Improving the Power System Dynamic Response Through a Combined Voltage-Frequency Control of Distributed Energy Resources

The paper proposes a control scheme to improve the dynamic response of power systems through the automatic regulators of converter-based Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). In this scheme, both active and reactive power control of DERs are varied to regulate both frequency and voltage, as opposed to current practice where frequency and voltage controllers are decoupled. To assess the proposed control against the current state-of-art, the paper also defines a metric that captures the combined effect of frequency/voltage response at any given bus of the network. Results indicate that the proposed control strategy leads to a significant improvement in the stability and performance of the overall power system. These results are based on a comprehensive case study carried out by employing a modified version of the IEEE 39-bus benchmark system, where a portion of the synchronous machines is substituted by converter-interfaced DERs. The impact on the proposed control of load models, the $R/X$ ratio of network lines, as well as the level of DER penetration to the grid, are properly evaluated and conclusions are duly drawn.