Date of Award

8-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering (Holcomb Dept. of)

Committee Chair/Advisor

Ramtin Hadidi

Committee Member

Johan Enslin

Committee Member

Kevin Tomsovic

Committee Member

Umesh Vaidya

Abstract

The increasing penetration of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs) in power systems has significantly altered system dynamics, reducing the system's effective rotational inertia and challenging frequency stability. Accurate online inertia estimation is essential for maintaining system reliability under these evolving conditions. This paper introduces a robust methodology for online inertia estimation using ambient data collected during normal system operation. The proposed method employs a state-space model to represent system dynamics and introduces synthetic step changes to simulate disturbances. By analyzing the frequency response and applying advanced signal processing techniques, the methodology estimates system inertia without requiring real large-scale disturbances. The approach is validated on the IEEE 39-bus systems under various load profiles. A detailed sensitivity analysis highlights the impact of window length, sampling rates, and noise on estimation accuracy, emphasizing the methodology’s applicability in renewable-dominated grids.

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0003-3040-8034

Available for download on Monday, August 31, 2026

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