System configuration, fault detection, location, isolation and restoration: a review on LVDC Microgrid protections

Low voltage direct current (LVDC) distribution has gained the significant interest of research due to the advancements in power conversion technologies. However, the use of converters has given rise to several technical issues regarding their protections and controls of such devices under faulty conditions. Post-fault behaviour of converter-fed LVDC system involves both active converter control and passive circuit transient of similar time scale, which makes the protection for LVDC distribution significantly different and more challenging than low voltage AC. These protection and operational issues have handicapped the practical applications of DC distribution. This paper presents state-of-the-art protection schemes developed for DC Microgrids. With a close look at practical limitations such as the dependency on modelling accuracy, requirement on communications and so forth, a comprehensive evaluation is carried out on those system approaches in terms of system configurations， fault detection, location, isolation and restoration

Dynamic modeling, stability analysis and control of interconnected microgrids:A review

This paper reviews concepts of interconnected microgrids (IMGs) as well as compare and classify their modeling, stability analysis, and control methods. To develop benefits of isolated microgrids (MGs) such as reliability improvement and their renewable energy integration, they should be interconnected, share power, support the voltage/frequency of overloaded MGs, etc. Despite maximizing their benefits and decreasing weaknesses of isolated MGs, IMGs require maintaining stability in different operation modes and employing appropriate control methods. Moreover, a basic requirement for stability analysis and controller design is system modeling. Since many articles have addressed these topics on IMGs from different views, a comparison is necessary. Therefore, IMG dynamic modeling methods are classified and their main features and challenges are discussed. Then, stability analysis and control methods of IMGs are reviewed and compared. The provided review is supported by conceptual diagrams, classification tables, off-line and real-time simulations using MATLAB and OPAL-RT simulator for comparison. Furthermore, a data set is provided to study fundamentals as well as research gaps, which are addressed for future works

A decentralized scalable approach to voltage control of DC islanded microgrids

We propose a new decentralized control scheme for DC Islanded microGrids (ImGs) composed by several Distributed Generation Units (DGUs) with a general interconnection topology. Each local controller regulates to a reference value the voltage of the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) of the corresponding DGU. Notably, off-line control design is conducted in a Plug-and-Play (PnP) fashion meaning that (i) the possibility of adding/removing a DGU without spoiling stability of the overall ImG is checked through an optimization problem; (ii) when a DGU is plugged in or out at most neighbouring DGUs have to update their controllers and (iii) the synthesis of a local controller uses only information on the corresponding DGU and lines connected to it. This guarantee total scalability of control synthesis as the ImG size grows or DGU gets replaced. Yes, under mild approximations of line dynamics, we formally guarantee stability of the overall closed-loop ImG. The performance of the proposed controllers is analyzed simulating different scenarios in PSCAD.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1405.242

Stability Analysis of Microgrid Islanding Transients based on Interconnected Dissipative Subsystems

To ensure successful islanding of microgrids after a fault has occurred, the transient stability should be analyzed under a set of expected operating conditions during the design and operation of microgrids. Transient stability analysis is conventionally performed with time-domain analysis which is computationally expensive and does not quantify the stability margin. Energy-based methodologies can determine the stability margin, however existing methodologies require significant simplifications to be applied to the microgrid model. The energy-based stability analysis methodology proposed in this paper enables the analysis of high-dimension nonlinear microgrid systems and quantification of the stability margin within reasonable time. The performance of the methodology is validated by analyzing a case study microgrid and comparing the results to time-domain analysis and to a state-of-the-art methodology proposed in the literature. The results indicate that the proposed methodology has a significantly lower computational burden and similar accuracy compared to existing energy-based methodologies. The methodology is able to improve the probability of stable islanding of the case study microgrid from 74% up to 94% when only optimizing the design, and up to 100% when optimizing design and control actions

Analysis of an On-Line Stability Monitoring Approach for DC Microgrid Power Converters

An online approach to evaluate and monitor the stability margins of dc microgrid power converters is presented in this paper. The discussed online stability monitoring technique is based on the Middlebrook's loop-gain measurement technique, adapted to the digitally controlled power converters. In this approach, a perturbation is injected into a specific digital control loop of the converter and after measuring the loop gain, its crossover frequency and phase margin are continuously evaluated and monitored. The complete analytical derivation of the model, as well as detailed design aspects, are reported. In addition, the presence of multiple power converters connected to the same dc bus, all having the stability monitoring unit, is also investigated. An experimental microgrid prototype is implemented and considered to validate the theoretical analysis and simulation results, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the digital implementation of the technique for different control loops. The obtained results confirm the expected performance of the stability monitoring tool in steady-state and transient operating conditions. The proposed method can be extended to generic control loops in power converters operating in dc microgrids