External Power Quality Issues

Traditionally grid sourced power quality issues were extremely rare. If a plant was suffering from power quality issues, 90+% of the time, the cause would be inside that plant. (see Internal Power Quality Issues above). This situation has changed in recent years due to the influx of inverter based renewable generation on the grid. There are three primary problems with renewables on the grid:

1. Noise / Harmonic Distortion generated by inverters.
2. Lack of ability of renewables to provide reactive power.
3. Lack of inertia (spinning mass). The spinning mass of large turbines provide a stabilizing force to the grid and significantly mitigate short term load disturbances. Renewables, lacking this inertia, cannot adequately mitigate voltage sag and frequency stability.