 GW in some hours and it is present for around 5000 hours in a year, making the operation of the
power system much more challenging than today.
Figure 12: Duration Curve of overgeneration – 2024 Scenario
17
JAPAN
In Japan, PV generation is regarded as a tolerable power source due to a small correlation between
demand and generation. Although variance exist between regions, 10~30 % of the total installed PV
generation capability can be expected at 15:00 [4]. However, certain regions with larger PV installation
face the listed issues due to loss of residual demand. In Tanegashima, an island within Kyushu
Electric Power Company footprint, RES connection requests exceed acceptable PV capacity raising
concerns for surplus generation. On May 5th 2015, limitation on PV generation was enforced [5].
Moreover, as PV installations continue, duck curves become concerns even in larger systems that are
not islands. There are several measures against this concern: control of combined LNG while
predicting PV generation, use of pumped storage or batteries, reassessing PV generation limitation
policies, utilization or instalment of inter-area transmission lines, etc.
On the other hand with wind generation, periodicity is negligible: due to this nature, there is a common
understanding that wind generation output smoothing can be accomplished by aggregating wind
generators in wind farms or large areas. At the same time, Japanese geography and climate (for
instance, passing of low pressure zones) can cause wide speed fluctuation across a whole region [6]
caution is needed.
Furthermore, as with the rest of the world, Japan has an uneven distribution in wind generation
location. Often,optimal locations for wind generation instalment resides in entities with low balancing
capabilities. This is a limiting factor in the growth of wind generation in Japan as there is a mismatch
between areas where wind generation will be installed and areas that can balance wind generation.
To overcome this challenge, utilities in Japan are coordinating with each other to increase wind
generation capacity, specifically by utilizing inter-area lines and sharing balancing capabilities with
each other [7] [8]. At times where balancing capabilities are at a limit in a certain area, the area
increases thermal generation. This causes a surplus of generation which will flow to another area
where balancing capabilities are higher: thus, effectively sharing the balancing capabilities, and allow
more wind generation to be installed in total.
ROMANIA
Considering the fact that in the last years an important growth of installed capacity from renewable
sources was observed, the way how the load curve is covered changed. Approximately 17 % of the
installed capacity in the Romanian power grid is covered by wind and photovoltaics. Many problems
were identified in the Romanian power grid and one of them is the reduction of the residual load. Due
to the increase of share of renewable sources in the generation mix, a procedure was elaborated to
evaluate the active power from RES that can be absorbed by the system while maintaining safe
operating conditions considering the active power available in the last year in the power system.
USA
Most of the issues listed above do occur in one place or the other in the USA. Due to regional climate
conditions and state based subsides and laws, wind and solar resources do not necessarily overlap in
the same areas. As a result, the effects on the residual load at load centres in the US do not
experience issues from both solar and wind as described above. The dispersed nature of these
resources also allows for the exporting energy to various load centres without experiencing the issues
mentioned above as there is always place to take the energy, especially when area time differentials
are considered.
18
Figure 13: Solar Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov
Figure 14: Wind Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov
3.1.4 Possible solutions

 Curtailment reduces the power generation ramps and allow assuring the necessary
on-line conventional generation for managing the power system in a secure way,
see 4.1
 Flexible conventional generation to balance high power generation ramps, see
4.2.
 The enlargement of balancing areas support the self-balancing effects which
occur due to stochastical reasons, see 4.3
 Demand Side Integration adds additional flexibility on the consumer side of the
system, see 4.4.
 Short term and fast reacting storage also adds additional system flexibility, see
4.5
19
3.2 Reserve capacity for short term balancing is needed
3.2.1 Issue
In a stable and secure power system the power generated must be balanced correctly to meet the
demand. Most of the electricity in conventional power systems is produced from conventional power
plants, which in principal are available 24 hours a day, all year round, unless maintenance is planned.
The base load is supplied by power plants that take a long period of time to achieve an optimum
operating mode (nuclear, coal and gas). The peak load is covered by flexible plants that can vary their
output within minutes or even seconds, such as gas turbines and pumped-storage hydropower. As the
share of renewable sources increase in the energy mix, a power system will need more power plants
that are capable of providing rapid response to system fluctuations. Knowing that a power system is
characterized by defined values of frequency and only small variation limits are tolerated, a precise
forecast of the load/demand has to be known. Considering the fact that RES depend on seasonal
constraints and the weather conditions, the process of keeping a power system stable and covering
the demand curve becomes more difficult. Wind power forecasts consist of estimating the expected
production of one or more characteristic wind turbines in the near future (hours or days). The wind
generation depends directly on wind speed.
First, wind power production may be higher in winter in Northern Europe due to low-pressure
meteorological systems or it may be higher in summer in some Mediterranean regions owing to strong
summer breezes. There are also daily cycles which may be substantial, mainly due to daily
temperature changes. Finally, fluctuations are observed at the very short-term scale (at the minute or
intra-minute scale). The variations are not of the same order for these three different timescales.
Similar conditions due to the appearance of sunlight can be described for PV generation. Managing
the variability of wind and PV generation is the key aspect associated to the optimal integration of that
renewable energy into the power system.
The first aspect of wind power forecasting is the prediction of future values of the necessary weather
variables at the wind farm level. Regarding the time axis, the forecast length of most of the operational
models today is between 48 and 172 hours ahead. Meteorological forecasts are given at specific
nodes of a grid covering an area. Since wind farms are not situated on these nodes, it is then needed
to extrapolate these forecasts at the desired location and at turbine hub height.
Several methods are used for short-term prediction of wind generation. The simplest ones are based
on climatology or averages of past production values. They may be considered as reference
forecasting methods since they are easy to implement, as well as benchmark when evaluating more
advanced approaches. The most popular of these reference methods is certainly persistence. This
naive predictor — commonly referred to as ‘what you see is what you get’ — states that the future
wind generation will be the same as the last measured value. Despite its apparent simplicity, this naive
method might be hard to beat for look-ahead times up to 4–6 hours ahead.
Statistical prediction methods are based on one or several models that establish the relation between
historical values of power, as well as historical and forecast values of meteorological variables, and
wind power or PV measurements.
3.2.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian Perspective

In the last few years rapid growth was observed in renewable generation in the Romanian power
system. Since 2008, 2878 MW of wind resources and 1302 MW of photovoltaic resources have been
installed. The development can be seen in Figure 15.
20
Figure 15: Development of wind power (left) and PV units (right) in Romania
From the technical point of view, the rapid growth in the share of the renewable sources comes with a
set of risks as follows:
 Establishing the necessary network capacity to evacuate the power from the zones
where high quantities of RES are installed
 Getting the balance right between production and consumption in the specific
conditions of the existing national power generation landscape (Nuclear, Fossil,
Hydro, Wind, Photovoltaic etc.)
 Feasible exchanges with neighbouring countries (the transfer limit is 2000 MW), and
the establishment of exchange contracts
 Existence of a tertiary reserve to enable a fast rebalancing of the production-
consumption curve for wind and photovoltaic variation
Considering the rapid growth of installed power from renewable sources in Romania a procedure was
formulated to evaluate the active power from wind and photovoltaic sources that can be absorbed by
the power system while maintaining safe operating conditions considering the active power available
in the last year in the power system. Through this procedure, it can be determined the:
 The power that can be safely absorbed by the power system from installed wind
turbines 90 % of the year.
 The power that can be safely absorbed daily by the power system from installed
wind and photovoltaic units for 90 % of the year.
The procedure is based on the idea that:
The system will be operated so that wind and photovoltaic sources can maximize their output to the
power system by minimizing the use of dispatchable thermal units to a safe limit and hydro units will
not be running. With this policy there will be available power from hydro and thermal units for a time
slot to balance the system, while the scheduled power would be reduced to match the expected
difference in the power expected to be provided by wind and photovoltaics sources.
The balancing market participants will notify the TSO of the available power, the technical minimum
power and the scheduled power for all dispatchable units for each time slot.
Based on the previous year, available power reductions or increases are determined on an hourly
basis. The obtained values are then ranked. Considering the ranked values, 90% of the values are
considered for reductions or increases for the following year.
To determine the power produced from wind units that can be absorbed by the power system the
following formula is used:
21
𝑃available
𝑃𝑖,max CEE =
𝑘loading_calculated
Pavailable represents the minimum differential for available power to be increased or reduced.
kloading_calculated represents the loading coefficient of the wind units installed in the power system. The
coefficient is calculated through statistical methods, considering the curves of the active power/wind
speed associated to the different types of wind turbine installed in the power system. This coefficient is
annually determined. Starting from the number of each type of installed wind turbine, the loading
coefficient is calculated as a percentage of the produced power at different wind speeds and type of
turbine based on the total installed power.
The evaluation of the available power in the current year necessary to absorb the power produced in a
wind farm is determined as a product between the loading coefficient for the previous year and the
total installed power for wind farms considering also the forecasted power to be installed.
The installed/evacuated power limit from renewable sources has to take into account the existing
network capacity, the necessity of grid reinforcements and the possibility to introduce the renewable
sources in the load curve of the power system. The maximum power that can be integrated in the
system can be understood also as the maximum power estimated to be turned off or on approximately
in the same time from renewable sources (wind –solar) and can be compensated by loading/unloading
of the available fast tertiary reserve.
To increase the installed power from renewable sources, the fast tertiary power reserve must be
increased. The increase of the available fast tertiary reserve can be possible by:
 energy storage (e.g. high capacity capacitors or pumped-hydro power plants)

 avoiding the construction of nuclear power plants in power systems with high
renewable power sources installed
 building of new power plants with quick start as gas power plants and Pump storage
HPP)
In this moment in Romania the limit to integrate in the load curve the power produced from wind farms
is approximately 3000 MW which is already the installed amount.
Even if the power scheduling needed to absorb wind and photovoltaic generation is determined
through this procedure, there are exceptional cases (the remaining 10 %) where, for short periods of
time, these units operate at their maximums or minimum outputs. These situations increase the stress
on the power system and the national dispatchers. The excess power produced has to be limited by
curtailment via disconnecting generation capacity from the grid or shifting/increasing loads. For the
case in which power produced is much lower than the expected power due to bad or incorrect forecast
of renewable sources flexible plants are needed that can vary their output within minutes or even
seconds, such as gas turbines and hydro power plants or using storage units.
3.2.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
In Belgium, due to RES variability and forecast errors, there is also a higher need for reserve capacity,
especially tertiary reserve. This RES forecast error adds to the load forecast error and thus increases
the forecast error on the residual load. Moreover, forecast error on wind generation tends to be
relatively much higher than the load forecast error: in Belgium in 2015, the average absolute load
forecast error represented 2.4 % (242 MW) of the average load (approximately 10 GW), while, on the
last trimester of 2015, the average absolute wind forecast error represented 15 % (110 MW) of the
22
average wind generation (739 MW). Additional reserves do not come only from generators, but also
from loads (demand response). Moreover, some RES generators provide downward reserves.
FRANCE
RTE has a mix of deterministic (for short term) and probabilistic methodology (from 2 h up to day
ahead) to calculate operating reserve needs (upward and downward).
To meet the balance between generation and load, RTE uses:
 FCR 3000 MW shared among Europe (around 570 MW for RTE) – automatically
available in some seconds
 FRRa (automatically controlled, centralized AGC): between 500 MW and 1200 MW
depending mainly on the load
 FRRm (activated manually in less than 15 minutes): we contractualize 1000 MW, in
order to recover AGC after a reference incident (our biggest generation unit
connected)
 RR (manually activated): we have an organized market for balancing, with
mandatory participation of all technically available units and with remuneration for
energy activated
For each future term, RTE follows the margins available in its system to ensure there will be enough
available reserves of active power to cope with future imbalances (load and RES2 are forecasted, but
errors can occur).If these margins are not met by the available bids in the balancing mechanism, we
inform market and we can take start up actions on thermal units to increase those margins. Currently
we are not using curtailment of wind generation for balancing reasons.
Example for upward reserves:
 1500 MW available in 15 minutes

 2300 MW available in two hours
 x MW available some hours before the peaks of load of the day, where x is a result
of a probabilistic calculation. We expect to use in the future more information given
by forecasting tools.
ITALY
In Italy the tertiary reserve margins have been increased in order to accommodate the renewable
resources installed. In fact, the Italian TSO considers appropriate terms in reserve calculation formulas
for taking into account the errors between day-ahead forecast and real-time production of solar and
wind generation. As declared by the Italian TSO the current average errors in the forecast of such
energies between day-ahead and real time is approximately 20 % for wind and 10 % for photovoltaic
and the forecast methods used are in line with international best practices [2].
In general, downward services (reserve and balancing) are more difficult to be provided due to the low
values of residual load that are present in Italy.
The need for procuring more ancillary services (not only reserve) due to the variability and uncertainty
of RES has also produced a strong increase of the costs in the ancillary services markets (From
925 M€ in 2011 to 1733 M€ in 2013).
2
RTE has in recent years developed a tool for the real-time monitoring and forecasting of wind and photovoltaic generation
(whether connected to the transmission or distribution network) that makes it possible to anticipate the impact intermittence will
have on the supply-demand balance and take the necessary measures to right any imbalances identified.
23
JAPAN
In Japan, there were some activities regarding PV and Wind power generation, and the outlines can
be introduced as stated below:
The prediction technique is very important for the stable power supply. Japan had developed output
prediction technique of PV and Wind power by empirical studies of national project. The development
stage of basic technology has been finished. Now, each utility has started to install specific system of
prediction. The prediction enhancement using satellite images of Japan weather association is
ongoing research in some utilities.
As part of the NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) "R&D
Project on Grid Integration of Variable Renewable Energy: Mitigation Technologies on Output
Fluctuations of Renewable Energy Generations in Power Grid (FY 2014-FY 2016)," ongoing research
is being conducted on a supply and demand simulation system [9]. Using "RES output prediction",
"supply and demand operation", and "RES output control", a standardized simulation platform is being
developed in preparation for large-scale RES installation.
USA
This issue of balancing is similar in the US. The methods and approaches are also currently utilized in
PJM appear to have similar logic in regards to trying to forecast output from RES generators and
account for that in power system balancing and making sure there is enough available power capacity
to meet the demand in the RES generation fails to be there. One notable difference is the application
of curtailment in to the various types of generators. While hydro that can be curtailed would be
reduced first, RES generators that are over producing would be the next to be curtailed before the
curtailment of dispatchable thermal generation. [10]

 Curtailment reduces the short term power generation ramps, see 4.1
 Flexible conventional generation to increase the primary and secondary reserve
to balance high short term power generation ramps, as well as to have the possibility
to increase the tertiary reserve margins, see 4.2.
 The enlargement of balancing areas support the self-balancing effects which
occur due to stochastical reasons, see 4.3.
 Demand Side Integration, especially demand side response to add additional
reserves on the consumer side of the system, see 4.4.
 Short term and fast reacting storage also adds additional balancing capacity, see
4.5.
 Improve RES generation forecasts for a better dispatching of conventional
generation units, see 4.6.
 Relaxing frequency standards to allow larger frequency deviations which result
from an unbalanced system, see 4.7.
24
3.3 System adequacy has to be maintained
3.3.1 Issue
Weather conditions, such as wind speeds and sunlight, have a direct impact on the output of wind and
photovoltaic power plants, so their generation is variable and difficult to predict with accuracy.
Because of the fact that wind and solar power are variable and not dispatchable, 1 GW of wind or
solar capacity does not have the same value as 1 GW of dispatchable capacity for security of supply.
There can be long periods without wind or solar generation. During these periods, dispatchable ‘back-
up” capacities are required to ensure balance between demand and supply. With the existing
technology of RES, system operators need up to 100 % of maximum load dispatchable generation
plants or other sources which can be scheduled to grant security of supply without loss of load in its
responsibility area.
3.3.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective

A major question is to identify how much back-up capacity is required to ensure adequacy (e.g. there
is enough production capacity available to meet demand). In France, there is a capacity adequacy
criterion: a maximum expected loss of load of 3 hours per year.
In accordance with French legislation, each year RTE (the French TSO) drafts and publishes the
‘Generation Adequacy Report’ concerning the supply demand balance of electricity. As a diagnostic
reference for security of supply, the report is a key corporate exercise which is used to shed light on
the medium to long term forecasts for security of supply, and therefore to develop national energy
policies.
If the adequacy criterion is not met in the coming years, the study quantifies how much additional
generation capacity would be needed to meet it.
To produce its Generation Adequacy Report [11], RTE uses probabilistic studies (1000 years
simulated with different climatic conditions: wind, solar, temperature, precipitation) and availability of
power plants. Properly studying security of supply requires a probabilistic approach, which takes into
accout the following criteria:
3.3.2.1 Several countries (example for France: Western Europe)

The level of interconnections is constantly increasing, with important and variable flows between
countries playing a significant role in the overall equilibrium (market integration and system adequacy).
France, already today, can sometimes exchange around 10 GW with its neighbours at a given hour. A
new HVDC-interconnector with Spain has been put into service in 2015, while new projects are under
assessment for almost all other borders.
As pointed out in the 2015 Generation Adequacy report, at the moment, interconnections contribute
significantly to securing the supply demand balance for electricity in France.
3.3.2.2 Different climatic conditions

There is a high penetration of electric heating in France, that results in high temperature sensitivity and
a high seasonality of electric consumption (higher in winter than in summer). For example, in winter,
the additional consumption triggered by a 1°C decline is estimated at about 2,400 MW. As a result, in
order to properly model load in France, it is necessary to study many climatic years, presenting some
cold spells.
25
Precipitation in France, but also in other European countries (example: Spain or Switzerland have a lot
of hydro power plants) plays a high role; a “dry” year is less favorable than a “rainy” year.
With the development of wind and solar power, that are highly variable and not dispatchable, it is very
hard to know if these renewable assets will produce when system operator will need it, when there will
be a risk of scarcity. Different climatic conditions are then needed, to study all possibilities.
Spatial correlations (between countries) have to be taken into account to get coherent renewable
generation and load from one country to another, at each hour simulated, to get valuable analysis of
security of supply. Inter-modal correlations are also very valuable (e.g. between temperature and
wind).
RTE uses a weather database provided by Météo France to model load and wind and solar
production. This data base contains two hundreds climate scenarios (Temperature, wind speed, cloud
covering solar radiation), at a 50 km mesh. These scenarios are coherent and correlated, which
guarantees a good modeling of correlations at a spatial scale (between countries) and between
vagaries. The number of available scenarios (200) enables to take several weather conditions into
account.
3.3.2.3 Availability of thermal power plants

On top of weather conditions, availability of thermal power plants has a high impact on adequacy; it is
essential to take into account several hazards and crossings between them to produce reliable results.
 Weather conditions influence both load (Temperature) and generation (wind, solar,
hydro)
 The availability of thermal power plants is not always the same from one year to
another. Planned outage can be placed at different moments of the year, and forced
outage cannot be anticipated and can happen at any time.
A Monte Carlo approach is used to model this (each of the 8760 hours of many years are simulated).
As wind and solar are highly variable and non-programmable, it is very difficult to evaluate if they will
produce when there is the need for energy and to determine when there will be scarcity. A prudent
approach could be to consider that their “capacity value” for security of supply is zero, but this could
lead to overcapacity (over estimation of the amount of needed back up capacity). A risky approach
would be to consider that their value is equal to their average load factor on the year, but it could lead
to a lack of capacity (under estimation of the amount of needed back up capacity), and a high number
of hours when generation is not high enough to meet load. None of these solutions are really
satisfying, so the only solution to properly evaluate the capacity value of wind and solar for a country
or a defined area, and so the back-up capacity required, is to carry out a full probabilistic simulation,
as presented before.
3.3.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
The issue and methodology of France is the same for Belgium. Additionally, the law imposes a
maximum loss of load expectation of 3 hours per year. If this target is not reached with available
generation a strategic reserve must be contracted to reach it.
26
GERMANY
In Germany the yearly Scenario Outlook and Adequacy Forecast (SO&AF) published by ENTSO-E is
the basis used for system adequacy analysis. In the SO&AF future “worst-case” scenarios with high
load growth and different net generating capacities (NGC) are defined. The NGC is separated in
reliable available capacity and in unavailable capacity. E.g. in Scenario B 94 % of the additional
installed capacity is considered as unavailable capacity and only 9 GW can be taken into account as
reliable available capacity which is necessary to maintain system adequacy. Based on these scenarios
it is investigated which countries will depend on imports of electrical energy to maintain system
adequacy as seen in Figure 16.
Figure 16: European countries that depend on energy imports [12]
The blue countries depend on energy imports, the green countries do not.
The last part of the SO&AF analyses the system flexibility occurred by high penetration of RES. It is
shown that in Germany the hourly ramp of residual load at present can change by +11.9 GW and -
10.3 GW. Those ramps have to be managed to maintain system adequacy [12].
ITALY
Currently, in Italy the TSO develops the future transmission grid assuring the following reliability
targets [2]:
-5
 Expected energy not supplied < 10 per unit with respect to the yearly consumption
 Loss of load expectation < 10 hours/year.
 Loss of load probability < 1%.
To this purpose, similarly to the practices adopted in France, specific Montercarlo simulations are
performed for studying the adequacy of the planned transmission grid. The future development of
generation capacity is not under the control of the TSO and is considered as an input.
Furthermore, a new capacity market will be implemented by 2020, with a first run scheduled for 2017.
The optimal economic capacity for adequacy in the long term will be found by the result of the auctions
between supply and demand curves, as reported in the following figure. Intermitted resources are
excluded from the remuneration mechanism and are modelled as zero-price offers in the supply curve.
27
Figure 17: Example of capacity markets demand and supply curves. Source: Terna
The Italian Capacity market remuneration mechanism will be based on Reliability Options which
should provide a physical amount of power when the security of supply (SoS) is at risk.
The demand curve – defined as the premium related to a variation of Available Power Production–
should meet the supply curve at an optimum level of generation procurement, trading off SoS and
reduced energy costs by taking into account capacity procurement costs. The demand curve fixes the
remuneration for each value of capacity installed in the system. The remuneration reflects the marginal
value for the consumer to avoid a load curtailment: at the beginning, the consumer is willing to pay
high prices for limiting the expected load curtailment. With more capacity installed in the system,
instead, the marginal value is lower because the expected load curtailments are lower too. The curve
is calculated by the Italian TSO, which will be also responsible of the Capacity Market implementation
and execution. Each cost-capacity point of the demand curve is obtained thanks to Montecarlo
simulations (around 400 Monte Carlo years for each point of the curve) on the transmission network.
In this way for each value of capacity, the expected load curtailment is calculated (and hence the
marginal value for the customer) considering a huge number of different situations, in terms of
renewable generation, power plants unavailability and interconnection constraints. Transfer capacity
between market zones also depends on a fault rate (based on previous measured experiences) and a
maintenance schedule; moreover each Market Zone will have as outcome its own Demand Curve in
order to best fit the Zonal supply needs.
JAPAN
In Japan, as an electric power company, it is crucial to foresee the output of RES in the planning
stage. In the planning stage, the risk of supply power shortage is considered, low output from RES is
being assumed and alternative energy sources are being prepared.
ROMANIA
In the Romanian power system the total installed capacity at the end of 2015 was of 24.5 GW, 2000
MW higher than in 2012. This increase was determined by renewable sources as wind and
photovoltaic. In our national development plan the adequacy of the power plants for different periods
of time is analysed at winter peak when it is the highest demand in the Romanian power system. The
capacity of the system to cover the demand at winter peak, in normal conditions is analysed in
perspective using a methodology applied at European level within ENTSO-E.
According to this methodology, it is considered that to cover in safe conditions the demand it is
necessary to have in the power system a certain power level provided by the power plants,
significantly higher than the power consumed at peak load. Also it should be kept permanently at the
disposal of the TSO an available operational reserve.
28
With the installation of a significant amount of power from renewable sources characterized by a high
dependence on the weather conditions, the tertiary reserve has to be supplemented to compensate
the inaccuracies produced by the weather forecast.
USA
This issue and methodology is the same for the US and the modelling is handled at the state level by
regional transmission operators (RTOs). Modelling is done for similar conditions by these RTOs
based on guidelines provided by North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to assure
reliability of power systems under any conditions as well as how to respond to abnormal conditions.
Modelling of RTO to RTO interconnections and transactions are also performed. [13]

Possible Solutions to maintain system adequacy can be:
 Flexible conventional generation with low minimum power generation capability to

stay longer in service, see 4.2.
 Demand Side Integration to reduce load if necessary, see 4.4.
 Power Exchange between countries to increase the overall system adequacy and
to support each other, see 4.8.
 Long term storage to store energy from RES for periods with low RES generation,
see 4.9.
 Capacity Credits for RES to assess the system adequacy properly, see 4.10.
3.4 Voltage profile has to be kept
3.4.1 Issue
In a power system, the net apparent load at one bus bar can be defined by the difference between the
load and the non-controllable generation connected at that bus bar (like generation from renewable
energy sources). The net apparent load must then be supplied by the external power system.
Before the massive integration of renewable energy into power systems, the net apparent load was
nearly equal to the actual load and was thus varying between the peak load and the off-peak load.
Power was flowing always from the transmission grid to individual customers in distribution grids.
In distribution grids, variable tap transformers were enough to set the voltage within acceptable
bounds throughout the grid. These tap ranges of HV/MV transformers have been designed mainly to
control voltage in case of high load and high inductive reactive power (i.e. to increase the voltage on
the MV side). Therefore, no reactive power compensation devices were installed there.
In the transmission grid to keep voltages in acceptable bounds reactive power is normally delivered by
the synchronous generators of the conventional power plants. Additionally, reactive power
compensation devices were installed. Mainly shunt capacitor banks were installed to support the
voltage, but inductors were also present, either for series or shunt compensation.
With the massive integration of renewable energy, the situation changed dramatically. Now, the
apparent net load can be much lower than the off-peak load and can be even negative at some nodes
when the load is low and there is a significant amount of generation from RES (reverse flow from MV
to HV). Same time, conventional units are not in operation due to the high infeed of RES and will not
deliver reactive power. In that case, under- or overvoltages can occur, both in the distribution grid and
the transmission grid. In the distribution grid, the reverse power flows, from customers to the
29
transmission grid, can lead to over-voltages for customers connected far from the HV substation [14],
as shown in Figure 18. Converters submitted to high voltages (e.g. v>1.1 pu) disconnect themselves.
Figure 18: Voltage magnitude across a distribution grid
In the transmission grid, when the load is low and there is a significant amount of generation from
RES, net power flows are very low and the voltage tends to be high. In case of high load and large
power supply from RES, large energy flows on the transmission lines result. This leads to a high
reactive power demand of the lines. If this demand cannot be met adequately low voltages can occur.
3.4.2 Analysis of the issue – Belgium perspective

In Belgium, over-voltages are already observed in the LV grid, mainly during the middle of sunny days
in spring and in summer, when the distributed PV generation is high and the load is low. In the MV grid
(distribution system), no voltage problem is currently noticed, but it is expected to occur starting from
2020-2025. In the transmission system, when the net apparent load is low (low load and high
generation from RES) in some regions, the voltage tends to be high. This is not only due to the
generation from RES, but also due to the fact that a large number of underground cables have been
installed in the system during the last years, to connect RES or to reinforce the grid (public opposition
to overhead lines). These cables also generate an important amount of reactive power and have the
opposite voltage characteristic depending on the usage than overhead lines.
3.4.3 Assessment
These voltage issues are also already present in France and Romania, and are expected in Brazil as
well.
GERMANY
Voltage stability is an issue in Germany also, in all voltage levels. Especially in the south of the country
with a massive installation of PV stability of voltage is a big problem in the low voltage grid. There
have been defined some national standards to require new PV units and their converters to deliver
reactive power depending on the local voltage level. This situation will getting more critical in the
higher voltage levels by the political driven decommissioning of nuclear power plants until 2022 and
also economical driven decommissioning of coal and gas units also in the south of Germany.
ITALY
In the recent years the phenomenon of power flows from the distribution to the transmission network
has increased mainly due to the increase of the renewable generation installed, which is often
concentrated in areas with low load. For having a better idea of the phenomenon, in 2014 more than
30
the 30% of the HV/MV stations have witnessed reverse flows for a non-negligible number of hours [2].
In the future it is expected that such conditions will be more and more common.
The reduction of the loading of the transmission lines in some hours of the days characterized by low
load and high renewable production has produced high voltages in some areas of the Italian grid.
Furthermore, a large penetration of renewable in the generation mix has generally worsened the
situation not only for the decrease of the load seen by the transmission system but also for the
reduction of availability voltage regulation services from conventional power plants.
JAPAN
In Japan, in recent years, over voltage by reverse power flows are occurring in distribution grids where
are massive integration of PVs. For this reason, the adjustment of distribution level voltage is
becoming increasingly difficult. As potential solutions in some utilities, power factor adjustment from
PV systems and voltage control using pole-mounted SVR (Step-Voltage Regulators), SVC (Static Var
Compensator), and STATCOM (Static synchronous compensator) which can be installed into
distribution grid are being considered.
PORTUGAL
Historically, in Portugal capacitor banks are installed on the MV side to reduce losses on the HV
network.
ROMANIA
In Romania the majority of renewable sources are installed in the distribution network. Due to this fact
the power flow has changed in the areas in which renewable generation are installed. This fact can be
observed in the south-east part of Romania that due to the wind farms installed has become an area
characterized by large production surplus.
USA
This is also an issue in the USA where sudden power outputs can cause voltages to rise or drop
above or below acceptable levels [15]. Devices are being put in place to account for this issue but this
will be harder to justify in the future now that the potential issues are better understood. Utilities
instead set limits on allowable amounts of connected RESs.

 MV/LV tap changer to decouple the LV from the MV voltage band, see 4.11.
 MV substation automation to have a better utilisation of the existing equipment,
see 4.12.
 Comprehensive monitoring for a better grid observability, see 4.13
 Curtailment to reduce congestion, see 4.1.
 Demand Side Integration to reduce congestion, see 4.4.
 Reactive power from RES to stabilize the voltage profile, see 4.14.
 Short-term storage to reduce congestion, see 4.5.
31
3.5 System security has to be kept in maintenance situations
3.5.1 Issue
Maintenance represents all the operations needed to be made in order to assure the availability of
network system and to ensure that assets will reach their technical lifetime. This is done by asset
management departments within network utilities whose aim it is to ensure through their activity the
functioning of this system to a defined level of reliability. These activities include the maintenance of
facilities and existing equipment in order to ensure a normal functioning and development of the
system. The maintenance operations carried out entail a complex and ongoing activity in order to
ensure good management by offering modern and competitive solutions.
The main objectives of the maintenance services in the transmission and distribution facilities are:
 Damage prevention and maintenance of the optimal operating conditions of the

installations as long as possible;
 Increase the reliability of the energy system and its subsystems, including
equipment components;
 The installation life time extension;
 Increase the economic efficiency.
Because of the maintenance activities assets and components will be out of operation for a longer
time (hours or days) and not able to reconnect immediately. So Grid has to be constructed in a
manner which has some reserve to ensure the ability of the system operator and his asset manager to
schedule the needed maintenance measures. Because of volatile generation of RES the maintenance
planning becomes more and more complex.
3.5.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian perspective

For the Romanian TSO to conduct maintenance work for equipment or lines, different phases are
necessary. The Asset Management Department proposes maintenance work or projects and the
Investment Department proposes refurbishment work or projects that are forwarded to the National
Dispatch Center. The National Dispatch Center analyses all the proposals and prepares the allowed
annual operating schedules. In order to develop this program of dispatches there is necessary
discussions/consultation with the neighbouring TSOs considering the lines and the related bays
border. The large energy generators are also taken into account so that the generators and TSO
maintenance schedule coincide and the energy evacuation from the power plants to the power system
can be done safely and so the stability of the power supply to the system is not compromised. Also the
big consumers that are supplied directly from the transmission network are asked if their functioning is
affected by the withdrawal of a line or equipment. The internal proposals of the TSO are also taken
into account. After the consultation phase, analyses are made which verify the N-1 and N-2 (only for
Nuclear Power Plants zone) criteria, the resulting technological losses are calculated, the level of
congestion in the transmission network, the volatility of the renewable generation and the climate
criteria. After this phase, the annual operating dispatch is proposed for approval. Based on this weekly
and daily dispatch plans are also developed. The demand for the decommissioning of the equipment
or line for carrying out the maintenance is directed to the dispatcher with authority. The demand of
withdrawal from service contains the following details: the name of installation/equipment, the
condition in which withdraws, the reason, the duration and other details (with daily return or not).
This maintenance has become a problem considering the high RES contribution in the generation mix.
Knowing the fact that the majority of wind energy is located in the south-east part of Romania, the
maintenance for the lines and corresponding bays in that region becomes problematic due to the loss
32
of power it presents. Also the maintenance for the classic power plants becomes very difficult due to
the rapid variation of RES generation that in some times is difficult to handle. When a power group is
proposed for maintenance, it is always analysed for the possibility of covering the balance curve with
the remaining groups. In the past years when the RES were not so developed, the maintenance of
different groups was much easier to do. The remaining groups only had to cover the group withdrawn
from service. In the present situation the high variation of RES and sometimes the possibility of a bad
forecast have to be taken into account.
More or less, similar approach is followed, at a smaller scale, by the Romanian DSOs.
3.5.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
Maintenance planning of transmission elements and HV/MV transformers has also became more
difficult in Belgium due to the limited foresight on the RES generation, but this is not currently a major
issue in Belgium.
GERMANY
The high penetration of RES in Germany led to two significant changes. On the one hand the power
flow may change substantially in a short period of time. On the other hand tremendous grid
reinforcement is necessary. Due to reinforcement works and mandatory grid maintenance the system
is operated often in a stressed condition. Due to that it is even more important to do extensive system
security assessments such as (n-1)-contingency analysis. Situations where the system security is not
guaranteed can lead to critical situations as seen in Europe in November 2006. The former German
TSO “Eon Netz” switched off an overhead line to let a ship pass the river Ems. A huge change of the
power flow led to a system state which was not (n-1)-secure. The tripping of an overhead line led to
cascading outage. As a result the European grid split into three separate parts and customers in
several countries were no longer supplied with electric energy. [16]
ITALY
Similarly to USA, in Italy the system security during maintenance situation is not a prevalent issue.
Nevertheless it should be noted that the development of renewable generation has strongly changed
the typical production patterns of the units. In relation to Italy, many power plants (especially CCGTs)
have been working performing more start-ups and shut-downs respect to what foreseen during their
design. This can involve an increase of the required maintenance and a decrease of the technical life
of the power plants.
PORTUGAL
Regarding maintenance actions in the distribution grid, the Portuguese DSO accesses all the critical
situations in order to minimise the risk concerning the presence of distributed generation. This means
that for carrying out the proper maintenance actions it is necessary to identify the appropriate window
of opportunity regarding the RES production forecasts and, in case of need, adjust the maintenance
plans accordingly.
USA
While this is not a prevalent issue that is described in writing about the US power system, one issue
that is mentioned from maintenance standpoint is an issue with increased wear and tear on thermal
dispatch units, due to the increased amounts of ramping up and down that will now be required to
address the variability of RES units [17]. While the cost for this can be accounted for in the bids for
33
power providing, it would be reasonable to assume that more units would be taken out for
maintenance on a more regular basis, increasing the probability of issues like those described in the
Romanian system or occurring.

 Improved System Security assessment to maintain system security in situations
with fluctuating power flows, see 4.15.
 Improved RES generation forecasts supports the maintenance planning, see 4.6.
 Implementation of advanced maintenance concepts to reduce the volume of
corrective maintenance, see 4.16.
 Correlating the maintenance and refurbishment activities to reduce the volume of
maintenance issues, see 4.17.
3.6 Congestion of the transmission system
3.6.1 Issue
The energy from renewable sources reduces the energy from the rest of the generation fleet, which
changes the commitment and dispatch of the rest of the fleet and significantly changes the utilization
of the transmission system. This may lead to transmission congestion, which, if left unabated, might
lead to significant curtailment of renewable energy. In the United States, the host utilities and the
independent system operators conduct interconnection studies to predict congestion. This is a more
complex task than it seems, for several reasons:
 It is necessary to consider system operation at times of the highest renewable

production which does not always correlate with the highest load.
 There is often more than one project in the queue which ask for connection to the
grid. Additionally, their applying capacity may be changing thorough time – some are
amending their applications to make them smaller, others make them larger; some
projects drop out, others join the queue.
 The project developers use the connection approval as a milestone to get financing,
so they are pushing for the response as fast as possible, leaving little time to
perform detailed studies.
As a result, many host utilities perform interconnection studies based on what is known at the time of
the study and keep the process extremely streamlined. Projects are studied at their nameplate output
at some assumptions of dispatch, and the objective is to prove that there will be no overload or steady
state voltage violations in N-0 system state due to the project addition. In some parts of the country,
the hosting utility allows the developer to make assumptions about the dispatch – if a project is found
to violate any of the steady-state system conditions; its developer can request that the assumed output
from the incumbent fleet be adjusted downwards to resolve overloads.
This makes sense if an applying renewable project is competing for transmission capacity with thermal
units – one can argue that the renewable energy will be taken first because its variable cost is near
zero and that the thermal unit will be dispatched to an output that respects the transmission constraint.
The argument, however, is not true if there are existing renewable projects already in the area. Those
projects too have near-zero variable cost, so the likely outcome in that situation is that no single
project will get priority and, if there is transmission congestion as a result, it will be relieved by
curtailing all projects in proportion to their nameplate ratings.
These practices may seem naive or inadequate from a standpoint of finding a technical optimum. But
finding a technical optimum would require centralization of the planning function and make it difficult to
34
have a market where the developers take risks and reap rewards based on the investments they made
in their projects. One could argue that a market-based environment has a disadvantage of increasing
the overall technical risk, but at the same time there is the advantage in the fact that the risk is borne
by the developers, not ratepayers. Either way, there is evidence that the market based environment is
successful in driving investment, and it is reasonable to assume that it will remain in place. It is
therefore even more important to formulate solutions that can abate the risk of congestion.
3.6.2 Analysis of the issue – USA perspective

3
The 2015 estimated total energy produced by wind and solar generation in the United States were
190.9 TWh for wind and 38.6 TWh for solar. Of the 38.6TWh of solar, 23.2 TWh was contributed by
utility-scale PV installations, 12.1 TWh by distributed PV installations, and 3.2 TWh from solar thermal.
Distributed PV installations represent 34.3 % of total PV installations, leaving the remaining 65.7 % at
utility scale interconnected to the transmission system. All of the reported wind installations are also
connected to the transmission system and these utility-scale renewable power plants are built in
locations with optimal renewable resources, which, in most cases, are not near the load and often are
also not near high-capacity transmission.
Much of the renewable energy in the United States is developed by the independent power producers
who decide for themselves where to develop their projects, and sign the power purchase agreement
with load serving entities. The load serving entities are often motivated by state mandates or goals to
procure a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources. The current status is shown in Figure
19.Figure 19 It is clear that the ambitions and the timelines vary a great deal between the states, but
there is certainty that renewables energy will play an increasingly important role in the U.S. generation
portfolio.
To ensure this transformation remains successful, a number of entities carefully monitor the state of
the system and facilitates development of operational rules that maintain system reliability. Some of
the more important entities are:
 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

 The Energy Information Agency (EIA)
 The National Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Each of these organizations takes on broad roles in the U.S. energy system, so we limit the
description of their roles to those relevant to the context of this section, i.e. transmission congestion. In
this context: The EIA collects information from all utility companies in the U.S. to facilitate future
planning using actual data. NERC facilitates standardization of operating practices to ensure system
reliability and collects operational data including the database of transmission loading relief (TLR)
events. FERC defines the rules that determine if the transmission investments are worthwhile. The
DOE publishes the National Electric Transmission Congestion Study, the Report Concerning
Designation of National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, and the Annual U.S. Transmission
Data Review. The DOE also funds relevant research by the National Labs and the industry to perform
renewable integration studies that develop novel methodologies for system planning.
Planning is the most fragmented function in the U.S. power system in the sense that no one entity has
jurisdiction to mandate the planning practices. The complication is compounded by allowing merchant
transmission projects to qualify for a guaranteed rate of return. Developers of transmission projects, be
3
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a
35
it transmission companies, or developers of merchant transmission, are motivated to reduce

congestion in the system, but they get paid a guaranteed rate of return on their investment. The merit
of a project is decided by FERC if the proposed transmission crosses state boundaries and by the
state public utility commission if the project is within a state.
The process used to quantify congestion in the transmission system is to use production simulations
under many future scenarios and identify how many hours of the year do certain transmission paths
run above 75% of their capacity and above 90% of their capacity. The corridors that are highly utilized
in most future scenarios are deemed to be worthy of upgrading. The drawback of this process is
related to the fact that production simulation tools model flows through the transmission system using
the transportation model, which overpredicts transmission capacity unless it is tempered by algebraic
constraints. These constraints are well understood for the existing state of the power system, but their
accuracy diminishes in planning of future scenarios especially if the makeup of generation fleet is
modified significantly. As a result, studies that quantify transmission congestion under future scenarios
over-estimate existing transmission capacity, and thus leave the residual risk of transmission
congestion and curtailments.
Figure 19: Renewable Portfolio Standard Policies in the United States
3.6.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
In Belgium, congestion problems can appear either as a result of internal flows, or due to international
flows. For the moment, congestions due to internal flows are only marginal, but RES curtailment is
becoming more and more necessary to avoid overloading transmission elements and HV/MV
transformers (between the distribution grid and the transmission grid). Flexibility mechanisms (e.g.
GFlex for wind farms) are developed for this purpose, in order to automatically curtail adequate RES
36
when an overload is detected. On the other side, large surpluses of RES in neighbouring countries
can cause large power flows in the Belgian grid (exchange between countries). Since 2015, a new
coupling market mechanism is used for countries of the Central West Europe, the flow-based market
coupling. This market is organized such that no overload in the Belgian grid can be caused by
international power flows.
BRAZIL
In Brazil, congestion problems may occur either as a result of internal flows or the extensive
integration of wind power plants in the next years.
The Interconnected Brazilian System is divided into four regions electrically interlinked. The
interconnections of these regions enable energy optimization of river basins, with the use of their
hydrological diversity and exchange of large energy surpluses from Northeast region where are
concetrated a great munber of wind farms, to others country regions. Grid expansion is needed in
order to integrate RES and avoid congestions. The expansion of the transmission system in the
Northeast, showed in the figure below in dashed lines, is required due to strong presence of wind
generation and Belo Monte hidro electric power plant generation.
In the case of the North region of Brazil, there are many hydroelectric power plants without storage
reservoir, requiring large energy exchanges between regions and a grid expansion to export their
surplus of energy.
37
FRANCE
Grid development is needed in order to integrate RES and avoid congestions: you have to connect
them to the grid, and to transport their power output to load centers. The reinforcement of the network
is done at a national scale, to connect RES and strengthen solidarity in power supply between
regions, but also at an international scale, to strengthen exchange capacities with our neighbors and
to manage international flows crossing France, that are of increasing variability because of the rapid
growth of wind and solar energy in many European countries.
In France, in order to enable an efficient development of RES, a national 2 steps procedure has been
implemented: the Regional Climate, Air and Energy Programmes and the regional connection
programs for the renewable energy network, known respectively as SRCAE and S3REnR.
A SRCAE adapts European and national environmental targets for 2020 and 2050 to regional level. It
is drafted by the regional prefect and the president of the regional council in conjunction with local
authorities and interested citizens through a consultation procedure. It provides regional targets of
installed RES.
According to the law, RTE (the French TSO) has then to devise a S3REnR for each region. It is a
regional connection program to the grid, that studies how to integrate the target of RES. These
4
programs have to state technical solutions and reinforcements of the grid along with estimated costs
and capacity forecasts for ten years. These S3REnRs are built in agreement with DSOs and on the
basis of advice from the awarding authorities. The aim is to give an outlook to RES promoters on their
grid connections conditions.
GERMANY
Congestion management in the German transmission grid is daily business. If a congestion occurs
which may lead to system security problems the TSOs are forced to take countermeasures to ensure
a secure system condition. The first step is to take grid related measures as switching of lines. If the
grid related options are depleted the TSOs start to intervene in the market with countertrading and
redispatch. In the balancing area of 50 Hertz Transmission GmbH in 2015 there were 8908 GWh of
energy redispatched. If redispatching cannot solve the problem the TSOs will curtail the renewable
energy sources. In 2015 in the balancing area of 50 Hertz 1334 GWh electrical energy was curtailed
by the TSO. [18]
Figure 20: Balancing areas of the German TSOs
This topic should be solved in future by developing the transmission system in the next years following
a national network development plan NDP. This NDP has been calculated by the German TSO´s and
has been approved by the German regulatory authority. Some of the measures in this plan are
projects to establish long HVDC-corridors from the north of Germany to the south.
4
the possibility of curtailing RES generation was included in the analyses
38
ITALY
From the operation point of view, the growth of nonprogrammable renewable power plants in Italy has
been producing problems in terms of congestions of the transmission grid at two levels:
 Congestions between market zones (the structure of the Italian market zones is
reported in the following figure): especially during low load hours and high
renewable production, congestions on the transmission network between Northern
market areas (with the largest share of load) and Southern market areas (with
largest share of generation and renewables) are present as well as problems for
load-generation balancing especially in central and southern market areas.
 Congestions internal to a market zone: in some areas, in the lower voltage levels of
transmission, congestions exist due to the limited network capacity for evacuating all
the energy produced by renewable plant (e.g. wind)
Figure 21: Zonal model of the Italian Electricity Market
The Italian TSO has to solve on a daily basis such congestions thanks to appropriate actions on the
grid and to the ancillary services market. Nevertheless when all other countermeasures are not viable,
RES curtailments are applied.
As a result of the described trends, in 2013 the Italian TSO had to curtail around 40 GWh of renewable
energy due to congestions between market zones and around 80 GWh for congestions internal to the
market zones [2].
Considering the planning process, instead, the Italian TSO is the responsible for the planning of the
transmission system.
For new transmission projects (reinforcement within a market zone or between two market zones), the
Italian TSO is paid with a guaranteed rate of return for the projects that realizes. Simplifying, each
candidate project is justified through appropriate Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA) submitted to the Italian
Authority for Electricity and Water that decides for the approval. The CBAs are aimed to maximize the
trade-off between costs and benefits from a societal point of view.
The CBAs are based on detailed grid studies on planning cases, Monte-Carlo simulations on the
transmission network and market simulations on future scenarios for having the best possible
comprehension of the benefits of the investments. Appropriate benefits related to RES integration are
quantified and monetized and in many cases they are the main drivers for the realization of a project.
The justification of the investments through robust CBAs allows identifying the most profitable projects
from the societal perspective and to control and address the investments of the TSO. Nevertheless,
the uncertainty on the results cannot be fully eliminated. In fact the number of scenarios studied is
39
limited and is a compromise between the reduction of the results uncertainty and the containment of
the computational efforts.
ROMANIA
In Romania one of the most important and problematic area is the south-east part. This area is
characterized by a great number of wind farms but also photovoltaic sources that can evacuate in the
system approximately 3000 MW. In this area are identified congestions that can lead to system
security problems. These congestions affect the limit of the transmitting power from the area and also
show the need for network reinforcements.

 Curtailment to reduce congestion, see 4.1.
 Long term storage to temporarily relieve congested lines, see 4.9
 Grid Reinforcement AC/DC to improve the available transmission capacity, see
4.18.
 FACTS to control the power flow for a better utilisation of existing equipment, see
4.19.
 Increase accuracy of predicting congestion, i.e. by improved RES generation
forecasts, see 4.6.
 Publish curtailment data for investment decisions, see 4.20.
3.7 Observability and controllability of a large number of RES

Units
3.7.1 Issue
Countries around the world had a significant growth of new distributed production units, mainly from
renewable energy sources, in the last two decades. Contrary from large conventional power plants,
RES is characterised by the high volatility of its production patterns, its geographical dispersion, and
smaller installed capacity by power plant. Moreover, a large share of RES production facilities are
interconnected to lower voltages levels in the distribution network. Another important issue with RES is
the fact that its production takes priority towards conventional production.
This new reality completely changes the system paradigm, interactions, established procedures and
specific requirements in order to comply with all players’ issues.
Considering the described situation, several challenges affect both the DSOs and TSOs, to operate
their systems in the most secure and effective way, guaranteeing that all players are fairly and equality
treated. As neutral system operator they have to act in an non-discriminatory manner to all market
particitpants.
Bearing in mind both TSO and DSO scope and mission, the lessons learned to deal with the new
challenges are of paramount importance. As a matter of fact, working in a tight partnership and
cooperation is already vital to guarantee the system security, reliability, and provide energy with high
quality standards.
40
3.7.2 Analysis of the issue – Portuguese perspective
Figure 22: RES installed capacity and number of RES facilities
By the end of 2015, 35% of RES total installed capacity was directly connected to the transmission
grid whereas 65% of the installed capacity is connected to the distribution grid. However, with only 2 %
of the installed capacity the Low Voltage level has the largest number of small RES units, which is
increasing daily.
Given the new system paradigm, namely the reverse load flow, contradicting the status quo from 20
years ago several changes it is now pertinent to rethink processes. In one hand, at the time, both TSO
and DSO were focused in supplying customers guaranteeing continuity and power quality. On the
other hand, the grid dynamics leads TSOs and DSOs into collaboration complying with each other
mission.
3.7.2.1 Observability
The current state of the art regarding observability it is important to consider:
 TSO-DSO interconnection points. Nowadays, only the TSO has access to real-time
information but has no direct access to information from the RES units in the
distribution grid.
 Increased need for interaction between TSO and DSO and forecasting of either
production or consumption.
 Observability of the distribution network with the necessary and relevant information
to the TSO (P and Q expected profiles for each point of interconnection)
 DSO. In Portugal it is being implemented a plan to also give DSOs access to real-
time information with integrating RES information (P and Q profiles).
 DSO will be responsible in forecasting of either production or consumption, in order
to anticipate and avoid system constraints.
3.7.2.2 Controllability
The high number of RES facilities distributed by transmission and distribution networks leads to the
need of controllability of the production sources in order to avoid congestion in the transmission
network and also in more local levels of the distribution grid.
Nowadays, under some specific situations the Portuguese framework of law and regulation already
allows to control production levels, once it is intended to guarantee the system stability and security.
41
3.7.3 Assessment
FRANCE
Observability of distributed RES generation is a key point to improve the quality of forecasting for RES
generation sites connected to the grid. A better forecast of RES power output at a national and at a
local scale would enable to properly anticipate issues with supply-demand balance and flows on the
grid.
RTE (as part of its task of managing the supply-demand balance and congestion on the transmission
network) and distribution system operators (charged with managing congestion on the distribution
networks) have deployed remote measuring systems on major generation plants to fulfil their
respective missions. However, the granularity and quality of generation data are still perfectible,
especially when it comes to renewable generation sites connected to the medium and low voltage
network.
Controllability of RES is a major issue, both for transmission congestion management and balancing.
Technical solutions have to be implemented to enable curtailment of RES.
GERMANY
In Germany there are more than 1.5 million operational RES units [19]. These units are spread across
the almost 900 system operators. One can imagine that for the 4 german TSOs observability and
controllability is a highly complex issue. This calls for a higher degree of automation and
standardization on several layers as control, data volume and data model, data transfer. One core
question is how the RES units influence the power system knowing that the TSO has the system
responsibility but the units are commonly installed in the distribution grid.
One mean to handle this complex situation is a new smart meter law. This requires the operators of
RES units larger than 7 kw to install a smart meter. This will make the observability better. However,
these RES units still won’t be controllable, e.g. in case of emergency.
ITALY
The Italian Authority has been pushing for the development of “smart distribution networks”. Among
others, the Authority will recognize for the regulatory period 2016-2023 as regulated investments the
systems implemented by the DSOs for the observability of the distribution grid. More in detail two
levels of complexity are considered:
 “OSS-1”: the DSO sends to the TSO the local data on renewable generation with a
frequency update of 20 seconds. The minimum amount of information are the
measures for each HV/MV substation of:
 The voltages of the MV and HV buses (phase and modulus).
 The current (or the active power) in the HV/MV substation of at least one MV line
that feeds a photovoltaic generator.
 “OSS-2”: the same data for the OSS-1 are required. In addition in this case it is
necessary to provide with a frequency update of 20 seconds accurate estimations of
the aggregated active power for the following user typologies: passive users, active
users with photovoltaic generation and active users with other sources of
generation.
This is a first step for making the distribution systems smarter. Considering the results of different
smart-grid pilot projects in Italy, the next steps will likely involve the possibility of controlling the RES
connected to the distribution grid, with benefits also for the transmission grid.
42
In terms of RES controllability and TSO-DSO cooperation, Italy has also implemented an appropriate
system for curtailing the RES generation connected to the distribution grid called “RIGEDI”. Such
system entails an exchange of information between the TSO and the DSO for curtailing RES with
different timelines, from a week in advance to just an hour. The aim of RIGEDI is to better managing
situations of generation surpluses.
USA
In the US, the growth in RESs at the MV level has mostly come in the form of photovoltaic residential
rooftop solar but also non-residential roof top solar, as seen in Figure 23.
Figure 23: US Photovoltaic Installations from 2010 to 2015
In the US, methods are being developed to allow higher amounts of RESs to be connected to
distribution feeders then were allowed in the past. To do this, the DSO must know the outputs of the
RESs near real time [19]. This would allow the DSO to account for losses in generation in real time
due to things like moving cloud cover. It would also allow the DSO to know the generation level that
can be expected during overcast conditions in given area based on what was experienced in another
area of the DSO at a prior point in time. It also allows the operator to address issues in one part of its
system that could affect other RESs and the part of the system they are connected to. To do this,
RES output must be monitored at the meter or point of common coupling and that data must be sent to
the distribution operator at regular enough intervals to be useful.
To allow for the maximum amount of generation possible, DSOs need the ability to control RES output
[19]. This could take place possibly at the converter or a device that couples the RES to the EPS. This
would allow distribution operators to only allow the maximum amount of generation to be put back on
the feeder that can be stably supported at any given time, especially when responding to issues and
43
abnormal conditions. It would also allow for DSO to balance generation on a given feeder if there is
less output or load then expected in a given area at any point in time. Monitoring and communications
would play an essential role in these kinds of operations.

 Information exchange between system operators (TSO/DSO), as RES
generation occurs at all voltage levels, see 4.21.
 Comprehensive monitoring for better grid observability, see 4.13.
 Remote control of RES to increase the controllability of the power flow, see 4.22.
 Software to organise data (Big data) to ensure an effective way of data handling,
see 4.23.
3.8 Small RES units have to behave system friendly
3.8.1 Issue
At the MV scale and lower, there has been exponential growth in the amount of interconnected small
RES units. Photovoltaic systems, wind systems, bio-mass systems, energy storage systems and
geothermal systems are all being added to the previously mentioned voltage levels. Increased
renewable generation penetration on distribution lines can lead to a number of issues due to their
variable nature, particularly issues with voltage levels causing issues with droop, flicker, secondary
network protection, distribution switching automation schemes, distribution feeder re-closers, capacitor
banks and harmonics.
These issues with generation penetration at levels never before seen or expected has led to a need to
new technology standards for the ongoing proliferation of this technology in distribution voltage level
service areas. The standards must be rewritten in a way in order to protect the existing reliable
distribution system but that allows for the implementation of new innovative technologies and
operation porcesses. These RESs need an established manner for communication with the distribution
service operator and TSO, and documented protocols for how both will operate if that communication
is lost. To allow for the maximum amount of RESs to be installed, standards must be established to
provide the system operator with control over the flow of energy to and from the RES. This needs the
direct access to units with bigger capacity on one hand and e.g. via broadcast to all small units in an
area. This is essential to maintain the reliability and safety of the distribution grid. While it is not
possible to control and steer all single units in every situation RES generation plants with their
converters have to act system friendly by implemented smartness without activities form the DSO or
TSO control center.
Another aspect to consider is underfrequency load shedding in situations with high RES within the
LV/MV grid and low frequency conditions. System operator has to ensure that areas with high RES
generation or even reverse power flows have to stay in operation and are not disconnected.
3.8.2 Analysis of the issue – United States perspective

As mentioned before, in the USA there is a rapid growth of PV installations. This is due to the year
over year cost reductions in photovoltaic equipment and the year over year increases in panel
efficiencies. There have also been small additions in wind generation at the MV level. This addition of
generation to distribution feeder lines has led to issues with voltage and frequency levels seen at
different parts of the feeder, affecting power quality for the feeder’s customers [20]. These issues will
be magnified by the new energy storage market that is just now developing and being implemented.
44
Typically, generators are considering using storage to not just for peak shaving or providing backup
power, but to additional infeed energy via the distribution system. So they take advantage of revenue
markets available to them via the transmission system operators in the US for services like frequency
regulation. This power output in total has the opportunity to increase operating errors in pursuit of
economic incentives. It increases some of the potential issues one would just see from DG if it is not
carefully controlled, like causing automated devices to operate.
The IEEE 1547 working group in the US is in the process of rewriting its standard to address this
rapidly changing market [21]. Previously, the standard focused on defining abnormal system
conditions and the RES disconnecting itself from the EPS during those conditions. Now, the standard
is evolving to address monitoring and control of the RESs, understanding the RES’s behaviour under
all conditions, modelling various scenarios for a known system, in addition to modifying and stipulating
EPS and RES operations during abnormal conditions. The standard is being changed to regulate
various operations during various scenarios to protect grid reliability while allowing distribution
operators to implement new schemes as these technologies become better understood.
Disconnection or output reduction must happen with the necessary speed to prevent damage to RES
or EPS equipment.
The variable nature of RES is at present another challenge for DSOs in regards to the various types of
equipment that are a part of the EPS that respond to current flows. Secondary networks are
commonly found in the space limited central parts of cities due to their high reliability and ability to be
placed in areas that do not take up valuable real estate. Secondary networks are distribution level
substations where the transformers are actually connected in parallel on the secondary side. This is
not frequently done since the transformers become much more expensive when you do this in order to
protect and control the operation of the distribution primary network. It is done because then you can
develop N-1 contingencies so if you were to lose a transformer, the entire load can still be supported.
It also means you can do maintenance on equipment without ever taking an outage. Secondary
network transformers are linked together through protection devices known as network protectors.
Network protectors are made to operate as soon as it sees a reverse current flow from the transformer
and back out to the network as this would typically be an event correlated with at fault condition on the
primary side [22].
If the generation from a RES on the secondary side of the transformer is greater than the load on the
secondary side of its particular customer, then the same reverse current flow would occur as the
excess power tries to flow back out to the customer [20] [22]. Network protectors are not typically
smart devices as this is a well-established technology that has been operating without any serious
issues for decades. If this event was to occur this customer could possibly no longer pull any power
from the network until a DSO manual recloses its protector. In fact, the DSO would not necessarily
know this protector operation has even occurred until the customer reports a loss of power. This issue
could also potentially operate line limiters or fuses at that are typically placed in series with distribution
transformers. These would always have to be manually replaced and the customer would not be able
to get power from the EPS until that occurs.
3.8.3 Assessment
GERMANY
As stated in section 3.7.3 due to the high complexity of the power system a system friendly behaviour
is highly necessary in Germany. The grid connection codes and standards have to be designed
properly to manage future requirements and challenges.
One aspect in which this was not the case is called the 50.2 Hz problem:
45
According to the 2008 technical directive “Generators in medium and low voltage distribution
networks” an immediate shutdown is required when the frequency of 50.2 Hz is exceeded. However, if
at a point in time with high RES infeed, RES power amounts to several GW which will be shut down
immediately. The resulting power variation may be significantly higher than the primary control power
defined in Europe, so that the frequency can no longer be stabilised.
Additionally, the more or less simultaneous auto re-synchronisation if the frequency drops below
50.2 Hz would cause a large power imbalance again with rising frequency. This would lead to a yo-yo
effect and eventually to a blackout.
To avoid this situation and to help to prevent critical system states, in 2011 a new technical directive
was introduced which described a frequency-depended active power control. This new control scheme
had to be implemented in most of the existing RES units as well resulting in expensive renewal
projects.
JAPAN
In Japan, in recent years, reverse power flows are occurring in distribution banks. As a solution,
protection equipment which is capable of performing in such situations were implemented. In addition,
the adjustment of distribution level voltage is becoming increasingly difficult. As potential solutions,
power factor adjustment from PV systems and pole SVG are being considered. Due to the increase in
PV in the distribution system, load flow is becoming increasingly more difficult to predict; thus, delay in
recovery from contingencies may occur. Because load power awareness is crucial, the switch with
built-in sensors is being deployed in some utilities.
ROMANIA
In Romania were developed standards that regulate the operating conditions for dispatchable (with
installed capacity greater than 5 MW) and non-programmable wind and photovoltaic units. This
standards states specific operating conditions and refers to voltage and frequency limits, active and
reactive power in the connection point for the renewable sources and also the way of communication
with the dispatch centre and the information that need to be send.

 Adapt grid codes/ Set connection standards to ensure that RES units can
behave system friendly, see 4.24.
 Comprehensive monitoring of power flow, e.g. via smart meters, see 4.13.
 Remote control of RES units to manage critical situations, see 4.22.
3.9 Lack of short-circuit power
3.9.1 Issue
This section deals with the analysis and assessment of the short circuit power and its development.
Short Circuit power is an abbreviation of the subtransient short circuit power S k‘‘. It is a virtual quantity
and results from the product of the nominal voltage U n and the three-phase subtransient short circuit
current Ik‘‘. It is virtually due to the fact that the voltage during a short circuit is zero.
It is a commonly used indicator for static in sense of necessary voltage level and synchronizing torque
during faults. A lack of short circuit power can lead to system stability issues, e.g. voltage collapse.
46
A reliable detection of faults (short circuits) requires a distinct differentiation between currents during
normal operation and short circuit currents during faults. On the one hand for a distinct detection of
short circuits of the protection equipment the short circuit current should be far larger than the currents
between normal operation. On the other hand the ratings of the equipment have to be selected
according to the expected short circuit current. Changes in the network have to respect limits of
existing equipment.
The short circuit power is determined by a three-phase short circuit at a fault location. Its value is
determined by the distance to the generators and the condition of the generators. Hence, the short
circuit power is dependent on the topology of the grid and the generators.
On the one hand a highly meshed grid leads to a higher short circuit power. On the other hand the
technology and the size of the power generation unit is important. Converter-based generation units
may affect short circuit power in both directions. Adding generation capacity may increase short circuit
power locally. However, short circuit capability of wind turbines is significantly lower than that of
synchronous generators. As a consequence, short circuit power may decrease if conventional
generation is replaced by converter-based units. [23] [24]
3.9.2 Analysis of the issue – German perspective
3.9.2.1 Setup
Within the analysis of [24] the German transmission grid of the years 2019-2023 has been analysed.
Three-phase short circuit faults on every busbar are modelled and the short circuit power and the
contribution of the generation units are analysed. As the short circuit power depends on the system
condition, especially the dispatch of generation units, the short circuit power has been analysed for
every hour of a year (8760 analyses for every busbar). The subtransmission grids are not modelled.
So generation units which are located in lower voltage levels don’t contribute to the short circuit power
in the transmission grid. External transmission grids are modelled as its impact cannot be neglected.
3.9.2.2 Results 2019

The mean short circuit powers are in a range from 7.7 GVar to 28.3 GVar, see
Figure 24. The highest short circuit powers are located in the middle of Germany as many thermal
power plants are operated in this area. Especially the rural areas in the north-east and the south of
Germany have lower short circuit levels.
Figure 24: Mean Short Circuit Level in 2019 [24]

47
3.9.2.3 Results 2023

From 2019 to 2023 serval changes in the German transmission grid are expected. These are
 Grid expansion DC
 Grid expansion AC
 Increase of renewable generation
 Decrease of conventional generation
The development of the transmission grid between 2019 and 2023 is illustrated in Figure 25.
The areas show the difference in the short circuit level between 2019 and 2023. It can be seen that in
most of the areas a higher short circuit level is expected. Especially in the north-west of Germany,
offshore wind parks will increase the short circuit level significantly.
In the south-east of Germany a lower short circuit level is expected. This is mainly due to the political
driven shutdown of the nuclear power plants in this region.
The analysis focused on the mean short circuit power. It could be shown that the minimum short circuit
power increases slightly to 2023. Only in some regions the minimum short circuit power decreases.
However, even this decrease is <5 %.
Figure 25: Change of Short Circuit Level 2019 to 2023. [24]
3.9.2.4 Sensitivity of the external short circuit power
In order to show the sensitivity of the short circuit level to the short circuit power of external grids, this
short circuit power is reduced to 50 %.
This lack of short circuit power from other TSOs leads to a reduced level all over Germany. However,
the difference is < 12 %.
Reason for this is an increase in the potential gradient. As a consequence more distant generation
units provide short circuit power. The regional impact of faults will thus be greater. This is shown in
Figure 26.
48
Figure 26: Change in voltage gradients in 2023 at different short circuit powers from external grids. [24]
3.9.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
This is currently not a major issue in Belgium.
BRAZIL
This issue is not present in Brazil. Moreover, due to high short-circuit power level, circuit breakers
replacement is necessary in certain section of the Brazilian grid.
JAPAN
This issue is not present in Japan.
USA
This is an issue in the US for converter connected RES units [25]. There are currently issues in the US
in adequately modeling this issue. The focus is making sure devices are provided with the proper
interrupting capability but this is difficult without proper modeling [26].

The analysis showed that grid expansion overcompensates the effect of renewable energy. However,
local problems with critically low short circuit levels may happen. Technical mitigation measures aside
from grid expansion may be [23]:
 Synchronous Generators as “must run units” with synchronous generators in the

vicinity of the affected busbars. Such units would not be switched offline and kept
operating at their lower active power limits, see 4.25.
 Converters can be “over-sized” to increase their short-circuit current contribution.
 FACTS to provide short-circuit power, see 4.19.
 Adapt grid codes/ Set connection standards so that RES units must provide
Short Circuit Capability, see 4.24.
A question which arises from the analysis is the level of threshold of short circuit power. Hence, it has
to be discussed if a minimum and maximum short circuit current can be recommended as a general
planning principle.
49
3.10 Lack of system inertia
3.10.1 Issue
Large-scale deployment of RES has led to significant generation shares of variable RES in power
systems worldwide. RES units, notably converter-connected wind turbines and PV that as such do not
provide rotational inertia, are effectively displacing conventional generators and their rotating
machinery. The traditional assumption that grid inertia is sufficiently high with only small variations
over time is thus not valid for power systems with high RES shares. This has implications for
frequency dynamics and power system stability and operation. Frequency dynamics are faster in
power systems with low rotational inertia, making frequency control and power system operation more
challenging.
This section describes the impact of low rotational inertia on power system stability and operation,
contributes analysis insights and offers mitigation options for low inertia impacts [27].
Traditional power system operation is based on the assumption that power generation units have
rotating machinery, i.e. turbines and synchronous generators. Their stored kinetic energy adds inertia
to the system which is an important property of frequency stability. The grid frequency f is directly
coupled to the rotational speed of generators and thus to the active power balance. This can be shown
with the classical swing equation
∆𝑝
𝜔̇ = 2𝜋𝑓̇ =
2𝐻
A high rotational inertia, i.e. a high inertia constant H minimizes the frequency deviation. This makes
frequency dynamics slower and thus increases the available response time to react to fault incidents
such as power plant outages
Maintaining the grid frequency within an acceptable range is a necessary requirement for the stable
operation of power systems. Frequency stability depends on the active power balance, meaning that
the total power generation minus the total load consumption is kept close to zero. Deviations from its
nominal value 𝑓0, e.g. 50 Hz or 60 Hz depending on region, should be kept small as damaging
vibrations in synchronous machines and load shedding occur for larger deviations. This can influence
the whole power system, in the worst case ending in fault cascades and black-outs.
Low levels of rotational inertia in a power system, caused in particular by high shares of converter-
connected RES that normally do not provide any rotational inertia, have implications on frequency
dynamics. This can lead to situations in which traditional frequency control schemes become too slow
for preventing large frequency deviations and the resulting consequences. The loss of rotational inertia
and its increasing time-variance lead to new frequency instability phenomena in power systems.
3.10.2 Analysis of the issue – German perspective

An exemplary analysis of the German power system shows the relevance of the above mentioned
trend.
3.10.2.1 Development of the system inertia

In frequency stability analysis often the assumption is used that the (aggregated) inertia constant H is
constant and unique for all swing equations of a multi-area system. This assumption was valid in the
past but is nowadays increasingly tested by reality.
50
In Figure 27 the power generation of conventional and RES units are plotted for 8 days in November
2015 for the balance area of 50Hertz, one of the German TSOs. Within these days the share of RES
of the total generation varies between 0.7 % and 38.7 %. For whole Germany a maximum RES share
th
of the total generation of 56 % has been reported for 25 July 2015.
The time-variant share of RES of the total generation has a direct impact on the inertia of the system.
The aggregated inertia of the system is thus time-variant itself and fluctuates between the nominal
value, e.g. 6 s when only conventional units are dispatched to 2-3 s with a high share of RES. This
tendency is about to increase.
Figure 27: Power generation of RES units and conventional units
3.10.2.2 Frequency limits

During normal system operation the frequency in Continental Europe has to remain within a band of
±180 mHz in steady-state and ±800 mHz dynamically based on the nominal frequency of 50 Hz.
For dimensioning of the frequency reserves an outage of 3 GW of generation is considered. The

frequency reserve is dimensioned in a way that the outage of 3 GW does not lead to a violation of the
steady-state and dynamic limits.
For outages which are larger than the dimensioning case the security of supply steps back in favour of
the system security. At frequencies below 49.2 Hz or above 50.2 Hz defined emergency measures are
activated. These emergency measures are dimensioned that the frequency remains within a band of
47.5 Hz and 51.5 Hz.
3.10.2.3 Rate of change of frequency

Additionally to the frequency limits the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) has to be considered. On
the one hand this rate has to be limited as the frequency-based protection is a few 100 ms delayed.
On the other hand large generation units typically have a ROCOF-protection which disconnects the
unit from the grid. At high ROCOF-values an islanding is seen as highly likely. Typical values for
ROCOF-protection devices are between 2-2.5 Hz/s.
51
A limiting of the ROCOF to 2 Hz/s is thus necessary to ensure the function of the protection.
𝑑𝑓
The ROCOF is defined by two variables: The size of the failure and the inertia constant.
𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑓 ∆𝑃𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑓0 (3.10.1)
= ∗
𝑑𝑡 𝑃𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 2𝐻
3.10.2.4 Impact of reduced inertia on dimensioning case

In this analysis the dimensioning case (outage of 3 GW) is analysed. A frequency dependence of the
load of 2 %/Hz and a low-load situation of 150 GW is assumed. Figure 28 shows the effect of reduced
inertia.
Figure 28: Effect of reduced inertia during a power imbalance
The green curves show the system response including frequency control. The grey lines show only the
instantaneous reserve. The system inertia is changed from 5 s to 2.5 s to 0.5 s.
It can be seen that the maximum ROCOF of 2 Hz/s is not reached at any of these inertias.
Additionally, the maximum dynamic frequency limit of 49,2 Hz is only encountered at 𝐻 = 0.5 s. This
inertia corresponds to a 10 % share of conventional generation from total generation. That means
90 % of the generation are converter-connected units.
As stated in the introduction of this section situations with nearly 60 % of generation with converter-
connected units have already been observed. The time-variant inertia thus results in an expected
challenge of the system even though the challenge does not yet exist.
52
3.10.3 Assessment
BELGIUM
This is currently not a major issue in Belgium, especially because this country is connected
synchronously to numerous others countries. However, total inertia of Continental Europe is
decreasing in case of high wind/high PV/low load situations, which could be a major issue in the
future.
BRAZIL
Currently, lack of system inertia is a problem which will be magnified by massive integration of RES in
the next years.
ITALY
Currently in Italy the lack of system inertia is not a prevalent issue. In fact, during the most critical
events the rotating capacity achievable using internal resources and through the interconnection with
the rest of Europe is in general sufficient. There are however exceptions during specific critical
situations (e.g. Sardinia and Sicily disconnected to the mainland) and for these reasons appropriate
constraints to the thermal generation are imposed.
Nevertheless, if in the future other European countries will develop their own renewable programs, the
total inertia could be not sufficient anymore. For this reason studies on future scenarios for
understanding the need of inertia have been being developed.
On the regulatory point of view, the topic of the inertia provision by converter connected units has not
been addressed yet.
JAPAN
In Japan, in recent years, “lack of Inertia” is considered as one of problems which can occur by
massive integration of RES. But the problem is not currently present in Japan.
USA
This is an issue in the US for converter connected RES units and must be addressed. [25] [26]

Mitigation options for low system inertia and faster frequency dynamics are:
 Faster primary frequency control to manage very high power ramps, see 4.26.
 Synthetic Inertia to manage very high power ramps, see 4.27.
 Short term and fast reacting storage to manage very high power ramps, see 4.5.
 Relaxing frequency standards to allow larger frequency deviations, see 4.7.
53
4 Description of Solutions
In section 3 in this technical brochure 11 technical risks, due to large deficits or surpluses of renewable
generation were analysed. Each risk can be met either by one or more solutions. The Risk-Solution
Matrix is given in Table 1 gives an overview of the risks and their potential solutions. A total of 27
solutions were found and will be described in the following section.
Table 1: Risk-Solution Matrix
1 Flexibility is needed
Reserve capacity for short
2 term balancing is needed
System adequacy has to
3 be maintained
Voltage profile has to be
4 kept
System security has to be
kept in maintenance
5 situations
Congestion of the
6 transmissions system
Observability and
Controllability of a large
7 number of RES units
Small RES units have to
8 behave system friendly.
9 Lack of short-circuit power
10 Lack of system inertia
Curtailment
Flexible conventional generation
Enlargement of balancing area
Demand Side Management
Short term and fast reacting storage
Improved forecast
Relaxing frequency standards
Power exchange between countries
Long term storage
Capacity credits for RES
MV/LV Tap Changer
MV substation automisation
Comprehensive monitoring
Reactive power from RES
System security assessment (n-1) contingency analysis
Advanced maintenance concepts
Correlationg the maintenane and the refurbishment
Grid Reinforcement AC/DC
FACTS
Publish curtailment data
Information exchange between system operators (TSO/DSO)
Remote control of RES
Software to organise data (big Data)
Adapt grid codes/ set connection standards
Synchronous generators
Faster primary frequency control
Synthetic inertia
Risk
Solution
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
54
4.1 Curtailment
Curtailment is a reduction in the power output of a generator in relation to the possible maximum
generation with given available resources. This measure is typically done on an involuntary basis on
demand of the system operator. Curtailment typically occurs because of transmission or distribution
congestion, but it can occur for a variety of other reasons, such as excess generation during low load
periods, voltage, or interconnection issues.
As an economic target may be to produce as much energy from RES as possible, vast curtailment is
generally not desirable. However, in terms of costs it may not be desirable to invest in the availability
of a grid to take 100 % RES production.
In reality curtailment levels in the US have generally been 4 % or less of the wind generation. Many
utilities in the western states report negligible levels of curtailment.
Other key findings of the NREL report [10] are:
 Automation can reduce curtailment levels. Manual curtailment processes can extend
curtailment periods because of the time needed for implementation and hesitancy to
release units from curtailment orders.
 Curtailed wind and solar resources may provide ancillary services to aid in system
operations.
 A variety of solutions is being used to reduce curtailments: transmission expansion
and interconnection upgrades; operational changes such as forecasting and
increased automation of signalling; and better management of reserves and
generation.
4.2 Flexible conventional generation

When the wind stops blowing or the sun stops shining the remainder of the installed conventional
capacity has to make up for the loss of variable RES. Such sudden and massive requests for power,
so-called power ramps, create new requirements for conventional generators, including fossil-fired,
nuclear and dispatchable RES. While traditional variability of demand or load has always required a
certain amount of flexibility, power ramps will introduce a step change in the way the electrical systems
are operated.
A joint VGB-EURELECTRIC report [28] assessed the situation. It shows that hydropower plants are
the most responsive plants and can be called upon to generate electricity within very short timescales.
Gas-fired, combined cycle turbines are also fairly easily able to adjust their generation to provide
power when most needed. Contrary to common wisdom, coal-fired power plants (both hard-coal and
lignite) have a role to play in providing flexibility. Even more surprisingly, nuclear power plants are only
surpassed by pumped storage in terms of load changes, although they do require more start-up time
and their suitability to perform load-following depends on design and business case.
The technical suitability of a specific power plant, however, is dependent on several other factors as
well (e.g. primary control, black start capability). Generally it can be stated that conventional power
plant operators tend to accept the challenge and try to improve the power plant flexibility with various
means (e.g. increase of power ramps, reduce of start-up times, reduction of minimum load, increase of
efficiency under partial load operation).
55
4.3 Enlargement of balancing area

Enlarging the balancing area of a power system, according to the principal of statistical independents,
leads to a more constant system condition because various fluctuations have the ability to cancel each
other out. The influence of the principle of statistical Independence on an electric power system is
described in [29]. In addition, with a wider balancing area more resources able to provide ancillary
services are available, with positive effects on the secure operation of the power system.
With the systematic enlargement of areas system operators could e.g. connect load center with a low
share of RES with generation hot spots in rural areas and low load. So in times of high RES
generation energy could be distributed to a larger community of consumers.
4.4 Demand Side Integration

Demand Side Integration is the generic Term for Demand Side Management and Demand Side
Response including all issues to make the consumer side more flexible. In 2011 a Cigre report dealing
with Demand Side Integration was published and they used the following definition:
Demand Side Integration (DSI) refers to: The overall technical area focused on advancing the efficient
and effective use of electricity in support of power systems and customer needs. That is, DSI covers
all activities focused on advancing end-use efficiency and effective electricity utilization, including
demand response and energy efficiency. So by DSI it should be possible to increase load with a high
RES generation and decrease it by low generation and in an optimal case to follow the volatile
generation by adjustment of load.
Further information can be found in the report Demand Side Integration of Cigre Working Group C6.09
[30].
4.5 Fast reacting and short term storage

Fast reacting storage has to deliver a high power within a short period of time. For this
supercapacitors, flywheels, supermagnetic energy storage but also specific batteries are usable, see
Figure 29 .Most storage devices can react very fast and are thus suitable for these purposes.
Significant research is done to improve storage devices for these purposes. Installations e.g. of
batteries with a volume of several 10 MW per location are in operation in several countries.
Figure 29: Ragone diagram of different storage systems [31]

56
4.6 Improved Forecast

The power output of Wind Turbines and PV Panels depends on weather conditions. Good weather
forecasts are necessary for the system operators. Only with good forecast the power output of
renewables can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. Knowing the power output of the renewable
generation, the system operators know how much capacity of conventional generation is needed. [32].
Taking into account the geographical dispersion of RES power plants it is also good to know how
much generation will be in which area. With this knowledge system operator could estimate the
needed transmission capacity and predict possible congestions. Due to that, better forecasts increase
the efficiency of the network operation.
4.7 Relaxing frequency standards

To keep the system frequency within a given range during system operation, generation and load must
be kept in balance. If the frequency is either too low or too high there are control mechanisms, namely
primary control and secondary control, to restore the frequency back to the nominal value.
Little changes in frequency do occur all the time in system operation. Most fluctuations are so small,
that it is not necessary to activate the control mechanisms. In Central Europe, ENTSO-E therefore
defined a dead band of ±10 mHz [33].
Due to the volatile nature of PV and Wind the Generation will not exactly match the load demand
during operation. Those imbalances may be big enough to activate the load frequency control
mechanisms. To prevent that load frequency control is continuously working due to volatile generation
it can be thought about relaxing the frequency standards. For example by redefining the frequency
dead band from ±10 mHz to a higher value.
4.8 Power Exchange between Countries

Some areas with high penetration of RES will not be able to maintain system adequacy with the
reliable generation capacity in their area. With an international power exchange other countries and
areas can help to maintain the system adequacy for the whole system. Precondition for an increased
power exchange is a well-developed network capacity on cross border level.
4.9 Long Term Storage

Long Term Storage is required to overcome periods with a deficit or surplus of available renewable
generation when there is not enough or too much RES generation. In principle there are four available
long-term storage options: Compressed-air energy storage (CAES), Pumped-hydro energy storage
(PHES), Battery energy storage (BES) and power to gas (P2G).
57
In [34] the authors made a SWOT Analysis of each system and the results are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: Comparative SWOT analysis of long-term storage possibilities [34]
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
CAES High capacity. Minor needs Needs for Can prospectively Popularity related to
for power electronic underground be adopted for thermal power
converters cavities. Need for distributed storage. plants
fuel.
Geographical
restrictions
PHES High capacity. Centralised storage. Can be used for Can become
offshore wind parks obsolete when
Minor needs for power Geographical and with lover distributed storage
electronic converters restrictions. reservoir under preferred
seabed
BES Distributed storage. Cycle life. Emerging Constant

technologies development phase
Good configurability Temperature complicates
dependent selection.
Raw materials
limited
P2G Distributed storage. Low efficiency. Market penetration. Maturing battery

technologies.
Other uses for produced Need for power Perspective
hydrogen. electronics and nanotube storage EMI issues related
control. media. to the use of power
Minor environmental issues. electronics
Need for stable Dedicated converters.
load. converters.
4.10 Capacity Credits for RES

The demand of electrical energy has to be covered at any time. If a large deficit of renewable
generation occurs, the residual demand is growing and has to be covered by conventional generation.
Capacity Credits for renewable generation are a method to determine how strong the renewable
generation affects the residual demand that has to be covered by conventional power plants. In the
difference between the total demand and the residual demand of a load duration curve in June in Italy
is shown. In the important parts are shown in more detail. The figures show that the peak total
demand is higher than the peak residual demand. Assuming that, investigated through time series
analysis, the peak residual demand is always smaller than the peak total demand, then the
conventional power plants capacity can be lower to maintain system adequacy.
The capacity credit is defined as the difference of peak demand and peak residual demand, expressed
as percentage of the variable renewables installed. Therefore this value expresses how much
conventional generation capacity can be reduced through renewables and still guaranteeing system
adequacy [35].
58
Figure 30: Load-duration curve and example residual load-duration curve for Italy, first two weeks of June 2010 [29]
Figure 31: Magnified section of load-duration curve and example residual load-duration curve for Italy, first two weeks
of June 2010 [29]
4.11 MV/LV Tap changer

As seen in Figure 18Figure 18 voltage problems in distribution girds occur. In situations with high load
and low distributed generation the voltage magnitude can be too low and in situations with low load
and high distributed generation the voltage magnitude can be too high. Usually the HV/MV
transformers are equipped with on-load tap changers. However, the voltage issues on the LV grid still
occur, because the MV/LV transformers do not have a tap changer. In [37] the influence of MV/LV
transformers with on-load tap changers on an urban Belgium LV grid was investigated. Three load
cases and 4 different PV penetration levels were assumed, resulting in 12 different cases to
investigate. The simulation results show that the over-voltage violations and under-voltage violations
do occur in simulations without on-load tap changers, but do not occur in simulations with on-load tap
59
changers. Therefore the MV/LV on-load tap changers are one method to solve the voltage magnitude
problems in the LV distribution grid.
4.12 MV Substation Automation

Due to the increasing number of RES in distribution systems a better utilization of the grid is needed to
prevent overloading of the grid. One method of increasing the utilization of the grid is to implement
automation in MV grids. One example for automation for a better utilization is shown at an example. In
Figure 32 a MV grid that is operated in an open ring grid structure is shown. One of the two HV/MV
transformers has a high utilization rate, the other one has a low utilization rate. To utilize the grid in a
more efficient way the losses can be reduced by closing the switch, leading more or less to a medium
utilization rate of both HV/MV transformers as shown in Figure 33.
Figure 32: MV ring grid with open switch
Figure 33: MV ring grid with closed switch
Automation equipment in situations like this leads to lower currents and due to that it leads to lower
losses and a better utilization.
60
4.13 Comprehensive monitoring

The large number of distributed RES leads to a relevant share of the total energy contribution.
Therefore the system operators have to be aware of the power output and the voltage level of the
RES. One approach is to enhance the state estimation for distribution grids. In [38] the authors
introduced a method to use distribution systems state estimation to predict the injection of distributed
generation units and proved its accuracy on the IEEE 34-nodes test feeder and a real feeder of a
Southern Brazil utility.
4.14 Reactive power from RES

As RES are contributing a significant part of the active power generation, their influence on system
stability increases. To maintain system stability the RES have to contribute not only active power, but
also reactive power. Therefore the example of an AC-Grid connected offshore wind park is shown
here.
Figure 34: Alternatives for reactive power generation [39]
Figure 34 shows an AC-connected offshore wind park with its required operation range. The wind park
has to work with a given power factor depending on the voltage magnitude at the point of common
connection (PCC). Therefore various reactive power sources are available:
 Cables : Cables are a source of reactive power depending on the degree of

compensation
 Transformers equipped with on-load tap changers
 Shunt reactors and capacitors
 FACTS
 Wind Turbines
 PV-converters
As an example of how Wind Turbines can provide reactive power a Double Fed Induction generator is
shown. Its stator is directly connected to the grid, whereas the rotor is connected with a Voltage
Source Converter (VSC)
61
Figure 35: Typical layout of a DFIG [39]
By varying frequency and magnitude of the rotor voltage, reactive and active power can be controlled
independently. To decide which part of reactive source to use, optimization algorithms are required to
minimize the losses. In fault situations the losses are no longer important. Then the most efficient
source of reactive power to stabilize the system has to be used. [39]
4.15 System Security assessment

Every TSO is responsible to maintain the operational system security within its grid. For this, security
requirements and principles have to be determined. In Europe the ENTSO-E Network Code on
Operational Security [40] provides the framework. Within this framework, the (n-1) criterion is one key
element. According to this criterion the power system must remain within the operational security limits
after a contingency from a defined contingency list.
In order to check that the present and potential power system conditions comply with the (n-1)-criterion
a contingency analysis has to be made. This contingency analysis is a computer based simulation of
contingencies (e.g. line outage or power plant outage) from a predefined list.
Especially within maintenance planning but also for other changes of the system conditions a system
security assessment has to be made. The contingencies from the list can also be transmission
elements from neighbouring grid areas, significant grid users or distribution elements which may be
relevant for the operational security.
4.16 Advanced maintenance concepts

The most general classification of the maintenance operation is:
 Maintenance for restoration due to equipment failure - Corrective

maintenance/breakdown maintenance
 Maintenance for failure prevention: Preventive maintenance which is included in the
various maintenance philosophies such as CBM (Condition Based Maintenance),
RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) or RBM (Risk Based Maintenance)
Corrective maintenance/breakdown maintenance has the following advantages: the value of the spare
stock can be reduced, it eliminates unnecessary monitoring equipment, the intervention does not
require scheduling and the utilization rate of the installation is greater. The notable disadvantages are:
there is no programming of the staff working time dealing with maintenance, there are not resources
allocated, the waiting time for the spare parts delivery can be long, and often the operation of an
62
installation can be interrupted. This is not recommended as a strategy today for utilities which have a
higher social and economic responsibility.
The preventive maintenance policy can vary from one utility to other and is targeting the prevention of
equipment damage and/or reduction of the probability of the evolution of some faults over time. The
most familiar preventive maintenance is TBM (Time based maintenance) where maintenance is
scheduled at predetermined intervals that are recommended by the equipment manufacturer and/or
are resulted from operational experience. The advantages of the TBM are: it is a repetitive activity, it is
easy to schedule and execute, the efficiency is high, the budget planning is clear, and the theoretical
preparation for the maintenance team is easy to organize. The main disadvantages are: the repetitive
activity can become tedious and boring, it is a tendency to skip some verifications, some elements that
are replaced can still work and other elements that are damaged are replaced too late, the stock for
the spare parts is high. Also, often an over maintenance activity can be observed which can be less
cost effective.
A more evolved strategy is CBM (Condition Based Maintenance) which is similar with TBM but the
difference is that based on the information about the equipment’s history the maintenance intervals
are flexible. The information needed for monitoring equipment status is prevailed by on-line and off-
line specialized devices during operation, inspections and routine maintenance. An equipment data
base (including the history and tendency of some relevant parameters) is needed. The advantages of
CBM are: it increases the lifetime and reliability of equipment, is monitoring the effective condition,
ensure a good organization of the budget for spare parts and of working time. The main
disadvantages are: the measuring devices should have high precision class, large investment in
appropriate measuring equipment.
The RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) concept appeared for the first time in the fifth decade of
the last century and it was used by the US military in the technological application with military
character. The maintenance activity has known many phases, evolving at the same time with the
growing complexity of the equipment and user demands. RCM has a systematic approach which
combines the equipment technical status (similar to CBM) with the equipment importance to the
network system. For the determination of equipment importance, there are some relevant factors such
as:
 The voltage level and the equipment location

 The investment cost for the equipment replacement
 The response time of the maintenance team
 Network topology
 Supply safety
 Consumer importance
 The redundancy degree
 Cascade failure that can affect the network
 The impact on the energy quality
 Environmental damage, company image damage
All maintenance activities are prioritized based on the importance of the equipment in the system.
RCM provide additional information whether the equipment should be replace or not.
Another concept, RBM (Risk Based Maintenance) is taking into consideration by the utilities. RBM is
more or less similar to RCM but to be implemented, it is mandatory to associate a risk level to any kind
of fault.
63
One of the important tasks of advanced maintenance concepts is the organisation of the time frames
for activities. If there are possible congestions with a high share of RES maintenance time should be
organised in times with a predicted low RES generation. It is also helpful to use technologies which
allow a fast reconnection of assets which are out of operation due to planned maintenance.
4.17 Correlating maintenance and refurbishment

Besides maintenance of equipment another important point is the refurbishment of old components.
Maintenance activities can be reduced by a good coordination with the refurbishment activities.
Therefore the maintenance activities should be correlated with refurbishment works.
4.18 Grid Reinforcements AC/DC

In section 3.6 it is shown that congestion in transmission systems may lead to curtailment of RES. This
curtailment could be prevented if the grid would be reinforced. The conventional reinforcement of the
AC grid is commonly known.
In recent years, Voltage Source Converter based HVDC transmission systems have been considered
as realistic options to reinforce the meshed AC-Transmission grids. HVDC includes features like
flexible control of power flow and fast dynamic response to various disturbances. Therefore embedded
HVDC systems can enhance the transmission grid and can contribute to system through following
advantages [41]:
 Mitigation of Network Bottlenecks

 Enhancement of Network Interconnections
 DC Infeed to Large Urban Areas
 HVDC as a Flow Control Device
 Flexible reactive power via the DC/AC-converter
4.19 Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS)

The load of the transmission grid increases due to the high share of RES. As the transmission grid has
to be adapted on the new situation several opportunities arise. One of those opportunities is to equip
the transmission system with FACTS. FACTS are power electronic based equipment, being able to
provide technical solutions to address these operation challenges of a high loaded transmission grid.
FACTS technologies enable the controlling of impedance, voltage magnitude or voltage angle during
system operation and therefore allow for improved system operation with minimal infrastructure
investment and environmental impact compared to the construction of new transmission lines. An
overview gives Table 3 [42].
64
Table 3: Example of FACTS Controllers for Enhancing Power

System Control [42]
Controls Angle Controls Impedance Controls Voltage
Static Synchronous Compensator X
Static Var Compensator X
Unified Power Flow Controller X X X
Convertible series compensator X X X
Inter-phase Power Flow Controller X X X
Static Synchronous Series X X X

Controller
Thyristor Controlled Series X

Compensator
Thyristor Controlled Phase Shifting X

Transformer
Super Conducting Magnetic Energy X X

Storage
4.20 Publish curtailment data

Quantifying and recording geo-spatially referenced lost energy and making the data publicly available
would enable the prospective developers to see actual curtailments so that they could avoid locations
where curtailments are high. Developers interested in minimizing the risk to their projects could elect
to perform energy deliverability studies, which would entail running production simulation tools for any
set of assumptions to predict actual output of the incumbent fleet at the time of maximum renewable
energy output. This would yield a more accurate forecast of transmission loading in the area of
interest. Predicting stability constraints for many possible future scenarios and at the scale of the
power system requires large number of dynamic simulations. This is not practical to do for a large
number of future scenarios, but the developer could elect to study the part of the system that will host
the renewable project and ensure that the energy can be delivered to major transmission infrastructure
nearby.
4.21 Information exchange between system operators

The high share of renewable generation installed in the distribution grid and the resulting opportunities
of the power flow in the system requires a close cooperation between Transmission System Operators
and Distribution System Operators. In [43] the current interaction in six grid operation challenges was
investigated.
65
These six cases were
 Congestion of Transmission-Distribution interface

 Congestion of transmission lines
 Balancing Challenge
 Voltage support (TSO DSO)
 Anti-(Islanding), re-synchronization and black-start
 Coordinated protection.
To get meaningful results in these investigations, experts from each contributing country provided first-
hand information about the current interaction between TSOs and DSOs and the expected
development. Not just technical, but also policy aspects have been taken into account.
Possible technical solutions to handle the investigated six cases were very similar in all cases. The
Solutions for the DSOs include a two way communication to its customers and to the TSO.
Furthermore they need the ability to perform near real time network simulations with input from grid
measurements. All of those requirements can be met by using available technology, nevertheless the
complexity for implementation and operation is given and should not be underestimated.
Besides the technical solutions the authors of [43] identified several non-technical issues that are
closely related to the regulated grid operators’ work:
 Maintaining a balance between infrastructure investments and use of flexibility

 The role of markets
 Setting a level playing field for flexibility
 The role of regulation
4.22 Remote control of RES

Different approaches for Remote Control of RES do exist. Two of them, which are fundamentally
different, will be discussed here. The first approach is to use ripple control and is explained in [44]. The
author recommends using a long wave radio ripple control receiver for the high number of small power
plants. For the high power output power plants it is recommended to use the “younger brothers” of the
two-way communication enabled Remote Terminal Units, which are used in the industry at medium
and at high voltage transformer substations.
Another approach of remote control of RES is to control their power using grid parameters. In [45] a
method is proposed to power down RES using frequency levels and in addition using voltage rise
triggers.
4.23 Software to organise data (Big data)

The penetration of sensors systems in the power distribution system increased significantly over the
past few years. The U.S. energy information administration stated, that the aggregated advanced
metering infrastructure increased by a factor of 17 from 2007 to 2012 [46].
These metering systems usually collect data every 15 minutes. This led to an amount of collected data
to above 100 terabytes in 2012 in the U.S. only. It is expected that the growth of metering system
infrastructure will continue. To handle that large amount of data, and to get full value out of that much
information, new big data algorithms need to be developed.
66
Those algorithms have to connect various information, such as [46]:
 Customer data measured using smart meters

 Grid data measured on the distribution and transmission network using SCADA
 Market data, such as prices
 Other data, like weather information.
The authors of [46] also talk of the risks of implantation of big data applications in power systems, like
the data privacy and data protection, or failures of the data cleansing routine that lead to a situation in
which the system operator has no access to important information.
Further information to Big Data in power systems can be looked up in [46].
4.24 Adapt grid codes/ Set connection standards

Grid codes are defined as technical requirements that everything connected to the electricity network
has to satisfy general rules that are written down and apply to all. The purpose of a grid code is to
ensure that the electricity network works in a safe, secure and economic way.
The change of the energy system leads to a lot of new challenges. Due to their high share the
renewable generation is becoming important for system stability. The behaviour of the renewables is
different to conventional power plants. Therefore new solutions are needed. The renewable generation
units are often small units that are distributed throughout the grid. Due to the large number of
generation units a streamlined grid approval process is needed. It should be ensured that the grid
code does not unnecessarily increase the cost of grid connection because the grid has to work not just
in a safe and secure but also in an economic way.
Those grid codes should be developed for all kinds of renewable generation, including Wind power
plants, Solar Photovoltaic plants, concentrated solar power plants and all other kind of distributed
generation. [47]
One important point to deal with is the short circuit capability of RES. Due to the fact that RES usually
are converter-based units, their contribution to a short circuit is different from grid-connected
synchronous generators or induction generators. Due to the lack of inductive characteristics, which are
usually associated with rotating machines, leads to a much faster decaying of fault currents. Another
important point is that synchronous and induction generators can contribute a fault current about six
times higher than their rated current. For converter-based units a “rule of thumbs” exists, which says
that the contributed fault current is about twice the rated current. [25]
A unique property of a converter-based unit is the ability to program the fault characteristics. This
might allow eliminating negative impacts and therefore optimizing the system coordination by having a
controllable fault current level. [25]
Other important points to deal with in adapted grid codes are

 Limited RES contribution to feeder relative to stable power sources
 Smart Network Protectors
 Ride through protocols for Distribution Automated Devices
 Smart Interrupters programmed with Fuse Curves
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4.25 Synchronous Generators

Synchronous generators were and still are the predominant machines to convert kinetic (rotating)
energy into electric energy. Besides the fact that synchronous generators can be built for very high
power and high power density, they have inherent positive effects on system stability.
First, synchronous generators together with the attached turbine have a high inertia. A high inertia
helps to reduce the ROCOF as discussed in section 3.10.
Second, synchronous generators can deliver a high short-circuit current which helps to reduce the
potential gradient in fault situations.
Additionally, synchronous generators are able to provide reactive power.
4.26 New synchronous machines can either be built as

synchronous condensers or decommissioned conventional
power plants can be reused as synchronous condensers. Faster
primary frequency control
As described in section 3.10 the system inertia will reduce, because most of the RES are converter
based units. With lower system inertia the system frequency will change faster if an imbalance
between load and generation occurs. To prevent that the change of system frequency is too big, a
faster primary frequency control can be used. Nowadays the primary control is provided by generators
in power plants. In [48] the influence of contribution from storage systems to primary control is
investigated.
Figure 36: The dynamic response to a step load disturbance for (a) α =0% (b) α =%50 and (c) α=%100
68
The authors defined a fixed ratio α that describes what share of power for the primary control is
delivered by storage systems. Three cases with different values for α were observed. In Figure 36
three dynamic responses to a step load disturbance are shown. In case (a) 0 % of the primary control
is provided by storage systems. In case (b), it is 50 % and in case (c) there are no generators that
contribute to primary control.
It is clearly seen, that in case (b), the primary control delivers the best performance. The peak
frequency deviation is a little higher than in case (a), but the control process is faster. Whereas in case
(c) the peak frequency deviation is the highest and the control process is slower compared to cases
(a) and (b). To establish a faster primary frequency control it can be recommended to split the required
control power in two parts. One half should be delivered by conventional power plants, the other half
should be delivered by fast reacting storage systems.
4.27 Synthetic Inertia

Most RES with generators are converter based units. Due to that the natural frequency response of
the generator is disabled because the generator and the grid are decoupled. Synthetic Inertia
describes the ability of a converter based unit to change its power output as a function of the grid-
frequency [49].
To realise a frequency response of a converter based units control schemes are necessary. In Figure
37 a synthetic inertia controller for a wind turbine is shown:
Figure 37: Representative diagram of Maximum Power point Tracking [49]
A simulation over a simple test-system with the three activation mechanisms, namely Continuously
Operating, Under-frequency Trigger and Maximum-Frequency Gradient Trigger showed that the
Synthetic Inertia Controller with an Under-frequency Trigger leads to an outstanding frequency
response.
69
5 Recommendations for planning principles

Large deficits and surpluses of RES energy are challenging for different areas of the utility business.
They affect the energy market and also the grid as a transmission and distribution system.
Concentrating on the power system as such there are also two aspects to be reviewed. On the one
hand the operation of the system and on the other hand the planning and developing of the system. In
parallel to WG C1.30 there are other WGs dealing especially with the topic of planning principles to
elaborate the future standards for an ongoing energy transition in transmission and distribution grid.
Some of the solutions we pointed out in section 4 have also influence on planning principles but the
WG did not analyse that point in detail.
Screening the solutions it can be mentioned, that especially the following could have an influence
on future planning principles if they will be in appliance in future so they should be included in the
discussion.
 Curtailment (4.1) has the potential to define a volume of generation capacity being
installed in a defined area and to do the planning for this defined capacity. If the
generation exceeds the grid capacity, TSO or DSO can do the curtailment.
 Enlargement of balancing areas (4.3) could need increased network capacity, so if
this solution is part of future system operation the additional capacity has to be
noticed in the planning principles.
 Demand side integration (4.4) and fast reacting and short term storage (4.5) have
the same characteristic on the load side like curtailment on the generation side.
 MV/LV tap changer (4.11) are technical assets which influence especially the
voltage profile in the distribution grid. MV substation automation (4.12) is a
technical measure for the system operation. Both solutions have the potential to
strongly increase the utilisation of the distribution grid.
 Advanced maintenance concepts (4.16) should be monitored in the planning
process because they could avoid too high system reserves.
 Remote control of RES (4.22) has a similar effect as Curtailment (4.1), it is a
precondition.
 Adapt grid codes/ Set connection standards (4.24) is an opportunity to find an
economical balance between network development cost and investment for RES
connection. This is a base input parameter for planning principles.
 Synthetic inertia (4.27) is especially a solution for missing short circuit condition
and could avoid complex structures in the grid like a high level of meshed systems
which is expensive and brings a high complexity to operation.
Some of these solutions needs a regulatory basis to be used by the TSO or DSO but this part of the
discussion was not included in the WG-work. It has to be monitored – like the usage of all solutions-
how they match with the national regulatory conditions, market mechanisms and laws.
70
6 Conclusion and Outlook

The worldwide objective for a reduction of carbon emission in all sectors of life the energy transition
will move forward in all geographical areas. This will lead to new characteristic of generation and will
also bring some challenges and risks especially in the power system infrastructure. WG C1.30 has
analysed numerous challenges for the transmission and distribution grid and found that most of them
appear in all regarded countries. First of all solutions is –the simple one – to develop and increase
network capacity and build new substations and power lines. But this solution will be at least extremely
costly so there have to be new and innovative solutions for the system operators to manage these
challenges and control the risks. Not one solution will fit all challenges. But there are single or
combined solutions to most of the challenges, they are not all implemented today but technological
available. There are also some processual solutions like curtailment and demand side management
which need a regulatory or market basis, public acceptance and also operational implementation. Also
the energy markets need to be designed to enable some of the technical solutions pointed out.
With the ongoing process of energy transition system operators have no choice, they have to
implement new technologies and processes to keep the system stable on an accepted level of network
tariffs. The search for additional technologies and new solutions is going on, so this report is not a
concluding list to meet all future challenges. It should be clear that the avoidance of large disturbances
and especially blackouts is the overall target in a world where electrical energy is a main foundation of
social life. And if this happens system operators have to restore the power supply as fast as possible
and in this process RES will also play an important role. But that is another story.
7 List of Tables
Table 1: Risk-Solution Matrix................................................................................................................. 54
Table 2: Comparative SWOT analysis of long-term storage possibilities [34] ...................................... 58
Table 3: Example of FACTS Controllers for Enhancing Power ............................................................. 65
8 List of Figures
Figure 1: Share of net installed capacity in 2014 .................................................................................... 6
Figure 2: Share of produced energy in 2014 ........................................................................................... 7
Figure 3: National photovoltaic load factor over one day in January (left) and August (right), between
2011 and 2014 ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 4: Trend in electricity consumption net of photovoltaic power on a typical day in August in
current conditions (top) and “New Mix” scenario (bottom) .................................................................... 11
Figure 5: Variations in wind power load factor in France over two different weeks in winter ................ 12
Figure 6: Illustration of the residual demand on a current summer week ............................................. 13
Figure 7: Illustration of the residual demand on a “New Mix” 2030 scenario summer week................. 13
Figure 8: Illustration of the residual demand on a “New Mix” 2030 scenario summer day ................... 14
Figure 9: PV generation for a week of May 2016 in Belgium. Source: Elia. ......................................... 15
Figure 10: PV Injection in the balancing area of TransnetBW. Source: TransnetBW ........................... 16
Figure 11: Historical evolution of the load netted by pv and wind generation in Italy. source : Terna .. 16
Figure 12: Duration Curve of OG – 2024 Scenario ............................................................................... 17
Figure 13: Solar Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov ............................................................................ 19
71
Figure 14: Wind Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov ............................................................................. 19

Figure 15: Development of wind power (left) and PV units (right) in Romania ..................................... 21
Figure 16: European countries that depend on energy imports [12] ..................................................... 27
Figure 17: Example of capacity markets demand and supply curves. Source: Terna .......................... 28
Figure 18: Voltage magnitude across a distribution grid ....................................................................... 30
Figure 19: Renewable Portfolio Standard Policies in the United States ............................................... 36
Figure 20: Balancing areas of the German TSOs ................................................................................. 38
Figure 21: Zonal model of the Italian Electricity Market ........................................................................ 39
Figure 22: RES installed capacity and number of RES facilities ........................................................... 41
Figure 23: US Photovoltaic Installations from 2010 to 2015 ................................................................. 43
Figure 25: Mean Short Circuit Level in 2019 [24] .................................................................................. 47
Figure 26: Change of Short Circuit Level 2019 to 2023. [24] ................................................................ 48
Figure 27: Change in voltage gradients in 2023 at different short circuit powers from external grids.
[24] ......................................................................................................................................................... 49
Figure 28: Power generation of RES units and conventional units ....................................................... 51
Figure 29: Effect of reduced inertia during a power imbalance ............................................................. 52
Figure 31: Ragone diagram of different storage systems [31] .............................................................. 56
Figure 32: MV ring grid with open switch .............................................................................................. 60
Figure 33: MV ring grid with closed switch ............................................................................................ 60
Figure 34: Alternatives for reactive power generation [39] .................................................................... 61
Figure 35: Typical layout of a DFIG [39] ................................................................................................ 62
Figure 36: The dynamic response to a step load disturbance for (a) α =0% (b) ................................... 68
Figure 37: Representative diagram of Maximum Power point Tracking [49] ........................................ 69
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75

Technical Risks and Solutions From Periodic, Large Surpluses or Deficits of Available Renewable Generation

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Technical risks and solutions

C. Schorn, Convenor (DE), S. Loitz, Secretary (DE),

Technical Risks and solutions from

2 IMPACT OF THE INTEGRATION OF RES IN THE POWER SYSTEM ..................................9

3 ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNICAL RISKS ............................................................................ 10

3.5.3 Assessment ................................................................................................................. 33

4 DESCRIPTION OF SOLUTIONS .......................................................................................... 54

4.14 Reactive power from RES.............................................................................................. 61

5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PLANNING PRINCIPLES ...................................................... 70

6 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK ........................................................................................... 71

7 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. 71

8 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ 71

9 LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 72

Figure 1: Share of net installed capacity in 2014

Figure 2: Share of produced energy in 2014

1.2 Objective and scope of this study

1.3 Structure of the technical brochure

This working group identified the following 10 main risks:

1. Flexibility is needed as the residual load can change very quickly.

2 Impact of the integration of RES in the power system

2.2 RES units are typically installed geographically distant from

2.4 RES are typically converter-based units

3 Analysis of the technical risks

3.1.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective

3.1.2.1 Photovoltaic penetration changes the daily form of residual demand

3.1.2.2 Wind power penetration eliminates weekly periodicity of residual

3.1.2.3 Global trends on residual load

Figure 6: Illustration of the residual demand on a current summer week

 A new dip in the middle of the day

3.1.2.4 Challenges for dispatchable generation

Figure 9: PV generation for a week of May 2016 in Belgium. Source: Elia.

Figure 10: PV Injection in the balancing area of TransnetBW. Source: TransnetBW

Figure 12: Duration Curve of overgeneration – 2024 Scenario

Figure 13: Solar Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov

Figure 14: Wind Plants in the USA. Source: eia.gov

3.1.4 Possible solutions

3.2 Reserve capacity for short term balancing is needed

3.2.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian Perspective

 energy storage (e.g. high capacity capacitors or pumped-hydro power plants)

To meet the balance between generation and load, RTE uses:

Example for upward reserves:

 1500 MW available in 15 minutes

3.2.4 Possible solutions

3.3 System adequacy has to be maintained

3.3.2 Analysis of the issue – French perspective

3.3.2.1 Several countries (example for France: Western Europe)

3.3.2.2 Different climatic conditions

3.3.2.3 Availability of thermal power plants

Figure 16: European countries that depend on energy imports [12]

3.3.4 Possible solutions

 Flexible conventional generation with low minimum power generation capability to

3.4 Voltage profile has to be kept

Figure 18: Voltage magnitude across a distribution grid

3.4.2 Analysis of the issue – Belgium perspective

3.4.4 Possible solutions

3.5 System security has to be kept in maintenance situations

 Damage prevention and maintenance of the optimal operating conditions of the

3.5.2 Analysis of the issue – Romanian perspective

3.5.4 Possible solutions

3.6 Congestion of the transmission system

 It is necessary to consider system operation at times of the highest renewable

3.6.2 Analysis of the issue – USA perspective