Good day

In my local paper there’s been an article in respect of a synchronous condenser being planned for connection to the grid.
I’ve tried reading up on what is, but i’m no electrical engineer.
However am i right in thinking that it’s effectively a standalone flywheel connected to the grid to provide inertia ( iirc this was the term used in the thread about the spanish blackout last year), and that there may be a need for more of these across the country as time passes?

https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2026/09/21/plan-for-synchronous-condenser-to-be-installed-on-farm-site-in-ramsgate/

"It will replace part of the solar farm already on the land with remaining solar panels due to be renewed."

Interesting - we were considering what kit should replace old wind turbines, when the economic moment came for modern upgrade. Much fewer, much larger, wider spaced, we thought. Alternatively, it seems, machinery that improves utilisation factor of existing generating plant is equivalent to, as good as or better than, more panels or turbines.

There was a lot of finger pointing about inertia following the Spanish blackout, but it turned out in the detailed investigation to be nothing to do with that. The cause was the voltage on the system got too high and there weren't measures in place to deal with that.


In Scotland there are now some grid batteries where the inverters can electronically replicate the action of syn cons, so we get the inertia and voltage control without needing a mechanical rotating flywheel. Likely to be replicated as cheaper.

I once worked at a place that had a large flywheel (6' diameter) on the incoming mains. It was intended to keep the power on for long enough for a diesel generator to start up. An incidental side-effect was the smoothest sine wave power I've ever seen.