FERC Approves California Grid Operator’s Rules to Enhance Integration of Renewable Power

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s revisions requiring equipment improvements for renewable power generators, facilitating higher integration of wind and solar power into the grid, according to a July 16 news release.

The changes will avoid “temporary and sporadic losses” of inverter-based generation connected to the grid. These generators will now be required to inject reactive power during low-voltage conditions, allowing for a minimum delay for frequency tripping and a quick return to ensure system reliability, the ISO said. The approval also requires inverter-based generators above 20-megawatts to store data for frequency and voltage events to inform future investigations.

The revisions follow recommendations from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. in response to an August 2016 incident when smoke from a wildfire tripped transmission lines in Southern California resulting nearly 1.2 gigawatts of solar power unexpectedly going offline.

Renewable energy accounted for about 29 percent of California’s power mix in 2018, according to the state’s Energy Commission.