Energy Shaping Control for Stabilization of Interconnected Voltage Source Converters in Weakly-Connected AC Microgrid Systems

With the ubiquitous installations of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, for decentralized power applications across the United States, microgrids are being viewed as an avenue for achieving this goal. Various independent system operators and regional transmission operators such as Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Midcontinent System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manage the transmission and generation systems that host the distributed energy resources (DERs). Voltage source converters typically interconnect the DERs to the utility system and used in High voltage dc (HVDC) systems for transmitting power throughout the United States. A microgrid configuration is built at the 13.8kV 4.75MVA National Center for Reliable Energy Transmission (NCREPT) testing facility for performing grid-connected and islanded operation of interconnected voltage source converters. The interconnected voltage source converters consist of a variable voltage variable frequency (VVVF) drive, which powers a regenerative (REGEN) load bench acting as a distributed energy resource emulator. Due to the weak-grid interface in islanded mode testing, a voltage instability occurs on the VVVF dc link voltage causing the system to collapse. This dissertation presents a new stability theorem for stabilizing interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems with weak-grid interfaces. The new stability theorem is derived using the concepts of Dirac composition in Port-Hamiltonian systems, passivity in physical systems, eigenvalue analysis and robust analysis based on the edge theorem for parametric uncertainty. The novel stability theorem aims to prove that all members of the classes of voltage source converter-based microgrid systems can be stabilized using an energy-shaping control methodology. The proposed theorems and stability analysis justifies the development of the Modified Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Control (Modified IDA-PBC) method to be utilized in stabilizing the microgrid configuration at NCREPT for mitigating system instabilities. The system is simulated in MATLAB/SimulinkTM using the Simpower toolbox to observe the system’s performance of the designed controller in comparison to the decoupled proportional intergral controller. The simulation results verify that the Modified-IDA-PBC is a viable option for dc bus voltage control of interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems

A survey on modeling of microgrids - from fundamental physics to phasors and voltage sources

Microgrids have been identified as key components of modern electrical systems to facilitate the integration of renewable distributed generation units. Their analysis and controller design requires the development of advanced (typically model-based) techniques naturally posing an interesting challenge to the control community. Although there are widely accepted reduced order models to describe the dynamic behavior of microgrids, they are typically presented without details about the reduction procedure---hampering the understanding of the physical phenomena behind them. Preceded by an introduction to basic notions and definitions in power systems, the present survey reviews key characteristics and main components of a microgrid. We introduce the reader to the basic functionality of DC/AC inverters, as well as to standard operating modes and control schemes of inverter-interfaced power sources in microgrid applications. Based on this exposition and starting from fundamental physics, we present detailed dynamical models of the main microgrid components. Furthermore, we clearly state the underlying assumptions which lead to the standard reduced model with inverters represented by controllable voltage sources, as well as static network and load representations, hence, providing a complete modular model derivation of a three-phase inverter-based microgrid

Nonlinear voltage control for three-phase dc-ac converters in hybrid systems: An application of the pi-pbc method

In this paper, a proportional-integral passivity-based controller (PI-PBC) is proposed to regulate the amplitude and frequency of the three-phase output voltage in a direct-current alternating-current (DC-AC) converter with an LC filter. This converter is used to supply energy to AC loads in hybrid renewable based systems. The proposed strategy uses the well-known proportional-integral (PI) actions and guarantees the stability of the system by means of the Lyapunov theory. The proposed controller continues to maintain the simplicity and robustness of the PI controls using the Hamiltonian representation of the system, thereby ensuring stability and producing improvements in the performance. The performance of the proposed controller was validated based on simulation and experimental results after considering parametric variations and comparing them with classical approaches.Fil: Serra, Federico Martin. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agropecuarias. Laboratorio de Control Automático; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Martín Fernández, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agropecuarias. Laboratorio de Control Automático; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Montoya Giraldo, Oscar Danilo. Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar; Colombia. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas; ColombiaFil: Gil González, W. J.. Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar; ColombiaFil: Hernández, J. C.. Universidad de Jaén; Españ

Stability Analysis of Single-Phase Low-Voltage AC Microgrids With Constant Power Terminals

This express brief presents the stability analysis of single-phase microgrids (SP-MG) operating under master-slave connection with constant power terminals. The SP-MG is composed of linear elements, nonlinear loads and distributed generators modeled as P Q constant terminals interconnected through power electronic converters. A Lyapunov?s direct method through a Hamiltonian representation of the grid is used to demonstrate stability. The non-autonomous model of the SP-MG is transformed into an autonomous equivalent model based on the dynamics of the error. The proposed analysis shows that if there exists an admissible trajectory x * solution of the power flow equations then the SP-MG is stable in the sense of Lyapunov.Fil: Montoya, O. D.. Universidad Tecnologica de Bolivar; ColombiaFil: Garces, A.. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira; ColombiaFil: Avila Becerril, S.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Espinosa Pérez, G.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Serra, Federico Martin. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agropecuarias. Laboratorio de Control Automático; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Química; Argentin

Network Synchronization and Control Based on Inverse Optimality : A Study of Inverter-Based Power Generation

This thesis dwells upon the synthesis of system-theoretical tools to understand and control the behavior of nonlinear networked systems. This work is at the crossroads of three topics: synchronization in coupled high-order oscillators, inverse optimal control and the application of inverter-based power systems. The control and stability of power systems leverages the theoretical results obtained for synchronization in coupled high-order oscillators and inverse optimal control.First, we study the dynamics of coupled high-order nonlinear oscillators. These are characterized by their rotational invariance, meaning that their dynamics remain unchanged following a static shift of their angles. We provide sufficient conditions for local frequency synchronization based on both direct, indirect Lyapunov methods and center manifold theory. Second, we study inverse optimal control problems, embedded in networked settings. In this framework, we depart from a given stabilizing control law, with an associated control Lyapunov function and reverse engineer the cost functional to guarantee the optimality of the controller. In this way, inverse optimal control generates a whole family of optimal controllers corresponding to different cost functions. This provides analytically explicit and numerically feasible solutions in closed-form. This approach circumvents the complexity of solving partial differential equations descending from dynamic programming and Bellman's principle of optimality. We show this to be the case also in the presence of disturbances in the dynamics and the cost. In networks, the controller obtained from inverse optimal control has a topological structure (e.g., it is distributed) and thus feasible for implementation. The tuning is analogous to that of linear quadratic regulators.Third, motivated by the pressing changes witnessed by the electrical grid toward renewable energy generation, we consider power system stability and control as the main application of this thesis. In particular, we apply our theoretical findings to study a network of power electronic inverters. We first propose a controller we term the matching controller, a control strategy that, based on DC voltage measurements, endows the inverters with an oscillatory behavior at a common desired frequency. In closed-loop with the matching control, inverters can be considered as nonlinear oscillators. Our study of the dynamics of nonlinear oscillator network provides feasible physical conditions that ask for damping on DC- and AC-side of each converter, that are sufficient for system-wide frequency synchronization.Furthermore, we showcase the usefulness of inverse optimal control for inverter-based generation at two different settings to synthesize robust angle controllers with respect to common disturbances in the grid and provable stability guarantees. All the controllers proposed in this thesis, provide the electrical grid with important services, namely power support whenever needed, as well as power sharing among all inverters