High-Penetration Microgrids Providing Grid Stability Using Frequency-Watt Control

The U.S. grid is rapidly transitioning towards uti-lizing inverter-based renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and batteries, reducing the carbon emission footprint. Inverter-based microgrid control architectures remain a critical focus to address power system stability issues in future high pen-etration markets lacking spinning generation assets. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is researching an active layered inverter-based frequency-Watt control scheme that provides distribution level stability in high-penetration markets where grid inertia is lacking. Hardware in the loop case study was implemented using INL's Microgrid Testbed to combat scalable frequency deviations ranging from 60 Hz down to 50 Hz initialized by a hydropower model implementing step loads using a 540-kW grid emulator. Our research findings demonstrate the importance of distribution level, inverter-based active frequency-Watt controls utilizing a battery energy storage system (BESS) to provide adequate frequency support at the point of common coupling without major power infrastructure upgrades.