Litgrid, the operator of Lithuania’s electricity transmission system, has completed a project to install an Automatic Generation Control System. This is one of the most important projects preparing for synchronization with the networks of continental Europe. This software will help ensure stability of the country’s electricity system and open up additional opportunities for market participants to earn money by providing balancing services.
“The automatic generation control system helps dispatchers provide real-time assurance of the most important parameters of the power grid – production and consumption balance and frequency. Implementing the system was one of the prerequisites for joining the continental European synchronous grid. The automatic manufacturing control system has now been successfully installed” – says Rokas Masiulis, Head of Litgrid.
The updated shipment control system, which already has an automatic generation control (AGV) module, was installed by Litgrid last October. By the end of the year, additional functionality was implemented in the dispatcher training module. This week, the project is fully completed after approval of its report.
The intelligent AGV system provides automatic frequency recovery and balance control of the electrical system – it constantly monitors the parameters of the electrical network and calculates the required switching power every few seconds. Then, in accordance with it, the AGV system sends commands to service providers to switch on the reserve, thus quickly compensating for the deviation in the balance of electricity and restoring the frequency of the electrical system to the nominal value of 50 Hz.
Once synchronized with the grids of continental Europe, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will be responsible for independently managing the balance of electricity production, consumption and frequency on their networks. Therefore, the AGV will help regulate Lithuania’s electricity system in such a way as to prevent imbalances that could affect the entire synchronous zone of continental Europe.
A balancing service will be available to all market participants with flexible equipment and meeting the technical requirements. The installed AGV system and market mechanisms that are being developed will allow electricity market participants to make additional use of flexible equipment to produce, receive or store and derive revenue. The order for the automatic balancing service of the frequency restoration reserve is planned to be completed in the third quarter of this year. Pending synchronization with the grids of continental Europe, an interconnection with the European Picasso balancing energy market platform for automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) is planned.
In total, Litgrid has already implemented 8 synchronization projects. These are: expansion of the 330 kV Bitėnai transformer station, construction of the 110 kV Pagėgiai-Bitėnai line, reconstruction of the 330 kV Lithuanian power plant-Vilnius line, expansion of the LitPol Link, trial of the emergency state of connection to the grid of continental Europe by the synchronous link “LitPol Link”, optimization of the transmission network of Northeast Lithuania, trial of isolated Lithuania operation and installation of the AGV system.
To date, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, along with Russia and Belarus, operate under the IPS/UPS system, where in Russia the frequency of electricity is centrally regulated. The operators of the three Baltic countries have agreed to synchronize with the networks of continental Europe in February 2025.
Synchronization projects carried out by the operators of the Baltic States and Polish electricity transmission systems are partly financed by the European Union from the European Infrastructure Network Fund.
Source : Litgrid
