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Review of Impedance-Reshaping-Based Power
Sharing Strategies in Islanded AC Microgrids
Fei Deng, Member, IEEE, Wenli Yao, Member, IEEE, Xiaobin Zhang, Yi Tang, Senior Member, IEEE
Paolo Mattavelli, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—In islanded AC microgrids, loads are supplied by
parallel inverters-based distributed generation (DG) units. Ac-
curate power sharing, which is always degraded by the mis-
matched line impedances of DG units, is an essential mission.
Reshaping the output impedance of DG units is an effective
method to improve power sharing performance via eliminating
the impedance mismatch. This paper classifies and summarizes
various impedance-reshaping-based power sharing strategies.
Firstly, the comprehensive evaluation criteria of the power
sharing methods are illustrated in terms of power sharing
accuracy, unbalanced and harmonic power sharing, influence on
voltage regulation, dependence on communication and feasibility
in practical applications. According to the operating principles,
the existing impedance reshaping methods are categorized into
four groups: fixed virtual impedance, adaptive virtual impedance
regulation, impedance droops, and reconfiguration of inner loops.
Then the advantages and disadvantages of the four groups
of impedance reshaping techniques are discussed respectively.
Finally, the characteristics of different impedance-reshaping-
based power sharing methods are summed up and future research
trends of impedance reshaping strategies for power sharing
improvement in islanded AC microgrids are predicted.
Index Terms—islanded AC microgrid, distributed generation
unit, power sharing, virtual impedance, impedance reshaping
I. I NTRODUCTION
I N the past decades, depleting fossil resources and tradi-
tional power systems are struggling to satisfy the growing
electrical power demand. Besides, the consequent environmen-
tal issues and climate change also are worldwide problems.
In this case, renewable energy sources (e.g., solar energy
and wind power) have attracted more and more attention,
and the concept of microgrid has been proposed to integrate
various distributed energy resources (DERs) [1]–[3]. Inverters
are always used as the interfaces to connect various DERs to
the common bus in AC microgrids. A microgrid can operate
in grid-connected or islanded mode, depending on whether
Manuscript received May 06, 2022; revised August 06 2022; accepted
September 14, 2022. This work was supported in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grant 52007154 and in part by the
Central University Basic Research Fund of China under Grant G2021KY0606.
(Corresponding author: Wenli Yao.)
F. Deng is with the Energy Research Institute, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore 639798 (e-mail: fei.deng@ntu.edu.sg).
W. Yao and X. Zhang are with the School of Automation, Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China (e-mail: yaowl@nwpu.edu.cn;
dgl907@126.com).
Y. Tang is with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineer-
ing, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 (e-mail: yi-
tang@ntu.edu.sg).
Paolo Mattavelli is with the Department of Management, Engineering, Uni-
versity of Padova, 36100 Vicenza, Italy (e-mail: paolo.mattavelli@unipd.it).
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1
it is connected to the utility grid [4], [5]. In an islanded
AC microgrid, parallel-connected distributed generation (DG)
units maintain bus voltage and supply loads [6], [7]. Accurate
power sharing among DG units is a vital issue for the stable
and efficient operation of such a power system [8].
Generally, each DG unit can be equivalent to the series of
a voltage source and an impedance [9]. If the voltages of
DG units are different or the impedances are mismatched,
the power distribution among them will be inaccurate [10],
[11]. Meanwhile, the voltage reference and output impedance
of DG units can be regarded as two degrees of freedom to
improve power sharing performance. Based on this, the power
sharing strategies in islanded AC microgrids are classified
into two groups, i.e. voltage-compensation-based strategies
and impedance-reshaping-based strategies.
Voltage-compensation-based strategies directly introduce
voltage reference compensation from the outer loops. This
group of methods mainly include: 1) active current sharing
control (e.g. average current sharing [12]–[14], master-slave
control [15]–[17] and circular chain control [18]); and 2)
power droop control [19]–[22] and its variations [23]–[27].
This group of methods have been reviewed in some recent
literature [28]–[32]. In [28], the control strategies of grid-
forming DG units in islanded AC microgrids are classified
based on whether the communication network is introduced
or not. The communication-based active control and the droop
characteristic-based techniques are summarized and their po-
tential advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The active
and reactive power sharing strategies in the hierarchically
controlled AC microgrids are compared and summarized in
[29]. The power sharing strategies at the primary and sec-
ondary control layers in the droop-based hierarchical control
are summed up in [30], [31], and in [30] the communication-
less approaches are mainly considered. In [32], AC microgrid
control and management strategies are reviewed and the power
sharing methods mentioned are classified into droop-based and
nodroop-based techniques.
The power sharing performance in islanded AC microgrids
also can be also improved by reshaping the impedances of
DG units [9], [33], [34]. According to the operating principles,
there are four existing available techniques in this group: 1)
directly introducing a fixed virtual impedance [35]–[44]; 2)
adaptive virtual impedance regulation [45]–[66]; 3) impedance
droop control [67]–[78]; and 4) the reconfiguration of inner
loops [79]–[88]. Since the inaccurate power sharing is mainly
caused by the mismatched line impedances [89], [90], this
group of strategies are effective techniques for all the balanced,
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unbalanced and harmonic power sharing issues, and have been

more and more popular to improve power sharing accuracy in Z+1;1 it;+1 Z+1;2

inverter-based microgrids in recent years [33], [34], [61].

io;+1;1 ZL io;+1;2
As abovementioned illustration, the existing review articles v+1;1 v+1;2
on power sharing issues in inverter-based islanded microgrids
mainly focus on power-droop-based methods [28]–[32]. In
[28], [29], virtual impedances are regarded as a supplement DG 1 DG 2
for power droops, and unbalanced and harmonic power sharing Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of an islanded microgrid at fundamental-positive frequency.
issues are hardly mentioned. Virtual impedances are equivalent
to V − I droops in [30] and [32], and are used to decouple
active and reactive powers in [31], merely are mentioned Z−1;1 Z−1;2
in a small amount of literature. To the authors’ knowledge,
there is no article to systematically summarize the impedance- io;−1;1 io;−1;2
reshaping-based power sharing strategies in islanded AC mi- it;−1
crogrids. Therefore, it is quite necessary to review this group
of power sharing methods. DG 1 DG 2
This paper focuses on impedance reshaping strategies of (a)
DG units for power sharing issue in islanded AC microgrids
and the following research is finished: 1) proposal of the Zh;1 Zh;2
comprehensive criteria for the evaluation of power sharing
strategies in islanded AC microgrids; 2) systematic analysis, io;h;1 io;h;2
summary and comparison of the advantages and disadvantages it;h
of different impedance-reshaping-based power sharing meth-
ods; and 3) predictions of the future trends in impedance- DG 1 DG 2
reshaping-based power sharing strategies. (b)
The rest part of this paper is organized as follows. In
Section II, the comprehensive evaluation criteria for power Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of an islanded microgrid at (a) fundamental-negative frequency
and (b) h-th harmonic frequency (h ̸= ±1).
sharing strategies are illustrated. Then the influence of vir-
tual impedances on power sharing performance is explained
and the classification of existing impedance-reshaping-based and impedances of j-th DG units respectively (j = 1, 2), it,+1
power sharing strategies is presented in Section III. After- is the load current. In this circuit, the two output currents are
wards, the controller structures and characteristics of all four
(v+1,1 − v+1,2 ) + Z+1,2 it,+1

kinds of methods included are reviewed in Section IV to
io,1 =


Section VII, respectively. The existing impedance reshaping Z+1,1 + Z+1,2
(1)
strategies for power sharing are summed up and the future  (v +1,2 − v+1,1 ) + Z+1,1 it,+1
io,2 =
 .
trends in this field are predicted in Section VIII. Finally, the Z+1,1 + Z+1,2
conclusions are given in Section IX.
When the power sharing result is accurate between the two
DG units, io,1 = io,2 , the following equation is valid
II. C OMPREHENSIVE E VALUATION C RITERIA OF P OWER
S HARING S TRATEGIES IN I SLANDED AC M ICROGRIDS 2(v+1,1 − v+1,2 ) = (Z+1,1 − Z+1,2 )it,+1 . (2)
To achieve excellent power sharing performance in islanded
AC microgrids, disparate factors need to be considered. There- If the impedances of DG units are mismatched, the power
fore, to evaluate the power sharing strategies in islanded AC sharing will be inaccurate. Meanwhile, since the load current is
microgrids comprehensively, the corresponding criteria are uncontrollable, it can be seen that the balanced power sharing
proposed and their meticulous explanation is as follows. accuracy can be improved by adjusting the output voltage
and the impedance at the fundamental-positive-sequence fre-
quency.
A. Active and Reactive Powers Sharing
Active and reactive power sharing is the most basic aspect of
the power sharing issue in islanded AC microgrids. Generally, B. Unbalanced and Harmonic Powers Sharing
the original reference voltage for inner loops is the rated value When unbalanced and nonlinear loads are supplied in is-
that only contains the balanced component. The equivalent landed microgrids, not only the balanced component but also
model of the DG units at the fundamental-positive-sequence the unbalanced and harmonic components are included in
frequency can be regarded as the series connection of a voltage the load current. In this case the unbalanced and harmonic
source and an impedance [61]. The simplified model of an power sharing issues also should be considered. The equivalent
islanded microgrid including two DG units with the same circuit of an islanded microgrid at the fundamental-negative-
power rating at this frequency is presented in Fig. 1, where sequence and harmonic frequencies merely is an impedance,
v+1,j , i+1,j and Z+1,j are the output voltage, output current and the load at these frequencies can be regarded as a

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID
v ∗ ; ∆v ∗ Inner Voltage and PWM
Zv Current Regulation
Power
Sharing
Loops
Feedback
Fig. 3. Complete structure of a DG units with power sharing loops.
current source [61], as shown in Fig. 2. The h-th (h ̸= +1)
components in the two output currents are

Zh,2
io,h,1 = it,h


Zh,1 + Zh,2
(3)
 Zh,1
io,h,2 =
 it,h
Zh,1 + Zh,2
where it,h is the load current component at h-th frequency,
Zh,1 and Zh,2 are the equivalent impedance of the two DG
units at h-th frequency respectively.
Apparently, unbalanced and harmonic power sharing ac-
curacy is determined by the relationship between the two
equivalent impedances and it can be improved by reshaping
impedance at the corresponding frequencies [91], [92]. Be-
sides, accurate power sharing also can be achieved by inserting
a voltage source, such as the extended power droop in [25]–
[27].
C. Influence on Voltage Regulation
The complete structure of a DG unit with power sharing
loops (e.g. droop loops and virtual impedance loops) is in
Fig. 3, the power sharing loops provide the reference voltage
(compensation), or virtual impedance to inner loops. The
controller generates PWM signals to drive the switches in
power stage and achieves control targets based on the feedback
signals measured in power stage. With appropriate design of
inner loops, output voltage regulation error can be eliminated
[93]–[95]. Therefore, when power sharing loops are disabled,
the reference voltage is at its rated value, output voltage is pure
sinusoidal at the fundamental-positive-sequence frequency.
However, with the outer power loops, the reference voltage
is always modified, which degrades voltage quality: a voltage
drop and frequency deviation are introduced by the power
droop loops in [19]–[27], the large virtual impedances in [35]–
[44] generate apparent voltage drop and distortion. On the
contrary, when the introduced virtual impedance is limited,
the influence of power sharing loops on voltage quality is also
restrained [45]–[66].
D. Dependence on Communication
Communication is convenient for information exchange in
microgrids, with which the control targets can be achieved
more effectively. However, the cost is also increased and the
long-distance signal transmission is susceptible to interference,
the system reliability and expansibility are reduced [28].
Achieving accurate power sharing with minimized dependency
on communication still is a topic worthy of study.
According to the usage of communication, the existing
power sharing strategies can be sorted into centralized control,
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3
DG 1 DG 2 DG 3
Power
Stage
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
AC Bus A B C
Line 4 Line 5
Load 1
Load 2
Fig. 4. Structure of a distributed microgrid.
distributed control and decentralized control [30]. In central-
ized control, a microgrid central controller (MGCC) is used
to generate reference currents and sends the reference signals
to local controllers of all DG units via communication [52]–
[56], in this method single-point failures may lead to poor
fault-tolerance [28]. In distributed control, MGCC is removed
and the communication network is adopted for information
exchange among different DG units [83]. To simplify the
communication network structure, based on the consensus
algorithm, DG units can merely exchange information with
their two neighbours [96], [97], which reduces the amount
of data in communication network especially when a large
number of DG units are involved in the microgrid. Besides,
event-triggered control methods further reduce the dependence
on communication [62]. Decentralized control is independent
of communication, there is no information exchange in mi-
crogrids and all control functions are implemented in local
controllers of DG units [30]. Typical examples are power
droop control in [19]–[22] and adaptive virtual impedance
regulation in [65], [66]. With these methods, high system
reliability is guaranteed.
E. Feasibility in Practical Application
Some power sharing methods can theoretically ensure ac-
curate power sharing, but the assumed conditions may be
impractical, which hinders the applications of these methods.
In a distributed microgrid shown in Fig. 4, the relative
locations of DG units and loads are uncertain when different
loads (e.g., load 1 at node A and Load 2 at node C) are
supplied. In such a power system, the measurements of line
impedances are difficult to implement and common bus does
not exist, so bus voltage and load current are unavailable.
To improve voltage quality in microgrids, the negative
impedances are introduced in [42], [43], [75], [76]. Since
the line impedances are unknown, values of the introduced
negative virtual impedances might be larger than that of the
original line impedance, which makes the total impedance of
DG units negative. The system stability is seriously threatened.
Besides, in virtual-impedance-based power sharing strate-
gies, line impedance characteristics also should be considered.
The line impedances are dominantly resistive in low-voltage
microgrids [39], [40] and mainly inductive in high-voltage
microgrids or when LCL filters is in the output side of DG
units [98]. For accurate power sharing, only the regulation of
virtual resistance or virtual inductance is sufficient. However,
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v∗ vC vb ~ ∗)
Re(V ~ ∗)
Im(V
Gcv (s) h h

Zv Zo Zw
Im(I~h ) Re(I~h )

io
Fig. 5. Block diagram of a DG unit with the virtual impedance. Fig. 7. Illustration of the control law in [37] at h-th frequency.

Impedance-Reshaping-Based Power Sharing Strategies

In impedance droops, the virtual impedance is generated with
the impedance−power (or current) loops, which is similar with
Fixed VI AVIR
Impedance Reconfiguration the power droop but the impedance is regulated, the functions
Droops of Inner Loops
can be linear and nonlinear; The inner-loop-reconfiguration-
based power sharing strategies modify the control structure

Control Strucure Modification

(e.g. introducing output current feedforward) or adjust the
Linear Impedance Droops
Reduced Communication
Periodic Communication

Regulator Parameters
Nonlinear Functions
regulator parameters (e.g. manipulating the cut-off frequency
Negative VI

Adjustment
of the resonator in voltage regulator).
Positive VI

The detailed summary of the controller structures and

features of the abovementioned four kinds of strategies are
explained respectively below.

IV. FVI-BASED P OWER S HARING S TRATEGIES

Fig. 6. Classification of impedance-reshaping-based power sharing strategies.
In impedance-reshaping-based power sharing strategies,
v+1,1 = v+1,1 = v ∗ in (1) to (2). Without loss of generality,
generally, both resistive and inductive parts might be contained assume that Zh,1 > Zh,2 . Therefore, according to (1) and (3),
in line impedances, in this case only if the mismatches in both the uniform expression of the circulating current at the h-th
parts are eliminated accurate power sharing can be ensured frequency is
[44], [58], [59]. io,h,1 − io,h,2 Zh,1 − Zh,2
ic,h = = it,h (4)
2 Zh,1 + Zh,2
III. C LASSIFICATION OF I MPEDANCE -R ESHAPING -BASED
P OWER S HARING S TRATEGIES When a positive fixed virtual impedance Zv,f,h is introduced
at the h-th frequency in the DG unit, the corresponding
The reason for power sharing inaccuracy in islanded AC circulating current component is
microgrids mainly is that the line impedance Zw of each
DG unit mismatches with its power rating SN . Reshaping ih,1,f − ih,2,f Zh,1 − Zh,2
ic,h,f = = it,h (5)
the output impedances of DG units is an effective solution 2 2(Zh,1 + Zh,2 + 2Zv,f,h )
to this issue [9], [33], [34]. The final effect of all impedance It is obvious that i′c,h in (5) is smaller than ic,h in (4), the
reshaping methods for improving power sharing accuracy is circulating current is suppressed. The bigger Zv,f,h , the more
to modify the output impedances, which can be equivalent to accurate power sharing. When the negative virtual impedances
inserting virtual impedance Zv series with the original output are introduced, they should be different for each DG unit and
impedance Zo and line impedance Zw [33], a seen in Fig. the line impedances need to be measured to ensure system
5. With a reasonable design of the virtual impedance, the stability.
impedance mismatch can be reduced and eliminated, the load In [35], [36], the FVIs at fundamental-positive-sequence
power demand can be distributed more accurately. frequency are used. In [35], virtual resistances at d and q axis
The classification of the impedance reshaping strate- are introduced in synchronous reference frame respectively,
gies is implemented in terms of their operating principle, and in [36] a complex virtual impedance Zv = Rv + jωs Lv is
that is how the output impedance of the DG unit is reg- implemented in the stationary reference frame. The balanced
ulated and changed. Therefore, as presented in Fig. 6, the power sharing accuracy is improved, but other power sharing
existing impedance-reshaping-based power sharing methods issues are not considered and the FVIs generate extra voltage
can be categorized into four kinds: fixed-virtual-impedance drop.
(FVI)-based strategies, adaptive-virtual-impedance-regulation To improve harmonic current sharing performance, a fixed
(AVIR)-based strategies, impedance-droop-based strategies virtual resistance is introduced at harmonic frequencies in [38].
and inner-loop-reconfiguration-based strategies. In the fixed- The V − I droop in [37] can be regarded as a fixed virtual
virtual-impedance-based methods, the fixed virtual impedance inductance at the harmonic frequency. As illustrated in Fig.
is directly introduced to series with the original impedance, 7, the control law in [37] is divided into real and imaginary
it can be positive or negative; In adaptive virtual impedance components as
regulation, the virtual impedance is regulated according to (
the power (or current) error, and a reference signal is always Re(V ⃗ ∗ ) = −kh · Im(I⃗L,h )
h
(6)
required, besides, the dependency on communication varies; Im(V ⃗ ∗ ) = kh · Re(I⃗L,h )
h

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Rv io;a io;αβ VPI Loop

∗ io;α;+1 +
θ = !t + − vc;a Rv;+1
sine − ∆vα;+1
∗
Sequence !s Lv;+1
Rv io;b Decomposition
∗ io;β;+1
! + + − vc;b !s Lv;+1
1
sine + + ∆vβ;+1
∗
s Rv;+1
− io;αβ;+1 io;αβ;−1 io;αβ;h
Rv io;c
∗
vc;c
+ + −
sine VNI Loop VVHI Loop
+ io;α;−1 + io;α;h +
Rv;−1 Rv;h
FVI Loops − ∆vα;−1
∗ − ∆vα;h
∗
120◦ E∗ !s Lv;−1 h!s Lv;h
Fig. 8. Reference generation for the output voltage controller with virtual output io;β;−1 io;β;h
impedance loop in [41]. !s Lv;−1 h!s Lv;h
+ ∆vβ;−1 + ∆vβ;h
∗ ∗
+ +
Rv;−1 Rv;h

where V ⃗ ∗ and I⃗L,h are the vector of the h-th harmonic com- Fig. 9. Block diagram of the selective virtual impedance loops in [42], [43].
h
ponent in reference voltage and inductor current respectively,
Re(x) and Im(x) are the real and imaginary components of Voltage vref + Voltage UPS
io
variable x respectively, kh is the droop coefficient. Reference Current Inverter
Generation − Controller
In [38],the feedback-based impedance is designed to be a
resistance and its value is proportional to the rated power Rv
of the DG unit. However, for better harmonic power sharing !v dio
Lv
performance, the FVI should be much larger than the line s+!v dt

impedance . Virtual Complex Impedance Module

The large kh in [37] and virtual resistance in [38] improve
harmonic power sharing performance, but generate voltage
distortion and vice versa. The conflict between power sharing
and voltage quality is irreconcilable.
In [39], [40], fixed virtual resistances are used for balanced
and harmonic power sharing and are selected separately at
different frequencies, the inductors in line impedances are
not included and unbalanced power sharing is not considered.
In [41]–[44] the FVIs are introduced for all the balanced,
unbalanced and harmonic powers sharing. In [41], a fixed
virtual resistance is added to compensate reference voltage
in abc reference frame as presented in Fig. 8. Since the
resistance value is same at different frequencies, the impedance
mismatches at all frequency ranges are reduced. As depicted
in Fig. 9, in [42], [43], the fixed virtual positive-sequence
impedance (VPI), virtual negative-sequence impedance (VNI)
and virtual variable harmonic impedance (VVHI) are intro-
duced in the stationary reference frames in different control
loops. With these FVIs, the voltage drop across the virtual
impedance loop at h-th frequency in αβ reference frame is
∗ V. AVIR-BASED P OWER S HARING S TRATEGIES
    
∆vα,h Rv,h hωs Lv,h io,α,h
∗ = (7)
∆vβ,h hωs Lv,h Rv,h io,β,h
where Rv,h and Lv,h are the virtual resistance and inductance
at h-order frequency, ωs is the fundamental frequency.
In [42], [43], the virtual impedances are selected separately
at different frequencies, which is unnecessary and complicates
the design process of controllers. Besides, negative induc-
tances are set as VVHIs, which threatens system stability.
In [44], a fixed virtual complex impedance method as
shown in Fig. 10 is proposed as
ωv
Zv = Rv + sLv
s + ωv
where ωv is the cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter to
avoid high-frequency noise.
Fig. 10. Block diagram of the virtual complex impedance controller in [44].
With the FVI in (8), the balanced and high-order circulating
current components are reduced by the inductive and resistive
parts respectively, but the unbalanced circulating current dis-
tribution is not included.
In summary, FVI-based methods improve power sharing
accuracy to some extent, it is the simplest way to insert a
virtual impedance, communication or extra measurement is
also unnecessary. However, to obtain the relatively accurate
power sharing performance, the introduced FVI must be much
larger than the original line impedance of the DG unit [35],
[36], which generates a large voltage drop, and injects voltage
unbalance and distortion, thus bus voltage quality is degraded
severely [43]. Besides, because of the distributed nature of the
microgrid, the measurement of line impedances is impractical,
it is a difficult mission to select a reasonable value of the FVI
in such a power system.
When the virtual impedance is introduced with AVIR, the
sum of all the virtual impedances is zero, that is Zv,h,2 =
−Zv,h,1 = Zv,h,a > 0 and the circulating current from (1)
and (3) is
ih,1,a − ih,2,a Zh,1 − Zh,2 − 2Zv,h,a
ic,h,a = = it,h (9)
2 2(Zh,1 + Zh,2 )
As shown in (9), Zv,h,a is used to reduce the impedance
mismatch. If Zh,1 − Zh,2 = 2Zv,h,a holds, the impedance
mismatch can be eliminated effectively, accurate power sharing
(8) can be achieved consequently.
This kind of strategy always requires information exchange
of control variable X (active, reactive, unbalanced and har-
monic powers or current components) among DG units or

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Communication
Q∗i ki;xv
Xv
X

Communication
kp;xv +
Qi Q∗i s

Network
Data

Network
Zv Q ki;rv
X∗ Reference kp;rv +
Gvi (s) From P s
Pi Generation Pi∗ Pi∗ Rv
ki;rd
DGs
s
AVIR in Local Controller
MGCC AVIR in Local Controller
Fig. 11. Structure of a typical AVIR loop based on communication.
Fig. 12. Coordinated virtual impedance controller in [54].

between DG units and MGCC via (low-bandwidth) commu-
nication, to generate reference signal X ∗ . Then the error
between X and X ∗ is regulated with a proportional-integral
(PI) controller (or an integrator) to generate the desired virtual
impedance Zv in local controllers of DG units. A typical
communication-based AVIR loop is shown in Fig. 11, the
virtual impedance can be expressed as
Zv = Gvi (s)(X − X ∗ )
where Gvi (s) is the PI regulator for AVIR.
According to whether the communication is required all the
time, the AVIR can be sorted into the methods with periodic
communication and with reduced communication.
1) AVIR with Periodic Communication: Periodic bidirec-
tional communication among DG units and between DG units
and MGCC is a common technique to generate the reference
signal X ∗ and is a common tool for AVIR.
The virtual resistances are regulated adaptively in [45]–
[48]. The AVIR in [45], [46] is realized according to the error
between the local active power of i-th DG units Pi and the
average active power of all DG units as
n
1X
Rv,i = Gvi (s)(Pi − Pj )
n j=1
where Gvi (s) is an integrator in [45] and a PI controller in
[46], n is the number of DG units included in the microgrid.
In those two methods, any two DG units exchange infor-
mation with each other, so the communication burden is quite
heavy. In [47]–[49], communication between the adjacent DG
units is only required. In [47], the d-axis and q-axis virtual
resistances are introduced based on active power error and
reactive power error respectively in the synchronous reference
frame, and a similar method is proposed in [48] with the
regulation of current component errors at d-axis and q-axis
respectively. In [49], the effect of power droop loops is equiv-
alent to a virtual impedance Xe,i d
(named droop equivalent
impedance), to improve reactive power sharing accuracy, the
balanced power sharing issue. In [50], [51], reactive power
mismatches are calculated based on the consensus algorithm
in local controllers. In [52], [53], reactive power references
are generated in MGCC.
As presented in Fig. 12, both the active and reactive power
references (Q∗i and Pi∗ ) are provided with MGCC in [54],
the virtual resistance and virtual reactance in this method are
(10) adaptively regulated according to active and reactive power
errors as

k k
Rv = (Pi∗ − Pi ) i,rd − (Q∗i − Qi )(kp,rv + i,rv )

s s (13)
ki,xv
X = (Q∗ − Q )(k

+ )
v i i p,xv
s
where kp,rv and kp,xv are the proportional gains, ki,rv , ki,xv
and ki,rd are the integral gains.
Although the applicability to general line impedance char-
acteristic is improved, the unbalanced and harmonic power
sharing still is not mentioned.
In [55], [56], the harmonic power references are calculated
in MGCC and sent to the local controller of each DG unit, then
the virtual inductances at harmonic frequencies are generated
according to harmonic power errors at corresponding harmonic
(11) frequencies respectively. In [57], besides the virtual induc-
tance introduced in [50] for reactive power sharing, virtual
inductances at fundamental-negative-sequence and harmonic
frequencies are regulated based on unbalanced power error
and corresponding harmonic power error respectively.
To eliminate line impedance mismatch when both resistive
and inductive parts exist at the same time, two-dimensional
impedance-shaping control methods are proposed in [58], [59].
In [58], the virtual resistance Rv and virtual inductance Lv are
regulated based on third-order harmonic power error and total
harmonic power error respectively, and the virtual impedance
can be obtained as
X kh2 ωs2
Zv (s) = Rv + Lv · hωs · 2 (14)
s + khωs · s + h2 ωs2
h=1,3,5···

extra virtual reactance Xv,i is regulated according to droop
equivalent impedance errors as
κi X d d
Xv,i = − aij (Xe,i − Xe,j )
s positive-sequence frequency is extended to other frequencies
j∈Ni
where κi is the coefficient defined in [49].
It should be noticed that only the balanced power sharing is
considered in [45]–[49]. Besides, only the line resistance mis-
match is compensated in [45]–[48] and only line inductance
mismatch is considered in [49] respectively.
In [50]–[53], both virtual resistance and reactance are
tuned according to the reactive power sharing error for the
In [59], the virtual resistance Rv and virtual reactance at
fundamental positive frequency Xv,s (= ωs Lv,s ) are adjusted
based on balanced current magnitude error and phase an-
(12) gle error respectively, the virtual impedance at fundamental-
as
Zv,h = Rv + jhXv,s (15)
From (14) and (15), it can be seen that only one virtual
impedance value is generated with virtual impedance loops,
but all the balanced, unbalanced and harmonic power sharing
accuracy is improved, which simplifies the structure of con-
troller and corresponding parameter design process.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID 7

Pi Stage I Q−! Reactive power regulator L∗v;f

E ∗ Droop PN Lv;f

Communication Network
Pmax + − ∆Ei + kq a [n Q (tqj )−ni Qi (tqi )] PI

Triggering Condition
PI j=1 ij j j k k
+ + Inner PWM
E6 δ Loops
max(x1 ; x2 )

− Unbalanced power regulator

Pi
m
Stage II PN qj
Uj (t )
qi
Ui (t ) Lv;u
ku a [ k
−U k ] PI
− j=1 ij Urate;j rate;i
io;dq +
Rv;av
Harmonic power regulator
+ +
MAF Pave − ki;av PN qj
Hj (t )
qi
Hi (t ) Lv;h
kh a [ k
−H k ] PI
s j=1 ij Hrate;j rate;i

Qu;i io;dq2 +
Rv;u Fig. 15. Event-triggered time generation mechanism in [62].
+ +
Qu;max −
SMPB

ki;u
s

io;dq6 1 conventional droop control is applied, once the flag signal

Qh;i
Qh;max − + ki;h
s
Fig. 13. Schematic diagram of the AVIR control scheme in [60].
P P −f droop
Q FQ
DCQ
Qneg FN
DCN
Qhar D
CH
FH
FQ
FN
FH P Pave
MAV S/H
MGCC
Step 3 in Local Controller
Fig. 14. Real power disturbance injection (step 2) and virtual impedance adjustment
(step 3) during the compensation process in [61].
The methods in [45]–[59] rely on periodic communication
to exchange power or current information, once communica-
tion faults occur, the normal virtual impedance regulation and
even the stable system will be influenced.
2) AVIR With Reduced Communication: Actually, commu-
nication is not required all the time during the AVIR process
[62], and the communication burden can be reduced [60]–[64].
In [60], a two-stage AVIR strategy in Fig. 13 is proposed.
During Stage I, a PI controller is applied to regulate the mag-
nitude of the output voltage based on the error between local
active power Pi and maximum proportional active power Pmax
obtained from the synchronous maximum power bus (SMPB),
with this process the active power accuracy is improved.
When active power error is smaller than its threshold and Pi
maintains a stable value over a period of time, the value of Pi
in the first stage is saved as Pave and DG units switch into
Stage II to remove the dependence on communication. In this
stage, the voltage magnitude PI controller is replaced by the
P − E droop, the virtual resistances at fundamental positive,
negative and harmonic frequency are introduced according
to the active power error (Pi − Pave ), unbalanced power
error (Qu,i − Qu,max ) and harmonic error (Qh,i − Qh,max ),
respectively.
In [61], MGCC is used to send (reactive, unbalanced or
harmonic power) compensation flag signals to DG units and
the power sharing scheme is composed of three steps: in step
Rv;h
is received, the active power Pave is recorded and the control
mode switches to steps 2 and 3. As presented in Fig. 14, in
step 2, a transient disturbance term associated with reactive,
unbalanced or harmonic power is slowly deducted from the
frequency in P − f droop; in step 3, the error between real-
time active power P and saved Pave in step 1 is employed to
fDG
adjust virtual inductance at the fundamental positive, negative
or harmonic frequency as
G
t kh
Lv,h = L∗v,h − (P − Pave ) (16)
Step 2 in Local Controller s
FQ kQ ∆Lv;f where kh is the integral coefficient. When the reactive, un-
s
∆Lv;n
balanced or harmonic power compensation flag is received, h
FN kN
s equals +1, −1 or harmonic orders respectively.
FH kH Lv;h All the balanced, unbalanced and harmonic power sharing
s
is improved with the method in [61]. However, these process
are finished one by one and the active power fluctuation will
interrupt the normal virtual impedance regulation.
To reduce the amount of communication data with minor
power sharing performance degradation [99], an AVIR method
based on event-triggered communication (ETC) is proposed in
[62], the virtual inductors at fundamental-positive-sequence,
fundamental-negative-sequence and harmonic frequencies are
regulated according to reactive, unbalanced and harmonic
power errors respectively. Only when the triggering condition
is satisfied, the DG units transmit information to their neigh-
bours. In this method, the triggering condition is evaluated
based on a function fx,i (t) which is related to the state
measurement error ex,i (t). In i-th DG unit
ex,i (t) = ∥Xi (tx,i x,i x,i
k ) − Xi (t)∥, t ∈ [tk , tk+1 ) (17)
where Xi is the state variable related to reactive (x = +1),
unbalanced (x = −1) or harmonic power (x ̸= ±1), tx,i k is the
k-th event-triggered instant.
As illustrated in Fig. 15, only when the event is triggered,
the power regulators in the local controller operate to regulate
virtual inductors. During the event time interval, no commu-
nication is required [100]. With this method, all the balanced,
unbalanced and harmonic powers can be distributed accurately
among DG units with reduced communication, but the power
information still is exchanged among DG units.
To generate reference signal X ∗ merely with local infor-
mation, virtual impedances are regulated iteratively in [63],
[64]. The iterative virtual impedance regulation process in
[63] is decomposed into several sequential iterations. In each

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID 8

vC;1 z−1
Vcom − − + kR
S1 = F (vC;1 ; iL;1 ) ∆Z1 PI
iL;1 b1 + + +
new
Communication Network
∆Z1 Zv;1 kR;0 V∗
E
Controller # 1 − + Inner PWM

Communication network
∆Z2 j∆Zv;1 ∆Z v;2 j > δ Rv
Rv Loops
+
P
P
∆Z1 Vritual resistance control
j∆Zv;1 ∆Z v;2 j > δ Controller # 2 du
∆Z2 dt LPF
vC;2 z−1
I θ
iL;2 S2 = F (vC;2 ; iL;2 ) b2 FFT
∆Z2 new
Zv;2 + + Lv
PI
+
Fig. 16. Virtual impedance determination algorithm in [67]. Icom −
FFT θ Lv;0
com
Vritual inductance control

iteration, the fixed virtual impedance and adaptive virtual Fig. 17. Schematic diagram of the strategy in [68].

impedance regulation are combined to generate a virtual

resistance increment and uniform virtual reactance increment
according to the uniform output current magnitude error
and phase angle error respectively. The virtual impedance at
fundamental-negative-sequence and harmonic frequencies also
are modified. With the proposed strategy, all the accurate bal-
anced, unbalanced and harmonic current sharing is guaranteed.
In [64], the reactive power sharing scheme of each DG unit
is transferred periodically between Q − V droop mode and
AVIR mode for a few cycles. In each cycle, the reactive power
reference of the AVIR is updated by the latest estimate from
the Q − V droop control. The virtual impedance of each DG
unit will be tuned successively to an appropriate value to
achieve accurate power sharing among DG units based on local
information. The triggering signal to start the internal time
sequence of each DG unit is from MGCC. In this method, only
the regulation of virtual inductance for reactive power sharing
is considered. In [63], [64], communication only is required
for the generation of triggering signals, the dependence on
communication is minimized.
The virtual impedance regulation process in [65] consists of
two steps: the steady-state reactive power from Q − f droop
is restored as the reference signal firstly, and then the virtual
resistance is generated based on the reactive power regulation.
With this process, all the balanced, unbalanced and harmonic
power sharing is achieved independent of communication
simultaneously. However, the inductive part in line impedances
is not considered.
VI. I MPEDANCE -D ROOP -BASED P OWER S HARING
S TRATEGIES
Impedance droop is a kind of impedance reshaping strategy
similar to conventional droop in [19]–[22], the difference
is that not voltage magnitude or frequency but the virtual
impedance is adjusted based on the output powers or currents
of DG units. Based on the functions between impedances and
powers, there are two kinds of impedance droops: linear and
nonlinear.
A. Linear Virtual Impdedance Droops
The generalized expression of the linear impedance droops
is
Zv = Zv,o − kx · X
where Zv,o is the preset virtual impedance value, X is the
selected control variable (e.g., apparent power, active power,
reactive power, unbalanced power, harmonic power or current
components), kx is the droop coefficient.
The droop relationship between equivalent impedance Ze
(sum of line impedance and virtual impedance) and apparent
power Si is built in [67] to regulate virtual resistances. As
shown in Fig. 16, a pulse train is used to determine the period
at which the proposed impedance droop is applied, and in this
method the virtual impedance increment ∆Zv,i is sent to other
DG units via LBC. Besides, another constraint is required
to show the stopping of the droop algorithm and reaching a
steady state, that is
|ks,1 · S1 − ks,2 · S2 | ≤ δ ⇒ |∆Zv,1 − ∆Zv,2 | ≤ δ (19)
where ks,i is the droop coefficient in the i-th DG unit, δ is
the preset threshold.
If the condition in (19) is true, the VIR process is done
with desired power sharing accuracy and it is no longer
necessary to activate the impedance droop. Although power
sharing performance is improved, its feasibility is limited by
the dependency on communication and the constraint will be
more complicated when the number of DG units is large.
The virtual resistance in [68] is introduced via Rv − P
droop and the selected bus voltage is regulated by the adaptive
adjustment of droop coefficient, as presented in Fig. 17.
Besides, the virtual inductance is regulated to eliminate the
difference between phase angles of the selected bus and that
of the output current of DG units with a PI controller. Both
accurate active and reactive power sharing is achieved with
this method, but the selected bus voltage and corresponding
load current are measured and communication is required to
send this information to each DG unit.
In [69], the virtual reactance is fixed and virtual resistance
is adjusted via a droop characteristic according to active power.
The parameters are designed with an optimization method. In
[70], this method is extended to harmonic power sharing, and
the virtual resistance is regulated with a linear function of
both active and reactive powers. Although the power sharing
performance is improved with the strategies in [69], [70], the
power sharing error still exists, and the network information
(e.g. network topology, line impedances, and the load range
(18) of each node) is required before this method is implemented,

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID 9

Rv Xv Rv Xv
QUH Lv Lw io

Pss
!ss vb
Io;q Io;d Io;q Io;d
!s
High X/R Network Low X/R Network

Fig. 19. Impedance droops for different line impedances in [72].

Fig. 18. Basic principle of the adaptive virtual impedance control scheme in [71].

which is difficult to implement in a distributed power system.
An extra small AC signal (SACS) is injected into the output
voltage in [71] to regulate virtual impedance. The frequency of
the SACS ωss droops with unbalanced and harmonic power
QU H , and the active power produced by this signal Pss is
detected to tune the virtual impedance at the fundamental-
negative-sequence and selected harmonic frequencies. The
expression is
(
ωss = ωss,0 + kss · QU H
(20)
Lv = Lv,0 + kL · Pss
where kss and kL are droop coefficients.
As illustrated in Fig. 18 and equation (20), the rela-
tionships between ωss and Pss and between Lv and QU H
form a negative-feedback closed loop, with which the virtual
impedance is regulated adaptively to eliminate line impedance
mismatch, and realize accurate unbalanced and harmonic
power sharing. Communication is unnecessary and no extra
measurement is required. However, injection of the SACS
makes bus voltage more distorted.
The virtual impedances in [72] are varied as linear functions
of output currents in the synchronous reference frame accord-
ing to different line impedance characteristics, as shown in
Fig. 19. In high X/R microgrids, the virtual impedances are
( both active and reactive power are shared optimally. However,
Rv = Rv,0 − x · io,q
(21)
Xv = Xv,0 + y · io,d
where Rv,0 and Xv,0 are the nominal virtual resistance and
reactance, x and y are the droop gains, respectively.
In the low X/R microgrid, the virtual impedances are
( into account. The equivalent resistance Req,i and reactance
Rv = Rv,0 + x · io,q
(22)
Xv = Xv,0 − y · io,d
In [73], the strategy in [72] is extended to negative-sequence
virtual impedance regulation, the unbalanced power sharing
performance is improved.
No communication or extra measurement is required in [72],
[73]. However, the expressions should be selected according to
the line impedance characteristic, the applicability is limited.
Besides, the balanced and unbalanced power sharing error
still is apparent, the harmonic power sharing issue is also not
solved, and voltage quality is degraded with the relatively large
virtual impedance.
In [74]–[76], the impedance droop is used to improve
harmonic power sharing performance. The output impedance
of the DG unit is designed with L − Q droop in [74] and
then multiplied by output current followed with a high-pass
filter to compensate voltage reference, then to share balanced
and harmonic currents. With this method, the power sharing
error can not be eliminated and the unbalanced power issue is
not mentioned. The negative virtual inductance and resistance
are introduced in [75], [76] by the impedance droop in
(18) respectively, to improve power sharing performance and
maintain voltage quality simultaneously. However, the line
impedances are measured to determine droop coefficient and
maximum virtual impedance, which is a formidable task.
B. Nonlinear Virtual Impdedance Droops
In some literature, the proportional gain in (18) is replaced
by a nonlinear function, for better power sharing performance.
The method in [67] is extended into microgrids with
inductive-resistive line impedances in [77]. In this paper, the
equivalent resistance and inductance are defined as nonlinear
functions of active and reactive powers and are updated as
(
new
Rv,i = Rv,i − (fr,i (Pi (br,i ), Qi (br,i )) − fr,i (Pi , Qi ))
new
Xv,i = Xv,i − (fx,i (Pi (bx,i ), Qi (br,i )) − fx,i (Pi , Qi ))
(23)
where Rv,i and Xv,i are the virtual resistance and virtual
inductance respectively, br,i and bx,i are the droop coefficients,
fr,i and fx,i are two nonlinear functions defined in [77].
With (23), the virtual impedance is managed adaptively,
similar to [67], the active and reactive powers are exchanged
among DG units with LBC, the period is up to a pulse train.
The concept of equivalent impedance is proposed in [78]
for the control of DG units with LCL filters, which fully
takes external inductances, line impedances and local loads
Xeq,i are calculated in real time as

 PG,i Aw,1 + QG,i Bw,i
Req,i =

2 + Q2

PG,i G,i
(24)
 PG,i Bw,1 − QG,i Aw,1
Xeq,i =

2 + Q2

PG,i G,i
where Aw,1 = Pw,i Rw,i + Qw,i Xw,i , Bw,1 = Pw,i Xw,i −
Qw,i Rw,i , Pw,i and Qw,i are the active and reactive powers
flow to public loads, PG,i and QG,i are the active and reactive
powers at external inductor, Rw,i and Xw,i are the line
resistance and reactance, respectively.
Based on (24), a resistive-inductive virtual impedance
Zv,i (s) = −Rv,i + sLv,i is evaluated in the i-th DG unit
as 
Rv,i = Req,i
X (25)
Lv,i = Lv,ref,i − eq,i
ωs

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID
kih
F (s)
i1 G−1
vref
Gv kpc Gd Vdc
Plant
Fig. 20. Impedance control scheme at harmonic frequency in [79].
Io;h;1 1 Harmonic Voltage Control Loop
PI
Io;h;2
n
Ko
LBC
Io;h;i
··· vb
K Gn(s)
Io;h;n
Current Balance Controller
vref
Gv(s)
vc
Balanced Voltage Control Loop (VCM)
Fig. 21. Harmonic impedance reshaping strategy in [83].
where Lv,ref,i is the preset reference virtual inductance.
With Zv,i (s) in (25), the total impedance of the i-th DG
unit is regulated as a pure inductance Lv,ref,i , if Lv,ref,i is
set reasonable, the accurate power sharing can be achieved
in a decentralized way. However, to implement (24) in the
controllers, the measurement of line impedances is required,
which is impractical in a distributed power system.
Actually, as a droop method, when a positive impedance
is generated, the trade-off between power sharing accuracy
and voltage quality still exists in the impedance-droop-based
power sharing strategies. With a negative impedance, the
power system stability is threatened. How to achieve excellent
power sharing performance with this kind of method, still is
challenging.
VII. I NNER -L OOPS -R ECONFIGURATION -BASED P OWER
S HARING S TRATEGIES
The inner loops here mean the inductor (or capacitor)
current loops and capacitor voltage loops. With the reconfig-
uration of the inner loops, e.g. modifying the control loop
structure or adjusting regulator parameters, the power sharing
accuracy also can be improved.
A. Inner-loop Control Structure Modification
The output current feedforward is used in [79]–[82] to mod-
ify the inner-loop control structure and consequently adjust
the impedance of the DG unit at harmonic frequencies. The
control scheme in [79] is presented in Fig. 20, where i1 and ih
are the balanced and h-th harmonic component of the output
current io , k is the compensation factor and G−1
F = sL/Vdc
is the feedforward term. With this feedforward path, the
output impedance at the h-th harmonic frequency is modified
as (1 − k)Zo and is controlled by varying k in proportion
with harmonic power. In [80], both the output current and
capacitor voltage in the DG unit with LCL filter are fed
forward, the output impedance is designed as inductive around
power frequency and resistive around high order frequency.
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10
ii
V ∗ f∗ i1 in
Communication
io = i1 +ih Zv(s)
Sender · · ·
Sine Wav.
vout;i
Receiver
v∗ i∗ Gi(s)
1 1
vc
sL sC vpcc i∗ v∗
Gv(s)
Voltage Loop in MGCC Local Current Loop
Fig. 22. MGCC and the local controller of the i-th DG unit in [84].
The impedance of the DG unit is eliminated with the methods
in [79], [80], but the influence of mismatched line impedance
mh
is ignored and this issue is solved in [81], [82]. In [81],
Gr(s) the feedforward gain is calculated according to the inductor
vc current to eliminate the sum of the output impedance line
m+1 m impedance of DG units. In [82] with an output current feed-
Gi(s)
forward similar to that in [79] that is used to adjust the current
iL
reference signal and the gain k is determined with integral of
reactive power sharing error, thus the accurate power sharing
can be achieved in microgrids with complex feeder networks.
The output impedance can be reshaped with the feedforward
in [79]–[82] to improve power sharing accuracy. However,
the design of feedforward gain in these methods is highly
sensitive to the filter inductor or capacitor parameters, which
limits the application of these strategies. Besides, in [82]
the communication network is required to exchange reactive
power among DG units.
As shown in Fig. 21, the harmonic bus voltage is extracted
by a band-pass filter Gn (s) and is scaled with gain K to
generate harmonic voltage reference in [83]. The gain K is
regulated adaptively with a PI controller based on the error
between h-th harmonic component of output current magni-
tude in DG units and its reference value which is the average
value calculated based on LBC among DG units. Then the
harmonic output voltage is regulated with a resonator Gr (s)
to follow its reference, consequently generating corresponding
modulation signal mh . With this method, the harmonic power
sharing accuracy is improved. Nevertheless, the bus voltage is
measured and the LBC among DG units is required to calculate
the current magnitude reference.
In [84], only L filter is adopted in the output side of the
DG unit and a common capacitor bank is placed at PCC. As
shown in Fig. 22, in this method, the voltage regulation is
finished in MGCC and the generated voltage reference and
current reference are sent to the local controller of DG units
via the communication network. In the local controller, a
virtual impedance Zv (s) is introduced at selected frequencies
and the proportional gain Gi (s) can be regarded as a revised
virtual impedance [98], with which equivalent impedance of
the DG unit is modified as Ze (s) = Gi (s) + Zv (s). With
this method, both accurate power sharing and excellent bus
voltage regulation are realized. However, in this method, PCC
voltage measurement, communication between each DG units
and MGCC are required.
B. Inner-Loop Regulator Parameters Adjustment
The controller for the unbalanced or harmonic current ref-
erence compensation is designed to reshaping the impedance
of the DG units in [85]–[87]. The conductance command G
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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TSG.2022.3208752
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID
H∗ kg;i
vh;i
Hi Gi;0
G-X Droop Gi
i∗h;i
v∗ i∗i
Gv(s)
vc
Voltage Controller
Fig. 23. Harmonic filtering strategy in [86].
HIC
Communication
Activator
Inonloc Ih∗
PI
Ih !c;0
Harmonic Current Control Unit
Fig. 24. Harmonic current control unit with Cut-off frequency manipulation in [88].
is introduced at the fundamental-negative-sequence frequency
in [85] and at harmonic frequencies in [86], [87] respectively
via G − X droop in the i-th DG unit as
Gi = Gi,0 − kg,i · (X ∗ − X)
where Gi,0 is the rated conductance, kg,i is the droop coeffi-
cient, X is unbalanced power in [85], harmonic power in [86]
and harmonic current in [87], X ∗ is the rated value of X.
Then, the unbalanced or harmonic current component is
generated as
i∗ub,i = Gi · vub,i (or i∗h,i = Gi · vh,i )
where vub,i (or vh,i ) is unbalanced (or h-th harmonic) output
voltage of the i-th DG unit.
The harmonic filtering strategy in [86] is illustrated in Fig.
23. From (27) and Fig. 23, it can be seen that Gi in [85]–[87]
can be regarded as a compensation of the proportional gain
for voltage regulation at corresponding frequency. Therefore,
although a droop in (26) is introduced here, its influence is
different from that of impedance droops in Section VI.
With reconfiguring voltage controllers in [85]–[87], the
output impedance of the DG unit is reshaped. Besides, with
the droop characteristic in (26), the unbalanced power (Qub )
sharing accuracy in [85] and harmonic power sharing accuracy
in [86], [87] can be improved. However, the introduced con-
ductance only modifies the output impedance of the DG unit
and its influence is limited when the line impedance mismatch
is apparent. Besides, the bus voltage is measured in [85], [86]
and the knowledge of line impedance is required in [87].
In [88], three different techniques are adopted for balanced,
unbalanced and harmonic power sharing. Thereinto, the output
impedance at certain harmonic frequencies is reshaped by
manipulating the cut-off frequency ωc of the resonator in the
voltage controller. As shown in Fig. 24, the regulation of ωc is
achieved by a PI controller according to the harmonic output
current error. The harmonic current reference is calculated as
Ih,max,i
Ih∗ = Ih,loc + P · Ih,nonloc (28)
Ih,max,i
where Ih,loc is the effective value of the local-load harmonic
current, Ih,max,i is the maximum harmonic current that the
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11
i-th DG unit can inject, Ih,nonloc is the effective value of the
harmonic current of the feeder supplying the nonlocal loads.
With this technique, the harmonic power sharing accuracy
is improved. Meanwhile, it should be noticed that the value
of ωc also is related to resonator gain at harmonic frequen-
cies, the improper modification of ωc will influence voltage
regulation performance and even threatens system stability.
Besides, the calculation of reference harmonic current requires
load currents measurement, and communication to send these
currents to local controllers of DG units, which is unrealistic
to implement, especially in a distributed power system.
!c
VIII. S UMMARY AND F UTURE T RENDS
From the previous illustration, it can be seen that the
operating principles and characteristics of various kinds of
strategies are disparate. Introducing FVI is the most direct and
easiest way for impedance reshaping, power sharing accuracy
is improved without communication or extra measurements,
but impedance mismatch can not be eliminated and bus
voltage quality is degraded with large virtual impedances.
(26) With AVIR, relatively accurate power sharing can be realized
with smaller virtual impedances, and excellent voltage quality
maintains. However, communication is always required to
generate reference signals in virtual impedance loops, which
makes power system less reliable. Impedance droop is another
technique to reshape the output impedance of the DG unit,
with which impedance mismatch can be reduced to improve
(27) power sharing performance in a decentralized way. Although
the frequency can keep at its rated value, the trade-off between
power sharing accuracy and voltage quality similar to P − V
in [19]–[21] or Q − V in [22] still exists. To improve the
performances, the communication is introduced in [67], [68],
[77], the extra measurements are required in [68]–[70], [75],
[76], [78]. Besides, the reconfiguration of inner loop structure
is also effective for impedance reshaping to improve power
sharing performance, but its influence on the output impedance
of the DG unit is always limited. This method is difficult to
eliminate line impedances mismatch, or other solutions (such
as communication among DG units [82], [83], measurement
of line impedances [87] or the bus voltage [83], [85], [86]) are
required to further improve power sharing accuracy. Besides,
reshaping the output impedance of the DG unit also influences
the system stability [9], the reasonable parameter range should
be determined prudently.
The characteristics of all the impedance-reshaping-based
power sharing strategies in this paper are evaluated in terms
of the comprehensive criteria proposed in Section II, and they
are summarized in Table. I.
As illustrated in Table. I, it is difficult to solve all problems
merely with a single existing power sharing strategy. Achiev-
ing the power sharing performance in islanded AC microgrids
with excellent performances still is quite necessary to be
studied. Based on the control targets and the implementation,
the future trends in this field can be illustrated as follows:
1) Reduction and Elimination of Dependency on Com-
munication: The information exchange via communication
in microgrids requires transmission wires, which increases
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TABLE I.
S UMMARY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EXISTING IMPEDANCE - RESHAPING - BASED POWER SHARING STRATEGIES

Impedance Power Unbalanced Harmonic

Voltage Dependence on Line Impedance Sensitivity to Extra
Reshaping References Sharing Power Power
Regulation Communication Characteristic Inverter Parameters Measurements
Strategies Accuracy Sharing Sharing
[35] Fair No No Fair No R No No
[36] Fair No No Fair No RL No No
[37] Fair No Yes Fair No L No No
[38] Fair Yes Yes Fair No R No No
FVI
[39], [40] Fair No Yes Fair No R No No
[41] Fair Yes Yes Fair No R No No
[42], [43] Fair Yes Yes Fair No RL No Zw
[44] Fair No Yes Fair No RL No No

[45]–[48] High No No Good LBC R No No

[49] High No No Good LBC L No No
[50], [51] High No No Good LBC RL No No
[52]–[54] High No No Good MGCC, LBC RL No No
[55], [56] High No Yes Good MGCC, LBC L No No
[57] High Yes Yes Good LBC L No No
AVIR [58] High No Yes Good LBC RL No No
[59] High Yes Yes Good LBC RL No No
[60] High Yes Yes Good Reduced LBC R No No
[61] High No No Good MGCC, Minimized L No No
[62] High Yes Yes Good ETC L No No
[63] High Yes Yes Good Minimized RL No No
[64] High Yes Yes Good MGCC, Minimized L No No
[65], [66] High Yes Yes Good No R No No

[67] Fair No No Fair LBC R No No

[68] High No No Good LBC R No vb , iload
[69] Fair No No Fair No RL No Zw
[70] Fair Yes Yes Fair No RL No Zw
[71] High Yes Yes Fair No L No No
Impedance [72] Fair No No Fair No RL No No
Droops [73] Fair Yes No Fair No RL No No
[74] Fair No Yes Fair No L No No
[75] High No Yes Good No L No Zw
[76] High No Yes Good No R No Zw
[77] High No No Good LBC RL No No
[78] High No No Good No RL No Zw

[79]–[81] Limited No Yes Good No - Yes No

[82] High No No Good LBC - Yes No
[83] High No Yes Good LBC R No vb
Inner Loop [84] Fair No Yes Good MGCC R No vb
Reconfiguration [85] Limited Yes No Good No - No vb
[86] Limited No Yes Good No R No vb
[87] Fair No Yes Good No R No Zw
[88] Limited Yes Yes Fair LBC - No iload

operation costs and will introduce a time delay. Besides, the
communication failure might influence the effectiveness of
the proposed control strategies and even make the system
unstable. Design of control method for power sharing in
microgrids with reduced communication is necessary [101]–
[104]. Achieving accurate power sharing based on impedance
reshaping with minimized communication or even independent
of communication still needs to be further investigated.
2) Feasibility for Different line Impedances and Loads:
In practical applications, line impedance characteristics and
mismatches among them are unknown, the feasibility of
impedance reshaping strategies for different line impedances
is essential to eliminate line impedance mismatches effectively
under each operating condition. Besides, when different loads,
such as constant power load, induction motor and electric
vehicles, are supplied, more complicated current components

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should be considered for power sharing issue. Distributing
all the components in load current among DG units in these
various load conditions is a challenging issue [105].
3) Realization of Accurate Transient Power Sharing: When
the load demand or microgrid structure changes, a transient
occurs, the inaccurate power sharing will lead to current
overshoot and voltage fluctuation, which threatens the system
stability [106], [107]. Especially when the periodic pulse
loads are supplied, load change transients appear frequently.
Therefore, realizing accurate power sharing both in the steady
state and during transient is another research trend.
4) Cooperation with Economic Evaluation: In the most
existing power sharing strategies in islanded AC microgrids,
the power demands are distributed according to the capacities
of DG units. However, maintenance cost is also essential
for effective operation of power systems [108], [109]. In the
future, the power sharing should cooperate with economic
evaluation, impedance reshaping schemes should be designed
to solve this multi-objective optimization problem validly.
IX. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, the impedance-reshaping-based power shar-
ing strategies in islanded inverter-based AC microgrids are
overviewed. Firstly, comprehensive evaluation criteria of
power sharing strategies are summarized, and based on this,
the existing impedance-reshaping-based power sharing strate-
gies are classified into four kinds. FVI-based methods are
the most direct way to reshape the output impedance of the
DG unit, but the power sharing is inaccurate and a large
voltage drop is introduced. AVIR-based strategies can realize
accurate power sharing and their influence on voltage quality is
limited, but communication is always required, the reliability
and expansibility are degraded. The impedance mismatch can
be reduced with impedance droops, but the trade-off between
power sharing accuracy and voltage quality exists and in some
methods, communication and extra measurements are required.
The reconfiguration of inner loop structure can also reshape
output impedance directly to improve power sharing accuracy,
but the influence on the line impedance mismatch is limited.
Otherwise, the communication is introduced or line impedance
knowledge is measured. Then, the characteristics of different
strategies are compared according to the comprehensive crite-
ria. Finally, the future trends in this field are briefly predicted.
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microgrid with interconnected subgrids,” Int. J. Electr. Power Energy
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Fei Deng (S’18–M’22) received the B.E. and Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2015 and
in 2021, respectively. From 2018 to 2020, he was
a visiting student in the University of Padova, Vi-
cenza, Italy. Since 2022, he has been a Research
Fellow with the Energy Research Institute, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore.
His research interests include analysis, modeling
and control of power converters, power sharing in
microgrids.
Wenli Yao (S’14–M’17) received the B.S., M.S., and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from North-
western Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in
2009, 2012, and 2017, respectively. From 2013 to
2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at Aalborg Uni-
versity, Aalborg, Denmark. From 2017 to 2019, he
was a Research Fellow with the Rolls-Royce@NTU
Corporate Lab, School of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Nanayang Technological University,
Singapore. Since May 2019, he has been with North-
western Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, as
an Associate Professor.
His research interests include current control, grid-connected inverter,
multipulse converter, and power decoupling.
Xiaobin Zhang received the B.S. and M.S de-
grees in electrical engineering from the School of
Automation, Northwestern Polytechnical University,
Xi’an, China, in 1983 and 1986, respectively. Since
1986, he has been with the School of Automation,
Northwestern Polytechnical University, where he is
currently a Professor.
His research interests include power electronic
control, aircraft power system, multi-pulse converter,
and power decoupling.
© 2022 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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16
Yi Tang (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Eng.
degree in electrical engineering from Wuhan Uni-
versity, Wuhan, China, in 2007, and the M.Sc.
and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, in 2008 and 2011, respec-
tively.
From 2011 to 2013, he was a Senior Application
Engineer with Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific,
Singapore. From 2013 to 2015, he was a Postdoc-
toral Research Fellow with Aalborg University, Aal-
borg, Denmark. Since March 2015, he has been with Nanyang Technological
University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research interests
include power electronics and its applications in smart grid and e-mobility
systems.
Dr. Tang was a recipient of the Infineon Top Inventor Award in 2012, the
Early Career Teaching Excellence Award in 2017, the Best Associate Editor
Award for IEEE JOUNRAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN
POWER ELECTRONICS, in 2018, the Outstanding Reviewer for the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, in 2019, and six IEEE Prize
Paper Awards. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
POWER ELECTRONICS and the IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND
SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS.
Paolo Mattavelli (S’95, A’96, M’00, SM’10, F’14)
received the MS degree (with honors) and the Ph. D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Padova (Italy) in 1992 and in 1995, respectively.
From 1995 to 2001, he was a researcher at the
University of Padova. From 2001 to 2005 he was an
associate professor the University of Udine, where
he led the Power Electronics Laboratory. In 2005
he joined the University of Padova in Vicenza with
the same duties. From 2010 to 2012 he was with
the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES)
at Virginia Tech. He is currently a professor with the University of Padova.
His major field of interest includes analysis, modeling and analog and digital
control of power converters, grid-connected converters for renewable energy
systems and micro-grids, high-temperature and high-power density power
electronics. In these research fields, he has been leading several industrial
and government projects. His current google scholar h-index is 81.
From 2003 to 2012 he served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions
on Power Electronics. From 2005 to 2010 he was the IPCC (Industrial Power
Converter Committee) Technical Review Chair for the IEEE Transactions
on Industry Applications. For terms 2003-2006, 2006-2009 and 2013-2015
he has been a member-at-large of the IEEE Power Electronics Society’s
Administrative Committee. He also received in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012 the
Prize Paper Award in the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and in 2007,
the 2nd Prize Paper Award at the IEEE Industry Application Annual Meeting.
He is an IEEE Fellow and Co-Editor in Chief for the IEEE Transactions on
Power Electronics.