What Is Grid-Forming Technology? How Its Migration from High-Voltage to Low-Voltage Grids Will Revolutionize the Reactive Power Compensation Industry?

In today's world, where new energy sources are reshaping the global power landscape, a cutting-edge technology originating from high-voltage power grids—Grid-Forming Technology—is becoming a key force in ensuring the safety and stability of the power grid. Simply put, Grid-Forming Technology, also known as Grid-Forming Control, enables power electronic devices such as photovoltaic inverters, energy storage converters, and static var generators to mimic or even replace the core functions of traditional synchronous generators. Grid-Forming Technology no longer passively "follows" the voltage and frequency of the power grid; instead, it actively "builds" a stable voltage and frequency reference, providing crucial inertial and voltage support to the grid like a "virtual synchronous generator." During grid disturbances, Grid-Forming converters can instantaneously provide transient overcurrent several times their rated value. This controlled short-circuit current contribution actively supports grid voltage, a fundamental fault ride-through (FRT) capability. In contrast, traditional Grid-Following converters may lose synchronization and trip offline for self-protection under the same conditions.

Era Transformation: An Inevitable Trend from High Voltage to Low Voltage

The expansion of grid-based technologies from the high-voltage side to the low-voltage distribution and user side is an inevitable result of energy transition. According to the data predicted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in mid-2025, global renewable energy generation was expected to surpass coal as the largest source of electricity as early as the end of 2025. Subsequently, a formal report released in October 2025 by Ember, a well-known UK-based energy think tank, confirmed the accuracy of this prediction. The essences of new energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy are actually electrical equipment. Their large-scale replacement of traditional thermal and hydroelectric synchronous generators has caused the power system to gradually lose its original physical inertia for maintaining stability, becoming "low inertia and weak support." Under this physical reality of "low inertia and weak support" in the grid connection of new energy, the challenge of rebuilding a completely new, proactive stability control system is particularly prominent and severe in low-voltage new energy scenarios such as industrial and commercial parks. This is because these areas concentrate both the sources of grid fluctuations (such as distributed photovoltaics, energy storage, and charging piles) and the precision loads most sensitive to power quality and intolerant of any errors.

High-voltage power grids pioneered the use of Grid-Forming Energy Storage and Grid-Forming SVGs (Static Var Generators) to address the "low inertia and weak support" issues in new energy power systems in earlier years. For example, Xinjiang and Tibet in China have introduced policies to encourage or even mandate the configuration of Grid-Forming Energy Storage for "high-voltage new energy transmission grids" connected to large-scale wind and solar power bases. The successful demonstration projects, including the world's first Grid-Forming photovoltaic power station in China's Shandong Province (the Huangjiaguzi Grid-Forming PV Station) and the offshore wind farms with "black-start" capability, have validated the feasibility of Grid-Forming technology in high-voltage power grids. With the high-voltage backbone grid, acting as the "cardiovascular center," having stabilized itself through grid-based technology, the downward penetration of grid-based technology to the low-voltage user side has become a clear global trend in order to build a more robust "capillary network," fundamentally rewriting the rules of the low-voltage reactive power compensation industry. Once the high-voltage transmission network, which functions as the "cardiovascular hub," has been stabilized by Grid-Forming technology, a clear global trend has emerged: this technology is now extending downwards to the low-voltage side to build a more resilient "capillary network." This shift is fundamentally rewriting the rules of the low-voltage reactive power compensation industry.

Functional Revolution: From "Preventing Diseases before they Occur" to "Serving as the Foundation"

Traditional low-voltage reactive power compensation devices, such as static var generators, play roles similar to "power grid doctors," with their functional boundaries being "governance"—that is, compensating and correcting phenomena when power grids experience "symptoms" such as harmonics and voltage fluctuations. However, with the integration of Grid-Forming Technology into the low-voltage side, these devices will advance to become "power grid micro-cornerstones," and their functions will undergo the following three fundamental leaps.

The first fundamental leap is the shift from "passive governance" to "active construction." Low-voltage reactive power compensation devices no longer need to rely on an absolutely stable external grid as a reference. In scenarios such as industrial or commercial microgrids or areas with weak grid infrastructure, these devices can proactively establish stable voltage and frequency "anchors," providing a grid-connection benchmark for local loads and other distributed energy resources. They can even support critical loads in forming a safe and stable "power island" when the main grid fails.

The second fundamental leap is the upgrade from "static compensation" to "dynamic support." Grid-Forming low-voltage reactive power compensation devices possesses a powerful transient overload capability, generating instantaneous overload currents that can reach three times or more of the rated current. Within milliseconds of a voltage sag caused by a fault such as a short circuit in the low-voltage grid, the Grid-Forming low-voltage reactive power compensation devices can proactively inject massive short-circuit current to robustly support the voltage, thereby preventing the collapse of the entire local low-voltage distribution system. This is the transient support capability that traditional low-voltage reactive power compensation devices cannot match.

The third fundamental leap refers to the evolution from an "independent node" to the "system core." Future grid-forming low-voltage reactive power compensation devices will become the intelligent hub of the "PV-Storage-Charging" microgrid ecosystem in industrial and commercial parks. These future grid-forming low-voltage reactive power compensation devices will not only manage power quality but will also coordinate and dispatch various resources such as photovoltaics, energy storage systems, and charging piles. They will enable optimized internal operation of the microgrid, seamless grid-connected and islanded mode switching, and the crucial "black-start" capability—that is, acting as the initial power source to restore the operation of the entire local network after a complete outage of the local low-voltage distribution system. This signifies that every single low-voltage reactive power compensation device will transform from a mere "cost center" into a "critical asset" that ensures production continuity, enhances the integration of new energy, and creates comprehensive value.

Insights and Actions of Geyue Electric

Facing this profound industry transformation revolutionized by Grid-Forming technology, Geyue Electric clearly understands that the true breakthrough lies not only in the leap of control algorithms but, more critically, in the absolute reliability of the hardware foundation that carries these advanced algorithms. The instantaneous high-current output, frequent power response, and stability under extreme operating conditions demanded by Grid-Forming functions impose unprecedented and stringent requirements on the performance of core power modules, especially magnetic components. This is because any control distortion caused by magnetic core saturation, inductance drift, or thermal instability could nullify the sophisticated Grid-Forming algorithms, rendering all efforts futile.

To this end, Geyue Electric is actively embracing the trend of Grid-Forming Technology extending from the high-voltage side to the low-voltage side with a dual-drive strategy. In terms of technology integration, our company is collaborating with leading research institutions to conduct preliminary research on the integration of Grid-Forming Control algorithms and next-generation intelligent power modules, aiming to develop future-oriented low-voltage reactive power compensation system solutions with proactive support capabilities.

More fundamentally, our company is continuously strengthening the lifeline of hardware reliability. We believe that the upper limit of all intelligent capabilities depends on the lower limit of physical hardware performance. Our proprietary core components, exemplified by the CKSG series high-performance iron-core series reactors, utilize high-quality, low-loss silicon steel sheets and a unique multi-segment uniform air-gap epoxy curing technology. This meticulous craftsmanship ensures that the inductance value maintains extremely high linearity and superior anti-saturation capability under severe current surges, wide-band harmonic interference, and long-term operation. This provides an irreplaceable physical guarantee for future converters with integrated grid-connected functions to achieve millisecond-level precise control and withstand instantaneous overloads. The rigorous quality control implemented in our modern fully automated production lines is precisely to forge the most reliable foundation for the "Grid-Forming" era of low-voltage power grids.

In conclusion, the expansion of Grid-Forming Technology from high voltage to low voltage is not a simple technological transfer, but a paradigm shift from "following the grid" to "building the grid." It will propel the low-voltage reactive power compensation industry from behind the scenes to the forefront, from a supporting role to a leading one, becoming the main force in building the resilience of the new power system's peripheral systems. Geyue Electric has already laid a solid foundation in this transformation and is ready to embark on the next phase of the future. Any questions you may have about low-voltage reactive power compensation can be answered at info@gyele.com.cn.