Search

State-of-charge (SoC) imbalance and bus voltage deviation are two of the main problems in autonomous dc microgrids. Based on this concern, this paper presents an improved dual-quadrant SoC weighted control strategy and a distributed optimization control method to achieve SoC balance, ensuring accurate power-sharing and bus voltage recovery. Firstly, this paper couples the injected/released power with the current SoC and observed average SoC value to weight the droop coefficient, which is based on the charge/discharge mode for the energy storage system. Then a secondary controller is designed based on distributed optimal control to eliminate the bus voltage deviation caused by the line impedance difference. The proposed optimal control method optimizes the average bus voltage to the nominal value and achieve accurate power-sharing by constructing the correlated variables and voltage independent intermediate variables exchanged among bulk energy storage units (ESUs). Since the voltage observer cannot accurately observe the true average bus voltage under the communication delay, the proposed distributed optimal control method without the voltage observer can ensure that the average bus voltage is optimized to the nominal value, thus improving the robustness of the control system. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified in Simulink/MATLAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage stability has always been a hot topic in power system research. Traditional On-Load Tap-Charger (OLTC) transformer is considered to play a very important role in the system voltage stability. However, in the heavy load of distribution network, the tap adjustment of OLTC transformer will lead to the shift of critical stable operating point, which bring the "negative voltage regulating effect" of voltage adjustment, and even cause the instability of system voltage. This paper presents a Flexible On-Load Voltage Regulation (OLVR) transformer based on power electronic technology. The Flexible On-Load Voltage Regulation (OLVR) transformer is a combination of Power Electronic Converter (PEC) and OLTC transformer, which can realize voltage step-less regulation and reactive power regulation. Meanwhile, the paper presents the equivalent models of distribution network with Flexible OLVR transformer and analyzes the critical operating point. Through the step-less voltage regulation control of the Flexible OLVR transformer, the negative voltage regulation effect of the transformer in on-load voltage regulation is avoided, and the voltage stability of the distribution network is improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses a real-time optimization-based reference calculation integrated with a control structure for Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) operating under normal and constrained situations (where it has reached current and/or voltage limitations, as it may occur during system faults). Firstly, a nonlinear optimization problem has been developed in which it prioritizes to satisfy the AC grid current set-points imposed by the transmission System Operator (TSO). The constrained nonlinear optimization problem is formulated based on the steady-state model of the MMC, whereby the prioritization is achieved through distinct weights defined in the Objective Function’s (OF) terms. The resultant optimization problem, however, is highly nonlinear requiring high computation burden to be solved in real-time. To cope with this issue, this paper applies a Linear Time-Varying (LTV) approximation, which permits to represent the nonlinear dynamics of the system as constant parameters, while a Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) system is used to formulate the optimization constraints. The converter’s current references are determined in real-time by solving a constrained linearized optimization problem at each control time step, which considers the TSO’s demands, the current MMC operating point and its physical limitations. Theoretical analyses comparing the responses of the linear and nonlinear optimization problems are performed to validate the accuracy of the LTV approximation. Finally, the linearized-optimization problem is integrated with the MMC controllers, evaluated under different AC and DC network conditions and compared with conventional control strategies, where it is shown that the presented method can be potentially employed to obtain the MMC current references for distinct network scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents extensive verification, sensitivity, and application studies for an online substation grounding grid condition monitoring method proposed in a companion paper. The studies are conducted using a realistic substation grounding grid and associated feeder configurations commonly encountered in North America. The verification studies confirm that the proposed method is able to estimate the substation grounding impedances with acceptable accuracy. Main factors impacting measurement accuracy are identified and quantified through sensitivity studies. The findings lead to a guide for the implementation and operation of the proposed method. An application case is presented to demonstrate how the gradual deterioration of substation grounding grid can be monitored using the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-phase cascaded H-bridge rectifier (CHBR) is widely used in high power and high voltage applications. This paper focuses on the load removed from the DC port of a three-phase CHBR, which can cause single-phase DC-port voltage unbalance issues and three-phases DC-port voltage unbalance issues. This paper proposes a voltage balance control strategy based on negative sequence current injection for three-phase CHBR to deal with the unbalance problem. An individual DC-port voltage control strategy is designed to balance the DC-port voltage in the faulty phase. In addition, a negative sequence current injection control strategy is responsible for balancing the DC-port voltages in the three phase CHBR. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed voltage control strategy based on negative sequence current injection is verified by the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the traditional voltage and current double closed-loop control mode, the inverter management strategy for photovoltaic grid connection has insufficient anti-interference ability and slow response. This paper proposes a control strategy that applies adaptive-linear active disturbance rejection control (A–LADRC) to the outer loop control to achieve the purpose of anti-interference. The control strategy uses the linear extended state observer (LESO) to evaluate external interference caused by the change of external conditions and the internal disturbance caused by parameter uncertainty. PD controller compensates the disturbances and adds adaptive control to simplify parameter adjustment. Finally, this paper takes advantage of Lyapunov theory to conduct stability analysis. Compared with the traditional linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC), the superiority of this control strategy is verified. The experimental results show that the system has better control performance and anti-interference ability in the face of various disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of a voltage source inverter (VSI) depends on its output LC filter and the PWM modulator delay. The VSI model includes serial equivalent resistance based on the resistances of the active inverter bridge transistors, the filter coil winding, and additional PCB elements, such as traces and connectors, in addition to the large equivalent resistances that result from power losses in the coil core and switches. These dynamic power losses depend on the switching frequency and the inverter load. This paper investigates the change in equivalent serial resistance that occurs if the standard Si-MOSFET switches are replaced with wide bandgap (WBG) transistors with correspondingly lower equivalent serial resistance. The paper further investigates how such a change influences the design of the controller, given that replacement of the switches shifts the roots of the closed-loop characteristic equation. Theoretical analyses of the influence of equivalent serial resistance for a multi-input single-output passivity-based controller and a single-input single-output coefficient diagram method are also presented. These analyses are applied to both types of switches. Two methods are used to measure the serial equivalent resistance for a given VSI using Si and WBG switches. The possibility of replacing switches with WBG technology in existing inverters was assessed, and the corresponding controller adjustment that would be required. The theoretical analysis is verified via the use of an experimental VSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel microgrid secondary control method based on distributed sliding mode control, addressing the issue of reactive power sharing in islanded microgrids. Acknowledging the complications posed by feeder impedance mismatch, the traditional droop control mechanism fails to facilitate efficient reactive power sharing. Utilizing a distributed framework, this paper initially introduces a reactive power ratio observer, enabling the observation of global average reactive power without the need for precise reactive power calculation as required in a conventional centralized control setup. Subsequently, employing the devised reactive power ratio observer, sliding mode control is integrated to achieve effective reactive power sharing. Furthermore, this paper broadens its scope to encompass both reactive power sharing and voltage restoration, resulting in the design of a comprehensive controller. Notably, the proposed distributed sliding mode controller not only achieves accurate reactive power sharing but also exhibits significant resilience in the face of load disturbances. The simulation results conducted under various scenarios effectively validate the efficacy of the proposed distributed sliding mode control strategy. • A distributed sliding mode control for microgrid secondary voltage control. • Reactive power ratio observer for global reactive power calculation. • Comprehensively consider average voltage restoration and reactive power sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the voltage exceeding problem caused by the introduction of Photovoltaic (PV) in Active distribution network (ADN), a comprehensive electrical distance index was established considering active and reactive voltage sensitivity, and the uncertainty of traditional PV probability density function (PDF) was optimized by random simulation method. The electrical distance expectation matrix between nodes was established by discretization of PV output probability distribution characteristics, and the ADN system was partitioned by affinity propagation (AP) algorithm. Taking active power loss as the objective function, the non-convex reactive power optimization control problem is transformed into a convex quadratic programming problem by LinDistFlow equation. An improved alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) which adaptively adjusts the penalty parameters is used to convert the finite boundaries of adjacent regions into data. By coordinating on-load tap-changer (OLTC), capacitor banks (CBs), and PV inverters on different time scales, the fast optimal control of global voltage in ADN is realized. The proposed method is tested on IEEE 33-bus and IEEE 123-bus distribution systems. After the optimization control algorithm described in this paper, the system network loss was reduced by 3.88%. Compared with the semi-definite programming relaxation, the calculation speed of LinDistFlow equation is increased by 72.2%. The results fully verify the feasibility and high efficiency of the control strategy described in this paper. • A network partition method based on affinity propagation algorithm considering the photovoltaic uncertainty is proposed. • The traditional probability density function (PDF) of PV was updated by the random simulation method. • LinDistflow equation is used to achieve the conversion of the active power loss minimization model. • The ADMM algorithm with penalty parameter adaptive control is used to realize the distributed control of the ADN system. •.The voltage/var control schemes of OLTC, CBs and PV inverters are presented through multi-time scale scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Uncertainties in the power system make its state unpredictable. • Power system predictability can be improved by optimal tap setting of transformers. • Increasing predictability helps the operator to make decisions with high assurance. • power system predictability can be improved without considerably affecting losses. In recent years, renewable energy sources (RESs) such as wind turbines (WTs) have received much attention in both the operating and planning of power systems. These sources have caused many uncertainties in the operation of power systems due to their unpredictable nature. Mentioned uncertainties besides load demands uncertainty, and possible failures in power system components, make the system state unpredictable. The operational decisions are completely challenging in these situations. Any efforts to increase the network operator awareness from the system state will be completely valuable for making accurate decisions. This paper tries to increase the predictability of the power system state through optimal regulating of the voltage setpoint of automatic tap changer transformers and generators besides the reactive power of shunt capacitors. However, conventional objectives such as decreasing losses are considered, simultaneously. This paper uses the K-medoids data clustering method to evaluate the effect of uncertainties. Also, the correlation between input uncertain variables is considered and handled by the Cholesky decomposition technique combined with the Nataf transformation technique. The multi-objective optimization problem is tackled using an improved version of the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). To ensure for validity of the results, studies are repeated using the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm as another evolutionary-based method. The proposed approach is applied to the IEEE 14 and 30 bus standard system. The results showed that the predictability of the power system can be considerably increased while keeping the losses approximately at its minimum amount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotube FET (CNFET) technology emerges as a promising replacement for MOS technology, offering novel circuit design capabilities with its multi-threshold voltage feature. This paper introduces a novel Schmitt trigger designed based on multi-threshold voltages, allowing direct and precise adjustments of VTL (lower threshold voltage) and VTH (higher threshold voltage) through two external control voltages. The VTL and VTH are nearly equal to these external voltages. These features result in the introduction of two new circuits for nanotechnology in this paper: the hardware implementation of the Hysteresis quantizer and the implementation of the voltage-to-period converter (V2P) circuit. Simulation results using Hspice software and the Stanford 32 nm library show that the proposed circuit exhibits considerable linear control ability, with a 49 % PDP improvement compared to other designs. Additionally, the first hardware implementation of the Hysteresis quantizer in nanoelectronics and the voltage-to-period converter demonstrate proper operation, marking a significant milestone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a systematic method using the hybrid automata (HA) model for supervisory management design of power systems to increase stability. The HA model monitors the behavior of the power system and derives a model from which the system's stability is evaluated. In the modeling framework, the hybrid system formalism regulates continuous dynamics and discrete switching behavior. The proposed method extracts a system's control graph, state space, and transfer function, facilitating voltage stability evaluation. A discrete event system (DES) is employed to manage disturbances resulting from load surges, generator outages, capacitor banks, and under-load tap changer (ULTC) transformers. The ULTC transformer and the capacitor bank are utilized to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed supervisory controller design approach in the presence of distributed generation (DG). Simulation results showed the effectiveness of the HA-based supervisory controller in improving the control and voltage stability, as demonstrated by the generator rotor angle and bus voltage responses, power system eigenvalues, and the stability theorem of linear switching systems. The proposed method provides a promising solution for managing power system stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable distributed generators (RDGs) have made inroads in recent power systems owing to the environmental effect of traditional generators and their high consumption of electric energy. The widespread use of RDGs has been a recent trend in numerous nations. The integration complexity and the intermittent nature of RDGs can undermine the security and stability of microgrids (µGs). In order to guarantee the effectiveness, dependability, and quality of the electricity delivered, appropriate control methods are necessary. RDGs are being included in single-phase microgrids (1Ø-µGs) to generate energy closer to the user. The creation of low-voltage µGs allows for increased energy efficiency and improved electrical supply dependability. Nevertheless, the combined power pumped by DGs might create power quality (PQ) difficulties, especially during off-grid operations. The three biggest problems with PQ are reactive-power swapping, voltage and frequency (VαF) variations, and current and voltage (IαV) harmonic falsification associated with 1Ø-µGs; these conditions may affect the operation of µGs. The designed and implemented (primary–secondary control systems) in RDGs are the prevalent strategy discussed in the literature for mitigating these PQ difficulties. Furthermore, emerging grid innovations like the electrical spring offer viable alternatives that might reduce some problems through decentralized operation. Although several research studies have addressed PQ concerns in 3Ø-µGs, not all of these solutions are immediately applicable to their 1Ø equivalents. In this paper, the state of the art and a performance comparison of several PQ enhancement strategies of µGs is discussed. Additionally, the primary difficulties and several PQ approach tactics are highlighted. All vital features from high-quality published articles and new dimensions in this field are presented for mitigating PQ difficulties in 1Ø-µGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with unified method of voltage and frequency control of an interconnected three unequal-area systems with the Automatic Load Frequency Control (ALFC) and Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) loop. Every area comprises a reheat thermal and the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant. Concerning the pragmatic system, adequate governor dead band (GDB), boiler system, and generation rate constraint (GRC) are considered in all individual plants. The Tilt-Integral-Derivative with Filter (TIDF) controller is considered in the ancillary controller of the ALFC loops, core controller of the AVR loops, and air-flow, temperature controller of the CCGT Plants. The optimized controller gains are realized through the metaheuristic algorithm called Harris Hawks Optimization algorithm along with the integral square error as a performance index considering a 1% step load perturbation in Area-1. The critical analysis shows that the performance of the TIDF controller is superlative to the classical controllers, such as PI and PID, concerning all time-domain indices. With the TIDF controller, the impacts of the AVR loop, boiler system, and the CCGT plants are analyzed on the unified ALFC and AVR study separately. Sensitivity analysis unveils the sturdiness of the TIDF controller against the change in magnitude of the step load perturbation in Area-1. Finally, the proposed unified ALFC and AVR system of three unequal-area CCGT-thermal plants is analyzed with the OPAL-RT hardware set-up for its real-time validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this paper, a novel feedback architecture of true random number generator based on tetrahedral ring oscillator is proposed. The random raw bits are fed back to produce control voltages, which control the transmission gates in ring oscillators. Since random fluctuations of the control voltages increase the phase jitter of the oscillator, this architecture improves the bit rate and randomness of random sequence. Besides, a post‐processor is designed to enhance the randomness further. The circuit is implemented in TSMC 40‐nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, and it takes up an area of 85 × 51 μm. Measurement results show that the random number sequences pass the statistical randomness tests, with a low power consumption of 67 μW, high speed of 45 Mbps, and low energy efficiency of 1.48 pJ/bit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decarbonisation of the electricity grid is expected to create new electricity flows. As a result, it may require that network planners make a significant amount of investments in the electricity grids over the coming decades so as to allow the accommodation of these new flows in a way that both the thermal and voltage network constraints are respected. These investments may include a portfolio of infrastructure assets consisting of traditional technologies and smart grid technologies. One associated key challenge is the presence of uncertainty around the location, the timing, and the amount of new demand or generation connections. This uncertainty unavoidably introduces risk into the investment decision-making process as it may lead to inefficient investments and inevitably give rise to excessive investment costs. Smart grid technologies have properties that enable them to be regarded as investment options, which can allow network planners to hedge against the aforementioned uncertainty. This paper focuses on key smart technologies by providing a critical literature review and presenting the latest mathematical modelling that describes their operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical power system operators (SOs) are free to realize grid operations according to their own strategies. However, because resulting power flows also depend on the actions of neighboring SOs, appropriate coordination is needed to improve the resulting system states from an overall perspective and from an individual SO perspective. In this paper, a new method is presented that preserves the data integrity of the SOs and their independent operation of their grids. This method is compared with a non-coordinated local control and another sequential method that has been identified as the most promising distributed optimization method in previous research. The time series simulations use transformer tap positioning as well as generation unit voltage setpoints and reactive power injections as flexibilities. The methods are tested on a multi-voltage, multi-SO, realistic benchmark grid with different objective combinations of the SOs. In conclusion, the results of the new method are much closer to the theoretical optimum represented by central optimization than those of the other two methods. Furthermore, the introduced method integrates a sophisticated procedure to provide fairness between SOs that is missing in other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the energy savings achieved by using a particular three-phase permanent-magnet motor drive control strategy in an elevator application. The proposed control methodology, based on a particular variable-amplitude variable-frequency voltage control pattern technique implemented in a permanent-magnet motor, is compared to a standard induction motor elevator case. By adopting appropriate simultaneous changes in the amplitude and frequency of the motor voltage, high speeds can be attained in conjunction with smooth starting and stopping actions involving a reduced supply current during the respective movement of the elevator. In addition, this method exhibits a high power factor with a good driving quality. The control technique introduced achieves the levelling-off of the floor and the group movement of the system using in the programmable memory a speed pattern that is generated targeting proportionality to the position of the lift. In that respect, significant energy savings can be obtained, which, depending on the type of motor implemented, can be up to 30% compared to the conventional techniques. These improvements can be attained with the appropriate handling of the applied pulse width modulation techniques. Various simulated and experimental results are given, illustrating the respective energy savings achieved with the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of economic/environmental optimal power flow with a multiobjective formulation using a second-order conic programming (SOCP) optimization model. This problem formulation considers renewable energy sources (RES), fossil-fuel-based power generation units, and voltage control. The proposed SOCP model is a stochastic scenario-based approach to deal with RES and load behavior uncertainties. An ε-constrained algorithm is used to handle the following three objective functions: (1) the costs of power generation, (2) active power losses in the branches, and (3) the emission of pollutant gases produced by fossil-fuel-based power generation units. For comparative purposes, the SOCP model is also presented using a linearized formulation, and numerical results are presented using a 118-bus system. The results confirm that changing the energy matrices directly affects the cost of objective functions. Additionally, using a linearized SOCP model significantly reduces reactive power violation in the generation units when compared to the nonlinearized SOCP model, but also increases the computational time consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hierarchical multi-stage approach based on a distributed level phasor measurement unit (µPMU) at local controllers and a phasor data concentrator (PDC) at the central control unit to restore system voltage when it exceeds the limits recommended by the IEEE 1547-2018 standard. The proposed algorithm does not need an accurate system model or employ optimization solutions. Therefore, it has less implementation complexity and would be popular among distribution network service providers (DNSPs) and distribution network operators (DNOs) as it does not suffer from cost and computational complexity limitations. A PMU-PDC-based communication platform has been developed as a more efficient alternative to the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, and provides superior characteristics, including a higher sample rate, higher data resolutions, and faster communication. The proposed coordinated algorithm aims to postpone power generation curtailment in distributed energy resources (DERs) with overvoltage problems (local DERs) by incorporating all the DERs that are not subjected to voltage violation (remote DERs) by absorbing their maximum reactive power capacity. If the system voltage has not recovered after absorbing all of the reactive power capacity of all the DERs, a reduced active power curtailment proposed by the algorithm is then applied to the system to control the voltage. The proposed strategy has been simulated in MATLAB and applied to IEEE 13-bus and IEEE 33-bus radial distribution benchmark systems to validate the performance of the system, in terms of its ability to coordinate voltage control and the accuracy of the PMU-PDC-based communication interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-loop current sensorless control allows for abolishing of the instantaneous current measurement in the control system using only a single control loop with voltage feedback to stabilise the DC-bus voltage. This approach eliminates current sensors in the control circuit, benefiting from saving space on the printed circuit board and minimising power dissipation in the current measurement circuitry. This paper focuses on the single-loop current sensorless control applied to bidirectional three-phase four-wire three-level NPC MLC by simulation analysis and demonstrates the performance of the proposed current control algorithm in the rectifier and inverter modes and the step response with power direction change and grid-voltage change. In capacitor voltage balancing, an additional controller is applied, which is capable of compensating for the voltage asymmetry caused by adding a 2.5 kOhm resistor in parallel to one of the DC-bus capacitors. Our results demonstrate good performance of the proposed control method both in the inverter and rectifier modes, showing stable current shape in the low power and full power modes with acceptable harmonics content, meeting the requirements of the IEC 61000-3-2 standard for Class A devices. The analysis showed that the proposed control approach is suitable for industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the increasing amounts of renewable energy generation and energy storage required to meet ambitious environmental goals, it is clear that the next generation of power grids will be dominated by converter-connected devices. In addition, the increasing share of loads connected via power electronics and the general transition to non-synchronous grids with distributed generators make dc microgrids an attractive future alternative. However, achieving optimal utilization of distributed generators in such cases is a complex task, as the performance depends on both the grid and control design. In this paper, we consider such a case where the optimal utilization of distributed generators is achieved by optimal power sharing while taking into account the grid topology, the available generators, and the way they are controlled. For the latter, we consider a droop-based decentralized control scheme whose primary objective is to achieve voltage regulation in the allowable operating range. A novel mixed-integer optimization approach is proposed to identify the optimal converter size and location in the network so that the microgrid can operate safely and with optimal use of the available resources. Time-domain simulations are used to validate the proposed approach and demonstrate its robustness to uncertainty in generator availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a design for a charge pump DC-DC boost regulator with an integrated low-voltage control circuit. With a charge pump and feedback circuits implemented in 0.35 µm CMOS technology, the proposed DC-DC boost regulator offers an efficient device solution for low-power applications. The proposed design employs an error amplifier, oscillator, and comparator in the control circuit which is designed with a supply voltage of 1.8–3.5 V and 2 MHz frequency. Stability is obtained via a pole-zero compensation in the feedback circuit. The charge pump regulator with four pump stages and the whole regulator circuit are analyzed using the Cadence simulation tool. Measurements of the fabricated 0.35 µm CMOS regulator show that the transient time of the error amplifier is controlled within 1.0 µsec and the output voltage is accurately controlled from 7.8 V to 9.4 V with 27–38 mV ripple and 4.5 mA maximum current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of modern feedback control methods for the voltage regulation in DC/DC converters of DC microgrids. Control objectives and practical restrictions are defined and used as indicators for the analysis and performance assessment of the control methods. After presenting the concept of each control method, the advantages and limitations in the converter applications are discussed. The main conclusions of this overview can be used as recommendations for the selection of the suitable control method according to the control requirements in the DC microgrid. The low robustness against disturbances is a major issue in all control methods. For the enhancement of the robustness of the feedback control methods, three approaches are reviewed. Applications of these approaches in DC/DC converters are compared with regard to the achieved disturbance rejection and the related cost of nominal performance degradation. The disturbance/uncertainty estimation and attenuation (DUEA) framework appears to be the most promising approach to compromising these opposing control objectives. This overview is presented for a general DC/DC converter, without any additional control design requirement imposed by a specific converter plant. This allows the generalisation of the conclusions of the performance assessment, which can facilitate the application of the control methods in similar systems, such as in AC/DC converters or motor drives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inverter‐based virtual synchronous generators (VSGs) by introducing the virtual inertia enhance the microgrid frequency stability. The subject of this paper is regarding the stability analysis and enhancement of the study system comprising parallel‐operated VSGs feeding an active load. The active load with tightly closed‐loop control behaves such as constant power load resulting in stability issue. In the article, impacts of the dc‐side voltage control bandwidth of the active load and power level of active load on the system stability are examined. Then, an approach based on feedback linearising technique implemented on VSGs is presented for stabilising the system at higher levels of active load power. By employing the presented approach, the VSGs show reduced output impedance at the low and middle‐frequency ranges, and this in turn stabilises the system even at the rated level of the active load power and at higher control bandwidths of the active load dc‐side voltage control loop. Next, the linearised state‐space equations of converters and related controllers are transferred from local dq‐reference frames to a common dq‐reference frame, and then stability of the whole study system is analytically examined. At the end, time‐domain simulations and hardware‐in‐the‐loop experiments are given to verify the analytical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy generation systems connected to utility grid require perfect synchronization to grid which is one of the most important issues that needs to be taken into consideration. This paper proposed a hardware-accelerated implementation for the decoupled double synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (DDSFR-PLL) for grid synchronization in grid-connected converters in weak grid that suffers from phase voltage-unbalance, variable phase and frequency conditions. Since the transformations and filtering of this method is computationally intensive and needs to be executed as fast as possible by the microcontroller unit (MCU) and Due to the presence of other current and voltage regulation loops in the same interrupt service routine (ISR) with high frequency rate, a hardware-based acceleration using the STM32G4x4 MCU built-in filter, filter math accelerator (FMAC) and coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) is used to speed the execution time. This study addresses the description, derivation and implementation of the both DQ-PLL and DDSRF-PLL algorithms. The performance of both pure-software and accelerated implementation is demonstrated, compared and run on a three-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) converter board. In proposed method, CPU load dropped from 80.5% by using the conventional software implementation to 23.6% (70% load reduction).This reduction in CPU load enables the addition of more features and more advanced current and voltage control algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, a two-level voltage source inverter (2L-VSI) is regarded as the cornerstone of modern industrial applications. However, the control of VSIs is a challenging task due to their nonlinear and time-varying nature. This paper proposes employing the fractional-order controller (FOC) to improve the performance of model-free predictive control (MFPC) of the 2L-VSI voltage control in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications. In the conventional MFPC based on the ultra-local model (ULM), the unknown variable that includes all the system disturbances is estimated using algebraic identification, which is insufficient to improve the prediction accuracy in the predictive control. The proposed FO-MFPC uses fractional-order proportional-integral control (FOPI) to estimate the unknown function associated with the MFPC. To get the best performance from the FOPI, its parameters are optimally designed using the grey wolf optimization (GWO) approach. The number of iterations of the GWO is 100, while the grey wolf's number is 20. The proposed GWO algorithm achieves a small fitness function value of approximately 0.156. In addition, the GWO algorithm nearly finds the optimal parameters after 80 iterations for the defined objective function. The performance of the proposed FO-MFPC controller is compared to that of conventional MFPC for the three loading cases and conditions. Using MATLAB simulations, the simulation results indicated the superiority of the proposed FO-MFPC controller over the conventional MFPC in steady state and transient responses. Moreover, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the output voltage at different sampling times proves the excellent quality of the output voltage with the proposed FO-MFPC controller over the conventional MFPC controller. The results confirm the robustness of the two control systems against parameter mismatches. Additionally, using the TMS320F28379D kit, the experimental verification of the proposed FO-MFPC control strategy is implemented for 2L-VSI on the basis of the Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulator, demonstrating the applicability and effective performance of our proposed control strategy under realistic circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel architecture of femto power-delay super threshold voltage level shifter (LS) for network on-chip voltage control, developed using feedback topology for error aware interconnections data transmission. The proposed LS utilises eight MOS transistors with low aspect ratios for level up or level down. The developed LS can shift as low as 0.12–1.25 V with a tremendous reduction in delay and power consumption. Implemented in 65 nm CMOS technology, the post-layout simulation substantiates the achievement of voltage translation. The proposed LS incurs energy per cycle of 44 fJ during up shift; the average of level up and level down static power consumption is 3.61 nW, while VDDL is 0.3 V and VDDH is 1.2 V at a frequency of 1 MHz. The layout area of the proposed LS is 3.21 µm × 2.13 µm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high gain two-phase interleaved coupled inductor-based DC-DC converter step-up low input voltage sources like PV array and fuel cell in distribution generation system (DGS). The converter operates for a wide range of load changes when it is part of DGS. At light load, the converter operates in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM). A small-signal model (SSM) is required in both continuous conduction mode (CCM) and DCM to know the complete dynamic behavior of the converter. Steady-state and small-signal analysis of the two-phase interleaved coupled inductor boost converter (ICIBC) is quite complex when the converter operates in DCM. This paper presents the complete derivation of SSM of a two-phase ICIBC-based high step-up gain converter in DCM. The conditions of the converter operating in DCM are discussed. The small-signal model of two-phase ICIBC is derived using the state-space averaging method. The control-to-output voltage transfer function and steady-state voltage gain of the two-phase ICIBC are derived. When the converter operates in DCM, it eliminates the right half plane zero from the control-to-output voltage transfer function. Thus, it improves bandwidth and stability margin. Thus, single loop voltage control is sufficient to achieve regulated output voltage with faster response for all operating ranges of DCM. The laboratory prototype of two-phase ICIBC is implemented to step-up 24 V to 100 V at a power level of 300 W. The experimental results of two-phase ICIBC are obtained in DCM and CCM with step-change in load to validate the derived small-signal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancillary services are becoming more important due to the increasing integration of non-dispatchable and intermittent renewable energy sources. Such behavior under deregulation necessitates the procurement of these services suitably. This paper presents the multi-objective procurement of voltage control ancillary service in a dynamic pool deregulated system that is contingent to wind and solar power generation uncertainties. The shunt capacitors bid to supply this service and their switchings, although restricted due to life expectancy, depend on locational marginal prices. An improved multi-objective artificial electric field algorithm, which adopts the concept of Pareto-based non-dominated sorting, is presented to co-optimize total cost and voltage deviation. The particle's positions are updated through randomly picked Pareto solution to enhance exploitation capability. The sign and reorder mutation operations are employed to maintain diversity in the population, improve exploration, and evade local optima trap. The performance is investigated for different levels of wind and solar penetration on IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems. The convergence of presented algorithm is analyzed and compared with other algorithms through statistical metrics and associated boxplots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a high precision harmonic controller combined with repetitive and modulated model predictive controllers for standalone inverter applications. The proposed method is configured as a dual loop controller that includes an outer voltage controller with a plug-in repetitive controller (RC) and an inner current controller with a modulated model predictive controller (MMPC). The RC in the outer control loop effectively synthesizes the harmonic current reference when connecting a nonlinear load with a periodic harmonic current. Then, the MMPC-based current controller, with its ultra-wide bandwidth, regulates the harmonic current without additional harmonic current controllers. Thus, the abilities to precisely control the harmonic current and improve the output voltage quality are achieved. To combine the MMPC and the repetitive controller, an equivalent transfer function is derived from the ac sweep result of the MMPC. The stability of the RC is analyzed by applying the equivalent transfer function to the closed-loop voltage control model. To validate the performance of the proposed control method, a 3 kVA single phase 3-level T-type inverter prototype is built and tested. The harmonic compensation and dynamic performance of the proposed method are verified by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the proportional integral (PI) backpropagation neural network (BPNN) algorithm to improve the transient voltage control performance in an LLC resonant converter whose voltage gain is highly nonlinear. In the proposed method, the PI linear controller roughly regulates the operating frequency of the LLC converter according to the voltage gain. Moreover, the BPNN nonlinear controller compensates for the frequency in the transient and steady states. It also improves the dynamics. Compared with traditional artificial neural network algorithms, the proposed BPNN can reduce the computational burden of the digital controller and improve the accuracy of the time-series prediction by reflecting previously predicted results in the learning process. Hence, the proposed method is suitable for real-time applications, such as power electronic converters. The structure and the learning procedure of the proposed PI-BPNN controller are explained in detail, together with the modeling and the control scheme of the LLC converter. A 5.5 kW LLC converter prototype is built and tested to verify the performance of the proposed method. The load step experimental results show that compared with the traditional PI control algorithm, the proposed PI-BPNN reduces the transient response time by up to 25%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible direct current (DC) grids face a serious challenge in terms of rapidly isolating DC faults. A DC circuit breaker is an effective solution for DC fault isolation. To improve the fault-isolation and reclosing capability of flexible DC systems, a new high voltage direct current (HVDC) circuit breaker topology with adaptive reclosing capability is proposed in this paper. The topology of the circuit breaker is a T-shaped structure, which has the ability to break the current in both directions and effectively reduce the cost of components. Meanwhile, after the fault is cleared, the circuit breaker is controlled to inject a voltage signal into the line. Based on this, to prevent the circuit breaker reclosing in the event of a permanent fault from having an impact on the system, a method for fault identification based on Euclidean distance that uses the voltage signal to identify the fault properties is proposed. Finally, the performance of the circuit breaker is simulated and verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software, and compared with the typical existing circuit breakers to verify the effectiveness of the circuit breaker and reclosing scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power generation is one of the mainstream renewable energy resources. Voltage stability is as important as the frequency stability of a power system with a high penetration of wind power generation. The advantages of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems become more significant with the increase of both installed capacity and transmission distance in offshore wind farms. Therefore, this study discusses various voltage control methods for wind turbines and HVDC transmission systems. First, various voltage control methods of a wind farm were introduced, and they include QV control and voltage droop control. The reactive power of a wind turbine varies with active power, while the active power from each wind turbine may be different owing to wake effects. Thus, QV and voltage droop control with varying gain values are also discussed in this paper. Next, the voltage control methods for an HVDC transmission system, such as power factor control, voltage control, and Vac-Q control, are also summarized and tested in this study. When a three-phase short circuit fault occurs or a sudden reactive power load increases, the system voltage would drop immediately. Thus, various voltage control methods for wind turbines or HVDC can make the system's transient response more stable. Therefore, this study implemented the simulation scenarios, including a three-phase short circuit fault at the point of common coupling (PCC) or a sudden increase of reactive power load, and adopted various voltage control methods, which aim to verify whether additional voltage control methods are effective to improve the performance of transient voltage. The voltage control method has been implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC, and the simulation results show that the QV control performs better than the droop control. In addition, when applying the voltage control technique during a three-phase fault, transient voltage nadir can be improved through either an HVDC transmission system or an AC transmission system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the modelling and control of a combined load frequency control (LFC) and automatic voltage regulator (AVR) system for a multi-area power system network with each generating area includes thermal, diesel, and solar thermal power plant. Superconducting magnetic energy storage is incorporated with the LFC loop to provide auxiliary control against instantaneous changes in active power demand. Model Predictive Controller (MPC) has been employed in this study to improve the performance of AVR and LFC loops, and controller weights are fine-tuned with the help of Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) approach. The effectiveness of the proposed MPC-HHO algorithm has been examined by comparing its transient performance indices with that of conventional MPC, PID, FOPID, fuzzy PID, integral double derivative with derivative filter controller as well as Particle Swarm Optimization and Sine Cosine Algorithm based Model Predictive Controllers. The proposed MPC-HHO controller gives superior results than the above-mentioned controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resistive voltage dividers (RVDs) are commonly used as AC attenuation networks in measurement circuits; however, their high-frequency gain is always disturbed by nasty parasitic elements and deviates significantly from the desired design value. This paper proposes a closed-loop adjustment technique for adjusting the frequency response flatness of wideband RVDs (WRVDs). In the proposed adjustment scheme, the frequency response flatness of the WRVD is determined by a voltage-controlled compensation capacitor, whereas the corresponding control voltage is provided by a digital potentiometer. The settling time and the adjustment error of the loop are analyzed to evaluate the adjustment performance. To verify the concept, the adjustment loop is incorporated into a 100:1 WRVD for demonstration. Final experiments show that the proposed technique improves gain flatness by 81 times compared with uncompensated flatness, with 1.15% up to 2 MHz, and that the compensated voltage divider has an excellent linearity of 36 ppm up to 100 V. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The intrinsic characteristics such as modular structure, filterless operation, and absence of DC‐link capacitor have made the modular multilevel converter (MMC) superior to the conventional multilevel converters. However, the submodule (SM) capacitor voltage balancing is crucial. This paper presents a voltage balance control method for MMC. The proposed method generates 2N + 1 levels (where N is the number of SMs per arm) which halves the step size of output voltage and improves the harmonic performance as compared to N + 1 level generation. It requires only one carrier per phase and no voltage and current measurements are needed for the implementation. Therefore, the proposed method makes the system cost‐effective and reduces the implementation issues related with carrier‐based methods substantially. It also alleviates the non‐uniform charge distribution problem with the phase disposition pulse width modulation (PDPWM) technique. Further, a detailed mathematical analysis is presented which enhances the understanding of balancing algorithm. In addition to this, the circulating current with 2N + 1 modulation is analyzed and a control technique is presented. The proposed voltage balancing method is simulated comprehensively in MATLAB/SIMULINK software and validated by the experimental results obtained from a laboratory prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to meet global energy efficiency and environmental objectives, production costs of these key devices, and other similar, must be reduced. Back-to-back VSC systems are essential for wind power generation and industrial machine drivers. Sensor elimination is a viable path to achieve such goal, as long as the control is adequate and does not impair the main converter functions. This paper presents the results of an academic-industrial research work aiming at a new control technique capable of reducing the number of sensors from 13 to only 6, using a single PID feedback loop for each VSC based on the monitoring the DC-link power. This leads to an easy-to-implement control scheme which preserves all functions required by AC/DC/AC conversion systems, such as DC voltage control, active power flow, and reactive power generation in each AC port. The results obtained demonstrate the suitable performance and advantages of this timely proposed technique for medium-power Back-to-Back VSC systems. Finally, four cases of study are fully discussed and supported by simulation and experimentation through a laboratory prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the parameter design of a new topology of hybrid active power filter (HAPF), which makes the system capacity smaller. Based on the main topological circuit, the passive LC single-tuned circuit shunted into the HAPF effectively reduces the capacity of the system. By introducing the grid voltage feedforward method, the DC-side voltage control becomes relatively stable, and the fundamental reactive current flowing through the converter is effectively reduced. Meanwhile, to suppress the resonance of the HAPF, the state variable feedback method is adopted. According to theoretical analysis, a simulation model of the system is built in the MATLAB environment. Then a low-voltage experimental HAPF platform is built to validate the result of the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing trend for electric vehicles (EVs) and fast-charging stations (FCSs) will cause the overloading of grids due to the high current injection from FCSs' converters. The insensitive nature of the state of charge (SOC) of EV batteries during FCS operation often results in grid instability problems, such as voltage and frequency deviation at the point of common coupling (PCC). Therefore, many researchers have focused on two-stage converter control (TSCC) and single-stage converter (SSC) control for FCS stability enhancement, and suggested that SSC architectures are superior in performance, unlike the TSCC methods. However, only a few research works have focused on SSC techniques, despite the techniques' ability to provide inertia and damping support through the virtual synchronous machine (VSM) strategy due to power decoupling and dynamic response problems. TSCC methods deploy current or voltage control for controlling EVs' SOC battery charging through proportional-integral (PI), proportional-resonant (PR), deadbeat or proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, but these are relegated by high current harmonics, frequency fluctuation and switching losses due to transient switching. This paper reviewed the linkage between the latest research contributions, issues associated with TSCC and SSC techniques, and the performance evaluation of the techniques, and subsequently identified the research gaps and proposed SSC control with SOC consideration for further research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abrupt transfer from grid-connected (GC) to stand-alone (SA) operation modes is one of the major issues that may threaten the stability of a distributed generation (DG) system. Furthermore, if the islanding mode happens, it is vital to take into consideration the load voltages or load current waveforms as soon as feasible. This paper develops an advanced control technique based on a super-twisting sliding mode controller (ST-SMC) for a three-phase inverter operating in both the GC and SA modes. This control scheme is proposed to ensure a smooth transition from the GC to SA mode and enhance the load voltage waveforms under the islanding mode. In addition, to minimize the operational costs of the system and the complexity of the studied model, a digital Luenberger observer (DLO) with a proper design is adopted for estimating the inverter-side current. The control scheme of the whole system switches between a current control mode during the GC mode and a voltage control mode during the SA mode. The super-twisting control algorithm is applied to the outer voltage control loop involved in the cascaded voltage/current control scheme in the SA mode. Simulation tests of a three-phase inverter are performed for the purpose of assessing the suggested control performance by using the PowerSim (PSIM) software and comparing it with a classical PI controller. Furthermore, a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) implementation in a DSP board TMS32F28335 while debugging is conducted using code composer studio 6.2.0. The obtained results show efficient control properties, such as a smooth transition among the microgrid (MG) operating modes, as well as effectiveness and robustness during both the GC and SA operation modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we present a Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control (DMRAC) algorithm in a boost converter used in islanded microgrids (MG) with a solar photovoltaic (PV) system. Islanded types of microgrids have very sensitive voltage and frequency variability; therefore, a robust and adaptive controller is always desired to control such variations within the MG. A DC–DC boost converter with a modified MIT rule controller is proposed in this paper, which stabilizes output voltage variations in islanded MG. Since the boost converter is a non-minimum phase, the controller design that relies only on output voltage feedback becomes challenging. Even though output voltage control can be achieved using inductor current control, such current mode controllers may also require prior knowledge of the load resistance and more states, such as output and inductor currents in feedback. Here, two control loops are used to achieve a stable output voltage; a PID controller can regulate the output voltage at a fixed level, and the outer loop is designed to implement the MIT rule for a DMRAC. To ensure that the actual system is following the desired reference model, using only an output voltage feedback sensor, a DMRAC is devised to update the PID controller parameters in real-time. Compared to a DC–DC boost converter connected to the MG, a controller, such as the one introduced in this paper, is more successful in dealing with unknown parameter fluctuations and disturbance changes. The MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to design and simulate the controller with different load disturbances and input voltage variances. The hardware validation is also carried out to show the performance of the proposed controller. Our results suggest that the DMRAC provides robust regulation against parameter variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drastic increase in distributed energy resources (DERs) leads to challenges in the operation of distribution systems worldwide. While several solutions for grid monitoring and control are available on the market and in literature, this research is the first of its kind aiming to supervise the grid by providing a modular configurable unified hardware and software architecture. The control algorithms are configured using data models according to IEC 61850‐7‐3 and IEC 61850‐7‐4. The novel system architecture is a portable, modular and flexible architecture that aggregates smart grid control functions onto a standardised hardware platform, emphasising the need for hardware independence. The central controller contains several smart grid control functions and the various field devices are distributed across the distribution grid. This paper deals with the simulation of different real‐world distribution grids on the Real‐Time Simulator (RTS) and experimental verification of the control algorithms. Smart grid control functions such as Coordinated Voltage Control (CVC) and Optimal Power Flow (OPF) are experimentally verified on a German grid. The grid dynamics are compared when the central controller executes the CVC against the OPF implementations. The experimental results, advantages and challenges of each control are presented here. The results also showed the variation in grid behaviour when the control parameters were varied. The paper also shows that the algorithm and the choice of the control parameters depend upon the distribution grid's complexity and the system operator's individual needs. The results illustrate the potential of such a universal distribution automation solution for system operators worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]