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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Electrical engineer here. Bigger scale wind and solar are required to aid auxiliary services, which include grid stability. Like a power plant with synchronous generators, they will have to put more power into the grid if frequency drops and remove more if frequency rises according to their droop ratio. This means the plants need to have a reserve of energy available and therefore can’t always be as efficient as possible unless their services are covered by someone else.
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