STABILITY MECHANISMS AND ACTIVE SUPPORT CONTROL IN CONVERTER-DOMINATED POWER SYSTEMS WITH HIGH RENEWABLE PENETRATION
Keywords:
Converter-dominated power systems, grid-forming converters, virtual inertia, battery energy storage, transient stability, frequency support, v, Python simulationAbstract
Power Systems with High Penetration of Renewables Trends of inverter-based renewable generations replacing synchronous machines and reducing the rotational inertia that has historically maintained AC power grid security is ongoing. In a conveter-dominant power system, frequency excursions in the transient, rate-of-change-of-frequency sensing leading to relayblind clearance operations, and inability for voltage to support recovery, are the security-limiting factors. This paper presents a dynamic modelling method and transient stability calculation scheme for low-inertia power system that has been implemented in a Python-based power system dynamic simulator, including turbogenerator synchronising machine models, grid-following (GFL) converter machine models based on explicit phase-locked-loop (PLL) states, grid-forming (GFM) converter models with a matching-control swing equation, battery energy storage systems (BESS) providing fast frequency regulation. The paper describes a coordinated control scheme grid-forming power-frequency loop retuning between converters and BESS for time-domain simulation, BESS implementation for sub-second frequency regulation, and reactive power arbitrator between converters and BESS. The framework is applied to a modified IEEE 39-bus test system at renewable penetration levels ( with respect to the system load of 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%. Relative to the uncoordinated comparison, the method minimizes the penetration) and increases the nadir of the frequency by as much as 0.27 Hz (above the under-frequency load-shedding limit). Small-signal eigenvalue analysis confirms damping is kept above 5% for PLL bandwidths as high as 350 rad/s. The model is validated to an IEEE 39-bus unmodified PSS/E benchmark for the PSS/E absolute metric error of−0.032 Hz/s for RoCoF and−0.009 Hz for the frequency nadir. From the results are quantitative penetration boundaries and design ideas for stable operation of future converter-dominated converters, virtual inertia, battery energy storage, transient stability, frequency support, low-inertia systems, Python simulation.
References
International Energy Agency (IEA), Renewables 2024: Analysis and Forecast to 2030. Paris, France: IEA, 2024. Available: https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2024
F. Milano, F. Dörfler, G. Hug, D. J. Hill, and G. Verbič, “Foundations and challenges of low-inertia systems (Invited paper),” in Proc. 20th Power Syst. Comput. Conf. (PSCC), Dublin, Ireland, Jun. 2018, pp. 1–25. Available: https://people.ee.ethz.ch/~floriand/docs/Articles/PSCC_2018_Survey.pdf
J. Rocabert, A. Luna, F. Blaabjerg, and P. Rodríguez, “Control of power converters in AC microgrids,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 4734–4749, Nov. 2012, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2012.2199334.
R. H. Lasseter, Z. Chen, and D. Pattabiraman, “Grid-forming inverters: A critical asset for the power grid,” IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics Power Electron., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 925–935, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1109/JESTPE.2019.2959278.
Q.-C. Zhong and G. Weiss, “Synchronverters: Inverters that mimic synchronous generators,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 1259–1267, Apr. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TIE.2010.2048839.
T. Brown, J. Hörsch, and D. Schlachtberger, “PyPSA: Python for power system analysis,” J. Open Res. Softw., vol. 6, no. 1, Art. no. 4, 2018, doi: 10.5334/jors.188. Available: https://pypsa.org
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Reliability Guideline: Recommended Practices for Performing EMT System Studies for Inverter-Based Resources. Atlanta, GA, USA: NERC, Dec. 2024. Available: https://www.nerc.com/our-work/guidelines/reliability-guidelines
L. Thurner et al., “Pandapower—An open-source Python tool for convenient modeling, analysis, and optimization of electric power systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 6510–6521, Nov. 2018, doi: 10.1109/TPWRS.2018.2829021.
H. Yang et al., “Stability assessment of fully inverter-based power systems using grid-forming converters,” Electronics, vol. 14, no. 21, Art. no. 4202, Nov. 2025, doi: 10.3390/electronics14214202.
F. Rodriguez et al., “Review of fast frequency response integration in power systems with high renewable penetration,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 218, Art. no. 114138, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2025.114138.
Z. Liu, J. Su, and J. Wang, “Grid-forming converter with enhanced current limiting dynamics for high-IBR power systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 3456–3470, Mar. 2025.
P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control, 1st ed. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
S. D’Arco and J. A. Suul, “Virtual synchronous machines—Classification of implementations and analysis of equivalence to droop controllers for microgrids,” in Proc. IEEE Grenoble PowerTech, Grenoble, France, Jun. 2013, pp. 1–7.
A. R. et al., “Evaluation of the impact of grid forming inverter penetration on power system stability,” Int. J. Emerg. Electr. Power Syst., vol. 26, Art. no. 318, 2025, doi: 10.1007/s40866-025-00318-5.
M. Y. Chen, “Composite power-frequency synchronization loop for enhanced grid-forming converter stability,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 1102–1120, Jan. 2025, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2024.3476452.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
CC BY
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. CC BY includes the following elements:
BY: credit must be given to the creator.