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A hybrid ac/dc microgrid, which consists of alternating current (ac) subgrid(s) and direct current (dc) subgrid(s), can efficiently integrate ac and dc loads, distributed generators (DGs) with minimum conversion stages. The ac and dc subgrids are connected by the bidirectional power converter (BPC) to realize power interaction between them. This paper proposes a decentralized economic operation control for the hybrid ac/dc microgrid, which aims to realize economic power sharing among all DGs and economic power interaction between subgrids. For the DGs, the nonlinear droop controls based on ac frequency-incremental cost and dc voltage-incremental cost are proposed, which can equalize DGs’ incremental costs autonomously, and hence decrease the subgrids’ generation costs with the equal incremental cost principle. For the BPC, the economic power interaction control is proposed to optimize the power interaction between the two subgrids and further decrease the total generation cost (TGC). In addition, the economic operation is categorized into different modes according to the load conditions. The hybrid microgrid with nonlinear incremental cost droops is modeled, and the overall stability analysis is conducted to ensure stable operation in all load conditions and modes. The performance of the proposed control is verified by the real-time hardware-in-loop (HIL) test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from single-bus dc microgrids (MGs), a multibus MG normally bridge multiple dc buses via a complex line impedance network. This intricate configuration together with tickling constant power loads may cause severe stability issues. For system stability improvement, conventional ways include designing small-signal stabilizers in a decentralized way and constructing large-signal stabilizers by solving Lyapunov equation in a central controller. Note that centralized methods may be vulnerable to single point of failures, while decentralized patterns are commended to reinforce MG reliability and scalability. To implement large-signal stabilization in decentralized mechanisms, which has rarely been investigated in the existing literature, a novel uniform nonsmooth control scheme (UNCS) is proposed, in this article. UNCS has the following fourfold advantages. First, UNCS helps to express commonly used dc/dc converters, boost, buck, and buck–boost, into a uniform model. The model substantially facilitates a uniform stabilizer design that accommodates the preceding three converters despite their differences in topology. Second, UNCS assigns each converter based distributed generator (DG) with a composite large-signal stabilizer comprising a nonsmooth observer and a nonsmooth controller. The controller neutralizes the disturbances estimated by the observer, and it also rigorously stabilizes the internal states in DG uniform model. Third, the stabilizer also provides an additional control degree of freedom, a finetuning factor, to refine DG dynamic responses to meet high requirements for voltage and power qualities. Fourth, when numerous DGs with the proposed stabilizer congregate to build a multibus MG, the overall system large-signal stabilization is autonomously attained without communication links, which is mathematically justified by Lyapunov stability analyses. As such, DGs are allowed to randomly plug in/out without worrying about impairing system level stability. Simulations help to properly select relevant key parameters. Experiments show that UNCS outperforms the standardly designed PI controls, and it will stabilize the multibus MG in a large operation range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control based on adaptive virtual inertia is proposed to improve dynamic frequency regulation of microgrid. When the system frequency deviates from the nominal steady-state value, the adaptive inertia control can exhibit a large inertia to slow the dynamic process and, thus, improve frequency nadir. And when the system frequency starts to return, a small inertia is shaped to accelerate system dynamics with a quick transient process. As a result, this flexible inertia property combines the merits of large inertia and small inertia, which contributes to the improvement of dynamic frequency response. The stability of the proposed algorithm is proved by Lyapunov stability theory, and the guidelines on the key control parameters are provided. Finally, both hardware-in-the-loop and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) generators have continuously increased in recent years, whose power is usually controlled through the perturbation and observation (P&O) method. In essence, the P&O method is nonlinear and discontinuous. Hence, the conventional small-signal stability analysis is not suitable anymore when the influence of the P&O-based power control is considered. Focusing on this problem, this paper adopts the nonlinear describing function (DF) method to conduct the accurate stability analysis of PV generators with consideration of P&O-based power control. The detailed procedures about the DF method are introduced, and then the related influence factors like perturbation size, filters, and so on are analyzed quantitatively. Furthermore, the comparison with the conventional stability analysis methods is made, which suggests that the DF method can effectively enhance the accuracy of the stability analysis. All the conclusions are verified by the real-time hardware-in-loop tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation electrification involves the wide utilization of power electronics based dc distribution networks and the integration of a large amount of power electronic loads. These power electronic loads, when tightly controlled, behave as constant power loads (CPLs) and may cause system instability when interacting with their source converters. In this paper, a composite nonlinear controller is proposed for stabilizing dc/dc boost converter feeding CPLs by integrating a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO)-based feedforward compensation with backstepping design algorithm. First, the model is transformed into the Brunovsky’s canonical form using the exact feedback linearization technique, to handle the nonlinearity introduced by the CPL. Second, the NDO technique is adopted to estimate the load power variation within a fast dynamic response, serving as a feedforward compensation to increase the accuracy of output voltage regulation. Then a nonlinear controller is developed by following the step-by-step backstepping algorithm with strictly guaranteed large signal stability. The proposed controller not only ensures global stability under large variation of the CPL but also features fast dynamic response with accurate tracking over wide operating range. Both simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a short-circuit fault occurs in a distribution network, speed and reactive power consumption of an induction generator (IG) increase dramatically, which may cause system transient stability problems. This paper proposes an improved steady-state equivalent circuit method to determine transient stability of a distribution system or a micro-grid with multiple IGs. Interaction between IGs and distribution network during a fault is investigated. The relationship between network parameters and speeds of IGs is derived using the steady-state equivalent circuits of IGs. The critical speed and critical fault clearing time (CCT) for maintaining system stability are determined using the proposed technique. The factors, which affect transient stability of a multi-IG distribution system, are investigated. The correctness of the proposed method is verified using dynamic simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]