ENTSO-E Publishes Technical Report: Instability Detection Technologies in Power Electronics Dominated Systems

ENTSO-E has published a new technical report entitled Instability Detection Technologies in Power Electronics Dominated Systems, which assesses how transmission system operators (TSOs) can monitor and detect emerging stability challenges in in an electricity system increasingly dominated by power electronics.

Europe's power system is undergoing rapid change, driven by the large-scale integration of renewable energy sources, the expansion of HVDC interconnections and the growing use of power-electronics interfaced generation and demand. While essential for the energy transition, these developments introduce new stability phenomena that occur and are more complex than in traditional power systems and can manifest at faster time scales and with different dynamic behaviours than synchronous systems.

The report focuses on measurement-based instability detection technologies as a key element for maintaining secure system operation. It evaluates tools such as Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), Waveform Measurement Units (WMUs) and Wide Area Measurement Systems (WAMS), highlighting their strengths, limitations and applicability across different stability phenomena, including converter-driven instabilities and resonance phenomena and where relevant, their applicability across different frequency and time scale. The report emphasises the role of real-time measurement and analysis for early detection.

In addition, the report identifies key challenges related to sampling and reporting rates, sensor bandwidths, time synchronisation, data handling and communication architectures and highlights the importance of addressing data quality, processing latency and cybersecurity/data-privacy considerations.

Based on this assessment, it sets out research needs and recommendations and highlights the need for enhanced collaboration with relevant stakeholders to further the development of real-time monitoring, harmonised data exchange and advanced analysis algorithms:

1. Strategies for data transfer, handling, storage and architecture for WMUs architecture (including resilience and scalability)
2. Standardisation and harmonisation of data exchange formats protocols and metadata
3. Evaluation of emerging stability phenomena and interactions with measurement-based devices and control systems
4. Development and validation of online wide area oscillations and instability detection algorithms
5. Approaches for algorithms that perform real-time analysis and provide actionable decision support
6. Time synchronisation solutions and accuracy requirements for multi-sensor systems
7. Standardisation of offshore WAMS implementation and integration with onshore systems
8. Future-proofing data handling: ensuring scalability, interoperability, privacy and maintainability.

By reflecting the collective perspective of European TSOs, the report contributes to ENTSO-E's ongoing work to ensure a secure, efficient and resilient electricity system during the energy transition and calls for coordinated R&D, pilot deployments and stakeholder collaboration to turn these recommendations into operational practice.

Read the report here.