Granular Voltage Control (GVC)

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
National Grid Electricity Transmission

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 April 2014

01 December 2014

8 months

£396,050

Power

London

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, National Grid Electricity Transmission

Phase 1 (develop a working prototype of the GVC with the following deliverables) objectives; Enhance the automatic voltage control functionality to provide fast response (within 500ms) to frequency trigger with appropriate communications and aggregation solutions to provide real-time data on the aggregate capacity. Phase 2 (small scale trial of the GVC to determine whether dynamic voltage control is a viable primary frequency response solution, dependent upon the successful completion of Phase 1 and with the following deliverables) objectives; Demonstrate the GVC across 6 sites to evaluate the level of response provided (expected to be 2 - 20kW per site) and to allow testing and analysis of the GVC in response to NGET requirements. Prove the capability of GVC units in a small scale trial and identify areas for enhancement of the GVC / communications. Develop a plan to harness the existing voltage control installed base and functionality of the new automatic voltage control to provide larger scale frequency response and RoCoF services in the future. To judge the success of the project the following success criteria are proposed: Demonstrate the feasibility of 500ms response to provide Rapid Frequency Response and/or primary/secondary response from dynamic voltage control on demands. Aggregation of remote voltage control unit output to provide a virtual power plant; and Deliver a final report at the end of the project that demonstrates the technical merits of GVC and the validity of the CBA.

The decarbonisation of the UK generation capacity, particularly through the integration of renewable generation and increased interconnection with Europe, will reduce the amount of system inertia available and challenge the ability of the system to arrest and recover system frequency following a large system loss. The GVC project evaluates whether a response (driven by voltage regulation on demand) can be developed, executed, co-ordinated and delivered in a total response time of 500ms and deliver this within a small scale project. Research, Development and Demonstration The demand side technology to deliver this project is an adaptation of an existing voltage control technology that is installed at a customers’ site to reduce or increase the incoming voltage dynamically to maintain the output voltage at a defined level whilst delivering energy savings and power quality benefits to those customers. This GVC project involves the development of the existing control mechanism only to provide a working prototype that operates in response to a frequency trigger to reduce demand and this will be trialled in 6 sites where the response is expected to be 2 - 20 kW. This will enabled this voltage control technology to deliver energy efficiency and power quality benefits to customers whilst supporting the development of the smart grid at low additional cost. The output of the GVC trials will be used to quantify the economic and carbon benefits of this technology when providing frequency regulation services in the present and the future UK electricity system and the contribution to wider energy management platforms. This will also inform how to maximise the benefit of the existing installed base (~5,000 units) to apply GVC at scale and the installation and operation of new units.Note : Project Documents may be available via the ENA Smarter Networks Portal using the Website link above

14/08/18