SESI 2024: Advanced power electronics-based inverters for safe, stable grids

Intermittency of renewable energy (RE) generation poses significant challenges to grid operators, who must ensure a reliable and stable electricity supply to consumers. Addressing grid stability issues in RE power plants is essential to effectively integrate and realize the full potential of clean energy technologies. 

At the latest edition of Stationary Energy Storage India (SESI) international conference at New Delhi, Cyriac Loyola, Head of Application Engineering, Large Scale Solution – India, Southeast Asia and South Korea, SMA Solar, reiterated the importance of grid stability in RE complexes and how power electronics based PV inverters can address the lacunae in this regard. 

"Stability issues are rampant, resulting in the tripping of big RE plants due to power frequency response issues and lack of reactive power in the generation side. PV inverters have the capabilities to address such power stability challenges, and we have proof from different markets to establish their efficacy in solving this crisis", he noted. 

Loyola brought out his company's experiences from upgrading the inverters at the client's site in Rajasthan and from other global markets to address grid instability issues at RE farms, while also explaining the systems' 'Fault Ride-Through' capability and other critical features. 

"In Australia, SMA's power electronics based inverters were able to clamp down the power variations... When there was a massive blackout in Taiwan, our inverters brought back the frequency within 12 seconds and restored almost 40 percent of the country's power systems", he said. 

And yet, the PV inverters continue to be less prevalent in the market, he opined. "That's because we are not utilizing the fullest hardware capabilities of the inverter systems. We are not ensuring that our RE plants have the necessary hardware capabilities to mitigate such blackouts, stability and plant topology issues", he said. 

The 4th edition of the SESI international conference, organized by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), saw critical discussions on the current market growth and emerging opportunities for stationary energy storage applications in the India, informed by the presence of key stakeholders and technology experts operating in the clean energy technology space. 

For full coverage of the conference, visit indiaesa.info.