Project Summary
INSIGHT addresses SIF Innovation Challenge 2 Theme 2 "Novel ways to reliably support low stability systems" by developing innovations in technology and standards that help the power system be ready for Net Zero by 2035. INSIGHT seeks to understand, classify, predict, and define actions to manage potential new forms of instability (e.g oscillations in voltage, power and/or frequency) on a system dominated by power electronic sources (such as wind generation, HVDC converters, STATCOMs etc). The overall aim is to create a virtual, real-time alert and control system that can highlight oscillatory instabilities on the network and then automatically inform control actions required to dampen/remove them.
INSIGHT will also recommend to industry new standards and codes to manage these emerging stability risks.
Network innovation
Currently, there is only a reactive approach to combatting oscillations on the network and no real-time monitoring or control is in place. Instability risks related to new phenomena are not underpinned by normal practices/analysis and not covered by existing industry classifications, codes and standards, therefore the networks do not have enough understanding or the correct tools to react effectively to new instabilities and reduce their impact.
Experience/capability
The consortium has all the necessary skills to deliver Discovery (see AppendixQ12_Project_Management_Book_INSIGHT):
SSEN-Transmission (SSEN-T) - leading INSIGHT with expertise from the
System Performance team; Operational Planning team; and the National HVDC
Centre. The HVDC Centre has extensive experience with modelling and derisking the existing network. The System Planning and the Operational Planning teams are experts in current oscillatory instabilities on the network and can share real event data.
University of Strathclyde (UoS) - extensive experience in power system monitoring, modelling and control, along with expertise in converter control, interaction of converters, and system oscillation, which are all critical to the Project's scope. The team has been involved extensively with major projects focusing on power system digitalisation for addressing challenges with integration of renewables.
National Grid ESO (NGESO) - the Network Operability team will share system operator expertise and ensure that learnings from their DOME project (NIA desktop study on early warning of emerging oscillations) can feed into INSIGHT.
Users
The innovation will prepare the above outlined internal users, NGESO and other networks to deal with new oscillatory instability in a future Net Zero system, and better plan and operate the networks to an improved level of risk management. Therefore, providing a more reliable and stable service to customers.
Innovation Justification
A key policy commitment within the UK government's Net Zero strategy is to fully decarbonise the power system by 2035 and therefore the volume of renewable generation on the networks is expected to increase dramatically. However, most renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar, are types of non-synchronous generation, meaning they do not produce a consistent amount of electricity all the time. An increase in the volume of non-synchronous generation on the network combined with more high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems to transport the electricity, will lead to new types of network stability challenges, particularly
increases in the prevalence and severity of fluctuations in voltage, frequency and power (system oscillations). The oscillations will occur in new areas of the system and be driven by different factors compared to historic instability events.
Without innovation to address these new stability challenges, there will likely be a significant decrease in system strength and security, increasing the potential for severe instability events such as electricity blackouts. This problem would also hinder our ambitions to achieve Net Zero because we would continue to rely on synchronous fossil fuel generators to be on stand-by.
Currently, there is no systematic real-time monitoring directed at the identification of, and response to, these new oscillations. There are also no classifications, codes, or standards for how to predict, plan against and manage these new oscillation events experienced in a renewable generation dominated network. A standardised approach across the industry is required.
INSIGHT aims to deliver a virtual, real-time alert and control system that can monitor and mitigate different types of oscillation events experienced on the networks. The Project will combine experience and learnings from past events with new modelling and simulation techniques to better understand the nature of these new oscillations; how to predict them; and how to address them in network design and operation for future events.
The first phase of the Project (Discovery) will develop a comprehensive understanding of the problem and the current best practice from across the world. It will also investigate the models/tools that could be used to simulate network oscillation patterns; assessing their suitability; and developing a list of the key datasets that would be required for a new model/tool.
The outputs of INSIGHT will improve the network strength, stability, and reliability, and will avoid alternative operations that would reduce the levels of renewable generation able to run on the network.
Project Benefits
INSIGHT will deliver the following benefits:
Financial - future reductions in cost of operating the network If no action is taken to understand patterns and improve controls, smaller disruptions will become more common and can quickly escalate to severe events.
The extensive blackout on 9th August 2019 led to widespread disruption and over 1 million electricity customers losing power. Current practice when these issues occur is to constrain generation and implement stability services to increase the fault level. These reactive actions have high operational costs (up to £224 million annually), which is ultimately paid by consumers, and even if potential savings from INSIGHT account for only a small portion of these costs, we are confident that it will be sufficient to justify the total project deployment costs.
Financial - cost savings per annum for users of network services
The INSIGHT solution will avoid the need to invest in unnecessary new stability resources or transmission assets (eg new cable infrastructure, converters, etc), and avoid constraint costs which users of network services pay for through use of system charges. Therefore, INSIGHT should make it easier for generators to connect their assets to the grid in less time and with lower cost. The Project will estimate the cost saving the tool can offer instead of constructing more network assets to balance instabilities.
Environmental - carbon reduction -- direct CO2 savings per annum against a business-as-usual counterfactual.
It is expected that NGESO would need to bring on fossil fuelled generation to manage the increasing risk of oscillations. For example, if one CCGT unit in Peterhead was brought online at a minimum level of output (approximately 200MW) to mitigate instabilities then the annual carbon abatement of this unit could result in 55 tCO2, with a monetary social impact estimated to be over £13m (based on 2020 carbon values (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuinggreenhouse-gas-emissions-in-policy-appraisal/valuation-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-forpolicy-appraisal-and-evaluation#methodology)). Improvements in grid stability can build investment confidence, increase the system's hosting capacity for renewable generation, and directly avoid CO2 emissions from using back-up fossil fuel generation. Carbon savings will be estimated by assessing at what scale the tool can contribute to meeting the future energy scenarios towards 2050.
New to market -- products, processes, and services
INSIGHT will be a new tool/process proactively identifying and mitigating oscillations and replacing the current traditional reactive strategies. After a successful demonstration the virtual real-time alert and control tool will be available to other network operators to use.
Learnings
Impacts And Benefits
Financial - future reductions in the cost of operating the network
The current process of managing oscillations on the system is to restrict the output of generation (which is suspected to be the source of the oscillations) or to operate TO devices in a way that prevents them from interacting with the oscillations.
The cost of these options is two-fold:
1. There is a need to buy off generation in the balancing mechanism.
2. Restrict the capability of the system and therefore introduce constraints that require costly intervention to manage flows within the imposed limit.
These mitigations need to be in place for an unspecified time, until investigations have concluded the source of the oscillations and put mitigations in place.
A CBA has been developed as part of the Project Management Book to demonstrate the improvements to the network’s system operability because of the INSIGHT solution. The annual balancing mechanism cost for the UK network is £2.406 billion (2022/23). Implementing the INSIGHT technology could deliver an annual cost saving of over £20 million (based on an assumption of a 1% cost saving).
One example of balancing costs incurred previously is the actions taken after significant oscillations, most evident in northern Scotland, in August 2021. The response included paying hydro generators to switch on, constraining wind off, and adjusting outage plans. These types of events are expected to become more frequent unless projects like INSIGHT can identify appropriate mitigation.
The benefit of INSIGHT will ultimately be measured through a reduction in balancing costs incurred by the Electricity System Operator due to the occurrence, or the perceived risk, of oscillatory instability. Short of the financial metric, the benefit could be measured by the number of actions taken to address oscillatory instability, which may include instructions to TOs that do not incur balancing costs.
Environmental - carbon reduction - indirect CO2 savings per annum
Currently, the balancing actions taken to manage oscillations on the system have the potential to increase CO2 emissions, as low-carbon sources of generation are replaced with carbon-based sources of generation as they can be turned on/off and up or down as needed to balance the system.
INSIGHT will help reduce the CO2 emissions that occur when trying to manage oscillations on the network by providing the technology to predict or mitigate them ahead of time.
New to market - services
As described above, oscillations on the system are currently managed in a way such that the source(s) of the oscillations are located, and mitigations put in place. There is work underway to implement a stability market, though this doesn’t address oscillations directly as it aims to address exacerbating factors (a gradual “weakening” of the transmission system), to prevent oscillations from happening.
A future outcome of INSIGHT is that users may be contracted to modify their operating point, adjust settings, or activate different control functionality to mitigate oscillatory stability risks. The development of a market for these new types of services is dependent on the learning expected from the project.
