Prospects and Challenges of Inertia Emulation Methods for Low Inertia Power Systems

Due to massive incorporation of the renewable energy resources into the upcoming power grid, the share of power generation from synchronous generator (SG) is being decreased and is being replaced by distribution generation (DG). This change has led the significant decrease in the overall power system’s inertia and transforming the future power system into low inertia power systems (LIPS). Because of the huge rotational mass of SG, it intrinsically provides system inertia that is critical for the stable and resilient operation of the power system under different types of disturbances. To cope with the challenges of stable operation of LIPS, several inertia emulation schemes has been proposed in the previous literature. However, each scheme has its specific benefits, limitations, and applications. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive insight to the inertia emulation schemes for DG and compares each scheme in terms of implementation challenges and experimental effectiveness in enhancing the overall system’s inertia. Moreover, this comparison is supported with experimental results and analysis to validate virtual inertia emulation schemes.