$\mathcal{H}_2$-norm transmission switching to improve synchronism of low-inertia power grids

TL;DR

This paper proposes a transmission switching method based on the $ ext{H}_2$-norm to enhance synchronization in low-inertia power grids, providing a network-structure-aware approach validated on the German SciGRID network.

Contribution

It introduces a novel $ ext{H}_2$-norm based metric for synchronization, derives bounds and a closed-form expression, and develops a transmission switching strategy to improve grid synchronism.

Findings

The $ ext{H}_2$-norm effectively measures synchronization performance.

Laplacian-based bounds relate network structure to synchronization.

Switching susceptance improves synchronization in the SciGRID network.

Abstract

This paper investigates the utilization of transmission switching to improve synchronization performance of low-inertia grids. The synchronization performance of power girds is first measured by the $\mathcal{H}_2$ norm of linearized power systems. Laplacian-based bounds and a close-form formulation of the $\mathcal{H}_2$-norm synchronization performance metric are derived to reveal the influence of network structure on synchronization performance. Furthermore, a transmission switching approach is developed by analyzing the sensitivity of the $\mathcal{H}_2$-norm metric to perturbation of network susceptance. Effectiveness of the proposed approach to improve synchronization performance is demonstrated using the SciGRID network for Germany.