Search

Considering the structure of dc Microgrids (MGs) composed of grid-forming/feeding converters, a hierarchical Plug-and-Play (PnP) voltage/current control architecture for MG clusters is proposed. In the primary level, a PnP voltage/current controller is proposed to achieve simultaneous voltage support and current feeding function according to local references. In addition, stabilizing controller is characterized by explicit inequalities which are only related to local parameters of a MG. In the secondary level, for the system with interconnection of MGs, a leader-based voltage/current distributed controller is proposed to achieve both voltage and current regulation without specifying the individual setpoints for each MG. The proposed controller requires a communication network and each controller exchanges information with its communication neighbors only. With the proposed controller, each MG can plug-in/out of the system seamlessly, irrespectively of the power line parameters and models of other MGs . The proof of the MG cluster closed-loop stability exploits structured Lyapunov functions, the LaSalle invariance theorem and properties of graph Laplacians. Theoretical results are validated by hardware-in-loop (HiL) tests., Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures

This paper presents a small-signal analysis of an islanded microgrid composed of two or more voltage source inverters connected in parallel. The primary control of each inverter is integrated through internal current and voltage loops using PR compensators, a virtual impedance, and an external power controller based on frequency and voltage droops. The frequency restoration function is implemented at the secondary control level, which executes a consensus algorithm that consists of a load-frequency control and a single time delay communication network. The consensus network consists of a time-invariant directed graph and the output power of each inverter is the information shared among the units, which is affected by the time delay. The proposed small-signal model is validated through simulation results and experimental results. A root locus analysis is presented that shows the behavior of the system considering control parameters and time delay variation., Comment: Appeared in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, issue October 2016

To address the economical dispatch problem without communications in islanded AC microgrids consisting of cascaded inverters, this paper proposes an optimal decentralized economical-sharing scheme. In proposed scheme, optimal sharing function of the current is applied to generate the reference voltages. And the frequency is used to drive all distributed generators (DGs) synchronize operation in microgrids. When the microgrid is in steady state, DGs share a single common frequency and current in terms of the proposed scheme. Thus the potential advantages of simplicity and decentralized manner are retained. The AC microgrid model has been developed through simulations and experiments to verify the effectiveness and performance of the proposed scheme., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures

This paper presents a distributed control architecture for voltage and frequency stabilization in AC islanded microgrids. In the primary control layer, each generation unit is equipped with a local controller acting on the corresponding voltage-source converter. Following the plug-and-play design approach previously proposed by some of the authors, whenever the addition/removal of a distributed generation unit is required, feasibility of the operation is automatically checked by designing local controllers through convex optimization. The update of the voltage-control layer, when units plug -in/-out, is therefore automatized and stability of the microgrid is always preserved. Moreover, local control design is based only on the knowledge of parameters of power lines and it does not require to store a global microgrid model. In this work, we focus on bus-connected microgrid topologies and enhance the primary plug-and-play layer with local virtual impedance loops and secondary coordinated controllers ensuring bus voltage tracking and reactive power sharing. In particular, the secondary control architecture is distributed, hence mirroring the modularity of the primary control layer. We validate primary and secondary controllers by performing experiments with balanced, unbalanced and nonlinear loads, on a setup composed of three bus-connected distributed generation units. Most importantly, the stability of the microgrid after the addition/removal of distributed generation units is assessed. Overall, the experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed modular control design framework, where generation units can be added/removed on the fly, thus enabling the deployment of virtual power plants that can be resized over time.

DC microgrids are becoming popular as effective means to integrate various renewable energy resources. Constant power loads (CPLs) may yield instability due to the negative impedance characteristic. This paper analyzes the stability of the DC microgrid in presence of CPL. Distributed generations (DGs) are controlled by using a distributed controller which aims at current sharing and voltage recovery. For simplicity, a reduced order model is derived on the fundamental of neglecting the transient state of the DC/DC converter. The purpose of this paper is to analyze stability conditions and give the suggestions to design control parameters. The stability conditions are obtained by using inertia theorem. Moreover, this paper makes a further detailed research based on the existed theorems. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness and validity of the proposed theorem., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

The secondary control in direct current microgrids (MGs) is used to restore the voltage deviations caused by the primary droop control, where the latter is implemented locally in each distributed generator and reacts to load variations. Numerous recent works propose to implement the secondary control in a distributed fashion, relying on a communication system to achieve consensus among MG units. This paper shows that, if the system is not designed to cope with adversary communication impairments, then a malicious attacker can apply a simple jamming of a few units of the MG and thus compromise the secondary MG control. Compared to other denial-of-service attacks that are oriented against the tertiary control, such as economic dispatch, the attack on the secondary control presented here can be more severe, as it disrupts the basic functionality of the MG.

In this paper, we propose a secondary consensus-based control layer for current sharing and voltage balancing in DC microGrids (mGs). To this purpose, we assume that Distributed Generation Units (DGUs) are equipped with decentralized primary controllers guaranteeing voltage stability. This goal can be achieved using, for instance, Plug-and-Play (PnP) regulators. We analyze the behavior of the closed-loop mG by approximating local primary control loops with either unitary gains or first-order transfer functions. Besides proving exponential stability, current sharing, and voltage balancing, we describe how to design secondary controllers in a PnP fashion when DGUs are added or removed. Theoretical results are complemented by simulations, using a 7-DGUs mG implemented in Simulink/PLECS, and experiments on a 3-DGUs mG.