A Unified Power Controller for Photovoltaic

Generators in Microgrid
Du Yan

Su Jianhui

Shi Yong

School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China
Photovoltaic System Research Center of Education Ministry, Hefei, China
Abstractthe non-dispatchable energy output of PV generators
has an adverse effect on the stability of microgrid especially
capacity-limited microgrid with high PV penetration. To solve
this problem, a unified power control strategy for PV generators
is proposed to mimic the performance of synchronous generator
(SG) in power system. As a supplementary supply, fuel cell is
equipped in the PV generator to reduce the DC voltage ripple
and supply a virtual electrical inertia as well. This proposed PV
generator is regulated by the conventional control algorithm for
SG so that it can contribute to the voltage and frequency
regulation in an islanded microgrid while it can correct power
factor when the microgrid connects to the utility. This control
strategy for PV generators has been verified by the simulation
study. The simulation results show that it has excellent
performance in tracking the maximum solar power, participating
voltage and frequency control, sharing the load and correcting
the power factor.
Keywords-microgrid; photovoltaic; VSI; inertia;

I.

INTRODUCTION

Compared to a conventional centralized power system,

distributed generation (DG) has become an attractive option for
the large-scale renewable energy resource. However, the high
penetration of DGs always raises concern of power system
stability. To cope with this problem, a concept of microgrids
[1][2] is proposed to improve the quality and reliability of the
delivered power by integrating different distributed generation
(DG) and energy storage systems. Therefore microgrids can be
regarded as the promising DG configurations.
As intelligent mini power systems, microgrids can work
either grid-connected operation mode or islanded operation
mode. For an islanded microgrid, voltage and frequency are
supported by multiple inverter-based DGs since there is no
voltage reference unlike the utility in the grid-connected
operation mode. To improve the stability of microgrids, microsources are expected to participate in load sharing.
Solar energy is one of the most popular renewable energy
in practice. Therefore, the photovoltaic (PV) generator is
regarded as one of the important renewable energy resources in
a microgrid. However, the disadvantage of PV generators is
that the PV output power fluctuates depending on the weather
condition. Therefore the conventional grid-connected PV
generator is not able to follow the load change to support the
frequency and voltage in an islanded microgrid because
Furthermore, this intermittent energy output may jeopardize the
systems stability in the case of a capacity-limited micro grid
with high PV penetration.

To reduce this adverse effect, various solutions have been

discussed by several literatures. In [3], a ramp rate control of a
photovoltaic (PV) generator is proposed to obtain a desirable
PV generators output. In [4], a control strategy for a PV-diesel
system without energy storage is discussed. In [5], a neurofuzzy MPPT controller for PV generators is presented to
optimize the energy output of PV in a microgrid.
In conventional power system, each synchronous generator
(SG) could response to the frequency deviation because of the
kinetic energy stored in rotor [6]. This dynamic response is
determined by the inertia of generator. Besides that, SG could
get involved in frequency regulation by an embedded primary
frequency controller, thus the frequency deviation can be
reduced during the load fluctuation.
However, PV generators are supplied by the inertia-less
solar cells, the output power has no direct relation between
power and frequency [7]. Moreover, a typical currentcontrolled PV generator is driven by the strategy of maximum
power point tracking (MPPT). Therefore, this non-dispatchable
power doesnt have any contribution to the frequency
regulation.
In this paper, a unified power controller based on
synchronous generator model is proposed for PV generators to
share the load and to regulate the frequency and voltage as well.
A virtual inertia can be obtained by the implementation of the
swing equation. A virtual primary frequency controller (VPFC)
is to regulate load frequency and a virtual excitation controller
(VEC) is to control either feeder voltage or reactive power.
Therefore, both frequency and voltage stability can be
improved in an autonomous microgrid since PV generators can
participate in the frequency control.
The paper starts with a brief description of this designed PV
system, and then the proposed power control strategy is
introduced. This is followed by the implementation of the
proposed controller. Finally, the simulation studies are
presented to verify this proposed unified power controller.
II.

A microgrid includes PV generators is depicted in Fig.1.

The microgrid is connected to the point of common coupling
(PCC). When the switch is off, the local AC load is feed by this
islanded microgrid. In this islanded microgrid, the voltage and
frequency are supported by the distributed control of the VSI
with energy storage and PV generator as well. The designed
PV generator, shown as Fig.1, is PV-Fuel Cell hybrid
generation system.

This work is supported by 973 Project of China (2009CB219705), National

Natural Science Foundation of China (50777015), (51077033)

978-1-4577-0365-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

1121

Since the emphasis is putted on the AC power control, the

conventional charge and discharge controller for fuel cell and
the perturbation and observation (P&O) MPPT method are
applied to DC bus control. The control diagrams for fuel cell
are shown as Fig.2.

U dc*
U dc

Figure 2. Control diagram of bi-directional DC/DC converter for fuel cell

Figure 1. The configuration of microgrid with PV generators

On DC side, a boost chopper for PV array and a bidirectional converter for fuel cell are controlled coordinately to
maintain a stable DC-link voltage. Boost chopper is used to
connect PV array which can boost the lower voltage to a more
stable higher voltage for the DC/AC inverter. To release or
absorb the extra energy during load or PV fluctuation, fuel cell
is added to the system through bi-directional DC/DC converter.

B. AC Power Control
To mimic the control strategy for the SGs performance, the
grid-connected inverter is regulated according to the swing
equation and the voltage equations of SG given by (1)[8].

Pm P e
d

Tm Te = = J dt + D

di

ud = Ld d + X qiq Raid

dt

diq
X d id Raiq
uq = Eq Lq
dt

M af E f M af
Eq = (
+
id + E f 0 )
Lf s
Lf

The topology of DC/AC converter used here is three-phase

full-bridge VSI. Unlike typical current source, PV generator is
regulated as a voltage-controlled voltage source in order to
emulate synchronous generator. This proposed controller is
expected to regulate this DC/AC converter as a virtual
synchronous generator.
III.

PROPOSED CONTROL STRATEGY FOR PV GENERATORS

The control strategy for PV generator can be split into two

parts: DC bus control and AC power control. On the DC side,
PV panel and fuel cell operate complementary to obtain a
certain level of DC voltage for the grid-tied converter. With
respect to AC power flow control, PV generator is either power
factor control (PPF) mode or feeder voltage control (FVC)
mode depending on the microgrid is islanded or not.

Therefore, the active power is determined by power angle

from the swing equation while the reactive power is controlled
by the virtual excitation voltage. The scheme for simulating SG
is shown in Fig3.
Ef

Fuel cell is functioned as a supplementary energy supply in

case of the power fluctuation of load or PV panel. As an
inevitable component for this proposed PV generator, fuel cell
supports the virtual primary frequency control as the virtual
kinetic energy in rotor. Fuel cell can also filter the DC voltage
ripple in the irradiance variation by absorbing or releasing the
extra energy on DC bus.

Eq

Vd*

Pm

This paper is focused on the possibility that PV generators

can be regulated as SG in power system and conventional
methodology for SG can be introduced to control PV
generators in microgrid.
A. DC Bus Control
The prime movers for proposed PV generator are PV array
and fuel cell. To improve the energy efficiency of renewable,
boost chopper for PV array works as a maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) controller.

(1)

PWM

Vq

Figure 3. Scheme of DC/AC converter to simulate SG

Furthermore, PV generator is controlled as a versatile

component by integrating the control methodology borrowed
from SG. PV generator participates in primary frequency
through a virtual primary frequency regulator (VPR). When the
microgrid works in grid-connected mode, virtual excitation
regulator (VER) control the power factor by regulating the
reactive power. On the other side, VER works in feeder voltage
control (FVC) by regulating the voltage magnitude of PCC.
IV.

CONTROLLER IMPLEMENTATION

The controller for DC/AC inverter to mimic SG contains a

three-level control loop. The outer loop includes virtual a
primary frequency regulator (VPR) and a virtual excitation

1122

regulator (VER) to get an inner virtual EMF. Then an adapted

SG model is employed to get a reference of terminal voltage.
Finally, a voltage and current controller is designed to achieve
zero steady error of this reference voltage. Thus, the
conventional SG for power system can be applied to PV
generator.

to improve the transient response of inner current loop. The

control scheme for voltage regulation is depicted as Fig5.

A. Inertia Response
Inertia response is one of the most important characteristic
of SGs operation which is governed by the swing equation. It
can The swing equation of SG is given by (2)

Pm Pe = J

d
d
+ D J 0
+ D0
dt
dt

Figure 5. Block diagram of the dual close-looped voltage regulator

(2)

Here, Pm and Pe are the mechanical power and

electromagnetic power separately J is the moment of the
inertiaD is the damping coefficient; in the small excursion of
angular speed, can be substituted by the reference angular
velocity 0 of the grid.
According to the dq0 voltage equations of SG, the dq0
rotating frame can be derived from the swing equation of rotor.
Therefore, the rotating angle of dq0 frame is defined by (3).

P
= 0t +
k1s + k2

(3)

Where, k1=J0; k2 =D0.

C. Primary Frequency Control

In power system, the speed governor on each generating
unit provides the primary speed control. Consequently, all
generating units can contribute to the overall change regardless
of the location of load change. The primary frequency control
is based on a droop characteristic of the frequency deviation.
The droop constant Kf without dimension is presented as (4):

Kf =

Vcb

Vcc C

Figure 4. Topology of the DC/AC converter in the PV generator

However, the amplified high-frequency harmonics resulted

from the differential term in the formula make the system
unstable during the large load step. Thanks to the constant
steady current in dq0 frame, the deviation term only works
during the transient response. Therefore the differential term is
omitted in terms of controller design since it has no impact on
the steady performance.

(4)

Therefore, this power-frequency droop control for SG [9] is

applied to PV generators to share the load demand. The
diagram of virtual primary frequency regulator (VPFR) is
shown as Fig.6.

B. Voltage Regulation
The topology of DC/AC converter used in this paper is a
three-phase full-bridge VSI shown as Fig.4.The output voltage
of LC filter can be regarded as the terminal voltage as long as
the dash part in Fig1 can be regulated as a SG according to the
model presented in Section III. Therefore the reference of
terminal voltage can be obtained from Eq.1.
Vca

P / Pnom
/ nom

Figure 6. Control diagram of the primary frequency controller(VPFR)

D. Virtual Excitation Voltage Control

The voltage drop is proportional to the reactive power
injected into the network due to the inductance dominated
output impedance. Therefore, the regulation of excitation
voltage plays an important role in the control of the reactive
power or terminal voltage. In the grid-connected mode, the PV
generator can operate as a power conditioner by regulating the
power factor at PCC. In the islanded mode, the primary voltage
control is achieved by a close loop control of terminal voltage.
Fig.7 gives the control diagram of the virtual excitation
regulator (VER)

In order to achieve zero steady error of the reference

voltage, a dual-loop voltage and current controller is designed
here. In addition, the feed forwards of VodVoq are introduced

1123

Figure 7. Control diagram of the virtual excitation voltage controller

V.

SIMULTATION STUDY AND DISCUSSION

3500

To verify this proposed control strategy, the following

simulations have been accomplished.

ActivePower(W
)

3000

A. Control of DC-link Voltage

As an auxiliary part, fuel cell in the PV generator maintains
the DC-link voltage stable by absorbing or releasing the extra
energy flowing on the DC bus. Fig.8 gives DC voltage during
the fluctuation of irradiance. Fig.9 compares the DC voltage
between fuel-cell-equipped and fuel-cell-less PV generators in
the condition of load fluctuation.

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

Active Power
reference of Active Power
0

10

12

14

16

18

Figure 10. The response of active power in PPF mode

950

60

900

50

ReactivePower(W
)

Udc(V)

1000

850

800

750

With Fuel Cell

Without Fuel Cell

700
0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

40

30

20

Reactive Power
reference of Reactive Power

10

1.4

10

12

14

16

18

Figure 8. The response of Udc in irradiation fluctuation

Figure 11. The response of reactive power in PPF mode
1100

C. Feeder Voltage Control (FVC) Mode

The active power in FVC mode is delivered by a powerfrequency droop controller with primary frequency control.
The difference is that the terminal voltage is regulated instead
of the power factor in an islanded microgrid. At 0.1s, a 1AC
load parallels to the original 10load.

1050

Udc(V)

1000

950

With Fuel Cell

Without Fuel Cell

900

850

800

0.5

1.5

Figure 9. The response of Udc in load fluctuation

Those simulation results show the DC voltage has fewer

ripples than the conventional PV generator during the
disturbance. It also shows that fuel cell has the capability of
balancing the extra energy as during the load fluctuation which
is the vital factor for the proposed electrical inertia.

Fig.12 shows that the proposed PV generator in FVC mode

compensates the feeder voltage drop compared with the
conventional PV generators. Depicted as Fig.13, during the
load fluctuation, the primary frequency controller can reduce
the frequency deviation dramatically compared to the PV
generator without primary frequency control. So the PV
generator is involved in voltage and frequency regulation with
these two extraordinary characteristics and the stability of PV
microgrid is improved as a result.
224

B.

1124

222

Magnitude(V)

Power Factor Control (PPF) Mode

In PPF mode, the PV generator can supply reactive power
according to the reference of power factor. Therefore, it
contributes to the power factor correcting. Fig.10 and Fig.11
depict the output for active power and reactive power in PPF
mode separately. At 6s, the reference of power factor is
changed from 0.9 to 0.8 and the reference of active power is
switched from 2Kw to 3Kw at 10s. Those results illustrate that
the proposed PV generator compensates the reactive power
rapidly in PPF mode while delivers the maximum solar power.

220

218

216

214
With Feeder Voltage Control
Without Feeder Voltage Control

212

210

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.2

Figure 12. Feeder voltage with different controller in an islanded microgrid

voltage control, power factor correcting and the maximum

solar energy exploitation.

50.05
Without Primary Frequency Control
With Primary Frequency Control

Frequency(Hz)

50

REFERENCES

49.95

[1]

49.9

49.85

49.8

49.75

[2]
0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

[3]

Figure 13. The frequency of an islanded microgrid with different controller

VI.

[4]

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, a novel PV generator with SG characteristic is

presented. According to the mathematical model of SG, this
proposed PV generator can be regulated as SG with virtual
electrical inertia. In addition, the control methodology of SG is
introduced so that PV generators can contribute the voltage and
frequency supporting in an islanded microgrid while correcting
the power factor in a grid-connected microgrid.
The feasibility and validity of this proposed control strategy
has been verified by the Matlab/Simulink-based simulation
platform. The simulation results show this PV generator plays a
multi-function role in a microgrid with this proposed operating
algorithm including primary frequency control, primary

1125

[5]

[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]

Kroposki, Benjamin, Lasseter, Robert, Ise, Toshifumi, Morozumi,

Satoshi, Papathanassiou, Stavros, Hatziargyriou, Nikos, Making
microgrids work , IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, vol. 6, pp 40-53,
2008
Lasseter, R.H., MicroGrids, vol.1 pp.305 August 2002. Power
Engineering Society Winter Meeting, IEEE
Naoto Kakimoto, Hiroyuki Satoh, Satoshi Takayama, Kouichi
Nakamura Ramp-Rate Control of Photovoltaic Generator With
Electric Double-Layer Capacitor IEEE Trans on Energy Conversion,
Vol.24,No.2,June,2009
A. Elmitwally, Mohamed Rashed Flexible Operation Strategy for an
Isolated PV-Diesel Microgrid Without Energy Storage IEEE Trans
on Energy Conversion, unpubished
Aymen Chaouachi, Rashad M. Kamel, Ken Nagasaka microgrid
efficiency enhancement based on neuro-fuzzy mppt control for
photovoltaic generator, pp 2889-2894, Photovoltaic Specialist
Conference 2010
Hadi Saadat, Power System Analysis, McGraw-Hill,1999
Johan Morren, Sjoerd W.H. de Haan, J.A.Ferreira Contribution of
DG Units to Primary Frequency Control Future Power Systems, 2005
International Conference, pp.6, 2005
P.M.Anderson,A.A.Fouad, Power System Control and Stability, The
Lowa State University Press,1977
Hassan Bevrani, Robust Power System Frequency Control, Phil.
Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Springer,2009