Large disturbances

Managed by Greg Thorpe and Flávio 

• The Large Disturbance Workshop (LDW) originated in the early 1990s with a small group of power system operators meeting on the sidelines of CIGRE Paris Sessions comparing notes about significant operating events they had experienced.  The aim was to share knowledge of the events and responses.
  • Over the following 20 years the meetings grew in size but were still focussed on technical power system operation.
  • For the 2012 Paris Session the LDW became a joint workshop on major disturbances on power system operation (C2 Study Group) and markets & regulation (C5 Study Group)
• For the last 6 Paris Sessions each LDW has attracted around 500 participants with approximately 10 events from around the world covering large interconnected power systems to small isolated systems and a range of different market designs. 
  • For example in 2022, (reduced participation due to Covid) presentations covered events in Europe, Japan, Israel, Australia (west coast), Australia (east coast), New Zealand and India,    
• Major events often affect both the operation of the power system and market of the region, but not always, and not all power systems are operated as disaggregated markets, for example if a local monopoly electricity utility runs the power system.  Power system events presented to LDWs have varied from disruption due to unexpected unstable operating conditions through to wide spread black-out.  Market impacts typically involve extreme wholesale prices for energy and ancillary services that are used to maintain safe and secure operation but have also considered disturbances to longer term investment signals.
• The focus of the workshops is to understand what went wrong in each case and importantly what was, or could be, done to prevent a recurrence.
• In 2022 it was noted that the reason for the events had shifted a little from primarily technical associated with changing generation technology due to decarbonisation to be include issues with coordination with external authorities during natural disasters such wildfire and cyclone conditions.
• The presentations selected for the 2024 LDW continue the trend from 2022 and include a mix of disturbances caused by reduced inertia / increasing participation of Inverter based resources and non-technical events including floods, wildfires and cyclones and the consequences of these events over market and energy prices.
• In 2024 presentations will be received from Poland, Scandinavia, Singapore, Australia (east coast), Alberta (Canada), The Netherlands, Brazil, Mozambique and India. In addition, there will be a recap of system events over the last 10 years.

Speakers

Greg
Thorpe

Flavio Rodrigues
De Miranda Alves