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This paper addresses the frequency oscillation problem in a parallel-inverter-based grid-connected system. Angular frequency interactions between inverters and the grid exhibit various numbers of complicated characteristics that seriously threaten the connected power system's stable operation. This paper proposes a unified frequency oscillation method analysis to investigate the oscillation problem in a multi-VSG grid-connected system. In this method, the power control model of each grid-connected inverter is equivalent to a two-terminal network by analogy method, which can be described as a “current source” connected in parallel with a reciprocal of “admittance” and then joined in series with a joint of “admittance.” Next, considering the influence of grid impedance, the model of the whole grid-connected system is established to reveal the mechanism of multi-VSG angular frequency oscillation. Subsequently, the influence factors of frequency oscillation and its variation law are analyzed through transfer functions, which provide an essential theoretical method for solving the frequency oscillation problem in the current multi-inverter grid-connected engineering application. Finally, we validate the effectiveness and correctness of the small-signal model and the frequency oscillation characteristics by building the MATLAB/Simulink simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a control scheme to improve the dynamic response of power systems through the automatic regulators of converter-based Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). In this scheme, both active and reactive power control of DERs are varied to regulate both frequency and voltage, as opposed to current practice where frequency and voltage controllers are decoupled. To assess the proposed control against the current state-of-art, the paper also defines a metric that captures the combined effect of frequency/voltage response at any given bus of the network. Results indicate that the proposed control strategy leads to a significant improvement in the stability and performance of the overall power system. These results are based on a comprehensive case study carried out by employing a modified version of the IEEE 39-bus benchmark system, where a portion of the synchronous machines is substituted by converter-interfaced DERs. The impact on the proposed control of load models, the $R/X$ ratio of network lines, as well as the level of DER penetration to the grid, are properly evaluated and conclusions are duly drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative control of power converters operating in microgrids with unbalanced single-phase loads is difficult to achieve, considering that the voltages and currents have positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components. In this paper, a new control scheme for collaborative control of four-leg microgrids is proposed. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is simplicity, because the sharing of the powers produced by the positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence voltage and currents is simple to achieve using the easy to implement and well-known droop control algorithms, i.e., as those based on $P$ – $\omega$ and $Q$ – $v$ droop control. The proposed droop algorithms do not require high bandwidth communication channels and the application of virtual impedances, whose design usually demands extensive simulation work, is not required. Three secondary control systems are also analyzed, discussed, and implemented in this paper to regulate the frequency, voltage, and phase at the point of common coupling (PCC), to achieve a balanced 50-Hz three-phase voltage supply in the PCC during steady-state operation. For these secondary control systems, single-phase phase-locked loop based on quadrature signal generators are implemented. Small signal modeling and design are discussed in this paper. A microgrid prototype of $\approx$ 5 kW, implemented using two power converters of 3 kW (each), is used to experimentally validate the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a nonlinear dynamic simulation model of an ultracapacitor (UC) bank and the associated control system. The control system at hand consists of two levels: the lower level controls the inverter of the UC bank, while the upper control level is responsible for providing charging/discharging active power set points to be followed by the lower control level. This paper focuses on the development of the upper control level for frequency control. Specifically, two simulation case studies are developed so as to assess the performance of the proposed control framework. In the first case study the upper control level is developed using a classical Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. In the second case study the upper control level is devised using a Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm based on internal linear prediction model of a nonlinear UC bank. In both cases, a nonlinear UC bank simulation model is used. The simulation case studies are modelled and tested in Matlab/Simulink. The response of the MPC-controlled UC bank is compared to the 3 existing PID-control algorithms for frequency control. The simulation results show that the MPC algorithm outperforms the conventional PID controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-inertia microgrids are prone to large frequency fluctuations due to high penetration of inverter-fed renewable sources. A virtual synchronous machine (VSM) is capable of handling these frequency fluctuations. VSM imparts inertial behaviour in grid-connected inverters with the help of an electric storage device. Most of the reported VSM control schemes use a constant inertia parameter that leads to an inadequate dynamic frequency response. In this paper, a fuzzy controller-based self-adaptive VSM control scheme is proposed. Here, the value of the inertia parameter is decided using fuzzy rules which take the penetration index of renewable energy, frequency deviation and rate-of-change-of-frequency as the input parameters. These rules are formulated with the help of the sample data obtained from simulations done in MATLAB/Simulink, where the inertial parameter is optimized using a genetic algorithm for various cases. The proposed method is validated for solar photovoltaic-fed microgrid test systems using power–hardware-in-the loop and the results indicate a reduction in maximum frequency deviation compared to the constant inertia parameter based VSM schemes. The introduction of renewable energy penetration level and fuzzy expert system in modifying the inertia parameter are the novel contributions in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of discrete secondary controllers on the dynamic response of power systems. The idea of the paper originates from the observation that there is a range of values, from few tens of seconds to few minutes, of the execution cycles of conventional automatic generation control (AGC) that leads to a limit cycle. Below and above this range the system is stable. This is certainly not a problem in practice as the AGC updates the power set points of generating units every few seconds. However, this phenomenon has interesting consequences if one considers real-time electricity markets with short dispatch periods (i.e., 5 minutes) as these markets can be modeled as a sort of AGC. The paper first provides a formal analogy between conventional AGC and real-time electricity markets. Then it shows that the discretization-driven instability exists if the system includes a real-time electricity market modeled as secondary frequency controller. Finally, the paper discusses the impact of the combined effect of high wind generation shares and discrete secondary controllers on power system dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel inertia-enhanced distributed control method to complement the inertia of microgrids. The rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) and the rate of change of voltage (RoCoV) are employed in this paper to quantify the frequency inertia and voltage inertia, respectively. Then, a fully distributed algorithm with constrained changing rates is proposed. By bounding the changing rates of frequency and voltage during the consensus control, the algorithm can address the consensus problem while enhancing the inertia of microgrids. Compared with most inertia control methods, the proposed method can utilize the reserve power of scattered DGs to supply inertia. Besides, it performs better under disturbances and delays than conventional distributed control methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by several cases in MATLAB/Simulation and a hardware experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Hybrid AC/DC microgrid (MG) can integrate distributed generation sources and distributed loads on the AC and DC side of the MG by eliminating many unnecessary power conversion devices, which is more flexible and efficient. However, to achieve reliable and economic operation of a hybrid AC/DC MG is challenging due to its complex structure. In this paper, a novel distributed event-triggered hierarchical control strategy is proposed to improve the economic operation of a hybrid AC/DC MG. For the primary control, distributed local controls of AC DGs, DC DGs, and interlinking converters (ICs) are realized by adopting the droop control method. For the secondary control, the distributed economic dispatch, distributed average bus voltage discovery, and distributed proportional power-sharing algorithms are first proposed; then, control objectives of voltage and frequency restoration and economic operation of the hybrid AC/DC MG are realized based upon the developed algorithms. Furthermore, the distributed secondary control is built upon an event-triggered mechanism developed in this paper, which can reduce the communication burden. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the concept of complex frequency. The imaginary part of the complex frequency is the variation with respect of a synchronous reference of the local bus frequency as commonly defined in power system studies. The real part is defined based on the variation of the voltage magnitude. The latter term is crucial for the correct interpretation and analysis of the variation of the frequency at each bus of the network. The paper also develops a set of differential equations that describe the link between complex powers and complex frequencies at network buses in transient conditions. No simplifications are assumed except for the usual approximations of the models utilized for the transient stability analysis of power systems. A variety of analytical and numerical examples show the applications and potentials of the proposed concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing prevalence of technologies such as advanced metering and controls and continuously variable power electronic devices are enabling a radical shift in the way frequency regulation is performed in the bulk power system. This is a welcome development in light of the increase of unpredictable and variable generation. The idea of active participation of loads in frequency markets is not new, but the rapidly changing landscape of the power grid requires new techniques for successful integration of new types of resources; this paper works towards that end. Previously, it has been shown that residential HVAC systems can be aggregated and used to provide frequency regulation by utilizing their thermal energy capacity and flexibility of energy consumption. The virtual battery model—a first-order linear dynamical model—was analytically shown to be an accurate and simple model to capture the flexibility of residential HVAC systems. This paper presents a technique for creating the same battery-type models for many other types of systems, which can be much more complex. Our technique is based on stress testing detailed software models of physical systems. A realistic case study involving the terminal building of a small airport is presented as evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Truck-mounted mobile emergency resources (MERs) play a significant role in microgrid formation and regulation for power system resilience enhancement. This paper proposes a distributed fixed-time secondary control (DFSC) scheme to regulate the frequency and active power sharing in islanded microgrids with MERs. The proposed DFSC scheme is designed based on a general directed communication graph which considers MER characteristics (e.g., mobility, flexibility, and potential cyber threats). Each DER receives data from its neighbors through directional communication links. The proposed pinning control strategy selects only a small number of DERs for pinning, which have access to the reference frequency information and would guide the operation of remaining local DERs and MERs. In addition, the guaranteed convergence time is determined by control parameters and communication graph without applying the initial operation states. The paper demonstrates that the desired control performances (i.e., frequency restoration and accurate active power sharing) are realized in a timely fashion considering frequent operations of MERs. Case studies are tested and discussed for load variations, different control parameters, communication link failures, and MER operations through time-domain simulations in PSCAD/EMTDC platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is committed to developing a thorough analysis on the electromechanical oscillations (EOs) of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines (WTs), taking into consideration the implemented frequency control and drivetrain dynamics of the mechanical system. Some basic recommendations for mitigating EOs would be hence attained. To this end, a linearized model of DFIG WT is proposed to present the interplay between frequency control and the dynamics of WT's drivetrain and electrical system. Then, the conventional torque analysis method is used to establish the basic effects of the frequency control on the damping of the drivetrain and electrical system frequency dynamics. Therein, the adverse effects could incur detrimental EOs, viz., drivetrain torsional oscillations (TOs) and electrical system low-frequency oscillations (LFOs). To mitigate such TOs and LFOs, this paper proceeds with an investigation of different alternatives to stabilize the torsional dynamics of drivetrain and the frequency dynamics of electrical system, meanwhile, to minimize undesired impacts caused by their interactions. Simulation studies on two test systems validate: the basic concepts obtained from theoretical analysis and that the findings can be generalized to multi-machine systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an idea to integrate more renewable energy into the existing China power grid and to provide remote islands with a reliable power supply. The idea is to expand the existing point-to-point line-commutated converter (LCC) HVDC transmission link into a hybrid multiterminal HVDC (hybrid MTDC) system, which contains LCC stations and voltage-source converter (VSC) stations. Accordingly, this paper proposes a novel control strategy for this system called active voltage feedback control, which does not need any high-speed communication system under various disturbances, such as wind speed variations, load fluctuations, faults, etc. This paper also adds secondary frequency regulation to the synchronverter, which is one way of combining the VSC converter with synchronous machine behavior. Then, this paper applies an approach to limit its current under fault conditions. Finally, the entire hybrid MTDC system is modeled in PSCAD/EMTDC. Simulation results show that the improved synchronverter is able to achieve secondary frequency control, and the presented active voltage feedback control works very well when exposed to various disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, voltage-source converter (VSC)-based high-voltage dc (HVDC) transmission systems have gained more attention. In this paper, a control method for a modular VSC-based HVDC transmission system with high-frequency isolation referred to as high-frequency isolated modular converter is proposed. In the high-frequency isolated modular converter configuration, several floating dc capacitors in all three phases are connected in series, and voltage balancing control of these floating dc capacitors is required. In this paper, an appropriate control structure with the capacitor voltage balancing controller is proposed. The proposed control scheme consists of three layers to control terminal dc bus voltage and balance dc capacitor voltages of each building block. Detailed PSCAD simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of high-frequency isolated modular converter. Controller hardware-in-the-loop simulation of the high-frequency isolated modular converter is also performed by real-time digital simulator (RTDS), and RTDS results are presented to verify the control structure. Finally, laboratory-scale experimental results are presented to validate the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a wind turbine (WT) control strategy to deliver frequency response (FR) that is similar to conventional synchronous generators, i.e., to deliver accurate and efficient FR. This is achieved by the coordination of WT’s rotor speed control (RSC) and pitch angle control (PAC), wherein the RSC is the summation of the proposed deloading power point tracking curves and FR signal; the PAC is kept as adjusting its control law according to the WT rotor speed. Through the above coordination, the strategy pre-reserves a portion of wind power and releasing it during underfrequency events. Compared with existing methods, the strategy has two significant advantages: 1) it does not need the switching of WT controls according to the real-time wind speed (WS), nor the identification of the boundaries among high, medium and low WSs according to the required reserved power, ultimately reducing the complexity of applying the strategy to practice; 2) its active power response during FR period is independent of the deviated rotor speed and is equal to the FR signal, ultimately enabling the WT to provide accurate and efficient FR. The simulations focusing on the grid frequency side demonstrated the advantages of the strategy over existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency frequency control is one of the most critical approaches to maintain power system stability after major disturbances. With the increasing number of grid-connected renewable energy sources, existing model-based methods of frequency control are facing up with challenges of computational speed and scalability for large-scale systems. In this paper, the emergency frequency control problem is formulated as a Markov Decision Process and solved through a novel distributional deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method, namely the distributional soft actor critic (DSAC) method. Compared with other reinforcement learning methods that only estimate the mean value, the proposed DSAC model estimates the distribution of value function over returns. This advancement can lead to more insights and knowledge for the agent, with the benefit of a much faster and more stable learning process, and the improved frequency control performance. The simulation results on IEEE 39-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of proposed models, as well as the advantage compared to other state-of-the-art DRL algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology for the design of over-frequency containment schemes in low inertia, high renewable systems. This methodology is demonstrated through the comprehensive redesign of the containment scheme for significant over-frequency events (e.g., the loss of an exporting HVDC interconnector) in the Ireland and Northern Ireland power system (All-Island System). The new scheme allows an existing synchronous generator runback system integrity protection scheme to be replaced with fixed wind tripping and dynamic response from wind. This exploits the capabilities of renewable generation to create effective protection and control resources. The methodology provides the steps required to determine the key parameters of the scheme (e.g., maximum allowable frequency, required volume of tripping, lowest trip frequency). A key consideration of the methodology is the volume of dynamic response from wind that can be deployed before frequency limits are violated (e.g., inertia and wind penetration). Dynamic simulations are performed in DSE Tools for the All-Island system considering a 2020 operational scenario. These simulations support the application of the methodology and demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme designed for the All-Island system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problem of event-triggered ${H_\infty }$ load frequency control (LFC) for multiarea power systems under hybrid cyber attacks, including denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and deception attacks. An event-triggered transmission scheme is developed under the DoS attacks to lighten the load of network bandwidth while preserving a satisfactory system performance. Then, a new switched system model accounting for the simultaneous presence of DoS attacks and stochastic deception attacks is established with respect to the LFC for multiarea power system. On the basis of the new model, sufficient conditions ensuring multiarea power system exponentially mean-square stable with prescribed ${H_\infty }$ performance are obtained by using Lyapunov stability theory. Furthermore, criteria for simultaneously designing the weighting matrix in event-triggered scheme and the controller gain matrix are derived by utilizing the linear matrix inequality technique. Finally, a three-area power system is simulated to demonstrate the usefulness of the approaches proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the critical parameter design technique for a cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) with selective harmonic elimination (SHE)/compensation (SHC) for single-phase systems. The critical parameters include the filter inductance, the number of H-bridge cells, the dc-bus voltage and the switching frequency. This paper derives the relationship of electrical parameters, topologies, and modulation techniques to the voltage/current harmonic envelopes, and compares the filter inductor design for an H-Bridge with sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation (SPWM), an H-Bridge (HB) with SHE/SHC and a CHB with SHE/SHC. Furthermore, a harmonic-envelope-based approach is developed to determine the optimum design parameters. The developed approach designs the harmonic envelope with two proposed criteria: the first one is the capacity criterion, which guarantees that the fundamental and controllable components are within the applicable solution range to avoid overmodulation; the other one is the attenuation criterion, which ensures that the uncontrollable harmonic complies with the grid limit. Simulations and experiments verified that a CHB designed with the proposed technique can simultaneously fulfill the compensation objectives and meet the harmonic limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the design problem of the attack strategy for cyber-physical systems (CPSs). In this paper, a finite frequency attack strategy is designed for CPSs such that the performance of the state estimator can be reduced with a low attack detection probability. Different from the existing methods with a predefined finite frequency range, the attack strategy is designed for the system to satisfy ${H}{\_{}}/{H}_{\infty}$ performance index in different finite frequency ranges in the proposed method, and a suitable frequency interval can be selected as that of the attack signal. Since the property of the finite frequency of the attack signal could be made full use of such that a good attack effect can be obtained in the proposed method. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a reliable methodology is proposed in order to implement and validate a Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme on an actual Voltage Source Converter (VSC) integrated in a scale-down multi-terminal DC grid. The objective of the investigated MPC controller is to enable AC frequency support among two asynchronous AC areas through a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) grid, while considering physical constraints, such as maximum and minimum DC voltage. A systematic and accurate implementation strategy is proposed, based mainly on the Hardware In the Loop (HIL) and Power Hardware In the Loop (PHIL), leading to the real-life testing on VSC, controlled by a classical microcontroller. The technical problems during the implementation process, as well as the proposed solutions, are described in detail through this paper. This procedure is deemed valuable to bridge the gap between offline simulation and the actual implementation of such advanced control scheme on experimental test rig. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an optimization methodology for sizing and operating battery energy storage systems (BESS) in distribution networks. A BESS optimal operation for both frequency regulation and energy arbitrage, constrained by battery state-of-charge (SoC) requirements, is considered in the proposed optimization algorithm. We use utility historical data as input in a case study on a real-world distribution circuit. The results indicate that a BESS generally brings high profits by participating in the frequency regulation market and should be sized to its highest allowable power capacity rather than its energy capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Denmark dedicated to maintaining its leading position in the integration of massive shares of wind energy, the construction of new offshore energy islands has been recently approved by the Danish government. These new islands will be zero-inertia systems, meaning that no synchronous generation will be installed in the island and that power imbalances will be shared only among converters. To this end, this paper proposes a methodology to calculate and update the frequency droops gains of the offshore converters in compliance with the N-1 security criterion in case of converter outage. The frequency droop gains are calculated solving an optimization problem which takes into consideration the power limitations of the converters as well as the stability of the system. As a consequence, the proposed controller ensures safe operation of off-shore systems in the event of any power imbalance and allows for greater loadability at pre-fault state, as confirmed by the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy storage systems (ESSs) are being utilized to improve wind farms’ (WF) frequency support capability due to their high reliability, fast response and the dual role of energy users and suppliers. Nevertheless, the problem of how much capacity should each ESS possesses in order to better serve the WFs has never been investigated. With this perspective, this paper proposes an optimal ESS allocation (OEA) scheme for doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based WFs to mitigate the impact of wake effect in frequency support. Firstly, the synchronous stability of wind turbines under frequency dips is analyzed with the concept of frequency support margin (FSM), and the detrimental impact of the wake effect is also investigated. Subsequently, the role of ESSs to improve wind turbines’ synchronous stability is demonstrated. To make the OEA scheme practical, the wind turbines in a WF are segmented into different clusters based on the received wind speed. Afterwards, the OEA problem is formulated, where the objective is to optimize the coherency of the wind turbine clusters’ FSM level. The simulation results show that ESS can provide secondary frequency support under major grid frequency drops, and the proposed OEA scheme can reduce the risk of loss of synchronous stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the noncooperative optimal control problem is investigated for a class of discrete time-varying networked control systems subject to exogenous nonlinear disturbances. To relive the transmission burden in the sensor-to-controller channel, the Round-Robin protocol is adopted to schedule the sensor transmissions. On the other hand, the controller operates in an event-triggered manner so as to reduce the transmission frequency and thereby preserving the energy in the controller-to-actuator channel. In the presence of the underlying scheduling and triggering mechanism, it is literally impossible to acquire the accurate value of the individual cost function for each controller and, as an effective alternative, a certain upper bound is derived on the individual cost function. Then, in virtue of the completing-the-square technique and the Moore–Penrose pseudo inverse, such an upper bound is minimized at each time instant. Furthermore, a sufficient condition is established to guarantee the boundedness of the derived upper bound over the infinite horizon. Finally, a numerical example on the power grid is provided to verify the validity of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern power systems face several problems at frequencies above the range of traditional stability studies due to the increasing penetration of power electronic devices. This phenomenon has been recently referred to as electromagnetic transient stability and is a growing issue in systems with power electronic converters at any power and voltage level, such as FACTS, high-voltage DC, interfaces for grid connection of renewable energies, custom power devices for power quality enhancement, among others. The study of power systems stability is usually carried out by simulation tools that represent the power system through phasor models. However, due to the faster dynamics of modern systems, the harmonic interaction among the controllers, converters, and electric power components, recent research results suggest that some stability analyses should be conducted with models suitable for wider frequency ranges, e.g., electromagnetic transient models. This paper reviews the use of frequency domain methods to analyze the influence of the modeling approach of passive power components on the results of electromagnetic transient stability studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air conditioners (ACs) have been widely considered as one of the most important reserve resources for power systems. However, few attentions have been given to inverter ACs (IACs), which account for a larger share nowadays and show more suitable characteristics than regular ACs to provide reserve. Moreover, interconnected power systems are becoming increasingly large and complex, which puts forward higher request on the reserve resources for the system's reliability and safety. Dealing with the above-mentioned challenges, this paper proposes a novel frequency regulation model of multi-area power systems considering large-scale IACs providing regulation service. In order to decrease the impact on customers’ comfort, the action number constraint (ANC) and action time constraint (ATC) of IACs can be set by each customer. On this basis, the scheduling model of IACs considering ANC and ATC is proposed in multiple time scales, in which the total regulation capacity of IACs can be allocated among days in the month and areas in the multi-area power systems. Besides, the control parameters of IACs can also be optimized by the proposed optimization model for minimizing the area control error of the power system. The effectiveness of the model and method are verified in the numerical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a general framework for determining the effect of communication delays on the convergence of certain distributed frequency regulation (DFR) protocols for prosumer-based energy systems, where prosumers are serving as balancing areas. DFR relies on iterative and distributed optimization algorithms to obtain an optimal feedback law for frequency regulation. But, it is, in general, hard to know beforehand how many iterations suffice to ensure stability. This paper develops a framework to determine a lower bound on the number of iterations required for two distributed optimization protocols. This allows prosumers to determine whether they can compute stabilizing control strategies within an acceptable time frame by taking communication delays into account. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated on two realistic power systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Load-damping characteristic models the load response to the frequency deviation, which has important impact on system frequency response. The load-damping coefficient is normally considered as a constant, obtained from operational experiences in large-scale power systems or from detailed load models in isolated power systems. An industrial isolated power system for aluminum production driven by coal-fired power and large scale wind power is studied in this paper. Since the electrolytic aluminum load is driven by direct current, it is one type of voltage-sensitive load and does not respond to the frequency deviation. This paper proposes a load-damping characteristic control method for such isolated industrial power system with voltage-sensitive load. To decrease the maximum frequency deviation during transient process, a time-varying load-damping coefficient control scheme is presented. Simulation is done on real-time digital simulator (RTDS) and the results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares transient responses of virtual oscillator control (VOC) to the conventional droop control method, under various inverter terminal voltage amplitude and frequency regulations. The system of interest is an islanded microgrid of three three-phase inverters sharing a resistive load. By letting the two controllers have similar steady-state droop characteristics, the virtual oscillator and droop controlled systems are compared in a small-signal framework with the aid of eigenvalue analyses. The analytical results are verified by simulating the two systems in MATLAB/Simulink. In the simulations, the third inverter in each system is connected to share the load when the other two inverters are already synchronized. Transients are compared by examining synchronization time after the third inverter is connected. The key finding is VOC outperforms droop control in terms of time responses when the terminal voltage frequency regulation range is allowed to be wide; otherwise, the droop control responds faster than the VOC technique. The same conclusions are found for two other load types: constant power load and nonlinear load. In addition, transient energy losses are investigated, which shows positive correlation with the time response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel power regulation controller for grid-connected voltage source converter (VSC). The proposed controller is usually applied to achieve smooth active and reactive power dynamics against the variation of parameters. The dynamic performance of grid-connected VSC is sensitive to parameter variation, threatening the safe operation especially when the relative stability is low. Moreover, there is no possibility to modify the dynamic response without the loss of power regulation precision or output voltage and frequency accuracy. In this paper, an improvement in the dynamic response is achieved by introducing feedforward branches into the VSC power regulation controller. Owing to the model reduction mechanism, the VSC provides smooth dynamic response and robustness against the variation of parameters. Simulation and experiment results are presented to prove the effectiveness of this approach, which shows excellent performance as opposed to the conventional controller paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new dynamic reliability management technique for multicore processors using phase-driven ${Q}$ -learning-based method. Our technique considers a wide range of long-term reliability issues and maximizes the throughput of the processor subject to the reliability constraint. We employ ON/OFF switching actions and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling as control knobs (i.e., working modes) to tune the state of cores of the processor. In order to achieve this, our technique detects program phases and adaptively determines the optimal working modes for each phase using the ${Q}$ -learning-based method. By integrating the phase detection into the ${Q}$ -learning-based management, our technique can provide efficient management for the programs with highly diverse phases. We also propose three additional modules to improve the management efficiency of our technique. In order to evaluate our technique, we use it to manage a 3-D CPU with high-diver programs. Several failure mechanisms are considered in this case study. Our proposed technique is compared with two existing ${Q}$ -learning-based techniques. The experimental results demonstrate that when the number of phases is smaller than the number of working modes, our technique can achieve more than $1.36{ \times }$ improvement in performance with 60% memory space savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load power sensitivity to voltage changes continuously in the distribution grid due to the increased variability of the load demand (e.g., electric vehicles charging) and generation production (e.g., photovoltaic). Classical sensitivity identification methods do not respect the fast dynamics of such changes: they require long data history and/or high computational power to update the load sensitivity. The proposed online load sensitivity identification (OLLI) approach is able to identify the load sensitivity in real time (e.g., every minute). This paper demonstrates that the OLLI can be achieved not only with the advanced smart transformer metering system but also with commercial industrial metering products. It is shown that OLLI is able to identify correctly the load sensitivity also in the presence of noise or fast stochastic variation of power consumption. The industrial metering-based OLLI application has been proven by means of a power-hardware-in-loop evaluation applied on an experimental microgrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional power flow algorithms assume that a slack bus is present and that the frequency is not fluctuating. In islanded industrial systems and microgrids, however, these assumptions are not valid because such systems usually do not have a strong source performing as the slack bus and the system frequency is more prone to vary near nominal frequency. Considering these characteristics, this paper presents a novel universal power flow (UPF) algorithm for industrial systems and microgrids as well as traditional systems, with a focus on active power. Development of a reactive power UPF algorithm will be presented in a subsequent paper. The proposed UPF model has the following merits: first, it can handle islanded and grid-connected systems at nominal or off-nominal frequency; second, it can handle the active control strategies of distributed generators (DGs), such as isochronous (ISOC) control, droop control, or constant power control; third, it can handle the megawatt and megavolt-ampere reactive limitations of ISOC or droop DG units; fourth, it can evaluate system frequency; and finally, it can handle frequency-dependent active and reactive power loads. The proposed UPF model is validated by comparing the results with those obtained from a real-time simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum production relies on the smelting process which consumes huge amounts of electrical energy. One possible solution to reduce the fossil fuel consumption by aluminum production is the integration of wind power. Based on this background, this paper studies an isolated power system for aluminum smelting production with a high penetration of wind power. A dynamic model of the aluminum smelter load (ASL) is introduced in this paper using the field experiment data. Based on this model, the dynamic model of the isolated system considering demand side participation is proposed. The MPC-based frequency controller is proposed to keep the frequency deviation within a proper range (\pm0.1 Hz) under wind power fluctuation as well as to recover the system frequency after a large disturbance (such as one generator trip). Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MPC based frequency controller. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Large-scale wind farms (WFs) are gradually required to participate in power system frequency regulation, especially in a weak grid. Corresponding ancillary frequency control functionalities and the contribution of the WF to system frequency stability are well studied. However, the impact of WF ancillary frequency control on wind turbine generators (WTGs) is rarely considered. It is found in this paper that the ancillary frequency control deteriorates drive-train torsional oscillation of the WTG, which restricts application of the ancillary control. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive damping control scheme based on reactive power modulation of the WTG to suppress the drive-train torsional oscillation, which can assist the WF to meet the grid code requirements. Superior to the traditional active power modulation method, the proposed adaptive control scheme can achieve satisfactory damping improvement with less control effort. Furthermore, the adaptive scheme with a torsional frequency updating mechanism can effectively counteract torsional damping deterioration caused by parameter uncertainties, operating condition or control mode variations. Feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed damping control are validated by simulations and real-time experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The filtered delay multiply and sum (F-DMAS) beamformer has recently been presented in the context of medical ultrasound image formation. This nonlinear beamformer produces images with improved contrast resolution and noise rejection when compared with the delay and sum (DAS) beamformer. In an attempt to better understand the origin of the improved image quality, this paper shows a theoretical study of the image amplitude statistics backed up by numerical simulations. The results show that the difference in image amplitude using the DAS or F-DMAS beamformers can be partly explained by the way signal coherence influences both beamformers. When using the F-DMAS compared with the DAS beamformer, the image amplitude is shown to be more dependent on the signal coherence. Experimental ultrasound images of a phantom confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equivalent inertia of the power system is reducing with the increasing wind power penetration. To alleviate this issue, more and more countries have put forward grid codes that require wind farms (WFs) to provide inertial response as traditional synchronous generation does. It is found in this paper that the synthetic inertial control of the WF in a weak grid deteriorates drive-train torsional oscillation of wind turbine generators (WTGs). Furthermore, the WF emulating inertial response is involved in power system oscillations and induces a new critical low-frequency oscillation. The above oscillations threaten small-signal stability of the WF and the power system, which restricts the WF to fulfill grid code requirements. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a two-level damping control scheme consisting of a WTG level torsional oscillation damping control and a WF level low-frequency oscillation adaptive damping control to enhance damping characteristic of the WF. Simulation results show that the two-level damping control can simultaneously counteract these concerned multiple oscillations under various operating conditions, which facilitates the WF to meet grid code requirements, and improves dynamic stability of the WF and the power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many radio frequency measurement systems require multicarrier signals with coherent phases between carriers with different frequencies. A typical example is the signal generator which is used in multicarrier multipactor (MM) testing systems. In this paper, we propose a new approach for the generation of coherent multicarrier signals based on a state-of-the-art phase-locked loops technique. Different from existing systems that rely on a heavy use of commercial microwave instruments, this generator can be implemented with on-shelf chips and devices. As an example, an ultrahigh frequency band generator is implemented and how to implement the in-system calibration of this generator in an experimental multipactor testing system is demonstrated. Based on the proposed approach, performing a quantitative experimental research on MM becomes affordable for an ordinary microwave laboratory, which may promote the in-depth experimental study in this area. It can also be used in a wide range of applications such as MIMO and phased array systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advantages of operating selected transmission lines at frequencies other than the standard 50 or 60 Hz are numerous, encompassing increased power transfer capacity and better utilization of existing infrastructure. While high voltage DC (HVDC) is by far the most well-established example, there has been an emerging interest low frequency AC (LFAC) transmission in applications ranging from offshore wind to railway systems and mining. In this paper, we investigate the use of LFAC as a transmission upgrade and propose models and analysis methods to determine the optimal choice of frequency. The paper first presents an optimal power flow model with frequency as a variable, assuming modular multilevel converters for frequency conversion. Using this model, we analyze LFAC as an embedded upgrade in a transmission system using existing lines. We quantify the system-wide advantages from improved power flow control and frequency reduction and find that an LFAC upgrade achieves similar and sometimes better results compared with HVDC upgrades. Finally, we analyze the factors which determine the optimal frequency for these upgraded transmission lines, and we demonstrate the benefits of changing the frequency in response to different system topologies and operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers an event-triggered mechanism (ETM) for multiple frequency services of electric vehicles (EVs) in smart grids (SGs). A new model of a SG with an ETM and multiple agents of EVs is introduced. ETM is deployed to reduce the load on network bandwidth. EVs are incorporated in both secondary and primary frequency services to suppress frequency fluctuations in the system. The behaviours of EV owners are also considered by using batteries SOC controls. Then, a mathematical model of the system is derived which contains parametric uncertainties due to the incorporation of SOC control, an ETM variable arising from ETM control, and a time-varying delay in both the state and control input vectors. We derive new Lyapunov stability and stabilizability conditions to ensure robust $H_{\infty }$ performance of the closed-loop system. The conditions are derived based on various mathematical tools including relaxed Jensen inequality, free weighting matrix technique, reciprocally convex approach, and matrix inequality for uncertainties. An effective procedure is proposed based on an approach using the state transformation and tractable linear matrix inequalities to synthesis robust static output feedback controller gains. Extensive simulations of a SG with three agents of EVs are undertaken to validate of our proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel load shedding scheme with consideration of the active power ramping capability of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to address the challenges due to low inertia and diverse types of DERs in microgrids. In the paper, it is demonstrated that due to the small inertia in microgrids, even with sufficient reserve power, the frequency could rapidly drop to a low level and trigger the DERs’ under frequency protection (thus the total system collapse), if the reserve active power is not ramped up at a sufficient rate. The proposed load shedding scheme addresses this challenge by considering not only the DERs’ reserve, but also their speed in injecting active power to the system to determine the amount of load should be shed, so that critical frequency thresholds are not violated. The proposed load shedding scheme is tested using a realistic real time hardware-in-the-loop arrangement. The results show that the proposed scheme can correctly detect the cases when the DERs’ responses are too slow and trigger the required load shedding actions, thus effectively containing the frequency above the critical threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency stability of microgrids is of paramount importance due to their low inertia and high share of renewable energy sources. In this paper, a frequency stability-constrained microgrid scheduling (FSC-MS) model is developed based on a time-dependent discretized frequency response model considering seamless unintentional islanding events. The optimal dispatch of controllable units, as well as optimal upward and downward primary reserves, are determined with a minimum operating cost while ensuring frequency stability criteria are maintained in their safe ranges following an unintentional islanding event, such as rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) and frequency nadir and overshoot. The limitation of generators with respect to primary frequency response is formulated in the form of primary reserve capacity and primary ramp rate limits. A cost-based model is presented to describe the available primary reserve of synchronous generators. The proposed FSC-MS model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem using Benders decomposition. Simulation results on a medium voltage microgrid test system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model to meet the frequency stability constraints while minimizing the total operating cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel $\mathcal {H}_{2}$ filter design procedure to optimally split the Frequency Regulation (FR) signal between conventional and fast regulating Energy Storage System (ESS) assets, considering typical Communication Delays (CDs). The filter is then integrated into a previously validated FR model of the Ontario Power System (OPS) including Battery and Flywheel ESSs, which is used to analyze the impact of these ESSs, CDs, and limited regulation capacity in the FR process in a real system. The proposed methodology to split the FR signal is also compared with the existing FR process, with the results showing that the proposed $\mathcal {H}_{2}$ filter design and signal splitting strategy can improve the FR process performance significantly, in terms of reducing the Area Control Error (ACE) signal, and thus reduce the need for regulation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As wind power penetration increases and fossil plants are retired, it is feared that there will be insufficient kinetic energy (KE) from the plants to support the system frequency. This paper shows the fear is groundless because the high inertias (H ≅ 4 seconds) of wind turbine-generators (WTGs) can be integrated to provide frequency support during generation outage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]