OIES Paper on Meeting the Challenge of Reliability on Today’s Electric Grids: The Critical Role of Inertia

Today many of the world’s largest electric grids are facing new challenges in sustaining the levels of reliability that made electrification indispensable. In addition to those physical challenges of reliability have been challenges of imagination and policy. In the past, reliability often turned on the question of what happened if a key power plant or power line unexpectedly failed. The rapidly increasing share of power supply from sources such as wind and solar plants, and the build-out of interconnections between different grid regions, countries, or even continents using high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables introduce new reliability considerations related to weather conditions and faults in control software that need our careful attention.

Grid systems that move away from power plants with synchronous spinning turbines need a strategy for addressing the loss of inertia. Better situational awareness can help, as can incentives to encourage the retention and production of inertia. This OIES paper looks at British and Nordic experiences and responses, and outlines what to watch for - so that the coming century, like the last one, is marked by a central role for reliable electric supply.