2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources
Frequency Stability Improvement of Low Inertia
Systems Using Synchronous Condensers
Ha Thi Nguyen, Guangya Yang, and Arne Hejde Nielsen
Department of Electrical Engineering
Technical University of Denmark
Kgs. Lyngby, 2800 Denmark
Email: (thangu, gyy, ahn)@elektro.dtu.dk
Abstract—In order to meet the energy demand and at the
same time to achieve sustainable development objectives on a
global scale, the Danish government has set a long-term strategy
of fossil fuel free country by the year 2050. However, the decline
of conventional power generation units and a rising amount of
converter interfaced components (wind turbine, HVDC, and
Photovoltaic) may have negative effects on the stability of the
power system. These components do not have enough inertia
response to control frequency excursion, so the power grid can
depend on few synchronous machines for frequency regulation
and reduce the system inertia. Consequently, the frequency
stability of the system will be easily jeopardized. To address these
issues, the paper studies frequency characteristics of future
Western Danish renewable-based system that uses a majority of
wind turbine generators. Different scenarios of wind turbine
penetration, governor responsibility of synchronous generators,
and disturbance are simulated to examine the impact of high-
level renewable energy integration on the system frequency
characteristics. The effect of synchronous condensers for the
frequency stability enhancement is investigated. It can be
concluded from the comparative simulation results that
synchronous condenser demonstrates a satisfactory performance
for improving the system frequency stability.
Keywords— Renewable energy system; synchronous condenser;
low inertia system; frequency control; frequency stability.
I. INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy sources have achieved strong popularity
over the past decade, generating 22% of the total global energy
consumption by 2013 and becoming much more prominent in
the total world's energy supply. By 2020, the amount of global
electricity generation coming from renewable energy will be
over 26% higher than today's combined electricity demand of
China, India, and Brazil. Deployment continues to shift toward
energy-hungry emerging markets and some countries such as
China and India [1].
Europe is the global leader and the front runner in
renewable-energy technologies. In the European Union,
renewable energy has already reached a significant share of the
total energy produced. The European Wind Energy Association
has set a target to achieve 25% of EU electricity from wind
energy by 2030 [2]. Denmark, one of top ten countries in using
renewable energy, has the target of 30% and 100% of gross
978-1-5090-4075-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Peter Højgaard Jensen
Energy Automation
Siemens A/S
2750 Ballerup, 2800 Denmark
Email: peter_hoejgaard.jensen@siemens.com
energy consumption to be supplied from renewable energy by
2020 and 2050, respectively [3].
The rapid and large-scale development of wind farm (WF)
and photovoltaic (PV) sources have led to significant
generation parts of variable renewable-energy sources in power
systems worldwide. This is not only raising opportunities,
expanding into newer markets with better resources for the
most dynamic technologies but also increasing challenges
regarding their integration into energy supply systems.
Most of renewable energy generators are interfaced to the
grid through converters and other power electronic devices that
as such do not provide rotational inertia as alternators. Thus,
the presence of a large-scale wind and solar generation and
consequently few conventional generators can drastically
increase the risk of concerning frequency response in the
power systems after a major disturbance. Rate of change of
frequency (ROCOF) is higher in power systems with lower
system inertia, making frequency control and power system
operation more challenging. As a result, it is likely that
uncertainty will exist over the inertial response capability of the
system at high renewable energy penetration levels.
A number of studies about frequency characteristics in
power systems with high renewable energy penetration have
been reported in the literature [4]-[5]. The influence of
different wind turbine technologies on frequency stability is
evaluated in [4]. The role and value of frequency response
support from wind generators with a novel stochastic
scheduling formulation is assessed in [5].
To improve the frequency control for a system with high
level renewable energy penetration, several control methods
have been studied as follows. In [6]-[7], an energy storage
system (ESS) like batteries or capacitors is added together with
a PV unit or wind farm. A coordinated control is implemented
between the ESS and the wind farm or PV generation to
optimize the power output by renewable energies and the
frequency support. Another possibility is curtailing the PV or
wind turbine units. This means the units operate at a reduced
power level that can be used for frequency control [8]. The
main benefit of this method is that frequency control can be
delivered for a long period to participate in primary and
secondary control as traditional power plants. However,
 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources

keeping the power reserves by renewable energy is not

economical [9].
Synchronous condenser (SC) played an important role for
reactive power compensation and kept voltage stability in
power systems for more than 50 years [10]-[12]. Generation or
consumption of reactive power is achieved by regulating the
excitation current to control the system's voltage or to keep the
system power factor at a specified level.
Another important benefit of the synchronous condenser is
its contribution to the overall short circuit capacity in the
network where it is installed. This improves system stability
with weak interconnections, facilitates system protection and
can enhance the operation of modern power electronics
installations [13].
In recent studies, one more plus point of SC which in fact
has not been paid enough attention is the effect of SC in
supporting the system inertia has been proposed. A new
controller that interacts between active power and reactive
power channels of synchronous condensers to improve primary
frequency control is investigated in different testing systems.
This control method is able to assist governor response through
reactive power modulation [14]. In [15], the author studies
using synchronous condenser to decrease under frequency load
shedding and improve the system frequency response with a
different number of synchronous machine scenarios. Fig. 1. Geographical map of Western Danish power system connected to
the neighboring areas: Norway, Sweden, and Germany [19].
In this paper, the effect of SC in supporting inertia for the
system with high-level renewable energy penetration is studied. reached, the system frequency undergoes an oscillation which
Firstly, the frequency response capability is assessed on the is dependent upon the initial power mismatch and the total
future Danish power system and the impact of renewable system inertia.
energy on system inertial response is evaluated in the context
of system requirements. Different scenarios such as wind A sudden trip of a large generation plant or a connection of
power levels, governor responsibility of synchronous a large load causes generation-demand unbalance that makes
generators, and disturbances are investigated to examine the the system frequency drop sharply. As a consequence, the
system frequency characterizations. After that, the beneficial whole power system is affected with a chance of frequency
performance of SC in frequency stability improvement subject collapse and blackouts. The central European blackout in
to different disturbances is studied. The system is modeled and November 2006 is a typical example for the frequency
simulated on RSCAD software and real-time digital simulator disturbance [17].
(RTDS). The ideal power system frequency should remain in a small
The remaining part of the paper is organized as follows: and acceptable range (0.001-0.1 Hz) around its nominal values
section II depicts the impact of high-level penetration of e.g., 50 Hz (Europe, Asia) or 60 Hz (America, Western Japan).
renewable energy on system frequency stability and how The grid code requirements are various among different
synchronous condensers operate to improve the frequency countries. The standard for frequency deviation in Denmark is
stability. The Western Danish renewable-based system that the from 49.9 Hz to 50.2 Hz and ROCOF is 2.5 Hz/s for unit's
paper uses as a testing system is described in section III. output range between 11 kW to 25 kW [18].
Section IV gives comparative simulation results with different
operating scenarios to evaluate the synchronous condenser Power system inertia can be defined as the total amount of
performance and some important conclusions of this paper are rotational energy stored in all rotating machines (generators
drawn in section V. and motors) which are directly connected to the network. It can
be expressed as follows:
II. SYNCHRONOUS CONDENSERS FOR FREQUENCY STABILITY n

IMPROVEMENT Erot ¦ S H 
i i
(1)
i 1
The frequency of a power grid is one of the most important
references that indicate the system's stability, security, and where S i is the rated MVA of the i-th synchronous generator;
quality. The frequency of a system depends on active power
balance, meaning that the total generation power has to equal to H i is the inertia constant of the i-th synchronous generator
the total load consumption (including system losses) [16]. (second); and n is the total number of committed synchronous
When the balance between of generation and demand is not generators.
 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources

Sweden

VSC-HVDC Link

VSC-HVDC Link

Norway
Rectifier
A
Inverter
B NJVB3 ~
VdcB
~ 22/0.69 kV
VW

NVV
VHA SC
AHA

FER
~
MKS SSVB3,4
Load 1
0.69/22 kV

~
TJE
VW
TRI
LAG FGD FVO
HR 1, 2 ~
FYVB7

Load 3 SVS
EDR
REV

VKE
KAS
~
~ ESVB3
SKVB3
SHE
Germany

Load 2
~ ENVB3

Fig. 2. Single-line diagram of Western Danish power system.

The equivalent system inertia constant of the network is disconnected from the system, or an area of the system that
determined as follows: operates under large import or export conditions is suddenly
n disconnected and goes into islanding operation.
Erot ¦S H  i i
(2) Droop constant (R) determines the power versus the
H sys i 1

frequency characteristics of a generating unit that is set in the

S sys S sys
generator speed governor gain (K) and it is expressed as
where S sys is the rating of a specific power system. follows:
Higher system inertia makes the system stronger that can 1 'f
handle transient changes in system frequency and helps in Ri
.100% (3)
stabilizing the system. Lower system inertia increases the Ki 'Pi
likelihood of sharp system changes and instability arising from where Ri and K i are the droop constant and governor gain of
progressively small disturbances that could lead to severe i-th synchronous generator, respectively; 'f is frequency
faults. deviation of the system (Hz); and 'Pi is the active power of i-
Conventionally the bulk of electrical energy has come from th synchronous generator contribute to the primary frequency
transmission-connected thermal power plants with huge control during frequency disturbance.
rotating masses (turbines and generators) which contribute
naturally to system inertia. On the contrary, wind and PV A 6% droop or regulation constant means that a 6% (3 Hz
generation plants do not provide intrinsic inertia response after for 50 Hz rated frequency) frequency deviation causes a
a disturbance to control frequency excursion because they are change of 1 pu in power output. A higher R represents higher
connected to the system through fast acting power electronic sensitivity the generator has.
converters. Because SC is a rotational machine, inertia is an inherent
The stepwise replacement of conventional generating units feature of SC which is able to improve the stability of
by wind and solar PV power plants will have a significant generators located closely. The kinetic energy stored in its
impact on the system frequency behavior. Firstly, the system rotating mass is available as an active power source that it can
loses the active power reserves of traditional generators. absorb and release for the system frequency regulation during
Moreover, the instantaneous inertial response during disturbances. For example, when a generator is suddenly
disturbances also is missed because wind turbine generators are tripped, the SC will release the rotational energy to the grid to
operated decoupled from the system frequency, which allows against the frequency declination. On the contrary, when the
for aerodynamically efficient operation. Consequently, system load suddenly decreases and causes active power unbalance,
inertia drops leading to higher ROCOF during disturbances, as SC will absorb the extra energy from the network to halt the
it may occur in the case that a large generator is suddenly
 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources

In this paper, SC is used to inject or absorb the rotational

inertia to enhance the system frequency stability during
disturbances for the future Western Denmark renewable energy
system which is a low inertia system. However, it can
implement all low inertia systems which are connected to a
high volume of asynchronous technologies such as solar PV,
wind farm, and importing HVDC interconnections.

III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

As mentioned above, the effect of synchronous condensers
on frequency stability improvement is investigated for the
Western Danish power grid, where the studied system connects
to the neighboring areas: Norway, Sweden, and Germany as
shown in Fig. 1 [19]. The Western Danish power system
a)
(Jutland-Funen) is synchronized with the continental European
system whereas the Eastern Danish power system (Zealand) is
synchronized with the Nordic power system, also called the
Nordic synchronized area. Danish power grid is considered as
an important corridor for interconnection between the Nordic
system and the continental European system, so the frequency
stability of Danish grid is important. Currently, the Western
Danish power system has three major offshore wind farms, two
type-3 wind turbine plants (WTP) located at Horns Rev 1, 2
(HR 1, 2) and type-4 WTP situated at Anholt.
From Western Denmark: the interconnection to Sweden is
through two HVDC connections with a total transmission
capacity of 740 MW. The interconnection to Norway and
Skagerrak consists of three HVDC connections with a total
transmission capacity of 1000 MW. The interconnection to
Germany comprises of four AC connections, two 400 kV
connections and two 220 kV connections. There is only one
b) interconnection between Jutland-Funen and Zealand which is
known as the Great Belt Power Link, a 400 kV DC connection
with a transmission capacity of 600 MW. In this study,
Western Denmark system exports power to Germany, hence it
is considered as an external load (load 2) and the
interconnection to Zealand is neglected.
The generation of the studied system consists of seven
synchronous generators and two offshore wind farms that are
connected to the grid via the 220 kV transmission lines. When
2 offshore wind farms operate with 370 MW capacity or 520
MW capacity, two synchronous generators (SSVB3 and
ESVB3) or three synchronous generators (SSVB3, 4, and
ESVB3) are out of service, respectively. A synchronous
condenser is connected at HVDC terminal bus (VHA) for
compensating reactive power for HVDC and supporting
rotational energy for control frequency excursion. The system
has four loads in which there are two external loads, the first
one to Sweden via HVDC connection and the second one (load
2) to Germany via HVAC transmission line, and two internal
loads (load 1 and load 3) providing electricity for local
residents as shown in Fig. 2.
c) The system frequency characteristic is studied according to
Fig. 3. Frequency nadir, frequency responses, and active power of SC
during a 200 MW load increase with different K.
different operational scenarios with and without synchronous
condenser. Various operational conditions of governor
frequency increase. As a consequence, SC can improve responsibility of synchronous generators, wind penetration
frequency stability for the system. levels and power exchanges with neighboring countries are
 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources

examined to check the performance of synchronous condenser

in the system frequency stability enhancement.

IV. TIME-DOMAIN SIMULATION

The main objective of this part is to demonstrate the impact
of large-scale wind farm integration on Western Danish power
system and the effect of the proposed SC on enhancing
frequency stability of the system under disturbance conditions.
Fig. 3 describes the frequency response of the system with
370 MW wind farm generation subject to a Germany 200 MW
load increase with different governor gains K. When governor
gains change, the primary frequency support from synchronous
generators will be changed. K varies from 20 to 5 respectively
with R changes from 5% to 20% without SC.
The deviation of frequency nadirs with and without WF is
different with each governor gain value. It is observed that
there is a negative correlation between the change of K and the
difference of frequency nadirs as shown in Fig. 3a). A
decreasing trend of frequency nadir becomes larger with wind
farm integration when K declines. It reaches 48.86 Hz and
keeps going down with K = 5 as shown in Fig. 3b).
It can be explained that when K declines, the primary
frequency control response from synchronous generators is
slower that makes the recovery period for the frequency longer.
As a result, the system frequency becomes unstable when K is
equal to 5. However, with supporting kinetic energy from the
synchronous condenser in inertial response, the frequency is
recovered and becomes stable as shown in Fig. 3c).
An opposite case is described in Fig. 4, where 200 MW

Fig. 5. System inertia, frequency responses, and active power of SC during a

200 MW load increase with different wind levels.

consumption in Germany is suddenly disconnected; the

Fig. 4. Frequency responses, NJVB3 speed, and active power of SC
during a 200 MW load decrease.
resulting power unbalance makes the system frequency rise
rapidly and reach the peak value around 50.75 Hz after
approximately 2.5 s. With this situation, the rotating mass of
SC consumes excess active power as a kinetic energy to reduce
the generation-consumption deviation. As can be seen in Fig. 4
that the peak value of the system frequency is declined from
50.75 Hz without SC to 50.52 Hz with SC and hence generator
 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm): Control and Operation for Smart
Grids, Microgrids and Distributed Resources
speeds are more stable. It can be observed clearly that active
power of SC responses following to NJVB3 generator speed
that is located nearly SC.
The first two subfigures of Fig. 5 illustrate the equivalent
system inertia and the frequency at SHE bus (slack bus) during
Germany 200 MW load increase with the different wind farm
levels when SC is out of service. Wind farm penetration into
the system varies from 0 (WO) to 520 MW where three
synchronous generators SSVB3, 4, and ESVB3 are replaced by
wind farms.
It can be seen that the low inertia system makes the
frequency nadir drop lower than the high inertia system. The
frequency declines sharply with highest wind farm penetration
and it reaches the minimum value at 49.4 Hz after
approximately 2 s during the disturbance. It experiences a
significant oscillation before getting the stable value as
illustrated in the second subfigure of Fig. 5.
This can be explained that since wind plant progressively
displaces conventional generation and their inertia, a
substantial reduction in power system inertia occurs, as can be
seen in the first subfigure of Fig. 5, and a faster frequency drop
as its certain consequence. Added inertia contribution from
synchronous condenser assists to improve the frequency
response performance. As a result, the rate of change of
frequency is significantly lower and the frequency nadir is
enhanced from 49.35 Hz to 49.5 Hz when SC is out and in
service respectively, as shown in Fig. 5.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper illustrates the impact of a large-scale wind farm
penetration on the frequency response of Western Danish
power system and the effect of SC in the frequency stability
enhancement.
Dynamic analysis of the studied system under various
situations of wind outputs, governor responsibility of
synchronous generators, and power exchanges with
neighboring countries are examined to evaluate the system
frequency variations.
It can be concluded that the system inertia with increasing
penetration of converter interfaced generation (WF, HVDC,
and PV) is considerable declined when disturbances occur.
For supporting the frequency response, SC is a reasonable
solution that not only provides short circuit power and reactive
power for keeping voltage stability but also supplies and
absorbs the rotational energy for the system against the
frequency excursion during perturbations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by Synchronous Condenser
Application (SCAPP) project funded by ForskEL program,
grant no. 12196 administrated by Energinet.dk [20]-[21].
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