An EU-funded initiative coordinated by TenneT has successfully tested a new monitoring system for transmission networks that are increasingly delivering electricity from renewable sources.
The ‘Massive Integration of Power Electronic Devices’ (Migrate) project said the Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control (WAMPAC) system makes it possible for managers at grid companies to recognise more reliably and more quickly if and when the network is approaching the limits of secure operations.
New approaches are needed as renewable energy sources feed the electricity into the grid via power electronic converters, whereas with conventional power plants this is done via large rotating generators, Migrate said.
Both technologies differ significantly in terms of the options for regulating, it added.
Therefore, control strategies for the operation of the generation need to be adapted.
The adaptation enables reliable operation of the electrical network with up to 65% power electronics.
In order to cover the remaining 35% the new system was developed through the Migrate project.
Migrate has also developed the methods for evaluating so-called ‘harmonics’, which are vibrations caused by mains voltage oscillations above 50 hertz, and examined protection systems for secure network operation.
Migrate was set up in 2016 and comprised 25 consortium partners from 13 countries, including transmission system operators, universities and research institutes working together on the future of the European power grid.
Some of the results of the initiative are already been used by TSOs.