POWER SECTOR

Ajmal Kunjumon
Electrical Engineer, Renewables Certification, DNV GL – Energy

Indian Grid Code Requirements: An Overview

The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) has issued guidelines to plan, to develop, to maintain and to op-
erate the power system or the power plant, in the most efficient, reliable, economic and secure manner, while
facilitating healthy competition in the generation and supply of electricity. These connectivity guidelines are appli-
cable to generating stations for wind, solar photo voltaic and hybrid systems including energy storage.

A grid code is a technical specification which defines the re-

quirements for a station or a plant to be connected to a public
electric network. It is intended to ensure safe, secure, econom-
ic and proper functioning of the electric power system. The
Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) lays down the rules, guide-
lines and standards to be followed by the various agencies
and participants in their different tasks around the electric sys-
tem. Those tasks can be to plan, to develop, to maintain and to
operate the power system or the power plant, in the most effi-
cient, reliable, economic and secure manner, while facilitating
healthy competition in the generation and supply of electric-
ity.The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) has issued
guidelines in this respect. These connectivity guidelines are
applicable to generating stations for wind, solar photo voltaic Figure 1: Reactive power capability curve
and hybrid systems including energy storage.
Frequency Control:Usually the system frequency is in the nor-
mal tolerance band in the range of ± e.g. 30 mHz (depend-
The penetration of renewable energy in the Indian grid is ex-
ing on the system stiffness). However, due to electrical load
pected to be high. Loss of generation during faults will affect
changes in the system (consumers) and corresponding pow-
the grid security and reliability of the power supply. India plans
er balance (generators) the frequency is varying dynamically.
to integrate more than 175 GW of utility scale renewable ener-
This can also happen due to disconnections related to faults
gy generation by 2022. It needs to fulfil these requirements to
in the system.
improve the secure operation of Indian power grid and enable
continuous supply of power. The Licensee (one who approves
According to Indian grid code, power generating stations shall
the grid connection) shall ensure that provision laid under the
be capable of remaining connected to the network and oper-
grid requirements shall be fulfilled by the requester (one who
ate within the frequency range of 47.5 Hz to 52 Hz. In addition,
applies for the grid connection). Failing to comply with any of
they should be able to deliver rated power in the frequency
the requirements leads to the disconnection from the grid.
range of 49.5 to 50.5 Hz, subject to availability of the primary
energy source (i.e. wind speed or solar radiation). This perfor-
The grid code requirements are basically classified into: 1)
mance shall be also achieved with a voltage variation of up to
Control behaviour 2) Fault ride through behaviour 3) Power
± 5 %.
quality.

Control Behaviour

Reactive Power Control:“The Power generating unit shall be

capable of supplying dynamically varying reactive power so
as to maintain power factor within the limit of 0.95 lag to 0.95
lead”. A typical reactive power capability curve is shown below
in figure 1.
Figure 2: Frequency range of operation with a
voltage variation.

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Active Power Set Point Control:In an electric power grid, for for controlling the rate of change of power output at a rate not
the safety reason during line contingencies, it is necessary to more than ± 10% per minute.
reduce generation in order to keep the lineswithin allowed de-
sign limits. Therefore, the electric utility must be able to issue Fault Ride through Behaviour (FRT)
commands to generation units for reducing the power in order
to avoid line disconnections by the protection systems. Fault ride through is the ability of a wind power generating sta-
tion or a solar generating station with PV inverters to remain
According to Indian grid code, the generating stations with connected to the grid when there is a shortdip or swell in volt-
installed capacity of more than 10 MW connected at voltage age due to a sudden disturbance like short circuit. Additional-
levels of 33 kV and above shall be equipped with the facility to ly, specific characteristics are required regarding the transient
control active power injection in accordance with a set point, behaviour during the fault. The phenomenon of a voltagedip is
capable of being revised based on directions of the State Load referred to as Low-Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT, nowadays IEC
Dispatch Centre or Regional Load Dispatch Centre. calls it UVRT: Under-Voltage Ride-Through). Theshort swell in
voltage is referred to as Over-Voltage Ride-Through (OVRT).
Frequency Droop Control:Droop control is a control strategy
commonly applied to generators for primary frequency control UVRT fulfilment is required by CEA for the wind and solar gen-
(and occasionally voltage control) to allow parallel generator erating stations when the voltage in the grid is temporarily dip-
operation (e.g. load sharing). According to Indian grid code, ping due to a fault. The required UVRT behaviour is defined in
the generating stations with installed capacity of more than 10 grid codes issued by the grid operators in order to maintain
MW connected at voltage levels of 33 kV shall have governors system stability, thereby reducing the risk of black-out. The
or frequency controllers of the units at a drop of 3 to 6% and a grid codes were originally developed considering the synchro-
dead band not exceeding ±0.03 Hz: Provided that for frequen- nous generator generally used in conventional power plants,
cy deviations in excess of 0.3 Hz, the Generating Station shall whereas Wind Turbines (WT) and PV inverters (i.e. units) have
have the facility to provide an immediate (within 1 second) real different characteristics compared to thermal power plants,
power primary frequency response of at least 10% of the max- leading to the requirements described below. As per Indian
imum Alternating Current active power capacity. grid code, the generating station connected to the grid, shall
remain connected when voltage at the interconnection point
on any or all phases dips up to the level depicted below in
figure 4.

Figure 3: Frequency droop Control curve

Droop settings are usually mentioned in % droop. The setting
indicates the percentage of the controlling value neededto
cause a 100% change in the controlled value. For example,
a 3% frequency droop setting means that for a 3% change in
frequency, the unit’s active power output changes by 100%.
This means that if the frequency rises by 1%, the unit with a 3%
Figure 4: UVRT curve according to Indian grid
droop setting will decrease its power output by 33%.
code requirements
Power Ramp Rate Control: A ramp event is defined as the pow- Provided that during the voltage dip, the supply of reactive
er change event at every time interval. If the power change is power has first priority, while the supply of active power has
positive, it is defined as a ramp-up event. If the power change second priority and the active power preferably be maintained
is negative, it is defined as a ramp-down event. The rate of during voltage dips, provided, a reduction in active power
a ramp event is called a ramp rate, which is defined as the within the plant’s design specifications is acceptable and ac-
power difference from minute to minute, so its unit is a % of the tive power be restored to at least 90% of the pre-fault level
currently available power in per minute. within 1 sec of restoration of voltage. Depending on the sever-
ity of the fault, fault location and the system condition, it can
According to Indian grid code, the generating stations with cause a short voltage swell, a voltage dip, or a complete loss
installed capacity of more than 10 MW connected at voltage of voltage (interruptions). The duration and magnitude of the
levels of 33 kV and above shall be equipped with the facility fault is dictated by protection technologies and their settings;

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whereas the slope of the voltage recovery likely depends on According to the Indian grid code requirements, the generat-
the strength of the interconnection and reactive power sup- ing stations with installed capacity of more than 10 MW con-
port. The quantity of reactive power to be injected depends nected at voltage levels of 33 kV shall have a short circuit ratio
on the percentage of grid voltage reduction during the dip, not less than 5 at the interconnection point where the generat-
the system’s rated current, and the reactive power given to the ing station is proposed to be connected.
grid during the dip appearance.
Simulations:Simulation tools include Matlab, Power Factory,
The OVRT capability handles the over voltages during faults. PSS/E etc. The simulations shall show that the requirements
During the OVRT tests an overvoltage is applied to each of are fulfilled at station level, i.e. point of interconnection (POI).
the three voltage phases of the wind turbine or the PV invert- For instance, the fault ride through tests (FRT) can be per-
er. According to the Indian grid code, the generating station formed only at unit level. For proving compliance regarding
connected to the grid, shall remain connected when voltage FRT at the station level, simulations shall be helpful. However,
at the interconnection point, on any or all phases (symmetri- generic simulation models for FRT behaviour are not yet pos-
cal or asymmetrical overvoltage conditions) rises above the sible to be parametrized and used. In order to have sufficient
specified values given below for specified durations as shown accuracy, they need to be validated against FRT test results of
in Table 1. the same generating unit type. The simulation model validation
can become certified.

Power Quality

The Utility needs to ensure that impact stays below planning

levels in the overall electric power system. This is also import-
ant for wind or solar stations connected to the grid. Typical
power quality disturbances are current and voltage harmon-
ics, dc current injection, flicker etc. According to the Indian
Table 1: OVRT/HVRT requirements in India. grid code, harmonic current injections from a generating sta-
OVRT curve according to Indian grid requirements is shown tion shall not exceed the limits specified in Institute of Electrical
below in figure 5. and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard 519. The Generat-
ing station shall not inject DC current greater than 0.5 % of the
full rated output at the interconnection point. The generating
station shall not introduce flicker beyond the limits specified
in IEC 61000. Measurement of harmonic content, DC injection
and flicker shall be done at least once in a year in presence
of the parties concerned and the indicative date for the same
shall be mentioned in the connection agreement.

Testing, Evaluation, Validation and Certification: The stan-

dards used for testing the above grid code requirements in-
cludes IEC 61400-21-1, FGW TR-3, IEEE 519 etc. For certifica-
Figure 5: OVRT curve according to Indian tion procedure DNVGL-SE-0124, may be used in combination
with the CEA rules. DNV GL grid code compliance certificate
grid code requirements.
ensures proof of evidence that Indian grid code requirements
Short Circuit ratio: Short Circuit Ratio(SCR) relates to the are fulfilled.
strength of an area in a power grid. The short-circuit strength
is measured by calculating the short-circuit ratio at the point References
of interconnection (POI). The identified area with a low SCR 1. DNV GL Service Specification DNVGL-SE-0124 and Standard
requires more studies and thorough investigation because this DNVGL-ST-0125, dated March 2016.
is an indication of low system strength conditions that can ag- 2. Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India, Technical standards for Con-
gravate system disturbances and possibly impact protection nectivity to the Grid no. (No.12/X/STD(CONN)/GM/CEA/2018), dated 6th
system. February 2019.

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