March 2018

Conference Paper

Frequency support comparison for vanadium and lithium-ion BESSs using a converter-based grid emulator

By:
Boles, Jessica; Ma, Yiwei; Tolbert, Leon M; Wang, Fei
Page Number:
623-630
Book Title:
2018 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)
Publication Date:
March 2018
Publisher Location:
IEEE, New Jersey, United States of America
Conference Name:
IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
Conference Location:
San Antonio, Texas, United States of America
Conference Sponsor:
IEEE
View DOI Listing:
https://doi.org/10.1109/APEC.2018.8341077

Abstract

Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are commonly used for frequency support services in power systems because they have fast response times and can frequently inject and absorb active power. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) BESSs dominate the grid energy storage market now, but Vanadium redox flow (VRB) BESSs are predicted to contend in future markets for large-scale storage systems. Previously, a Li-ion BESS emulator has been developed for a grid emulation system known as the Hardware Testbed (HTB), which consists of converters controlled to emulate different power system components. In this paper, we develop a VRB BESS emulator with a VRB-specific internal battery model and a power electronics interface similar to that of the Li-ion BESS emulator. Then, we compare the effectiveness of the VRB and Li-ion technologies for primary frequency regulation and inertia emulation applications. It is concluded that these two technologies are virtually indistinguishable from the power system's perspective when conducting these services over a short period of time.