2012 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems
December16-19, 2012, Bengaluru, India
Deriving Inertial Response from a Non-Inertial PV
System for Frequency Regulation
P.P Zarina Dr.Sukumar Mishra
Indian Institute of Technology Indian Institute of Technology
New Delhi,India New Delhi, India
Abstract As photovoltaic (PV) penetration is gaining its
momentum in the recent past, grid codes will demand
contribution by PV systems to frequency regulation. This paper
presents an investigation into the frequency regulation aspect of
photovoltaic systems. An inertial response from photovoltaic
system is derived by making it to work away from MPPT point of
operation. The case of frequency response under deloaded
operation with frequency regulation is compared with the case
when the photovoltaics are not contributing to frequency
regulation. A microgrid with a conventional synchronous
machine and six photovoltaic generators in a distributed scenario
is considered for the study.
Keywords- Deloading, Frequency regulation, Inertial response,
MPPT, Photovoltaic system, PV Penetration.
I. INTRODUCTION
IN the electrical distribution system, there is a steady increase
in the number of distributed generation (DG) units with
renewable or non-renewable energy sources for local power
generation over the last few years. If the network is properly
coordinated and operated, the shifting of generation near to the
load can make the grid more reliable and increase the
efficiency. Photovoltaic (PV) systems are gradually catching
up the market and their penetration is increasing at high rate.
The main reason being that as compared to wind and other
renewable sources, the area of availability for PV generation is
more.
Be it a traditional system or a system with renewable
sources, maintaining the frequency within specified limits is a
requirement of any grid, to assure stable and safe operation. In
the UCTE-grid this margin is only 200 mHz, in either the
positive and negative direction. The frequency of a system is
dependent on active power balance between the load and
generation. Hence, the primary control energy is needed in a
grid to control the frequency within a very small band between
an upper and a lower frequency limit. In a conventional
system with many synchronous machines supplying power to
the system, when there is a load change, some means must be
provided to allocate change in demand to the generators, like a
speed governor of a synchronous generator. When there is a
load change, it is reflected instantaneously as a change in the
978-1-4673-4508-8/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE
P.C.Sekhar
Indian Institute of Technology
New Delhi, India
electrical torque output, Te of the generator. This causes a
mismatch between the mechanical torque, Tm and the electrical
torque, Te which in turn results in speed variations. This speed
variation depends on the inertia of the system. Based on the
droop setting, the change in load will be shared among the
generators.
Quite a lot of Maximum Power Point tracking (MPPT)
algorithms are seen in literature [1-4]. MPPT operation is
targeted when the extraction of maximum power from a PV
panel is of prime concern. Making the PVs work in MPPT will
not help to preserve the generating margin that is required for
improving the frequency response. In power system where
penetration of inverter based system is high compared to
conventional sources with inertia, the situation may be worse.
At present most of the PV systems are operating in the
maximum power operation region for energy benefit. The
renewable sources like wind and PV were not expected to
contribute to frequency regulation. However, as the
penetration is increasing, grid codes are being modified and
renewable sources are also expected to participate in
frequency regulation. In [5] wind turbine contribution to the
frequency control of non interconnected islanded system is
discussed. It includes transient frequency support and
permanent frequency response. In [6] again the need for a
controllable active power output of wind turbine is highlighted
so that the reserve can be made use for frequency regulation.
In [7] the economical comparison of different options for
reduction of power fluctuations of a large PV system is
examined. Comparison is made for the cost incurred with
different types of battery-based storage system. Energy
storage systems like battery may be used to provide primary
support in case of load change or any disturbance. Battery
energy storage has quick response in both charging and
discharging processes [8]. Because of better power and energy
densities of batteries, they are used with PV systems for
reducing the power fluctuation. Many studies are carried out
on integration of battery storage systems with PV systems[9
11]. Apart from battery storage other options of storage
systems are also seen in literature. Comparison of battery
storage with ultracapacitors is done in [12], concluding that,
advantage of ultracapacitors as pulse power devices are high
power density, high efficiency, and long shelf and cycle life. given in Apendix. With those specifications, the Power output
The primary disadvantage of ultracapacitors is their relatively of one module is as shown in Fig.2.
low energy density compared to batteries, limiting their use to
applications in which relatively small quantities of energy are
required, before the ultracapacitor can be recharged. Using it
along with battery which is having higher energy density will
prove advantageous. By using Ultracapacitors with batteries,
limitations of battery that is low lifetime is also shown to be
overcome. Conventional low-speed flywheels and advanced
high-speed flywheels are also in discussions [13]. In [14] also
usage of ultracapacitor is discussed. The storages like
batteries, ultracapacitors and flywheels involves in extra cost
Figure 1. Diode Model of PV cell
along with their periodic maintenance.
An option of using a dump load for power fluctuation
reduction is thought of and is listed to be expensive of other
approaches[7]. Revenue comparison if power is curtailed is
analyzed and recommended that PV owners be encouraged to
work under deloaded condition by compensating for the
revenue losses in power generation [7]. The revenue loss is
suggested to be compensated by varying the price of the PV
energy based on fluctuation, say, an increased selling price
when less fluctuation is a suggested option. Hence, in this
paper, an attempt is made to make the photovoltaic system
contribute to frequency regulation. The DIgSILENT platform
is used for the simulation purpose.
Section II gives an idea about the modeling aspects of the
photovoltaic system. It also shows how the calculation of the
Figure 2. PV curve of a single module
maximum power expected from a PV array and the voltage
corresponding to that power. Section III highlights the The characteristic corresponds to that of a single module.
controlling aspects for frequency regulation. Section IV The power output of the array changes with the change in
explains about the system used for simulation studies and the its operating voltage. So for the array with 20 series
results. Section V gives a conclusion of the simulated results. modules and 140 parallel modules, open circuit voltage will
be 876 (20*43.8V) and short circuit current will be 700A
(140*5). In the characteristic shown, it is seen that the
II. PHOTOVOLTAIC MODEL maximum power output occurs at a voltage 35V for one
module. As seen in appendix, the MPP current of the
The PV array is modeled by its currentvoltage characteristic module being 4.58A, so the maximum power output of one
function as done in [15-16]. Fig.1 depicts the representation of module is 35*4.58=160.3W and for the array it will work
a PV. While interconnecting, as resistances are involved, Rp out to 160.3*20*140=448.84kW at standard operating
and Rs are part of practical PV, where Rp is inversely conditions. This much will be the output power when the
proportional to leakage current and Rs represents series drop. Vdc is 35*20=700V.
The output current of array depending on Np number of
parallel cells and Ns number of series cells is be given by (1).
q Vdc
I
pv
= N I
p ph
N I ex p
p rs 1 (1) III. CONTROLLING PV GENERATOR FOR
kT A N s
FREQUENCY REGULATION

where Vdc is output voltage and Ipv is output current of PV
array. k is the Boltzmanns constant (1.3806503 1023 J/K),
Irs reverse saturation current of a p-n junction, A is the ideality
factor, q is the electron charge, 1.602x10-19C. T is the
temperature.
I = I s c + K I ( T T r e f ) S (2)
ph
where ISC is the cells short circuit current at temperature T
Kelvin, and irradiation S (W/m2), KI is short circuit current
temperature coefficient of cell, Tref is the cells reference
temperature. The specifications of PV used for modeling are
As per the prevailing practice, most of the distributed
generations including photovoltaic systems do not participate
in frequency regulation. Photovoltaic systems being costly,
major thrust is given to methods of extracting maximum
power, say MPPT algorithms. It means, these systems do not
increase or decrease their power output when there is a
frequency deviation, but will give maximum power output for
a given condition of temperature and insolation. Hence, no
participation in frequency regulation by the PV systems. But
the system that we propose is the one in which there is a
margin of power reserve available by making few of the
photovoltaic systems work away from the MPPT point. When
working at Vdcref =VMPP the power output will be the PMPP. Fig. IV. SYSTEM STUDIED AND SIMULATION RESULTS
3 represents how the deloading provides a cushion for The system consists of a thermal plant 28MW capacity.
frequency regulation. Fig.4 is the control mode option for the Figure.6 is the single line diagram of the system. Fig 7 gives
PVs operating at MPPT. In this case, the Vdc is compared with the control frame. Six PV generators are considered. When
the Vdcref corresponding to MPPT. Figure 5 is the control they are at their MPPT point of operation, the power output of
proposed for deloaded operation. In this case, the PV is forced each is 448kW.
to operate at a point away from MPPT, so that a Preserve is
available in the system. (The Gain value used is 243). This
reserve is made use of when there is a frequency deviation and
thereby attributing the inertial response to the PV generator.
The recovery of frequency will depend on the reserve
available in the system. When working in deloaded condition,
if reserve available is Preserve, as given by
Preserve = PMPP Pgrid (3)
where, PMPP is the power output at MPPT operating point and
Pgrid the power injected to grid. The change in frequency can
be compensated by making use of the reserve as follows. .
P = f * Gain (4)
reserve Figure6.Systemlayout
The frequency response of a system after a disturbance like
load change will depend on many factors like the fraction of
generation in the system that participates in the governing and
the amount of response that the participating units are able to
provide. The fraction participating in governing decides the
rate at which power production is adjusted to nullify the
imbalance. Even though there is a loss in generation when
working away from MPPT, there is a participation in
frequency regulation which is highly appreciated especially
when the conventional generators are less in number. In
conventional systems, there will be less frequency deviation
during load imbalance due to large system inertia. But in
systems where conventional generations are comparatively Figure 7. Control Frame of PV generator
less in number, inertial response is to be derived from these
distributed sources like PV. The LV terminal to which they are connected is of 400V.
Load A is of 13MW and is connected at a bus away from the
thermal plant bus. Load B (5MW) is connected to the bus at
which the thermal plant is operating. Load C and load D
(6MW each) are connected to the bus where PV generators are
connected. PV generators are working in the deloaded
condition with a total reserve of 650kW.

Figure3. Reserve power in deloaded PV system

Figure 8. Load Change at LoadA

To observe the effect of frequency regulation, a load change

scenario is created. The load is increased by 5%, at 30s as
Figure 4.Control for MPPT mode Figure 5. Control for Deloaded mode
shown in Fig.8. When there is a load change (load A) by 5
percent, that is 650kW, the reserve is released to contribute to
the frequency regulation.
Figure 9. Change in Vdcref due to load change
To observe the effect of frequency regulation, a load change
scenario is created. The load is increased by 5%, at 30s as
shown in Fig.8. When there is a load change (load A) by 5
percent, that is 650kW, the reserve is released to contribute to
the frequency regulation. The Vdcref of system when in MPP is
700V and that of system in deloaded condition is 814V. Fig.9
and Fig.10 show that when the load increases, the Vdcref is
decreasing and power output of systems with reserve is
increasing.
Fig.11 compares the case of PV systems with
frequency control with that of system with no frequency
control. It can be seen that there is an improvement in
frequency of about 132mHz. The contribution to frequency
response in this system is only 132 mHz because, the reserve
was only 650kW which is only 2.5% of the total generation.
Figure. 10 Power output variation of PV not in MPPT
Figure 11 Frequency regulation by PV with inertial response
V.CONCLUSIONS
In the high penetration scenario it is highly recommended that
the photovoltaic systems contribute to frequency regulation.
The option of making the PV work away from its MPPT point
is explored in this paper; thereby a fraction of total energy
available is retained as reserve. With this reserve PV generator
is able to participate in the frequency regulation process like
other dynamic generators with inertial response. The case of
release of reserve power by photovoltaic systems, when there
is a demand due to load increase is analyzed. The microgrid
with PV generator inertial response is exhibiting an
improvement in the frequency regulation, showing the better
performance when compared with the same microgrid with
non inertial PV generators.
APPENDIX
SPECIFICATION OF SOLAR CELL
Open circuit voltage of module 43.8 V
Short circuit current of module 5A
MPP voltage and current of module 35 V and 4.58 A
Number of series and parallel modules 20 and 140
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