A Hybrid System Consisting of Synchronous Condenser and Battery - Enhanced Services for Weak Systems

If the trend of an increasing presence of renewable energy sources in the power systems continues, we will most likely encounter several challenges in terms of operation, stability, and control of the future power systems. One of the possible proposals for addressing these issues is a hybrid system consisting of a synchronous condenser and a battery energy storage system (BESS). The most significant benefit of a synchronous condenser is that it retains the fundamental characteristics of a conventional synchronous generator, while the main contribution of BESS is the possibility of storing energy and frequency support. BESS is connected to the grid through a power converter, which means that it is also capable of providing reactive power. The reactive power sharing between the two components needs to be coordinated, so that they share an equal amount of reactive power under overexcited and underexcited operating conditions. In this paper we try to demonstrate the benefits of such a system, and identify other possible utilisation of a hybrid system for ancillary services provision.