Taiwan Power Company assesses grid inertia as fossil plants go offline

Concerned about grid inertia, Taiwan’s state-owned electric utility Taiwan Power Company (TPC) has partnered with UK tech company Reactive Technologies Limited (RTL) to use its grid stability measurement platform.

The utility, which provides electricity to more than 13 million industrial, commercial and residential customers, is concerned about grid stability due to decommissioned traditional fossil fuel plants and increased levels of renewable energy coming online.

TPC will make use of Reactive’s GridMetrix platform to gain insights into the issue, hoping to reduce costs and manage risks more effectively.

Traditionally, fossil fuel plants have provided grid stability, but with more wind and solar power coming online due to Taiwan’s ambitious goals of reaching net zero by 2050, TPC identified a significant and increasing risk of low grid inertia.

Reactive’s tech will be used to manage non-synchronous resources without inertia, aiming to prevent system instability and supply disruptions.

Specifically, TPC chose the GridMetrix inertia measurement service to measure, visualise, forecast and control inertia across its network and provide critical system stability data and insights as the network goes through a period of significant change.

Have you read:
Enel X deploys ‘world first’ battery swapping VPP in Taiwan
Taiwan Power orders AMI system with 450k more smart meters

The project will utilise a 60MW/96MWh DongShan battery energy storage system (BESS), currently under construction in northern Taiwan, to provide the required modulation signal to be detected by Reactive’s measurement devices.

According to Reactive Technologies, GridMetrix enhances visibility from transmission infrastructure to non-synchronous generation and demand-side loads, allowing operators to measure hidden inertia in the distribution grid, which accounts for up to 30% of total system inertia.

Commenting on the agreement in a release was Dr. Wu Chin-Chung, vice president of Taiwan Power Company: “Along with the Taiwan government’s aggressive goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, the decreased system inertia derived from the high penetration rate of renewable energy is a significant challenge to Taipower.

“Thanks to Reactive Technologies’ inertia measurements, we can now look forward to obtaining the real-time forecast data we need to closely monitor and maintain system stability while connecting more renewables to the power grid.”