Techno-economic evaluation of power electronics-assisted transmission system frequency regulation

In many future power systems, the power generation may be predominantly supplied from converter interfaced sources (i.e. wind, solar, HVDC interconnection). In the context of the UK, the government is aiming for a share of wind capacity in the total generation mix as high as 29 GW by 2020. For a small power system like Great Britain (GB) with no synchronous connection to continental Europe, frequency stability is identified as a major challenge. Therefore, additional primary response and inertia (or fast frequency containment response) are anticipated as being required to sustain the frequency stability of the GB system. Here, techno-economic assessment is carried out to explore the overall benefits of various frequency control strategies. Frequency regulation by VSC-HVDC system is realised as the best strategy regarding overall system benefits.