Fast Frequency Support Through LED Street Lighting in Small Non-Synchronous Power Systems

Small-sized non-synchronous islands, which are inherently characterized by low system inertia, will face in the next years the challenge of integrating larger and larger amount of renewable energy sources, leading to further reduction of inertia. Several means to support inertia and frequency transients have been proposed in the literature, including energy storage systems, distributed generation, and demand response. LED street lighting systems are widespread control resources, which in a smart grid scenario, can be regulated by means of local or remote control signals. This article investigates the possibility to regulate the power consumption of LED street lighting to provide frequency support in a system characterized by reduced total inertia. Tests are carried out integrating the simulation of the non-synchronous power system of an Italian small island with the response of an actual LED street lamp, in a Power Hardware-in-the-Loop testing environment. Both synthetic inertia and fast frequency response approaches are tested and discussed.