This week, Esme Butler Davies had the opportunity to visit Lister Drive Greener Grid Park to learn more about the role it plays in improving grid stability. The visit was organised for students at Manchester University by the IEEE PES Student Branch Chapter UoM. Esme is one of our consultants currently undertaking the first module of the MSc in Sustainable Electrical Power Systems Engineering at Manchester University.
The Lister Drive Greener Grid Park is owned and operated by Statkraft, uses ABB https://www.linkedin.com/company/abb technology, and is part-funded by one of the Stability Pathfinder contracts awarded by National Energy System Operator https://www.linkedin.com/company/neso-energy.
Why do we need Synchronous Condensers?
As we reduce our dependence on conventional generation such as gas, we increase our reliance on renewable technologies such as solar and wind. This means that we require new technologies to stabilise the grid bring the frequency back within acceptable limits after a fault occurs. This type of technology is #gridforming.
Lister Drive Greener Grid Park has two synchronus condensers with flywheels, which can respond to frequency changes in the grid. They provide a range of grid stabilisation services to NESO, such as inertia, short circuit current and voltage control.
Why not just use batteries?
Batteries are very useful for storing energy but need time to react to a change in frequency when there is a fault; they are grid following. Synchronous condensers with flywheels provide inertia to smooth out frequency changes and give batteries this time to react. Ideally , the future will include a mixture of grid forming and grid following technologies, with grid forming batteries (which are capable of providing “synthetic inertia”) being an emerging technology.
Thank you to the team at Lister Drive for the tour, and for sharing how their work is contributing to a more sustainable future!
