Importance of Linking Inertia and Frequency Response Procurement: The Great Britain Case

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of integrating inertia considerations into frequency response procurement to ensure stable power system operation amid increasing renewable energy sources in Great Britain.

Contribution

It introduces an inertia-dependent stochastic unit commitment model demonstrating the economic and operational benefits of linking inertia and frequency response in low-inertia systems.

Findings

Ancillary service costs could rise by 165% without inertia considerations.

Linking inertia and frequency response reduces operational costs.

Revising market structures is necessary for future low-inertia power systems.

Abstract

In order to decarbonise the electricity sector, the future Great Britain (GB) power system will be largely dominated by non-synchronous renewables. This will cause low levels of inertia, a key parameter that could lead to frequency deterioration. Therefore, the requirement for ancillary services that contain frequency deviations will increase significantly, particularly given the increase in size of the largest possible loss with the commissioning of large nuclear plants in the near future. In this paper, an inertia-dependent Stochastic Unit Commitment (SUC) model is used to illustrate the benefits of linking inertia and frequency response provision in low-inertia systems. We demonstrate that the cost of procuring ancillary services in GB could increase by 165% if the level of inertia is not explicitly considered when procuring frequency response. These results highlight the need to re-think the structure of ancillary-services markets, which in GB are nowadays held one month ahead of delivery.