Eli5: how will a power grid that is mostly powered by many non synchronous renewable generators (solar and wind etc) remain stable, when the stability of the grid is currently reliant on the collective inertia of the large scale base load generators of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants?
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The real ELI5 answer is: we don’t know at scale. But it is being investigated by a number of groups, namely the NERC and their Inverter Based Relay Working Group (link below).
Others have mentioned grid forming inverters can “reset” the grid in the event of a blackout, but I think your question is about the ability to withstand adverse events… like if a hurricane comes through Florida and everything is inverter-based will we need to worry about the whole Eastern Interconnection blacking out (basically everything East of Texas)? And we can’t say because it really isn’t close to happening.
Inverter-based resources are growing at an unprecedented rate and you see headlines about how “Texas was run entirely off wind”, but the reality is we’re not past a critical tipping point yet and utilities are still building synchronous generation (mainly gas for a variety of reasons).
Climate change is the buzz word for renewables, but for non-environmental government bodies, if (likely when) we do transition blackout resistance/recovery, transmission infrastructure (to get the power from the middle of nowhere to cities) and energy storage (because wind and sunshine are intermittent) are the biggest hurdles that aren’t getting much media attention.
(On mobile, formatting, etc..)
https://www.nerc.com/comm/RSTC/Pages/IRPWG.aspx
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