Wednesday 1st April 2020 (London and Oulu) – Reactive Technologies is proud to announce the successful completion of an inertia measurement demonstration project trialling Reactive’s inertia measurement technology (GridMetrix®) on the Japanese island of Nii-jima.
The project with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), a major Japanese utility, is the first of its kind in Japan and represents another major milestone for Reactive following the signing of the world’s first inertia measurement commercial agreement with the UK’s National Grid Electricity System Operator for the nationwide roll out of inertia measurement services.
The project with TEPCO highlighted the benefits of directly measuring inertia by enabling the Japanese utility to better understand their network stability on Nii-jima, a location selected for its status as a testbed for the latest grid innovation. The results categorically proved the highly accurate nature of Reactive’s GridMetrix® direct inertia measurement service.
Japan possesses one of the most advanced power systems in the world and delivers high levels of reliability to consumers. However, maintaining grid stability and security of supply will become more challenging as increasing amounts of renewable generation, which do not contribute to inertia, are deployed on the network. Fundamental to ensuring this high level of reliability moving forward is directly measuring the level of inertia on an accurate, real time basis.
Chris Kimmett, Director Power Grids at Reactive Technologies said: “System operators around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of moving away from inertia estimates and instead relying on accurate and direct inertia measurements. We are delighted to be working with TEPCO, a leading Asian utility, to successfully demonstrate the mission-critical accuracy of our patented GridMetrix® service.”
Jun Johkaji, Vice President at TEPCO Research Institute commented: “We are very pleased to have partnered with Reactive to successfully complete this pioneering inertia measurement demonstration project on Nii-jima Island, the first of its kind undertaken in Japan. We appreciate the advanced technology of Reactive.”
The project involved the utilisation of a load bank to safely produce small, periodic disturbances in the grid which in turn created minute frequency movements in the power system. These were recorded by Reactive’s highly accurate, proprietary Extensible Measurement Units (XMUs) installed across the network which reported the data to the GridMetrix® measurement platform.
