Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technology has become the cheapest available generation resource in many areas and VRE shares have drastically increased in a number of countries. This development has been enabled by innovations in both VRE technology and in power system operation. It is accompanied by changing Grid Code requirements for grid users to safely connect to the system.

The new report from IRENA – developed with support of Energynautics – represents an updated version of the 2016 report “Scaling up Variable Renewable Power: The Role of Grid Codes”, which was developed by the same team and has since become one of the standard introductory documents to the topic.
The report provides practical guidance to policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders involved in designing Grid Codes, in particular aiming to support actors in developing countries.

Since 2016, VRE have become increasingly capable of taking over duties from conventional generation. VRE participate in new ancillary services such as Fast Frequency Response (FFR). Technical innovations such as grid-forming inverters and a large scale battery energy storage rollout are complementing transformations in the regulatory and economic frameworks, with market-based ancillary service approaches often favored over strict grid code requirements. The new report will take account of these developments.

See also our 2016 project reference as well as the original report for further information.