Secondary frequency control stabilizing voltage dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how secondary frequency control not only stabilizes frequency but also unexpectedly stabilizes voltage dynamics in power grids, using linear stability and bulk analysis.

Contribution

It reveals that secondary frequency control can stabilize voltage dynamics, a previously neglected aspect, through linear stability analysis and numerical bulk simulations.

Findings

Secondary frequency control guarantees frequency stability.

Secondary control has a stabilizing effect on voltage dynamics.

Numerical bulk analysis supports the stabilizing effect on voltage.

Abstract

The ongoing energy transition challenges the stability of the electrical power system. Stable operation of the electrical power grid requires both the voltage (amplitude) and the frequency to stay within operational bounds. While much research has focused on frequency dynamics and stability, the voltage dynamics has been neglected. Here, we study frequency and voltage stability in the case of simple networks via linear stability and bulk analysis. In particular, our linear stability analysis of the network shows that the frequency secondary control guarantees the stability of a particular electric network. Even more interesting, while we only consider secondary frequency control, we observe a stabilizing effect on the voltage dynamics, especially in our numerical bulk analysis.