The RenewEconomy article Tesla big battery outsmarts lumbering coal units after Loy Yang trips details the recently installed Tesla battery in Queensland Australia's response to a sudden change in line frequency of the power grid.
Why would a frequency change be the thing that the battery responds automatically to?
Naively thinking, since the grid may have several different power sources operating independently but connected to the same grid, wouldn't they all be designed to remain synchronized to a stable frequency? Loading might lower the voltage, but I'm surprised the frequency would be allowed to drift.
Last Thursday, one of the biggest coal units in Australia, Loy Yang A 3, tripped without warning at 1.59am, with the sudden loss of 560MW and causing a slump in frequency on the network.
What happened next has stunned electricity industry insiders and given food for thought over the near to medium term future of the grid, such was the rapid response of the Tesla big battery to an event that happened nearly 1,000km away.
Even before the Loy Yang A unit had finished tripping, the 100MW/129MWh had responded, injecting 7.3MW into the network to help arrest a slump in frequency that had fallen below 49.80Hertz.
Data from AEMO (and gathered above by Dylan McConnell from the Climate and Energy College) shows that the Tesla big battery responded four seconds ahead of the generator contracted at that time to provide FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services), the Gladstone coal generator in Queensland.
