Achieving a cleaner, more sustainable energy mix stands as one of Chile's foremost challenges in the coming years. While incorporating renewable sources is critical for national decarbonization, integrating them into the National Electric System (SEN) introduces new stability risks—particularly during frequency fluctuations or power outages.
As more components are added to the grid, operational complexity increases alongside the risk of a massive blackout. With potential losses exceeding US$13 million per hour, developing innovative solutions to enhance electrical infrastructure efficiency has become an urgent national priority.
To support a safer national energy transition, the University of Santiago de Chile is leading the R&D project “Synthetic Inertia of Wind Turbines for Non-Coherent Electric Systems with High Renewable Energy Penetration.” Funded by ANID, the initiative is developed in partnership with the Federico Santa María Technical University, in collaboration with Conecta and the Independent Coordinator of the SEN, and supported by USACH’s Technology Management Division under the Office of the Vice Rector for Research, Innovation, and Creation.
Dr. Hicham El Aiss, a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and director of the initiative, emphasizes that the goal is to contribute to the country’s carbon neutrality targets through technology that facilitates the transition to a renewable energy-based grid and strengthens the operation of the SEN. “We are working on the development and validation of a scalable synthetic inertia control algorithm for multi-area power systems, which will allow for the integration of a greater amount of wind energy and reinforce the system’s stability,” he explains.
According to the expert, the study addresses several challenges, such as the “delay in communication between different areas of the grid, which can cause instability when disturbances or generation losses occur.” He continues, “as the integration of variable renewable energy sources increases, the system loses inertia—that is, the capacity to cope with sudden changes in frequency—which can lead to blackouts”.
Dr. El Aiss notes that the project develops an autonomous control system powered by local data, decreasing reliance on inter-area communications and safeguarding overall grid reliability.
Innovation to Strengthen the Power Grid
Over a 24-month period, researchers from Usach and Federico Santa María Technical University will collaborate on the initiative. Key team members include USM Alternate Director Dr. Aldo Barrueto Guzmán, Professor Antonio Alejandro Sánchez, Usach researcher Dr. Héctor Chávez Orostica, and Usach Electrical Engineering students.
Project execution will center on modeling the national power system and implementing the control algorithm on a laboratory scale using experimental data provided by the Independent Coordinator. “We are going to develop a mathematical model to design the control algorithm and subsequently implement it in hardware. The idea is to verify that the system is capable of maintaining stability both locally and across the entire grid when different areas are interconnected. At this stage, we will have the support of Conecta to conduct a field simulation,” he explains.
Project execution centers on modeling the national power system and implementing the control algorithm on a laboratory scale, using experimental data provided by the Independent Coordinator. The team is developing a mathematical model to design the algorithm before deploying it into hardware. This testing process verifies local and grid-wide stability across interconnected areas, supported by Conecta to execute a field simulation.
Among the desired outcomes are reducing the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) by 20% to 30% and increasing the frequency nadir by 0.15 to 0.25 Hz. “This will allow for a more stable frequency in the power grid and, consequently, reduce the risk of blackouts in the event of system contingencies. “We also hope to achieve a technology validated at the experimental level, equivalent to a TRL 4 maturity level,” concludes Dr. El Aiss.