Eskom Holdings, the system operator in South Africa, is seeing a doubling of renewable energy capacity every 18 months. To manage this growth, Eskom is partnering with G-PST on tailored technical support for high-impact, immediate grid modernization priorities.
Activities and Impacts
Contingency analysis: G-PST is helping identify and implement solutions that enable Eskom to conduct contingency analysis considering the emerging range of system conditions posed by increasing penetrations of renewable energy and distributed energy resources.
Inertia monitoring: G-PST is also working with Eskom to identify tools and methods to help Eskom ensure inertia adequacy in a system with increased deployment of inverter-based resources, as well as approaches that can better integrate inertia considerations into dispatch decisions.
The collaborative development of an open-source tool for real-time inertia will provide Eskom with accessible tools to assess system stability. Coupled with in-person training sessions on inertia estimation and advanced algorithms to build expertise, these solutions are increasing Eskom’s visibility of system inertia, as well as the ability to anticipate and mitigate future stability risks. In April 2024, Eskom presented its experience managing power system inertia at a G-PST global webinar on emerging practices in this field.
Knowledge exchange: In October 2023, engineers and system operator staff from Eskom participated in a study tour where they had the opportunity to work in person with experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. These engineers also attended and presented at the Energy System Integration Group’s technical conference and engaged with system operators and other industry and research experts from around the world to exchange knowledge and best practices.