The Department of Energy is bringing attention to new developments coming to important equipment surrounding the U.S. power grid.
According to the Pacific Northwest National Library, a research team developed a grid-forming inverter to convert direct current electricity to alternating current electricity for usage in power outlets while maintaining the stability of power grids.
"A PNNL research team recently developed a new model of an important device that acts as a kind of translator, allowing renewable power sources like wind and solar to better add their power to the electrical grid," the PNNL said in a June 6 post on Twitter.
Wei Du, a PNNL senior researcher, and team have been conducting the research into "how grid-forming inverters affect large-scale transmission and distribution systems," according to the PNNL report.
“Grid-forming inverters will become more and more important to power systems in the future," Song Wang, chair of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council Modeling and Validation Subcommittee, said in the PNNL report. "The existing inverter models in the WECC model library are all grid-following-based and cannot represent grid-forming inverters. The new model developed by PNNL enables WECC to study how grid-forming inverters will impact power grids at the transmission level."
Wang reported the early simulation studies show these grid-forming inverters can positively impact power system stability, according to the PNNL report. Wang noted these efforts will "greatly help the utility industry better understand grid-forming inverters and their potential impacts on power systems."
“To achieve the national targets of clean electricity and decarbonized economy, inverter-based renewable generation will be an essential part of the future energy mix," Henry Huang, a PNNL laboratory fellow and deputy sector manager, said in the PNNL report. "The inverters will fundamentally change power system dynamics and thus require new approaches to model and simulate such a system. Wei’s success in grid-forming inverter modeling is a substantial step forward toward the full understanding of the new power system dynamics and the optimal design of controllers for a better future grid.”
"Impressive work coming out of @PNNLab. These new inverters will be vital for maintaining stability and resiliency in the grid as we increase our use of clean energy sources such as wind and solar," Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a July 2 post on Twitter.
