Equivalence of Inverter Air Conditioners as Virtual Synchronous Generators for Enhancing Power System Inertia and Frequency Stability
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PUBLIC SUMMARY
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Proposes controlling inverter air conditioners (IACs) as virtual synchronous generators (VSGs) to enhance power system frequency stability.
A control scheme that ensures IACs provide inertia and damping while maintaining comfortable temperature limits.
A dynamic evaluation method and flexible parameter configuration for IAC-VSG controllers, validated by numerical studies.
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ABSTRACT
The increasing penetration of renewable energies is decreasing modern power systems’ inertia and damping rapidly, which threatens the safe and stable operation of the power system. Considering inverter air conditioners (IACs) account for more than 30% of the total power consumption and have huge regulation potential, this paper proposes to control IACs as virtual synchronous generators (VSGs), named IAC-VSG resources, to provide additional inertia and damping for frequency stability enhancement.A simple but widely adaptable control scheme for general IACs supporting frequency response is developed by modifying the active power reference. The modified IACs can not only provide inertia and damping as VSGs do, but also remain user-friendly by maintaining comfortable temperature limits in the control model. To quantify the dynamic performance of the power system after integrating IAC-VSGs, a dynamic evaluation method is proposed via the closed-loop transfer function in the complex frequency domain, including the resonant frequency, peak value, and 2-norm.On this basis, a parameter configuration method for IAC-VSG controllers is designed to flexibly adjust the equivalent inertia and damping ratios according to different power system requirements. Finally, numerical studies verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. -
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REFERENCES
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Cite this article:
and Song Y. (2025). Equivalence of Inverter Air Conditioners as Virtual Synchronous Generators for Enhancing Power System Inertia and Frequency Stability. Energy Use 1:100009. https://doi.org/10.59717/ipj.energy-use.2025.100009
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and Song Y. (2025). Equivalence of Inverter Air Conditioners as Virtual Synchronous Generators for Enhancing Power System Inertia and Frequency Stability. Energy Use 1:100009. https://doi.org/10.59717/ipj.energy-use.2025.100009
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Figure 1.
The power system model with traditional generating units, renewable energies, and IAC-VSGs.
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Figure 2.
Bode plots of the power system. (A) Scenarios of different inertia ratios. (B) Scenarios of different damping ratios.
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Figure 3.
The 2-norm of the system’s closed-loop transfer function with different damping and inertia ratios.
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Figure 4.
Bode plots of the power system with IAC-VSGs. (A) Scenarios of different
$ {{T}}_{{\mathrm{VSG}}} $ $ {{K}}_{{\mathrm{VSG}}} $ -
Figure 5.
System frequency deviations under load disturbances
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Figure 6.
Bode plots of the power system with different inertia ratios.
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Figure 7.
Regulation process of the power system under load disturbances.