| Grid stability
to update older systems. Still, the value of a relatively low-cost and easy-to-deploy tool that increases stability, reduces the risk of controller interactions spiraling into oscillations, and supports higher penetrations of inverter-based resources is undeniable.
Application to microgrids Microgrids are often seen as a solution to the grid stability issues outlined above, and the UD-STATCOM is also highly applicable to those. One of the strongest incentives for microgrids is economic: collocating generation and load removes the need for long transmission lines, which are expensive to build and maintain. In remote regions — such as parts of Canada where I’m from — connecting communities via thousands of kilometers of line can be quite costly for relatively low utilisation. Microgrids can deliver reliable supply at far lower lifecycle cost in these settings. Even in dense urban areas, where building new transmission is increasingly difficult, the logic remains: bringing generation closer to consumption reduces the infrastructure burden and can unlock faster deployment of clean energy.
A UD-STATCOM is installed at the middle of the transmission line and is in operation. As soon as oscillations appear, the UD-STATCOM absorbs energy and effectively damps the oscillations.
But, at the end of the day, a microgrid is still a grid. As it incorporates solar, wind, storage, and demand-side resources, it must be designed for stability, particularly as resource outputs and load profiles vary throughout the day. The same oscillation dynamics that challenge the transmission system can arise within microgrids as controllers interact. Here, the UD-STATCOM can serve as the microgrid’s stability backbone, suppressing oscillations and safeguarding power quality. There’s also a pathway for microgrids to provide ancillary services to the wider system, with damping as a defined and compensated service. While the market constructs for this are still emerging, the concept points toward a future in which stability assurance is an explicit product that distributed assets can offer.
What’s next?
We are working with manufacturers on implementation of the UD-STATCOM with the goal of making the upgrade as straightforward as possible, so that once released, adoption is quick and seamless. For asset owners and grid
operators, the practical next steps are clear: ● Assess where oscillatory risks are most acute: high concentrations of IBR generation, known resonance points, or interties that have exhibited low damping ratios.
● Engage with vendors and technology partners to define pilot deployments where the stability benefits can be measured under realistic operating scenarios. Early pilots can validate performance across frequency ranges, response latencies, and interaction with other control loops.
UD-STATCOM is enabled 500 ms after the step change in wind speed to demonstrate its effectiveness. As soon as the UD-STATCOM is enabled the oscillations are damped out
As the grid grows more distributed, more digital, and more dynamic, stability will be increasingly challenged. Thus, stability, reliability, and agility must be threaded into the fabric of our infrastructure. Oscillation damping will be a critical part of keeping our grids healthy.
www.modernpowersystems.com | April 2026 | 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
