New Disturbance Response Requirements

Foreshadowing Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard 1547-2018 (IEEE Std 1547-2018), this article by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) focuses on disturbance response requirements.

This article is part of the NRECA series on the standard.

Article

New Disturbance Response Requirements (Walling 2017)
As this NRECA article explains, sudden and simultaneous loss of large amounts of distributed energy resources (DERs) due to system disturbances, such as faults and frequency variations, can be problematic today and even more so in the future.

Topics Covered

The intent of the NRECA article is to aid cooperative utilities with the adoption of the standard by highlighting:

  • What has changed
  • What the impact is on cooperatives
  • What cooperatives need to know or do about it.

Key Takeaways

Disturbance Performance of Distributed Energy Resources

Although DER is not typically considered as a capacity resource for planning purposes, the power system dispatch must account for the impacts of DER output in contingency analysis and operations. For example, a simultaneous tripping of a large amount of DER could create a jump in net load, upset the generation-to-load balance (frequency regulation) and possibly change transmission flows. Without certain DER performance capabilities, this potential loss of large amounts of DER would require more generation reserves to be committed.

Balance Point

This article highlights that IEEE Std 1547-2018 makes a "determined effort" to balance bulk power system reliability concerns with the safety of distribution workers and equipment. The NRECA describes how the standard establishes a window of DER operation wherein the DER must not trip before a prescribed ride-through duration but also must trip prior to a certain protective trip time.


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