Stability Limitation and Analytical Evaluation of Voltage Droop Controllers for VSC MTDC

This paper presents a systematic analysis of DC voltage stability of a multi-terminal VSC-HVDC(MTDC)system,with the emphasis on a comparative study of the most ubiquitous droop control configurations.The paper introduces a general framework for the analysis of various droop control configurations employed in MTDC systems.This framework is then used to compare leading droop control configurations in terms of their impact on the relative stability,performance and robustness of the overall MTDC system.A generalized analytical MTDC model that contains detailed models of AC and DC system components is derived.Limitations imposed by DC power flow,DC inductor,cable modeling and AC network impedance on DC system stability are identified.Classical and multivariable frequency response analysis and eigenvalue analysis are applied to open-loop and closed-loop models to compare the stability and robustness of five leading droop controllers,with the focus on feedback signal selection and controller parameterization.This paper also proposes an active stabilizing controller,which takes the form of a modified constant power control,to enhance the controllability and robustness of the DC voltage control.

Robust Controller Synthesis and Analysis in Inverter-Dominant Droop-Controlled Islanded Microgrids

This work investigates the problem of controller design for the inverters in an islanded microgrid.Robust-synthesis controllers and local droop controllers are designed to regulate the output voltages of inverters and share power among them,respectively.The designed controllers alleviate the need for additional sensors to measure the states of the system by relying only on output feedback.It is shown that the designed-synthesis controller properly damps resonant oscillations,and its performance is robust to the control-loop time delay and parameter uncertainties.The stability of a droop-controlled islanded microgrid including multiple distributed generation(DG)units is analyzed by linearizing the nonlinear power flow model around the nominal operating point and applying theorems from linear algebra.It is indicated that the droop controller stabilizes the microgrid system with dominantly inductive tie-line impedances for all values of resistive-inductive loads,while for the case of resistive-capacitive loads the stability is conditioned on an upper bound on the load susceptances.The robust performance of the designed-synthesis controller is studied analytically,compared with the similar analysis in an control(benchmark)framework,and verified by simulations for a four DG benchmark microgrid.Furthermore,the robustness of the droop controllers is analyzed by Monte Carlo simulations in the presence of local voltage fluctuations and phase differences among neighboring DGs.

Power-Sharing Enhancement Using Harmonized Membership Fuzzy Logic Droop Control Based Micro-Grid

The contribution of Renewable Energy Resources(RER)in the process of power generation is significantly high in the recent days since it paves the way for overcoming the issues like serious energy crisis and natural contamination.This paper deals with the renewable energy based micro-grid as it is regarded as the apt solution for integrating the RER with the electrical frameworks.As thefixed droop coefficients in conventional droop control approaches have caused various limitations like low power-sharing and sudden drops of grid voltage in the Direct Current(DC)side,the Harmonized Membership Fuzzy Logic(MFL)droop control is employed in this present study.This proposed droop control for the hybrid PV-wind-battery system with MFL assists in achieving proper power-sharing and minimizing Total Harmonic Distortion(THD)in the emer-gency micro-grid.It eradicates the deviations in voltage and frequency with itsflexible and robust operation.The THD is reduced and attains the value of 3.1%compared to the traditional droop control.The simulation results of harmo-nized MFL droop control are analogized with the conventional approaches to vali-date the performance of the proposed method.In addition,the experimental results provided by the Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA)based laboratory setup built using a solar photovoltaic(PV)and wind Permanent Magnet Synchro-nous Generator(PMSG)reaffirms the design.

Automatic SOC Equalization Strategy of Energy Storage Units with DC Microgrid Bus Voltage Support

In this paper,an improved sag control strategy based on automatic SOC equalization is proposed to solve the problems of slow SOC equalization and excessive bus voltage fluctuation amplitude and offset caused by load and PV power variations in a stand-alone DC microgrid.The strategy includes primary and secondary control.Among them,the primary control suppresses the DC microgrid voltage fluctuation through the I and II section control,and the secondary control aims to correct the P-U curve of the energy storage system and the PV system,thus reducing the steady-state bus voltage excursion.The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy effectively achieves SOC balancing and enhances the immunity of bus voltage.The proposed strategy improves the voltage fluctuation suppression ability by approximately 39.4%and 43.1%under the PV power and load power fluctuation conditions,respectively.Furthermore,the steady-state deviation of the bus voltage,△U_(dc) is only 0.01–0.1 V,ensuring stable operation of the DC microgrid in fluctuating power environments.

Research on the Impacts of the Inertia and Droop Control Gains from a Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Generator on the Frequency Response

System frequency must be kept very close to its nominal range to ensure the stability of an electric power grid.Excessive system frequency variations are able to result in load shedding,frequency instability,and even generator damage.With increasing wind power penetration,there is rising concern about the reduction in inertia response and primary frequency control in the electric power grid.Converter-based wind generation is capable of providing inertia response and primary frequency response;nevertheless,the primary frequency and inertia responses of wind generation are different from those of conventional synchronous fleets;it is not completely understood how the primary frequency and inertia responses affect the given system under various disturbances and available kinetic energy levels.Simulations are used to investigate the influences of inertia and droop control strategies on the dynamic frequency responses,particularly the index of the second frequency drop under various disturbance and wind conditions.A quantitative analysis provides insight into setting of inertia and droop control coefficients for various wind and disturbance conditions to facilitate adequate dynamic frequency responses during frequency events.

Asymmetrical Fault Current Calculation Method and Influencing Factors Analysis of Droop-Controlled Inverters

Since the fault dynamic of droop-controlled inverter is different from synchronous generators (SGs), protection devices may become invalid, and the fault overcurrent may damage power electronic devices and threaten the safety of the microgrid. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive fault analysis of the inverter to guide the design of protection schemes. However, due to the complexity of droop control strategy, existing literatures have simplified asymmetric fault analysis of droop-controlled inverters to varying degrees. Therefore, accurate fault analysis of a droop-controlled inverter is needed. In this paper, by analyzing the control system, an accurate fault model is established. Based on this, a calculation method for instantaneous asymmetrical fault current is proposed. In addition, the current components and current characteristics are analyzed. It was determined that fault currents are affected by control loops, fault types, fault distance and nonlinear limiters. In particular, the influences of limiters on the fault model, fault current calculation and fault current characteristics were analyzed. Through detailed analysis, it was found that dynamics of the control loop cannot be ignored, the fault type and fault distance determine fault current level, and part of the limiters will totally change the fault current trend. Finally, calculation and experimental results verify the correctness of the proposed method.

A Mode-switching Strategy of Droop Control for VSC-MTDC Systems Considering Maximum DC Voltage Regulation Capability

To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality,renewable energy integration through a voltage source converter based multi-terminal direct current(VSC-MTDC)system has been identified as a promising solution.To tackle the significant DC voltage over-limit problem in a VSC-MTDC system during disturbances,this paper proposes a mode-switching strategy of droop control considering maximum DC voltage regulation capability.The close relationship between node injection powers and node DC voltages in the MTDC system is elaborated,and the most effective regulation approach of local injection power for limiting DC voltage deviation is presented.The operating point trajectories of different droop control explains that the DC voltage deviation can be minimized by fully utilizing the capacity of converters.Therefore,the mode-switching strategy with the maximum DC voltage regulation capability is realized by the switching between the voltage droop control and the constant maximum power control.In addition,a mode recovery process and a smooth switching method are developed to make converters regain the capability of maintaining DC voltage and reduce power fluctuation during mode switching,respectively.Furthermore,three cases are investigated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed mode-switching strategy.Compared with simulation results of the conventional droop control and the DC voltage deviation-dependent droop control,better performance of transient and steady-state DC voltage deviation is achieved through the proposed strategy.

Distributed Secondary Control and Optimal Power Sharing in Microgrids

We address the control problem of microgrids and present a fully distributed control system which consists of primary controller,secondary controller,and optimal active power sharing controller.Different from the existing control structure in microgrids,all these controllers are implemented as local controllers at each distributed generator.Thus,the requirement for a central controller is obviated.The performance analysis of the proposed control systems is provided,and the finite-time convergence properties for distributed secondary frequency and voltage controllers are achieved.Moreover,the distributed control system possesses the optimal active power sharing property.In the end,a microgrid test system is investigated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.

State coordinated voltage control in an active distribution network with on-load tap changers and photovoltaic systems

Decreasing costs and favorable policies have resulted in increased penetration of solar photovoltaic(PV)power generation in distribution networks.As the PV systems penetration is likely to increase in the future,utilizing the reactive power capability of PV inverters to mitigate voltage deviations is being promoted.In recent years,droop control of inverter-based distributed energy resources has emerged as an essential tool for use in this study.The participation of PV systems in voltage regulation and its coordination with existing controllers,such as on-load tap changers,is paramount for controlling the voltage within specified limits.In this work,control strategies are presented that can be coordinated with the existing controls in a distributed manner.The effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated through simulation results on a distribution system.

MAS Based Distributed Automatic Generation Control for Cyber-Physical Microgrid System

The microgrid is a typical cyber-physical microgrid system(CPMS). The physical unconventional distributed generators(DGs) are intermittent and inverter-interfaced which makes them very different to control. The cyber components,such as the embedded computer and communication network,are equipped with DGs, to process and transmit the necessary information for the controllers. In order to ensure system-wide observability, controllability and stabilization for the microgrid,the cyber and physical component need to be integrated. For the physical component of CPMS, the droop-control method is popular as it can be applied in both modes of operation to improve the grid transient performance. Traditional droop control methods have the drawback of the inherent trade-off between power sharing and voltage and frequency regulation. In this paper, the global information(such as the average voltage and the output active power of the microgrid and so on) are acquired distributedly based on multi-agent system(MAS). Based on the global information from cyber components of CPMS, automatic generation control(AGC) and automatic voltage control(AVC)are proposed to deal with the drawback of traditional droop control. Simulation studies in PSCAD demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control methods.

Review on grid-forming converter control methods in high-proportion renewable energy power systems

Grid-forming(GFM)converters can provide inertia support for power grids through control technology,stabilize voltage and frequency,and improve system stability,unlike traditional grid-following(GFL)converters.Therefore,in future“double high”power systems,research on the control technology of GFM converters will become an urgent demand.In this paper,we first introduce the basic principle of GFM control and then present five currently used control strategies for GFM converters:droop control,power synchronization control(PSC),virtual synchronous machine control(VSM),direct power control(DPC),and virtual oscillator control(VOC).These five strategies can independently establish voltage phasors to provide inertia to the system.Among these,droop control is the most widely used strategy.PSC and VSM are strategies that simulate the mechanical characteristics of synchronous generators;thus,they are more accurate than droop control.DPC regulates the active power and reactive power directly,with no inner current controller,and VOC is a novel method under study using an oscillator circuit to realize synchronization.Finally,we highlight key technologies and research directions to be addressed in the future.

Frequency Support from PMSG-Based Wind Turbines with Reduced DC-Link Voltage Fluctuations

Frequency droop control is widely used in permanent magnet synchronous generators(PMSGs)based wind turbines(WTs)for grid frequency support.However,under frequency deviations,significant DC-link voltage fluctuations may occur during the transient process due to sudden changes in real power of such WTs.To address this issue,a current feedforward control strategy is proposed for PMSG-based WTs to reduce DC-link voltage fluctuations when the WTs are providing frequency support under grid frequency deviations.Meanwhile,the desired frequency support capability of the PMSG-based WTs can be ensured.Simulation results verify the rationality of the analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Transient Angle Stability of Inverters Equipped with Robust Droop Control

Transient angle stability of inverters equipped with the robust droop controller is investigated in this work.At first,the conditions on the control references to guarantee the existence of a feasible post-disturbance operating point are derived.Then,the post-disturbance equilibrium points are found and their stability properties are characterized.Furthermore,the attraction regions of the stable equilibrium points are accurately depicted by calculating the stable and unstable manifolds of the surrounding unstable equilibrium points,which presents an explanation to system transient stability.Finally,the transient control considerations are provided to help the inverter ridethrough the disturbance and maintain its stability characteristics.It is shown that the transient angle stability is not a serious problem for droop controlled inverters with proper control settings.

Adaptive Reference Power Based Voltage Droop Control for VSC-MTDC Systems

Featuring low communication requirements and high reliability,the voltage droop control method is widely adopted in the voltage source converter based multi-terminal direct current(VSC-MTDC)system for autonomous DC voltage regulation and power-sharing.However,the traditional voltage droop control method with fixed droop gain is criticized for over-limit DC voltage deviation in case of large power disturbances,which can threaten stable operation of the entire VSCMTDC system.To tackle this problem,this paper proposes an adaptive reference power based voltage droop control method,which changes the reference power to compensate the power deviation for droop-controlled voltage source converters(VSCs).Besides retaining the merits of the traditional voltage droop control method,both DC voltage deviation reduction and power distribution improvement can be achieved by utilizing local information and a specific control factor in the proposed method.Basic principles and key features of the proposed method are described.Detailed analyses on the effects of the control factor on DC voltage deviation and imbalanced power-sharing are discussed,and the selection principle of the control factor is proposed.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the simulations on a five-terminal VSC based high-voltage direct current(VSC-HVDC)system.

Reverse Droop Control-based Smooth Transfer Strategy for Interface Converters in Hybrid AC/DC Distribution Networks

Hybrid AC/DC distribution networks are promising candidates for future applications due to their rapid advancement in power electronics technology.They use interface converters(IFCs)to link DC and AC distribution networks.However,the networks possess drawbacks with AC voltage and frequency offsets when transferring from grid-tied to islanding modes.To address these problems,this paper proposes a simple but effective strategy based on the reverse droop method.Initially,the power balance equation of the distribution system is derived,which reveals that the cause of voltage and frequency offsets is the mismatch between the IFC output power and the rated load power.Then,the reverse droop control is introduced into the IFC controller.By using a voltage-active power/frequency-reactive power(U-P/f-Q)reverse droop loop,the IFC output power enables adaptive tracking of the rated load power.Therefore,the AC voltage offset and frequency offset are suppressed during the transfer process of operational modes.In addition,the universal parameter design method is discussed based on the stability limitations of the control system and the voltage quality requirements of AC critical loads.Finally,simulation and experimental results clearly validate the proposed control strategy and parameter design method.

Virtual Synchronous Generator Based Current Synchronous Detection Scheme for a Virtual Inertia Emulation in SmartGrids

Renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic wind turbines, and wave power converters, use power converters to connect to the grid which causes a loss in rotational inertia. The attempt to meet the increasing energy demand means that the interest for the integration of renewable energy sources in the existing power system is growing, but such integration poses challenges to the operating stability. Power converters play a major role in the evolution of power system towards SmartGrids, by regulating as virtual synchronous generators. The concept of virtual synchronous generators requires an energy storage system with power converters to emulate virtual inertia similar to the dynamics of traditional synchronous generators. In this paper, a dynamic droop control for the estimation of fundamental reference sources is implemented in the control loop of the converter, including active and reactive power components acting as a mechanical input to the virtual synchronous generator and the virtual excitation controller. An inertia coefficient and a droop coefficient are implemented in the control loop. The proposed controller uses a current synchronous detection scheme to emulate a virtual inertia from the virtual synchronous generators. In this study, a wave energy converter as the power source is used and a power management of virtual synchronous generators to control the frequency deviation and the terminal voltage is implemented. The dynamic control scheme based on a current synchronous detection scheme is presented in detail with a power management control. Finally, we carried out numerical simulations and verified the scheme through the experimental results in a microgrid structure.

A 6n-Order Low-Frequency Mathematical Model of Multiple Inverters Based Microgrid

Microgrid stability analysis is a critical issue especially due to the inverters’low-inertia nature.The voltage and current control loops influences on stability are researched frequently most of which focus on medium and high-frequency characteristic.Although the complete state-space model aims at low-frequency characteristic,it is too complicated and the calculation amount is huge with the scale of the microgrid increasing.One available reduced-order model of an inverter is simple,but it is suitable for only single inverter without network dynamic in microgrid.To fill in these gaps,a novel modeling method is proposed in this paper to investigate the low-frequency instability phenomenon and describe the whole DG connected system including network.In consideration of the high penetration level of induction motor(IM)loads and constant power(CP)loads in practical applications,the low-frequency mathematical model of IM and CP loads on the basis of static load is also built in this paper.Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Distributed Harmonic Power Sharing with Voltage Distortion Suppression in Islanded Microgrids Considering Non-linear Loads

In contemporary power grids or microgrids,harmonic distortion has emerged as one of the critical power quality issues for utility power grids,which has escalated especially due to the high penetration of power-electronic-converter-interfaced distributed generation(DG).This paper first illustrates the prevalent dispute revolving around the harmonic power sharing and distortion restraint,and subsequently proposes a consensusbased framework that facilitates an accurate sharing of harmonics among multi-DGs connected in parallel,with an effective suppression of the output voltage distortion.Compared with the majority of existing studies addressing the issue of voltage harmonics at the point of common coupling(PCC),our method primarily emphasizes on the output voltage distortion since the power quality requirement for certain local critical loads is often known to be high.With the help of adaptive regulation,the overall distortion produced at the output terminals of DGs can be retained within an acceptable range.The working principle of the proposed control method,which is not only easy to implement but also independent of model parameters,is further described in detail.Employing the small-signal dynamic model,the system stability and robustness are analyzed.The hardware-in-the-loop(HIL)simulations aid in determining the outcome of the proposed strategy in microgrid control.

Droop control method for load share and voltage regulation in high-voltage microgrids

When the line impedance is considered in the microgrid, the accuracy of load sharing will decrease. In this paper, the impact of line impedance on the accuracy of load sharing is analyzed. A robust droop control for a highvoltage microgrid is proposed based on the signal detection on the high-voltage side of the coupling transformer. For a high-voltage microgrid, the equivalent impedance of coupling transformer connecting distributed generator with the grid is usually the dominate factor. Compared with the conventional droop control strategy, the proposed control method in this paper detects the feedback signal from the high-voltage side of the coupling transformer. The impact of line impedance on the load sharing accuracy can be mitigated significantly. The proposed droop control only changes the detection point of the feedback signal, thus it is easy to be implemented. The PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed robust droop control concept in load sharing and voltage regulation with highly accuracy.

VSG-based Adaptive Droop Control for Frequency and Active Power Regulation in the MTDC System

In this paper,a VSG(virtual synchronous generator)-based method with adaptive active power and DC voltage droop is proposed for the control of VSC stations in the multi-terminal DC(MTDC)system.This control strategy can improve the inertial level of the AC networks and attenuate the rate of change of frequency when a disturbance occurs.In addition,the droop control of the active power and DC voltage is implemented to make the AC networks share the unbalanced power in the MTDC.The droop coefficients are adaptively adjusted depending on the frequency margin of every AC network,which makes the allocation of unbalanced power among AC networks more reasonable from the frequency variation perspective.The control strategy is evaluated in the scenarios of sudden load change and wind turbine tripping,and the results are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness.