b'Partner News Summer 2020 9AcademicSwansea University teams up with National Grid: Integrating Renewable Energies into the UK power gridThe UK is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050. Meeting this target will require a huge shift in the way energy is generated and used, including reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. Significant levels of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs), such as wind, solar and marine energy, will need to be integrated into the power grid. The benefits of RESs are no doubt undisputable, yet the integration of these in large amounts requires the development of new paradigms and methods to maintain a reliable and safe power system. In contrast to traditional sources, RESs are less controllable (due to their dependency on natural elements), they cause unintended power flow patterns, and theyGrid and Measurable Ltd, and with the impact voltage, current waveforms and theUniversity of Texas in Austin, TX.overall power quality of electricity. Grazia Todeschini, Senior Lecturer More specifically, because of the use ofat Swansea University and Principal power converters, RESs inject currents intoinvestigator on the project, said: With the power grid with varying frequencies,increasing levels of renewable energy referred to as harmonic components.sources integrated in the UK power grid, While these harmonic components arewe are reaching a tipping point where the Figure 1: Example of distorted current and corresponding generally small, increasing levels mayimpact of these devices on the day-to-dayharmonic components.cause malfunctioning and damage to theoperation of the power grid is visible. I and equipment.the project collaborators are delighted that EPSRC will support this research and we The project will assess the harmoniclook forward to contribute to the furtherinstallation of a large number of inverter-distortion caused by RESs in the futureintegration of renewable energies into thebased devices at the distribution system UK power grid. Accurate models of bothUK power grid.will have on the transmission system. RESs and the power system will need to be developed, however they will also needMaxwell Mulimakwenda, Power Quality andThis research is timely because it will some form of simplification because of theModelling Manager at National Grid, said:provide insight to how the harmonic levels number of components involved.This research addresses one importantmay change in the future, and to assess aspect of the integration of renewabledifferent mitigating options.This project aims to develop a model thatenergies, which is the propagation of accurately represents harmonic generationharmonics within the UK power grid. from RESs, the transfer of harmonics between different voltage levels, and theHarmonic levels are expected to increase representation of statistical variations ofdue to the integration of additional harmonic levels as function of the locationnumbers of distributed resources, both at and power output of RESs. The project willthe transmission and at the distribution also look into mitigating solutions. Thislevel. While harmonic propagation within research will involve close collaborationthe transmission system is a known with two industrial partners, Nationalsubject, it is not clear what the impact of'