2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

Strategy of Research and Application for the Microgrid Coordinated

Control
PAN Yuan*, LI PeiQiang, LI XinRan, LEI Bo& XU ZhenHua
College of Electrical and Information EngineeringˈHunan UniversityˈChangsha 410082;

Abstract: By studying the dynamic characteristics and the controllable quasi-load external characteristics of microgrid with
multiple distributed power supply, firstly, this paper proposes a PQ Control Strategy Inverter System based on a control of both
power and electrical current in order to improve the quality of electrical energy and increase the output of distributed power
supply. Secondly, based on the analysis of the characteristics of microgrid’s internal balanced load flow, it designs an outer ring
controller based on improving the sagging shape and solves the problem of controlling the frequency under island model in
microgrid. And then, it puts forward a coordinated control strategy of the microgrid which combined master-slave control
strategy and peer-to-peer control strategy between various types of distributed power supply without data correspondence.
With the coordinated control, the improvement in the availability of intermitted energy resource which cause distributed power
supply to join in the frequency adjustment of the microgrid is derived. At last the correctness and validity of this coordinated
control strategy is verified by converting the microgrid between the island model and grid-connected mode, this paper imitat-
ing and emulating of the varying characters with voltage and frequency under the transient operation of the island model.

Keywords: microgrid, distributed generation, coordinated control strategies, islanded operation, frequency control

1 Introduction state and isolated network state [3]. In network connection

Accompanied with the national economic growth, power
load has witnessed a skyrocketing burst. At the beginning of
summer in 2011, series factors like prices of coal and elec-
tricity being reversed have forced some provinces to switch
off to limit the supply of electricity. The shortage of energy
has gradually become the bottleneck of economic develop-
ment. Distributed generation (DG) was put forward against
the conception of concentrated generation (CG). In order to
solve the current problem that CG brought about, the injec-
tion of renewable generation into grid has found a break-
through. DG can be built in the center of load or rural coun-
tryside which can remarkably improve the utilization effi-
ciency of clean energy. However, after injection into the
system, DG gained characteristics of quasi-load. IEEE1547
has set rules of the DG network connection standard which
requires operation withdrawal of each micro generation
when system fault occurs. This has greatly limited of the
full play of distributed energy efficiency and failed to meet
the need of current grid operation [1]. For the sake of coor-
dinating the conflicts between the grid and DGs, fully ex-
ploiting the potential of distributed energy and prompting
larger scale of integration and application of DG technology,
many scholars have strongly advocated the notion of mi-
crogrid [2]. Microgrid has made the large scope of DG net-
work connection possible. It operates at network connection
*Corresponding author (email: panyuan268@vip.qq.com)
___________________________________
978-1-4244-9621-1/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

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state, microgrid absorbs or injects energy to the main grid.
When fault occurs in the grid, microgrid separates from the
main grid and turns into isolated network state which re-
quires the control and coordination of micro generations and
energy storage devices to make its operation sustainable.
The small-capacity and low-voltage microgrid consisted
of DGs and energy storage devices not only meets the need
of power in high quality from customers but also operates
independently and serves as a powerful support to the grid
when large scale of fault occur. Besides, this environmental
friendly microgrid has taken full advantage of new energy
generation and reduced carbon emission effectively.
The actual problem yet to be solved by Microgrid is how
to realize the coordinating control. When load and network
structure change, how is to secure the safe, stable,
high-efficient and economic operation of microgrid under
different operation modes by effective coordinating control
of each elements. Paper [4–5] has theoretically studied the
control of microgrid and elaborated the mutual transforma-
tion process of network connection state and isolated net-
work state in microgrid. Paper [6] has established composite
generation system of the multiple-micro generation of
wind-illumination-diesel-storage which offered a possible
direction for microgrid study. Paper [7] has discussed the
control and relevant technical range of microgrid. Paper [8]
has studied the structure of microgrid and constructed a
complete microgrid platform in Matlab/simulink to simulate
APAP2011 www.apap2011.org
 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

the condition of transient state and steady state of microgrid 3 Design of DG inversion system and its con-
in network connection model and isolated network model. troller
Based on the structure and general control strategy of mi-
crogrid, for the dispersion characteristics of DG and load,
this paper has designed control modes corresponding to 3.1 Design of DG inversion system with PQ control
different operation modes, studied the structure of DG in-
verter and the design of its inversion system, constructed a The control block of network connection inverter with PQ
inversion with PQ control [9], designed a improved an- control is shown in Figure 2. It made up of two control
ti-droop controller and then put forward a microgrid coor- loops: external power control loop and internal current con-
dinating control strategy that combination of master slave trol loop. PQ control can realize decoupling control of ac-
control and equivalent control is applied between different tive power and reactive power and acquire frequency sup-
types of DGs and data communication loop is not needed. port from the system by phase-locked loop technology.
As for the synchronous problem of microgrid and distribu-
tion network in the reconnection of microgrid, synchronous iId.ref uId.ref
Ppcc.ref
control strategy was put forward. And in Matlab/simulink Qpcc.ref
iIq.ref uIq.ref
environment, the steady-state and transient-state process of upcc.d iId
the switch of the two operation modes of microgrid was Ppcc Q upcc.q
pcc iIq iI.abc
upcc.abc
simulated and the validity of strategy was testified [10–11].
ipcc.abc

2 Structure of microgrid Figure 2 PQ control system block diagram

The basic structure of the microgrid mentioned in this paper

is shown in Figure 1. Multiple-generation and energy sto-
rage elements are contained in the microgrid, those DGs and
energy storage elements combined to supply electricity to
the load. The distribution network viewed the entire micro-
grid as a whole which connected it through PCC. The mi-
crogrid in this paper is consisted of two micro generations
and their corresponding load. Then, it was connected to the
low-voltage distribution network by relevant electric ele-
ments. Assuming that all the micro generations are DC
source or rectified DC source and all the micro generations
have been turned into three-phase AC by SPWM inverter.
Adding LC filters aims to eliminate those high-order current
harmonics around the frequency of controller switch. Sensi-
tive load 1 has adopted DG1 with V/F control to secure re-
liability of power supply and interruptible load 2 has
adopted DG2 with P/Q control for power supply to secure
economy and random cutoff.
3.1.1 Design of power control loop with PQ control
The output power of inversion system in steady state is
asorbed by equivalent current source. Therefore, objective
of corresponding power control of the inverter can be
acomplished only by current regulation of voltage source
inverter. Generally, according to different condition, instan-
taneous power method and average power method are cho-
sen for regulation. Concerning the application of instanta-
neous power may lead to the impact on power quality when
grid suffers disturbance, this paper has adopted the average
power method for control.
In rotating frame, the power calculation of average power
control can be shown as:
P u d id  uq iq , Q u d iq  u q id (1)
In the power regulation shown in Figure 3, adjusting PI
according to the difference of P, Q and Pref, Qref to produce
reference input Idref, Iqref for current loop.

Lf
Lf
+  PI
Cf
Pp c c .r e f - i Id .re f
P2  Q2
Cf Pp c c
P1  Q1 (a) Active Power
+  PI
Q p c c .re f - i Iq .re f
Q pcc
(b) Reactive power
Figure 1 Microgrid configuration
Figure 3 PI regulator power control block diagram

3.1.2 Design of current control loop

After acquiring current reference value from first grade
of regulation, current regulation was implemented. The


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 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

adoption of PI control in current control loop aims to com- The output impedance of the inverter designed in this
pare current reference value with actual current signal fed paper is inductive [14]. Hence, droop characteristics in reg-
back to the controller. Stated in Figure 4, swift regulation ular high-voltage power system could be applied in low-
according to the difference has resulted in correct reference voltage microgrid and acquired droop function as follow:
voltage. For example, the output current of inverter can Pmax  Pn Qmax
maintain constant regulation according to the reference val- a ,b (2)
f n  f min E 0  E min
ue given by power control loop to secure the tracking of
The design of power controller is shown in Figure 6.
output voltage to reference voltage. In the process of de-
With application of PLL phase-locked loop control, it is
signing current loop, decoupling operation is needed after
easier to measure frequency signal. Thus, phase control is
which loop current would be independent in rotating frame.
replaced with frequency control. The power in control loop
At the same time, in current loop regulation, adding
is the instantaneous output power of DG whose active pow-
feed-forward control would greatly reduce the impact that
er and reactive power should meet the requirement of
grid voltage had on system.
0<P<Pmax and -Qmax<Q<Qmax. The output of this controller
will be reference voltage of the control of next grade.
U Id
uId.ref
Zn
iId.ref Ppcc.ref GV Vld
ZL
iId iIq Pp c c Z
VG v  dqo
U Iq Vlq
uIq.ref Qpcc.ref V

iIq.ref Qpcc E0
ZL
iIq
iId
Figure 6 V/F Power controller block diagram

Figure 4 PI regulator current control block diagram 3.2.2 Design of internal loop control
After acquiring reference voltage from the control of
former grade, the major task is to give current and voltage
3.2 Design of a V/F controlled inversion system precise and dynamic regulation. This paper has adopted
based on improved anti-droop control voltage-current double-loop control, it is shown in Figure 7.
The internal loop controller has improved power quality,
The main unit of V/F control method is viewed as infinite raise the resonance damping of filter and limit the fault cur-
bus [12–13]. Because of traditional low-voltage distribution rent at the same time. More importantly, implementation of
network showing resistance, the primary job of this design the filter inductive current as the control variables can limit
is to make output impedance show inductive. By utilization the maximum output current of inverter which has made
of V/F control which resembles the droop characteristics of protection of inverter possible.
the first regulation of traditional grid to realize varied fre-
quency sharing between different DGs of a microgrid in I f  Id
isolated state, the support of voltage and frequency can be *
I ld ZLf
Vld - Vd
+  + 
achieved at the same time. This control method has enabled - PI - PI +


the changes of DG’s self-sensing frequency and voltage, Vd Vld

ZC f
reduced communication link and strengthened reliability of Vld
microgrid. V/F block is shown in Figure 5. Figure 7 Voltage and current loop control block diagram

Vi .abc
I i.abc 3.3 Control strategy of synchronous network con-
P1  Q1
nection of DG
upcc.abc After a period of operating at isolated state, microgrid needs
I i.abc
to be injected into grid. Its voltage and frequency should be
U Id iId Pref Qref synchronous with the main grid which may otherwise bring
Figure 5 V/F control system block diagram
power impulse and surge current to threaten the safety of
the main grid in the connection. Using sensors to check
whether the voltage differenceV, frequency differencef
3.2.1 Design of V/F control and power control loop and phase difference of voltage phase on the two sides of


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 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection
PCC reach the standard of network connection. The stan-
dard of network connection of microgrid are [15]: Vİ
10%, fİ0.3Hz and¥İ5e. Shown in Figure 8, the
synchronous process of the network connection after mi-
crogrid’s isolated state could be directly led by the increase
of two PI loops as synchronous compensator in power con-
troller.
'G
GV Vld
Z
VG v  dqo
Vlq
V tively. The voltage of Line 1 and Line 2 are both 380V. The
'V
Figure 8 Network synchronization controller block diagram
4 Design of filter to improve the power quality
The interface of DG inverter can reinforce the network
connection performance of DG but will bring large amount
of harmonic pollution. The inverter in this paper has
adopted SPWM whose output voltage produces harmonics
at switch frequency in relatively high switch frequency. As a
result, controllable filters are needed. This paper recom-
mends LC filters [9]. LC filters will help to eliminate high-
order current harmonics around switch frequency. Parameter
L and C of filter are constrained by regulation below:
Fundamental wave loss triggered by inductor should be
as small as possible. Fundamental wave loss in capacitor
should be as small as possible. Series connected resonant
frequency of induction and capacitor should be kept far
away from the low-order harmonic frequency of inverter’s
output voltage and high-order harmonic current around
switch frequency. As a result, the empirical formula of filter
design is:
1 1
10 f1   f s , f c 2S L f C f (3)
f c 10
In the high power application, switch frequency would
not be relatively high. Generally speaking, it would be un-
der 3KHz which formula above can’t meet. Therefore,
comprehensively compare all the occurrence:
1 separation but basically remained stable reaching the na-
 2Sf s L (4)
2Sf s C f
Follow the requirement to design LC filter could give
birth to a LC filter that can effectively filter high-order
harmonic current and curb low-order harmonic voltage.
5 Example simulation
As Figure 1 stated, a microgrid made up of two parallel
connected DGs are injected to the distribution network

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through transformer. DG1 has adopted V/F control. Since
load1 is a sensitive load, therefore, bus voltage and fre-
quency stability should be secured. DG2 has adopted PQ
control, then, securing the constant output power of DG to
BUS2 can guarantee stable output of DG.
In the example, the equivalence of system and value of
load are marked in the figure. Reference active power of
DG1 and DG2 is 7KW and 5KW respectively. The two val-
ues of reference reactive power are 0. Reference active
power and reactive power of sensitive load 1 is 7.8KW and
1.5KW respectively and reference active power and reactive
power of interruptible load 2 is 5.5KW and 1.5KW respec-
parameters of the low-voltage lines are: R=0.642 ¡ /km,
X=0.101¡/km, R/X=7.7. The nominal capacity is 600 KW
and voltage level is 0.4kV/10kV in the parameters of trans-
former. The parameters of control system are: Voltage on
DC side Vdc is 780V, frequency of grid f is 50Hz, carrier
frequency f is 3000Hz. The parameters of filter is: filter
resistance R=0.01¡, L=0.8mH, C=1800­f. The coefficient
of droop control is: 1/a=4e-5, 1/b=2.8e-4. Then, this model
was put into Matlab/simulink for simulation with digital
runge-kutta calculation method.
Figure 9 to Figure 12 have reflected the state of con-
nected network operation of microgrid and distribution
network, isolated operation of microgrid after separating
from distribution network and reconnection to distribution
network respectively.
DG1 has adopted V/F control and DG2 PQ control. Be-
fore 0.8s, all the output of DG connected to microgrid and
distribution network was stable. At 0.8s, as what shown in
Figure 8 and Figure 9, microgrid was separated from distri-
bution and fell into isolated operation. Because of load ab-
sorbing some active power from distribution network before
separation, DG1’s output has seen a considerable growth
and DG2 has remained constant power operation. At 1.6s,
microgrid was reconnected to the distribution network and it
started to absorb power. Now, DG1’s output has witnessed a
decrease but was still slightly higher than the before separa-
tion.
Shown in Figure 10, the operating voltage of DG1’s bus
1 has slightly fallen but in the range of 5% right after the
separation occurred. Then, after the reconnection at 1.6s, the
voltage recovered to a slightly higher value than that before
tional standard.
Presented in Figure 11, because of distribution network
losing frequency support, the output of DG1 has soared with
the frequency of PCC in microgrid falling by 0.04Hz at 0.8s
when the separation occurred. After the reconnection opera-
tion at 1.6s, the frequency has recovered to the
same-frequency operation with distribution network for
acquiring power supply from the distribution network.
 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

8000 DG1
6 Conclusion
DG2
6000
This paper has designed a PQ control system based on with
P(w)

4000
power-current double loop control strategy and a V/F con-
2000
trol system based on the improved anti-droop which could
0 well maintain the external characteristics of the controllable
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 loads of network connected DG to enable the adaptive op-
T(s)
eration between DGs parallel operating in grid without
Figure 9 Active power output of DG1 and DG2 communication and strengthen the reliability of microgrid.
For various DGs, different control strategies are applied. PQ
6000
control strategy is applied in control system of intermittent
DG1
DG2
energy generation like wind and illumination to optimize
4000 their operation. Meanwhile, connection controller that can
effectively reduce the impact of connection to distribution
Q(w)

2000
network and improve the dynamic characteristics of system
0 is designed. DG with VF control can not only offer internal
frequency support for microgrid in isolated operation but
-2000
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 also secure power supply requirement of important custom-
T(s)
ers which is in line with the request to secure power quality
Figure 10 DG1 and DG2 reactive power output
to important customers in future smart grid.
The DGs in this paper are assumed DC source or rectified
DC source all the while the changes of power of the genera-
330 tion unit controlled by controller in an acceptable range. A
300
microgrid coordinating control strategy that combination of
master slave control and equivalent control is applied between
U/V

0 different types of DGs without data communication loop has

enabled smooth switching between the modes of network
-300 connection and isolated operation and other two modes. At the
-330 same time, the requirement of securing high power quality to
0.6 0.8 1 1.2
T(S)
1.4 1.6 1.8 2 important customers is met while the utilization ratio of ener-
gy has been improved. In the whole process, the safe, reliable
Figure 11 Microgrid bus 1 voltage
and economic operation of microgrid has been maintained.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of

 China (Grant No. 50977023) and the Hunan Provincial National Science
 Foundation-funded projects (Grant No. 10JJ2043).

I +]


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