Featured in Go big or go home – 11-2020

Whipping up inertia

Once a natural phenomenon – a fortuitous byproduct of thermal generation – the weaning off of coal has made the emulation of inertia a priority for grid operators. It will be a few more years in most markets before a solution becomes needed with any great urgency. However, some markets have needed to come up with solutions – are they a portal into the future of grids dominated by renewables and power electronics?
Marian Willuhn
By
Marian Willuhn
Image: Fluence

On Aug. 9th 2019, vast swathes of southern England were witness to an event that sounds somewhat abstract. Sudden loss of power supply cascaded through the grid, taking other generators down with it. A lightning strike at a gas-fired power plant in the Bedfordshire village of Little Barford caused an outage at the generator, and …

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