New review details how offshore wind farms can stabilize Europe's grid

A new paper from Zhenghua Xu and colleagues at DTU (Technical University of Denmark) provides a thorough review of how offshore wind power plants connected via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC-OWPPs) can deliver fast frequency services to European power grids. As the EU pushes toward climate neutrality, large-scale offshore wind clusters are being built far from shore, making HVDC the transmission backbone. Simultaneously, the phase-out of conventional synchronous generators and the reduction of renewable-energy subsidies are creating an urgent need for alternative sources of grid stability services.

The review focuses on three critical fast frequency services: inertia support, fast frequency reserve (FFR), and frequency containment reserve (FCR). It compares mandatory grid-code requirements from ENTSO-E and ACER with commercial products offered by system operators like NESO (UK), TenneT (Netherlands/Germany), and Energinet (Denmark). While HVDC-OWPPs can theoretically provide these services using stored kinetic energy from turbines and DC-link capacitors, practical implementation faces hurdles: limited fast-response capacity, the complexity of optimizing multiple services simultaneously, asymmetry in inertia provision (faster ramping up than down), and overall coordination of the HVDC system. The paper calls for further research on control algorithms and market designs to unlock the full potential of offshore wind as a grid stabilizer.