For access to this article, please select a purchase option:
Buy conference paper PDF
Buy Knowledge Pack
IET members benefit from discounts to all IET publications and free access to E&T Magazine. If you are an IET member, log in to your account and the discounts will automatically be applied.
The increasing share of renewable energy integrated into the electricity networks, particular solar photovoltaic systems has introduced new operational challenges to grid operators. As the solar output is highly intermittent, the occurrence of power mismatch in the system will increase. Furthermore, the converter-based solar photovoltaic (PV) plant has zero inertia which will inevitably reduce the overall system's inertia and cause stability problem in the event of contingency or large power mismatch. In this regard, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of large-scale solar PV plant on power system's frequency response. Two IEEE test systems have been considered in this study, namely the IEEE 9 bus, and IEEE 39 bus test systems to investigate how different levels of large scale solar PV penetrations will impact on the overall system frequency response. The results suggest that the increasing share of solar generation in the generation mix will result in the reduction of total system inertia. Hence, the system becomes more susceptible to disturbance and contingency events. The study also shows that the system will collapse during the worst case contingency situation when the solar PV penetrations are over 40% of the system's generating capacity.