• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.329-339
• /
• 2016

Owing to mismatched feeder impedances in an islanded microgrid, the conventional droop control method typically results in errors in reactive power sharing among distributed generation (DG) units. In this study, an improved droop control strategy based on secondary voltage control is proposed to enhance the reactive power sharing accuracy in an islanded microgrid. In a DG local controller, an integral term is introduced into the voltage droop function, in which the voltage compensation signal from the secondary voltage control is utilized as the common reactive power reference for each DG unit. Therefore, accurate reactive power sharing can be realized without any power information exchange among DG units or between DG units and the central controller. Meanwhile, the voltage deviation in the microgrid common bus is removed. Communication in the proposed strategy is simple to implement because the information of the voltage compensation signal is broadcasted from the central controller to each DG unit. The reactive power sharing accuracy is also not sensitive to time-delay mismatch in the communication channels. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.1100-1107
• /
• 2016

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2018.07a
• /
• pp.138-140
• /
• 2018

Parallel distributed generators (DGs) in the islanded microgrid are generally operated autonomously by means of the droop control scheme. However, the traditional droop control methods which use the P-${\omega}$ and Q-E curve to share power between DGs are still concerned to improve the accuracy of reactive power sharing. Moreover, the uncontrolled harmonic power reduces the point of common coupling (PCC) voltage quality and microgrid stability. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes an enhanced PCC harmonic control strategy and an improved reactive power sharing control scheme. Based on the low bandwidth communications, a secondary control is implemented with both central controller and local controller. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is analyzed through the simulation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.60 no.6
• /
• pp.1112-1121
• /
• 2011

A microgrid is an aggregation of multiple distributed generators (DGs) such as renewable energy sources, conventional generators, and energy storage systems that provide both electric power and thermal energy. Generally, a microgrid operates in parallel with the main grid. However, there are cases in which a microgrid operates in islanded mode, or in a disconnected state. Islanded microgrid can change its operational mode to grid-connected operation by reconnection to the grid, which is referred to as synchronization. Generally, a single machine simply synchronizes with the grid using a synchronizer. However, the synchronization of microgrid that operate with multiple DGs and loads cannot be controlled by a traditional synchronizer, but needs to control multiple generators and energy storage systems in a coordinated way. This is not a simple job, considering that a microgrid consists of various power electronics-based DGs as well as alternator-based generators that produce power together. This paper introduces the results of research examining an active synchronizing control system that consists of the network-based coordinated control of multiple DGs. Consequently, it provides the microgrid with a deterministic and reliable reconnection to the grid. The proposed method is verified by using the test cases with the experimental setup of a microgrid pilot plant.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2016.11a
• /
• pp.47-48
• /
• 2016

Parallel distributed generators (DGs) in the islanded micro-grid are normally controlled with the aid of the droop control scheme. However, the traditional droop control methods which use the P-${\omega}$ and Q-E curve to share power between DGs are still concerned to improve the accurate of reactive power sharing and variation of frequency and voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC). This paper proposes a control scheme to solve the limitation of microgrid in islanded operation such as reactive power sharing accuracy and PCC voltage and frequency restoring. In order to achieve the control objective, a secondary control is implemented with both central controller and local controller by using the low bandwidth communications. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is analyzed through the simulation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.1152-1162
• /
• 2016

The unequal impedances of the interconnecting cables between paralleled inverters in the island mode of microgrids cause inaccurate reactive power sharing when the traditional droop control is used. Many studies in the literature adopt low speed communications between the inverters and the central control unit to overcome this problem. However, the losses of this communication link can be very detrimental to the performance of the controller. This paper proposes an improved reactive power-sharing control method. It employs infrequent measurements of the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC) to estimate the output impedance between the inverters and the PCC and then readjust the voltage droop controller gains accordingly. The controller then reverts to being a traditional droop controller using the newly calculated gains. This increases the immunity of the controller against any losses in the communication links between the central control unit and the inverters. The capability of the proposed control method has been demonstrated by simulation and experimental results using a laboratory scale microgrid.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2017.07a
• /
• pp.120-121
• /
• 2017

This paper proposes an enhanced distributed generation (DG) unit with an adaptive virtual impedance control approach in order to address the inaccurate reactive power sharing problem. The proposed method can adaptively regulate the DG virtual impedance, and the effect of the mismatch in feeder impedances is compensated to share the reactive power accurately. The proposed control strategy is fully distributed and the need for the microgrid central controller is eliminated. Furthermore, the proposed method can be directly implemented without requirement of pre-knowledge of the feeder impedances. Simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2019.07a
• /
• pp.416-417
• /
• 2019

In this paper, an effective power flow control strategy (PFCS) based on the centralized control approach and a DC-link (DCV) restoration algorithm for DC microgrid (DCMG) are presented. By investigating the statuses of system power units, eleven operating modes are given to ensure the system power balance under various conditions. To avoid the system power imbalance caused by the delay of grid fault detection, a reliable DCV restoration algorithm is proposed. In the proposed scheme, when an abnormal variation of the DCV is detected, the battery instantly starts a local emergency control mode to restore the DCV to the nominal value regardless of the control mode from the central controller. The simulations and experiments are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the PFCS and the proposed DCV restoration algorithm.