On March 12, Dr. Zhan Changjiang, Deputy Chief Engineer of NR Electric, convened and initiated the first online meeting of B4.101 "Industrial Realization and Application of Grid-Forming Energy Storage System(GFM ESS)" of the B4 Energy Storage Working Group of the International Committee on Large Grids (CIGRE) Technical Committee on DC Systems and Power Electronics, with 38 representatives from 18 countries, including China, UK, Germany, France, USA and Canada, attending the meeting. The meeting was attended by 38 delegates from 18 countries including China, UK, Germany, France, USA and Canada etc.
At the meeting, Dr. Zhan Changjiang introduced the background and technical objectives of the establishment of the B4.101 Working Group, and the participants warmly exchanged their understanding of grid-forming energy storage technologies and the technical work they have already carried out, and also discussed the outline of the future technical reports of the Working Group, the guidelines and mechanism of the Working Group's members, and the plan of future meetings, etc., so as to form a consensus for the formal development of the subsequent work.
CIGRE was founded in 1921 in Paris, France. The purpose of CIGRE is to promote the international exchange of technology and information on power generation, high-voltage transmission, and large power grids, and has 16 technical committees covering all core areas of the power system. CIGRE attaches great importance to the study of new science and technology in the development trend of the power system, and the technical committees set up working groups to draw on and utilize the professional research of global experts to address the existing and future challenges facing the power system. CIGRE attaches great importance to the research of new science and technology in the development trend of electric power system, and the working groups set up by the Technical Committee draw on and utilize the professional research of experts around the world to solve the existing and future challenges faced by the electric power system, and the work undertaken by the CIGRE working groups represents the grasp of the major technological direction of the future electric power system in the international arena, and the technical reports formed will usually be transformed into the international technical guidelines or even the IEC standards, which will guide the industry's technical development.
The Working Group B4.101 was approved by the Chairman of the Technical Committee on October 31, 2023, with the main purpose of systematically researching, discussing and summarizing the basic definitions and functional requirements of grid-forming energy storage systems, control technologies, engineering applications, as well as providing future development prospects, in order to cope with the development of large-scale renewable energy sources, and provide technical guidance and reference to the development of GFM ESSaround the world.
NR Electric is the earliest research organization to start systematic research on the application of grid-forming technology in the field of energy storage. Based on long-term service in the power system and deep understanding of the operating mechanism of the power system, NR Electric realized at an early stage, energy storage has a power supply and load flexible controlling characteristics. GFM ESS can be fast and accurate control, used as a highly efficient and multi-faceted regulation of the support resources for the stable operation of the future power system to play an irreplaceable role. In more than ten years of energy storage engineering practice, NR Electric has gradually clarified and defined the real connotation of GFM ESS, and effectively verified the control function and parameter indexes in the corresponding engineering practice. Starting from 2022, NR grid-forming energy storage technology has been recognized by the industry and started to be applied on a large scale, and has implemented and undertaken dozens of engineering projects so far.
Based on NR extensive research and engineering practice in the field of grid-forming energy storage, in September 2023, Dr. Zhan formally put forward the idea and proposal of the grid-forming energy storage working group to the CIGRE B4 technical committee, which was recognized and supported by the chairman of the technical committee and representatives of national committees. The formal establishment and work of this working group also marks that the grid-forming energy storage, has become one of the technological development directions recognized by the international authoritative technical organizations, which will make important contribution to the wide application of grid-forming energy storage in the future electric power system.