Susceptibility of power grids to input fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a linear-response method to assess how power grids, especially their angular stability, are affected by fluctuating renewable energy inputs, applicable to various grid structures.

Contribution

It presents a novel frequency-resolved measure of grid susceptibility to input fluctuations, extending to arbitrary topologies and oscillator network models.

Findings

Provides a new linear-response framework for grid stability analysis.

Quantifies grid vulnerability to specific fluctuation frequencies.

Applicable to diverse transmission network configurations.

Abstract

With the increasing inclusion of regenerative resources in the energy mix, their intermittent character challenges power grid stability. Hence it is essential to determine which input fluctuations power grids are particularly vulnerable to. Focusing on angular stability in transmission grids, we propose a linear-response approach that yields a frequency-resolved measure of a grid's susceptibility to temporal input fluctuations. This approach can be applied to arbitrary transmission grid topologies as well as other settings described by oscillator networks.