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Abstract—This paper presents a real-time coordinated control cause voltage collapse, oscillation of the angular velocity in the
of the hybrid ac/dc microgrids involving energy storage and pulsed generators, and degradation of the overall system performance
loads. Grid-isolated hybrid microgrid applications require special [22], [23], [25]. The pulsed loads draw high currents during a
considerations due to the intermittent generation, online energy
storage control, and pulsed loads. In this study, we introduce a short period of time, which can cause considerable voltage and
comprehensive frequency and voltage control scheme for a hybrid frequency fluctuation [22]. These disturbances can trip other
ac/dc microgrid consisting of a synchronous generator, solar gen- normal loads offline, causing a serious outage. The power re-
eration emulator, and bidirectional (ac/dc and dc/dc) converters. A quirements of such loads can range from kilowatts to megawatts
bidirectional controlled ac/dc converter with an active and reactive with a charge interval on the order of seconds to minutes [23].
power decoupling technique is used to link the ac bus with the dc
bus, while regulating the system voltage and frequency. A dc/dc Power converters opened new horizons for effective integra-
boost converter with a maximum power point tracking function is tion of ac- and dc-distribution networks in a microgrid operation
implemented to maximize the intermittent energy generation from concept [8]. Thus far, in [9] and [10], several ideas and models
solar generators. Current-controlled bidirectional dc/dc convert- of ac/dc microgrids have been proposed, but their systems op-
ers are applied to connect each lithium-ion battery bank to the dc erate without the influence of the pulsed loads. System stability
bus. Lithium-ion battery banks act as energy storage devices that
serve to increase the system resiliency by absorbing or injecting and coordination control of the power electronic devices, during
power. Experimental results are presented for verification of the islanded operation modes with the influence of pulsed loads, is
introduced hybrid ac/dc power flow control scheme. still an open issue.
Index Terms—Battery bank, energy management, energy stor-
At the same time, various utility grids and some hybrid mi-
age, microgrid, pulsed load, synchrophasor. crogrids are increasing the penetration of renewable energy re-
sources [11], [12]. The intermittent nature of wind and solar
I. INTRODUCTION power can quickly add up to the system-wide instability that
YBRID power systems are gaining popularity due to can force generators to ramp up and down wildly, push grid
H increasing microgrid deployments featuring renewable
power systems connected to low-voltage ac distribution sys-
protection gear into states it is not meant to handle, or force the
wind and solar generator to shut off altogether [13].
tems. Furthermore, dc grids are resurging due to the develop- Hybrid power systems face far more challenges when oper-
ment of new semiconductor technologies and sustainable dc ating in an islanded mode than they do in the grid-connected
power sources such as solar energy. There has also been an mode. During the islanded mode, the ac side can no longer be
increase in dc loads, such as plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) viewed as an infinite bus, which results in load variations ad-
[5]–[7] and light-emitting diodes, connected to the grid to save versely affecting the frequency and voltage of the system. If
energy and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This growth the system has a high penetration of the renewable power, the
has been motivated by environmental concerns caused by the situation can be even worse. At any time, reactive and active
conventional fossil-fueled power plants [24]. power flow should be balanced between the ac and dc sides to
Thus far, a variety of control strategies have been introduced maintain the stability on both sides of the grid [14], [15].
for microgrids [1]–[4]. One of the major technical challenges To the best of author’s knowledge, a realistic coordinated
in microgrids is the interconnection of pulsed loads, which can hybrid ac/dc microgrid control considering pulsed load mitiga-
tion with energy storage has not yet been studied. In this paper,
Manuscript received May 7, 2016; revised August 5, 2016; accepted Septem- a real-time coordinated control of a grid-isolated hybrid ac/dc
ber 15, 2016. Date of publication September 27, 2016; date of current version microgrid involving energy storage and pulsed loads is stud-
January 18, 2017. Paper 2016-IACC-0369.R1, presented at the 2015 Industry ied. This microgrid can be viewed as a PEV parking garage
Applications Society Annual Meeting, Addison, TX, USA, Oct. 18–22, and ap-
proved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS power system or a ship power system that utilizes sustainable
by the Industrial Automation and Control Committee of the IEEE Industry Ap- energy and is influenced by pulsed load. We introduce a com-
plications Society. This work was supported in part by grants for the Office of prehensive frequency and voltage control scheme for a hybrid
Naval Research and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The authors are with the Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Depart- ac/dc microgrid consisting of a synchronous generator, solar
ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, generation emulator, and bidirectional (ac/dc and dc/dc) con-
Miami, FL 33174 USA (e-mail: matan8571@gmail.com; mcint015@fiu.edu; verters. A bidirectional controlled ac/dc converter with active
mohammed@fiu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online and reactive power decoupling technique is used to link the ac
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. bus with the dc bus, while regulating the system voltage and
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2016.2613981 frequency.
0093-9994 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
568 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 53, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
Fig. 1. Overview of the ac side of a hybrid microgrid configuration involving synchronous generators, inverter-based distributed energy resources, distribution
line and load models, synchrophasor, intelligent electronic devices (IED) protection setup, SCADA systems, and human–machine interface (HMI).
and loads are connected [17], [18]. The ac and dc sides are
linked through a bidirectional three-phase ac/dc converter and
a transformer. The system features constant and pulse loads
on both the ac and dc sides. The PV emulator is connected to
the dc bus as the dc energy source through a dc/dc boost con-
verter with MPPT functionality. Five 50-Ah lithium-ion battery
banks with 51.8-V terminal voltage are connected to the dc
bus through five bidirectional dc/dc boost converters [19]. The
rated voltages of dc and ac sides are 300 and 208 V phase to
phase, respectively. The system can be operated in either grid-
connected mode or islanding mode. To maximize the utilization
of the renewable sources, the PV emulator can be operated
in on/off maximum power point modes based on the whole
system power.
Energy balancing is handled by controlling the dc/dc boost
converter. In a grid-connected mode, the proposed system can
be viewed as a PEVs car park system. The five batteries can
be viewed as five PEVs that can play the role of energy stor-
age. By controlling the charging process of the PEVs in the car
park, the hybrid microgrid can limit the PEVs’ charging impact
to the utility grid and at the same time provide some ancillary
support to the utility grid through V2G services, via frequency
regulation, reactive power compensation, and spinning reserve.
In an islanded mode, the proposed system can be viewed as a
ship power system with solar panels. The bidirectional ac/dc
converter can take control of the ac-side frequency and volt-
age amplitude. The dc-bus voltage is regulated by controlling
the charging and discharging of the battery banks, which also
means controlling the current flow through the bidirectional
dc/dc converter.
Fig. 2. Overview of the dc side of a hybrid microgrid configuration involving
bidirectional ac/dc dc/dc converters. A. PV Panel Emulator
The PV panel can be viewed as a current source in parallel
A dc/dc boost converter with a maximum power point with a diode. In this paper, the SunPower SPR-305-WHT solar
tracking (MPPT) function is implemented to maximize the cell with 305-W maximum output power is used. Thirty-three
intermittent energy generation from the solar generators. cells are used in the configuration of 11 parallel strings with
Current-controlled bidirectional dc/dc converters are applied to three serially connected cells per string. Fig. 3 shows the non-
connect each lithium-ion battery bank to dc bus [16]. linear P–V and I–V electric characteristics of a single SunPower
SPR-305-WHT solar sell. Under different solar irradiations, the
II. HYBRID AC/DC MICROGRID CONFIGURATION
maximum power points of the power–voltage curves are asso-
Fig. 1 shows the complete schematics of the studied hybrid ciated with different output voltages. Also, under certain solar
microgrid. Fig. 2 shows the dc side of the hybrid microgrid con- irradiance, the output of the PV panel is varying with different
figuration, where a photovoltaic (PV) emulator, battery banks, terminal voltages.
MA et al.: CONTROL OF A HYBRID AC/DC MICROGRID INVOLVING ENERGY STORAGE AND PULSED LOADS 569
TABLE II
HYBRID MICROGRID SYSTEM PARAMETERS
B. Experimental Result
Complementary to simulation results and extension of [16],
the real-time experimental performance of the hybrid microgrid
is tested under islanding and pulsed load conditions. The is-
landing experiment was realized by opening the circuit breaker
of PMU2, shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 10 illustrates the islanding
transition of the microgrid and the corresponding primary and
secondary controls. Primary control is the immediate response
of the synchronous generator, and the grid-tie inverter arrests
deviations in power system frequency. Secondary control ad-
justs the dispatchable assets shortly after frequency and voltage
deviations to restore the system to nominal operating conditions.
1) Islanding of a Hybrid AC/DC Microgrid: The objective
of this experiment is to present proper centrally coordinated
Fig. 9. Hybrid microgrid performance in a grid-connected mode. actions to reinstate frequency to its nominal value. In a con-
ventional power system operation approach, if an uncontrolled
can be viewed as an infinite bus; therefore, the 10-kW resistive islanding is formed due to emergency conditions, the primary
pulse load that is connected to the ac side would not have an control responds rapidly according to droop adjustments of the
influence on the grid. Therefore, only the dc pulse load case is generators inside the island. Droop-based primary control de-
studied. Fig. 9(a) shows the dc-bus voltage. The bidirectional viates the frequency from the nominal value, according to the
ac/dc converter was enabled at 0.05 s. Before being enabled, it system loading conditions. Upon separation, it may be neces-
operates as an uncontrolled rectifier. After enabling the bidirec- sary to shed some of the predetermined loads in the islanded
tional converter, the dc-bus voltage reached steady state in less area in order to balance generation and load. The measurements
than 0.3 s. During this period, the solar irradiance is 1 kW/m2. are taken from synchrophasors deployed on the ac side of the
From 0.4 to 1.7 s, the system under two kinds of solar irradiance microgrid [20]. During the synchronized operation, the islanded
variations is simulated. The output power from PV decreased power system was importing power from the remote power sys-
from 10 to 2.5 kW in 0.3 s, and recovered back from 2.5 to tem. When the islanding situation takes place at t = 130 s, the
10 kW also in 0.3 s. After that the PV output decreased from 10 imported power becomes zero
to 2.5 kW in 0.05 s at 1.3 s, and it went back from 2.5 to 10 kW
at 1.65 s. The PV output power is shown in Fig. 9(b). The dc-bus ΔP (t) = PGen(t) − PLoad(t) − Pim p ort(t) . (8)
voltage was stable and stayed in the range of 293 to 307 V dur-
ing this process; therefore, the bidirectional converter can keep As per (9), the power imbalance inside the microgrid results
the dc side stable under rapid alteration of solar irradiance and in a frequency drift in the islanded area
PV output power. From 2 to 2.8 s, the charging/discharging of
battery banks impact to the dc bus is simulated. At 2 s, the cur- 2Htot dfs
rent references of the bidirectional dc/dc converters of those five ΔP (t) = (Pgen (t) − Pload (t)) = . (9)
fn dt
MA et al.: CONTROL OF A HYBRID AC/DC MICROGRID INVOLVING ENERGY STORAGE AND PULSED LOADS 573
The active power imbalance introduces frequency deviation swing. Specifically, the microgrid buses are assumed as a two-
in islanded microgrid (9), where Htot is the total inertia, fn is machine system implementing swing equation to determine the
the nominal frequency, and fs is the system frequency [21]. The out-of-step condition in the two-area system.
phase angle difference between the two areas increases. The The classical generator dynamics are defined as
figure shows the oscillation of the phase angle of the system . dωi
generators during primary control. Between t = 130 s and at δ i = ω i Hi = Pm i − Pe i (12)
dt
t = 147 s, the primary control is established. The generation in
the islanded area increases and the frequency settles in a stable
n
Pe i = Ei2 Yii cos θii + Ei Ej Yij cos(δi − δj −θij ) (13)
region. At t = 181 s, the system frequency reaches the minimal j=1
value. Automatic generation control (AGC)-based secondary j = 1
control is used to restore system frequency to nominal value. where Hi is the inertia constant of ith generator, δi is the internal
A common way to enable the AGC in power systems is to voltage angle of ith generator, ωi is the rotor speed of the ith
implement a PI controller. An area control error in a power generator, Pe i /Pm i are the electrical/mechanical output powers
system is given as (10), where B is the frequency bias factor, of the ith generator, Ei , Ej are the voltages behind transient
ΔPT is the deviation of the active power balance in area, and reactance, and Y is the admittance matrix reduced at the internal
ΔPAGC is the control command to be sent to the grid-tie inverter. generator node.
β 1 and β 2 are the PI control coefficients 2) Performance During Pulsed Loads: To further verify the
proposed control algorithm for a hybrid ac–dc power system
ACE = ΔPT + BΔf
operation with pulse load mitigation, a hardware experiment is
ΔPAGC = − β1 ACE − β2 ∫ ACEdt. (10) demonstrated. PMUs are connected to synchronous generator
and grid-tie inverter buses. System frequency and voltage varia-
In real-time applications, angular stability is measured by the tions, phase angle displacement, and pulsed loading are shown in
difference in generator voltage angles of the two points and Fig. 11. A 4-kW pulsed load is applied three consecutive times.
compared with a predefined threshold angle during pulsed load It is noticed that the system frequency experiences an oscillation
ΔθPM U 1 − ΔθPM U 2 ≤ ε (11) during the transition, which eventually settles to the reference
value. The terminal voltage experiences temporary spikes dur-
where ε is defined as the tolerance in degrees. The tolerance ing transition as well, and it settled within limits due to reactive
in this study is selected to be 10°. When the angular separation power control inside the island. The phase angle displacement
between two PMU measurements is exceeded, the instability between microgrid buses is kept under 10° threshold. From the
should check whether the system is in a stable or unstable results, it can be seen that during the pulse load duration, the
574 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 53, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
Mehmet Hazar Cintuglu (S’12) received the B.S. Osama A. Mohammed (F’94) received the Master’s
and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Gazi and Doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from
University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2008 and 2011, re- Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 1981 and
spectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. 1983, respectively.
degree at the Energy Systems Research Laboratory, He is currently a Professor of electrical engineer-
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, ing and the Director of the Energy Systems Research
College of Engineering and Computing, Florida In- Laboratory, Florida International University, Miami,
ternational University, Miami, FL, USA. FL, USA. He is a world renowned leader in the elec-
From 2009 to 2011, he was a Power Systems trical energy systems. His research interests include
Project Engineer with an electric utility company in power and energy systems in addition to design op-
Turkey. His current research interests include multia- timization and physics passed modeling in electric
gent systems, distributed control, cyber-physical systems for active distribution drive systems and other low-frequency environments, electromagnetic signa-
networks, and microgrids. ture, widebandgap devices and switching, and ship power systems modeling
and analysis. His current active research projects for several Federal agencies
deal with; power system analysis and operation, smart grid distributed control
and interoperability, cyber-physical systems, and codesign of cyber and physical
components for future energy systems applications.