Inertia Estimation and Trend Analysis of the United States Power Grid Interconnections

Saurav Dulal; Chengwen Zhang; Mohammed Olama; Qian Liu; Narayan Bhusal; Ajay Pratap Yadav; Mark Baldwin; Nils Stenvig; Yilu Liu

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3520901

Inertia Estimation and Trend Analysis of the United States Power Grid Interconnections

Saurav Dulal
, Chengwen Zhang
, Mohammed Olama
, Qian Liu
, Narayan Bhusal
, Ajay Pratap Yadav
, Mark Baldwin
, Nils Stenvig
, Yilu Liu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The transition from conventional to modern power systems is causing an increase in integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs). This generally leads to a decrease in total system inertia, which in-turn increases the system's rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF) during disturbances. This poses a threat to the frequency stability of the system and may falsely trigger protective devices. To monitor system status and plan for integrating renewable energy sources like photovoltaic, wind, and energy storage systems, a realistic study of inertia estimation and analysis in the United States (US) over the past decade is needed. This paper uses field-measured phasor measurement unit (PMU) data collected throughout the US from 2013 to 2023 via the Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET/GridEye) operated by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The collected PMU frequency data is utilized to estimate the system inertia of the three US interconnections: Eastern, Western, and Texas. Various RoCoF time windows are investigated for estimating the inertia of each interconnection by maximizing the correlation coefficient between the measured RoCoF and power mismatch. The resulting inertia trends over the past decade show approximately a 6% decline in inertia in the Eastern interconnection, a 15% decline in inertia in the Western interconnection, and a 16% increase in inertia in Texas. Key insights into how inertia is changing amidst the complex energy landscape are extracted using the fuel mix trend data. This provides valuable information for future energy strategies and planning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	194436-194448
Number of pages	13
Journal	IEEE Access
Volume	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3520901
State	Published - 2024

Funding

This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity (OE), University of Tennessee (UT)-Battelle, Limited Liability Company (LLC), under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (https://www.energy.gov/doepublic- access-plan). This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Electricity (OE) under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan).

Keywords

Inertia estimation
US interconnections
and fuel mix
inverter-based resources (IBRs)
rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF)

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10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3520901

Cite this

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title = "Inertia Estimation and Trend Analysis of the United States Power Grid Interconnections",

abstract = "The transition from conventional to modern power systems is causing an increase in integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs). This generally leads to a decrease in total system inertia, which in-turn increases the system's rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF) during disturbances. This poses a threat to the frequency stability of the system and may falsely trigger protective devices. To monitor system status and plan for integrating renewable energy sources like photovoltaic, wind, and energy storage systems, a realistic study of inertia estimation and analysis in the United States (US) over the past decade is needed. This paper uses field-measured phasor measurement unit (PMU) data collected throughout the US from 2013 to 2023 via the Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET/GridEye) operated by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The collected PMU frequency data is utilized to estimate the system inertia of the three US interconnections: Eastern, Western, and Texas. Various RoCoF time windows are investigated for estimating the inertia of each interconnection by maximizing the correlation coefficient between the measured RoCoF and power mismatch. The resulting inertia trends over the past decade show approximately a 6\% decline in inertia in the Eastern interconnection, a 15\% decline in inertia in the Western interconnection, and a 16\% increase in inertia in Texas. Key insights into how inertia is changing amidst the complex energy landscape are extracted using the fuel mix trend data. This provides valuable information for future energy strategies and planning.",

keywords = "Inertia estimation, US interconnections, and fuel mix, inverter-based resources (IBRs), rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF)",

author = "Saurav Dulal and Chengwen Zhang and Mohammed Olama and Qian Liu and Narayan Bhusal and \{Pratap Yadav\}, Ajay and Mark Baldwin and Nils Stenvig and Yilu Liu",

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T1 - Inertia Estimation and Trend Analysis of the United States Power Grid Interconnections

AU - Dulal, Saurav

AU - Zhang, Chengwen

AU - Olama, Mohammed

AU - Liu, Qian

AU - Bhusal, Narayan

AU - Pratap Yadav, Ajay

AU - Baldwin, Mark

AU - Stenvig, Nils

AU - Liu, Yilu

PY - 2024

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N2 - The transition from conventional to modern power systems is causing an increase in integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs). This generally leads to a decrease in total system inertia, which in-turn increases the system's rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF) during disturbances. This poses a threat to the frequency stability of the system and may falsely trigger protective devices. To monitor system status and plan for integrating renewable energy sources like photovoltaic, wind, and energy storage systems, a realistic study of inertia estimation and analysis in the United States (US) over the past decade is needed. This paper uses field-measured phasor measurement unit (PMU) data collected throughout the US from 2013 to 2023 via the Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET/GridEye) operated by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The collected PMU frequency data is utilized to estimate the system inertia of the three US interconnections: Eastern, Western, and Texas. Various RoCoF time windows are investigated for estimating the inertia of each interconnection by maximizing the correlation coefficient between the measured RoCoF and power mismatch. The resulting inertia trends over the past decade show approximately a 6% decline in inertia in the Eastern interconnection, a 15% decline in inertia in the Western interconnection, and a 16% increase in inertia in Texas. Key insights into how inertia is changing amidst the complex energy landscape are extracted using the fuel mix trend data. This provides valuable information for future energy strategies and planning.

AB - The transition from conventional to modern power systems is causing an increase in integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs). This generally leads to a decrease in total system inertia, which in-turn increases the system's rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF) during disturbances. This poses a threat to the frequency stability of the system and may falsely trigger protective devices. To monitor system status and plan for integrating renewable energy sources like photovoltaic, wind, and energy storage systems, a realistic study of inertia estimation and analysis in the United States (US) over the past decade is needed. This paper uses field-measured phasor measurement unit (PMU) data collected throughout the US from 2013 to 2023 via the Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET/GridEye) operated by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The collected PMU frequency data is utilized to estimate the system inertia of the three US interconnections: Eastern, Western, and Texas. Various RoCoF time windows are investigated for estimating the inertia of each interconnection by maximizing the correlation coefficient between the measured RoCoF and power mismatch. The resulting inertia trends over the past decade show approximately a 6% decline in inertia in the Eastern interconnection, a 15% decline in inertia in the Western interconnection, and a 16% increase in inertia in Texas. Key insights into how inertia is changing amidst the complex energy landscape are extracted using the fuel mix trend data. This provides valuable information for future energy strategies and planning.

KW - Inertia estimation

KW - US interconnections

KW - and fuel mix

KW - inverter-based resources (IBRs)

KW - rate-of-change-of-frequency (RoCoF)

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VL - 12

SP - 194436

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JO - IEEE Access

JF - IEEE Access

ER -

Inertia Estimation and Trend Analysis of the United States Power Grid Interconnections

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