Frequency response improvement with synchronous condenser and power electronics converters

This paper gives an overall review of the working principle of the inertial response from the synchronous condenser for frequency support in the grid. In addition to this, four proposed frequency control strategies for improvement of network frequency response by static energy storage devices, such as the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) with suitable energy storage elements or the battery energy storage system (BESS), are presented. The proposed frequency control strategies are evaluated and benchmarked with the synchronous condenser in the same network. It is shown that a power electronic converter based system with energy storage can be designed with lower rating, still providing the same or better frequency support than the synchronous condenser.