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Design and evaluation of a grid code guided approach to renewable energy integration studies

Real-time simulation has become a well-established and accepted method of predicting equipment behaviour across many industries for various conditions. One such application is when performing grid integrated Renewable Power Plant (RPP) behavioural studies, as increasing amounts of renewable generation are integrated into existing electrical grids. Set to greatly benefit from tailored renewable energy (RE) integration studies, is South Africa, on account of their aggressive RE integration goals, and ailing electrical grid. In this paper, a South African grid code tailored RPP control approach is presented, allowing RPPs to be operated in line with local grid code voltage and frequency requirements during simulation. To evaluate the design, MATLAB-integrated OPAL-RT real-time simulations are performed, implementing OPAL-RT’s OP4510 real-time simulator. Results show the RPP grid code-guided control method to be effective in operating RPPs in line with grid code voltage and frequency requirements, which will allow an RPP’s grid-integrated behaviour concerning grid code specifications to be simulated and studied.