3 ms·

Inverters and batteries (or any other DC source) are also very good at doing this.

by bryanlarsen 1y ago

iso1631 1y ago
Not grid following inverters, or "any DC source", as we saw in Spain in Summer
- jamescrowley 1y ago
  Nothing to do with the blackout in Spain - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/what-caused-iberian-power-outage-what-happens-next-2025-06-18/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/what-caused-iberian-... - voltage surge and various thermal power generators failing to provide the voltage correction services they were being paid for But yes, grid following alone does not provided the required stability - synthetic inertia etc needed
  - namibj 1y ago
    True DC grids avoid this stability issue by not having a phase and allowing power flow to pretty much just self-balance through voltage gradients and clipping of connections/devices to whatever current they can handle. With enough voltage range that wouldn't even need the tricky loops of voltage regulation common in incandescent-targeted legacy AC grids.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  Yes, if you don't install grid stabilization inverters, they don't supply grid stabilization.
- icehawk 1y ago
  From what I saw: In Spain, inverters are not allowed to provide voltage control, and what we saw in Spain, was a voltage spike that caused generators to drop offline, which then caused frequency issues.
  - robocat 1y ago
    See report and first comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44358668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44358668 It looked to me that regulators wanted to make solar the scapegoat for political reasons. The report indicates to me that different operators were using a random monkey theory to make changes until the grid stabilised (they clearly didn't have a handle on the root cause of the instabilities). The regulator screwed up: they are supposed to engineer the network so it can be stable (even in the face of political pressure).

Inverters and batteries (or any other DC source) are also very good at doing this.

iso1631 1y ago

Not grid following inverters, or "any DC source", as we saw in Spain in Summer

jamescrowley 1y ago
Nothing to do with the blackout in Spain - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/what-caused-iberian-power-outage-what-happens-next-2025-06-18/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/what-caused-iberian-... - voltage surge and various thermal power generators failing to provide the voltage correction services they were being paid for But yes, grid following alone does not provided the required stability - synthetic inertia etc needed
- namibj 1y ago
  True DC grids avoid this stability issue by not having a phase and allowing power flow to pretty much just self-balance through voltage gradients and clipping of connections/devices to whatever current they can handle. With enough voltage range that wouldn't even need the tricky loops of voltage regulation common in incandescent-targeted legacy AC grids.
bryanlarsen 1y ago
Yes, if you don't install grid stabilization inverters, they don't supply grid stabilization.
icehawk 1y ago
From what I saw: In Spain, inverters are not allowed to provide voltage control, and what we saw in Spain, was a voltage spike that caused generators to drop offline, which then caused frequency issues.
- robocat 1y ago
  See report and first comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44358668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44358668 It looked to me that regulators wanted to make solar the scapegoat for political reasons. The report indicates to me that different operators were using a random monkey theory to make changes until the grid stabilised (they clearly didn't have a handle on the root cause of the instabilities). The regulator screwed up: they are supposed to engineer the network so it can be stable (even in the face of political pressure).