A Universal Grid-forming Inverter Model and Simulation-based Characterization Across Timescales

Abstract

The evolution of the power grid has given rise to a variety of innovations in inverter control architectures. Among these advances, a class of controllers has emerged with the aim of enabling 100\% inverter-based grids and these are known as grid-forming methods. Since these strategies are still under active development, well validated models are needed by equipment manufacturers as well as system planners and operators. In particular, a system operator may be unable to determine specifications and services that are required from grid forming devices without having the ability to represent them in a simulation environment with trusted models. A universal grid forming model that is portable across multiple simulation domains will be valuable in addressing this issue. In this paper, we develop a practical implementation of such a model that has the ability to represent four different grid-forming methods in a variety of simulation software packages while accurately capturing dynamics across from microsecond to millisecond timescales.