Battery Energy Storage System (BESS): BESS is the most mature storage technology in which chemical energy is converted into stored electrical energy. BESS is suitable for applications where energy support ranging from seconds to hours is needed. In general, BESS is utilized in situations where continuous discharge is required for a long time since it has high energy density and low power density. However, these characteristics may vary according to the type of BESS such as alternative Lithium batteries, Ni–Cd batteries, Vanadium redox flow batteries etc. BESS has been utilized vastly in different power grids all over the world for frequency control purpose such as Australia, USA, [Germany](Germany - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics), Japan and Puerto Rico. Testa’s Big Battery project in Hornsdale is one of the most leading projects where large utility scale Li-ion battery is providing grid support services while providing economic benefit to the consumers (Hornsdale power reserve, 2021).
Extensive research has been conducted regarding utilization of BESS for primary frequency control purpose. In Hernández et al. (2017), BESS is utilized for PFR and dynamic grid support simultaneously where the PFR consists of both droop response and IR. In islanded microgrid system, BESS is deployed extensively for load frequency control purpose during under frequency transient in presence of prolific renewable generation (Sitompul and Fujita, 2020). In standalone microgrids, where stochastic PV and wind generation dominate, BESS is suggested for frequency and voltage control in several literatures (Kim et al., 2016, Joung et al., 2019, Hernández et al., 2017, Sitompul and Fujita, 2020). To speed up the response speed of BESS, different centralized and decentralized algorithms have been investigated for frequency regulation (Hassanzadeh et al., 2020). In addition, hybrid energy storages involving BESS have been suggested in numerous recent studies for frequency containment in renewable dominated systems (Hernández et al., 2017, Shazon et al., 2021). BESS can be also deployed in conjunction with electric vehicles in modern grids for frequency regulation purpose. In Akula and Salehfar (2019), the authors propose a controller design for battery energy storage systems (BESS) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) integration for frequency control in microgrid communities (MG) with solar photovoltaics (PV’s) and wind turbines as distributed generators (DG). To obtain the appropriate input parameters of the proposed PID controller, a multilayer feedforward neural network is configured and implemented using MATLAB’s Deep Learning Toolbox with random values as input. Due to these vast usage and applicability, in upcoming future, BESS has the potential to be the most reliable energy storage medium for utility scale applications.
Nonsense. Scientists and engineers have long seen it coming, the problem is that the folks in power (pardon the pun) didn’t care. Very similar to climate change. Scientists have long seen the problem of rising anthropic CO2, but vested political interests just didn’t care for a very long time.
Case in point, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a detailed technical report on the challenge of grid inertia in 2020. An interesting read for those who care. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/73856.pdf
Australia’s problem is with a different type of “inertia”, one exhibited by leaders invested in maintaining the interest of the domestic fossil fuel industry. They didn’t believe that the adoption of solar would occur so quickly.
The electrical power distribution on a submarine, as a small example, has interia in multiple ways to protect all the large pumps and more delicate electronics.
First power from the generators is based on a large rotating mass (turbines) so if steam is lost there are a few seconds where power continues to flow, but the voltage and frequency starts to drop slightly. Second the port and starboard sides are cross connected via a DC bus. The AC is converted to DC via a pair of large motor-generators – another large rotating mass that also provides power for a short time with no input. But when the voltage drops on one side (the AC side for example) it (the motor-generator) immediately switches from AC-motor-DC-generator to a DC-motor-AC-generator. The DC power comes from the opposite side…if both sides have failed the DC bus continues to provided power since it is directly connected to a large backup DC battery.
All these things, combined, provide inertia to all the large AC loads that barely see a very slight voltage and frequency drop as the whole system automatically switches power around.
Of course if all steam to both generators is lost long term the battery will drain so the crew takes actions to shut down non-essential loads, etc.
Edit: On the grid, inverters provide battery power to the grid power in a similar way
I was originally a general systems engineer, and had pondered synchronization (I was present as a guest for the somewhat tense “closing of the the ‘Big Switch’” at Sylmar connecting the Pacific Intertie to the Los Angeles grid in 1970), but never worked through the inertial aspects.
All the motors and generators are 3-phase devices with control circuits to maintain proper frequencies. When closing a breaker between two AC sources an operator (back when I was on subs) had to slightly tweak the frequencies and voltages before closing the breaker.
Last week a storm took out the power to the city of Broken Hill in New South Wales.
When there is no reliable 50Hz (this is Australia) base load supplier of electricity, the solar panel inverters don’t mesh well with the backup diesel generators. The frequency of diesel generators varies slightly as the load changes, and these fluctuations cause issues with solar inverters, which need a stable frequency to synchronize properly.
Hence, in a blackout, they are a threat to the system, so people were asked to switch them off in Broken Hill.
Did anyone know that Broken Hill has a big battery? The 50 MW, 50 MWh facility at Pinnacles Place on the outskirts of the town has a pretty clear sign on the box, or at least on its website: “The Project will support the reliable supply of electricity to Broken Hill in the event of line failure and provide efficient grid support for the region,” it says. That’s probably news to the people of Broken Hill right now…
Broken Hill doesn’t just have a big battery, it also has the nearby 200 MW Silverton wind farm and the 53 MW Broken Hill solar farm. And they are all looking pretty useless at the moment with the transmission lines down. But getting an answer as to exactly why is not proving easy.
