Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Constant power loads and their effects in DC distributed power systems: A MARK
review
⁎
Suresh Singh, Aditya R. Gautam, Deepak Fulwani
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Jodhpur, Rajasthan 342011, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: The penetration of dc distributed power systems is increasing rapidly in electric power grids and other isolated
Constant power load systems to cater demand for cheap, clean, high quality, and uninterrupted power demand of modern society. DC
Dc/dc converters systems are more efficient and suite better to integrate some of the renewable energy sources, storage units, and
Ac/dc and dc/ac converters dc loads. A dc distributed power system usually consists of large number of power electronic converters
Distributed power systems
connected in cascad0ed configuration to satisfy the power quality and voltage magnitude requirements of the
Dc microgrids
Negative impedance instabilities
sources and loads. Tightly-regulated power converters in the aforementioned settings exhibit negative
Stability analysis incremental impedance and behave as constant power loads (CPLs), and tend to destabilize their feeder
systems and upstream converters. The presence of CPLs reduces effective damping of the system leading to
instability of the whole system and present significant challenge in the system operation and control. In-depth
knowledge of the instability effects of constant power loads (CPLs), available stabilizing techniques and stability
analysis methods, is imperious to the young researchers, system designers, system integrators, and practicing
engineers working in the field of dc power systems and emerging applications of dc power. This paper is
intended to fill this gape by documenting present state of the art and research needs in one article. Modeling,
behaviour and effects of typical CPL are discussed and a review of stability criteria used to study the stability of
dc power systems are reviewed with their merits and limitations. Furthermore, available literature is reviewed to
summarize the techniques to compensate the CPL effect. Finally, discussion and recent challenges in the dc
distribution systems.

1. Introduction feature of almost every converter dominated power system, helps in

Perennial advancements in the power electronics and control
technology have widen the applications of power conversion systems
in spacecrafts, aircrafts, ships, telecommunication networks, and
electric vehicles to reduce size, weight, cost, and to improve reliability,
power quality, efficiency, and flexibility [1]. DC microgrid is one of the
recent applications, where power electronic converters are the main
power processing units for interfacing renewable sources and to
facilitate connection to the conventional power system [2–4]. DC
microgrids are gaining increased attention due to number of reasons.
The merits and challenges of dc microgrids [2,5–7] are summarized in
Table 1. Aforementioned distribution power systems usually consist of
large number of power converters in parallel, cascading, stacking, load
splitting, and source splitting configurations to ensure the desired
design and operational objectives [8]. Such systems are known as
mutliconverter power electronic systems or distributed power systems
(DPS) [1,8]. Cascading of power electronic converters is a common
ensuring the desired point-of-load regulation. However, a tightly-
regulated switched power electronic converter behaves as a constant
power load (CPL) and tend to destabilize feeder system and upstream
converters [9–12]. Tightly-regulated converters may not behave as
ideal CPL in all situations and this does not present worst situation
from stability point-of-view [13]. The stability of the non-isolated dc/dc
power converters with CPL is analyzed in [14,15] both in continuous
conduction mode (CCM) and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM),
under voltage mode (VM) and current mode (CM) control. It is shown
that all converter with CPL in CCM with both VM and CM control are
unstable. The boost converter in DCM is stable under both VM and CM
control and buck-boost converter in DCM under both VM and CM
control is marginally stable. Buck converter in DCM is stable under VM
control and unstable under CM control. In open-loop, basic dc/dc
converters with CPL and operating in DCM are stable and in this case
control design task becomes similar to that of dc/dc coverters loaded by
conventional resistive load [16]. The controllability of six types of non-

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sureshkumar@iitj.ac.in (S. Singh), pg201381001@iitj.ac.in (A.R. Gautam), df@iitj.ac.in (D. Fulwani).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.01.027
Received 26 December 2015; Received in revised form 7 July 2016; Accepted 8 January 2017
Available online 17 January 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Singh et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421

Table 1
Merits and challenges of DC microgrids.

DC microgrids merits and challenges

Merits
• More suitable to integrate renewable energy source like solar PV, fuel cells, and
storage batteries, and dc loads.
• Relatively simple control strategies.
• Better power transfer capacity of lines due to absence of skin effect and reactive
current flow.
• Better short-circuit protection.
• Higher efficiency due to absence of multiple power conversions and more
efficient dc loads such as LED lights, BLDC drive based systems etc.
• Reduced size and cost of the distribution system.
Challenges
• Difficult to know demand.
Fig. 1. V-I characteristics of a typical CPL.
• Complicated fault detection and clearance.
• Reduced stability margins due to the presence of constant power and pulsed
power loads. reference to dc microgrid system are presented in Section 6. Finally,
• Need for dc compatible loads and making existing loads dc compatible, wherever conclusion is given in Section 7.
possible.
• Lack of well defined standards, government policies and regulatory framework.
2. CPLs and negative impedance instabilities

isolated dc/dc converters with CPL is analyzed in [17] using differential As discussed in the previous section, a tightly-regulated power
geometry theory and it is shown that all converter with CPL are electronic converter behaves as a CPL. A CPL exhibits negative
controllable. The sufficient and necessary conditions for the existence incremental impedance and tends to destabilize its feeder system.
of equilibria in power system with ac or dc sources (linear RLC circuits The V-I characteristics of a typical CPL is shown in Fig. 1. The simple
or switching power converters) with CPL are presented in [18] and examples of CPL in a dc system are tightly-regulated dc/dc converters
upper bounds on CPL power are established. In this paper, the dc/dc with resistive load and dc/ac inverter drives. A CPL may appear in four
converters individually or in a aggregated system are considered to configurations as shown in Fig. 2, to have destabilizing effect on the
operate in CCM, unless specified. feeder system [22].
Despite several merits of dc power systems, ensuring system It can be seen in Fig. 1, that the current drawn by a CPL increases/
stability is a challenge. This is mainly due to the nonlinearities decreases with decrease/increase in its input voltage. Mathematically, a
introduced by the CPL behaviour of the switching power converters CPL can be modeled as [23].
and non-linear nature of converters itself. The problem is further Pcpl
aggravated by the interaction among different subsystems and the icpl =
vcpl (1)
uncertainties associated with renewable power sources (if present).
Therefore, the overall system stability can not be guaranteed, even if Where icpl is the current drawn by the CPL, vcpl is the CPL input
individual subsystems are stable. This warrants that the steady-state voltage, and Pcpl is the rated power of the CPL. The rate of change of
Pcpl
and dynamic stability of the aggregated system be analyzed under current, for a given operating point (Icpl = V ) using (1) is given by
cpl
various loading profiles. In [19] small-signal stability of a dc microgrid
∂icpl Pcpl
is analyzed under constant resistance load (CRL), constant current load =− 2
∂vcpl Vcpl (2)
(CCL), and CPL. It is shown that, higher penetration of CPL makes the
system unstable, while the presence of CRL or CCL is not destabilizing At the above operating point V-I curve of the CPL can be approximated
in nature. Stability analysis in presence of CPL is also presented in by straight line tangent to the curve, given by
[20,21].
Pcpl Pcpl
The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive survey to CPLs in icpl = − v+2
2
relation to dc distributed power systems found in renewable energy Vcpl Vcpl (3)
based dc microgrids, telecommunication power system, and transport
Equation (3), gives a small-signal model of a CPL, which can be
power systems (land, water, air, and space). Beginning with reasons of Pcpl
represented as negative resistance (Rcpl = − V 2 ) with a parallel con-
occurrence of CPL effect in dc power system, modeling and behaviour cpl
Pcpl
of a CPL will be described. Available criteria to study the small-signal stant current source (Icpl = 2 V ), as shown in Fig. 3. The constant
cpl
and large-signal stability of a dc power system are reviewed, and their current component in CPL small-signal model does not affect the
merits and limitations are presented. A detailed review of techniques stability, but negative resistance reduces the effective damping of the
used to compensate the destabilizing effect of CPLs in dc power system and tends to destabilize the system. Such instabilities induced
systems is presented alongwith their merits and associated challenges. by CPLs are known as negative impedance/resistance instabilities. A
In-depth knowledge of the instability effects of constant power loads summary of CPL's negative resistance characteristics are given in
(CPLs), available stabilizing techniques and stability analysis methods, Table 2.
is imperious for the young researchers, system designers, system In discussion on the stability of a cascaded system (feeder/source
integrators, and practicing engineers working in the field of dc power and CPL), output impedance of feeder/source subsystem Zo and input
systems. The paper is intended to fill this gape and summarize the impedance of CPL subsystem are frequently referred to. In the next
required information in a single document. Section, the major stability criteria used to study the open-loop and
The paper is organized as follow. Sources, modeling, behaviour and closed-loop dc power systems will be presented.
effects of CPLs are described in Section 2. The stability criteria to study
the stability of a dc power system, in general, are reviewed in Section 3. 3. Stability criteria for DC distribution systems
Merits and limitations of each criterion is also presented in Section 3.
The detailed review of CPL stabilization techniques is presented in In this section, various stability criteria to study the stability of a dc
Section 4. Discussion is presented in Section 5. Recent challenges with distributed power system in design and operation phase will be

408
S. Singh et al.
Fig. 2. CPL and feeder configurations; (a) A tightly-regulated dc/dc voltage regulator with upstream dc/dc converter, (b)A tightly-regulated dc/dc voltage regulator with input LC filter,
(c) A tightly-regulated inverter drive with upstream dc/dc converter, and (d) A tightly-regulated inverter drive input LC filter.
Fig. 3. (a) Large-signal model of a CPL, (b) Small-signal model of a CPL.
Table 2
Effects of CPLs in the distributed dc systems.
Sr. no. Effect of CPL
1 Reduces the equivalent resistance of the system
2 High inrush current as voltage build-up slowly from its initial value
3 Reduced system damping and stability margins
4 Limit cycle oscillation in the system voltage and currents
5 May lead to voltage collapse
discussed.
3.1. Middlebrook's criterion
The Middlebrook's stability criterion [24–27] was introduced to
ensure the stability and invariance of system dynamics due to the
addition of input filter to a feedback controlled system. A cascaded
system with two subsystems i.e. upstream subsystem (source conver-
ter) and downstream subsystem (load converter) is shown in the
Fig. 4(a). Let Z0 and Zin be the output and input impedance of
upstream and downstream subsystems respectively as shown in
Fig. 4(a), then the overall transfer function can be given as,
Fig. 4. (a) A cascaded system (b) Nyquist plot.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
V2out G1 G 2
G12 = =
V1in 1 + GMLG (4)
Here GMLG is known as the minor-loop gain (MLG), which is the ratio
Z
of impedances (GMLG = Z 0 ) at dc link interface. As Middlebrook's
in
criterion emphasizes on magnitude (gain margin) based analysis with-
out taking phase margin into account, the approach leads to conserva-
tive results. In order to apply Middlebrook's criterion Zo and Zin must
be known. In [28], authors presented an experimental method to
estimate the input and output impedances. The sufficient condition to
ensure stability of a cascaded system is given by,
∥ Z 0 ∥⪡∥ Z in ∥ (5)
Above relation implies that the resulting loading effect is negligible for
all frequency ranges, however this effect only does not necessarily
causes system stability problem. In such cases, the system stability can
only be ensured by ensuring individual subsystem stability.
Furthermore, one may use Nyquist stability criterion which can be
applied on minor loop gain of the system, (GMLG). This imply that the
system is stable if only if the contour of GMLG does not pass through
unit circle with origin at (−1, j 0) and if it passes then net anti-
encirclement of point (−1, j 0) must be nil. Alternatively, if the contour
does not enter the forbidden region as shown in 4(b), the contour can
not enclose the point (−1, j 0) also. The unit circle, forbidden region and
a circle with radius ∥ GMLG ∥, are shown in 4(b). The radius of circle
encompassing the region under stability margin is given by,
1
∥ GMLG ∥ = <1
GM (6)
The region (shown in dark) beyond the periphery of this circle shown in
Fig. 4(b), is the forbidden region.
S. Singh et al.
Fig. 5. Nyquist plot showing GM/PM criterion.
3.2. Gain margin and phase margin criterion (GM/PM)
In order to reduce the size of passive filters which are widely used in
DC distribution power systems, it is imperative to resolve the con-
servative nature of Middlebrook's stability criteria for filter design. This
challenge motivated the use of a more reliable stability criterion known
as gain margin (GM) and phase margin (PM) [29] from classical
control theory. This criterion extends the Middlebrook's stability
criteria, and states that a system may be stable even if Nyquist plot
of (GMLG) encircles the point (−1,0) i.e. ∥ Zo ∥⪢∥ Z in ∥, provided minor
loop gain has sufficient stability margins (GM and PM) in some
frequency range [25]. Therefore, the two important inequalities to be
1
followed are; (a) ∥ GMLG ∥⪡∥ GM ∥ (b) |∠Zo − ∠Z in | ≤ 180 0 − PM . For a
designer, it is good choice to keep PM = 60 0 and GM = 6db . Fig. 5
shows the GMPM criterion graphically, wherein the forbidden region is
shown through crossed dotted-lines.
3.3. The opposing argument criterion (TOAC)
One of the important benefits of this criterion is its applicability to
the systems with multiple loads connected to the source, while
previously discussed criteria are applicable to single load systems only.
The application of opposing argument criterion to analyze the stability
of a dc system requires determination of the minor-loop gains for each
of load subsystems and then adding them together to get equivalent
minor-loop gain. Fig. 6(a) shows a network whose downstream
converters are modeled using their individual input impedances.
The overall minor-loop gain for the system shown in Fig. 6(a) can
be obtained by adding individual minor-loop gains corresponding to
each load as follow,
⎛ 1
Z0 1 ⎞
GMLG = = Z0 ⎜ + ⋯.. + ⎟ [31]. Considering a system with a single regulated upstream
Z in ⎝ Z in1 Z in, m ⎠
So the opposing argument criterion results in a concrete condition for
forbidden region [26],
1 Dr2− buck
Re (Z 0 / Z in ) ≤ −
GM
This means that the region covered to the left of vertical line which cut
Fig. 6. (a) A Input-output system (b) Nyquist plot showing forbidden region.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
1
real axis at the point (− GM , 0 ), comes under forbidden region. The
forbidden region for minor-loop gain corresponding to individual load
can be given by,
⎛ Pin, a ⎞
Re (Z 0 / Z in, a ) ≤ ⎜ − ⎟
⎝ GMP0 ⎠ (9)
where a = 1, 2, …m . Re (Z 0 / Z in, a ) shifts as the ratio of input to output
power varies, this causes variation in the forbidden region. The
Fig. 6(b) shows Nyquist plots of minor-loop gains for overall system
corresponding to (Z in ) and for single load corresponding to (Z in,1)
respectively. The forbidden regions (see Fig. 6(b)) left to the lines
cutting real axis, for each case is shown using crossed dotted-lines. The
condition (9) imposes a limit on the gain margin of Z in, a and if this
condition is not satisfied then phase condition should be satisfied [25].
Thus, this criterion has an important requirement of information about
phase and gain margin of load subsystems and source for its applica-
tion.
3.4. Energy source analysis consortium (ESAC) criterion
This stability criterion is particularly applicable in situations where
several subsystems are connected together, with components arranged
in different patterns/groupings (i.e. input/output impedance groupings
can be different for a same type of subsystems because of their
connections). These mismatches may lead to different stability analysis
results of the system. The ESAC criterion uses a three-dimensional plot
of frequency, phase and magnitude in the admittance space. If up-
stream subsystem impedance and the forbidden region are known,
then load's input admittance can be calculated for a given frequency.
Therefore, the stability of system can be ensured if load admittance
space does not lie in forbidden region [30]. The ESAC exhibits the
smallest forbidden region among all stability criteria discussed above.
The root exponential stability criterion (RESC) which is an extension of
ESAC, is also available in the literature. For more details on ESAC
criterion, readers may refer [26,29,31,30].
3.5. Three step impedance criterion (TSIC)
As the name suggests, this criterion involves three steps in the
analysis of system stability. The application of this method involves the
following three steps [25].
1. Preliminary system stability assessment: In the first step all
downstream subsystems are substituted by their corresponding
mapped pure impedances using some required transformation
(7) subsystem and n-downstream pulse width modulated subsystems,
where the load impedance of rth downstream subsystem is given by
Zr. Then mapped pure impedance ( 1 ) of rth-downstream subsystem
Gr
Zr
can be determined by Z r Dr2− boost and for unregulated boost and
buck type conversion subsystems respectively. Where Dr is the duty
(8)
cycle of rth load subsystem. In general, the equivalent mapped pure
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S. Singh et al.
Fig. 7. (a) Multiple I/O network (b) Equivalent two-port network (c) Equivalent single-port network.
1
impedance ( ) can be calculated for n-load subsystems as,
G T (s )
1 n 1
=
G T (s )
∑r =1 G .
r
2. Measurement of impedance: In this step, measurement of the
output impedance of integrated upstream subsystem and input
impedance of each downstream subsystem is carried out.
3. System stability analysis: In this step input to output voltage
transfer function of the system is determined, which includes an
extended form of minor-loop gain given by.
⎡ 1 1 ⎤
GMLG (extd . ) = Zop (s ) ⎢ − ⎥
⎣ Z in (s ) G T (s ) ⎦
Where Zop (s ),
Zin(s) and GMLG (extd . ) are output impedance of
upstream subsystem connected to n-downstream subsystems, input
impedances of downstream n-subsystems and extended minor-loop
gain respectively.
Condition for stability is then obtained using Nyquist plot of
GMLG (extd . ) i.e. system is stable if Nyquist plot of extended minor-
loop gain does not encircle the point (−1,0).
3.6. Small-signal approach (model analysis)
In this approach, the stability analysis is performed using the
linearzed system model. Then using left and right eigenvectors
corresponding to eigenvalue λi, the sensitivity of the eigenvalue to
the element akj of the linearized system matrix A, and the participation
factors (sensitivity of eigenvalue λi to the diagonal element akk of the
linearized system matrix A) are determined. In the design phase, the
information regarding critical parameter derived through eigenvalue
sensitivity analysis and participation factors can be utilized in the
control design to ensure desired stability margins and transient
performance [32,33].
3.7. μ-sensitivity criterion
μ-sensitivity approach is basically motivated from robust stability
analysis and robust controller design from robust control theory [33].
The concepts of Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT), structured
singular value μ, skewed-structured singular value ν, and μ-sensitivity
are some of the important terms in the stability analysis using this
approach. The μ-sensitivity based stability analysis involves following
steps; (a) Symbolically linearzed model of the system is obtained at the
equilibrium points. If there are some nonlinearities in the system
matrix, they must be replaced with their polynomial approximation, (b)
Obtaining LFT based Model, and (c) Compute μ-sensitivities. The value
of μ-sensitivity with respect to a particular system parameter, is an
indication of how critical is that parameter from stability point of view.
The method of μ-sensitivity is applied to a PI controlled dc/dc buck
converter system with input LC filter in [33], wherein μ-sensitivities for
equal small perturbation in all parameter are determined. Based on
obtained μ-sensitivities values, it is shown that the filter parameters
(Rf , L f and Cf) are most critical for system stability. Compared to other
stability criteria such as Middlebrook's and Model analysis, this
approach gives broader and direct insight into the influence of system
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
parameters on the system stability.
3.8. Passivity based criterion
The passivity based (PB) criterion uses the concept of imposing
passivity on the system, in order to determine its stability [25,34–36].
The method provides a sufficient stability condition for a system having
n-number of source converters with equivalent output impedance Zs
and m-number of load converters with equivalent input impedance Zl,
incorporating the power flow direction. This implies that the complete
(10) system can be reduced to a two-port network, and further to a single
port network (see Fig. 7). This results in the total impedance of the
Vb us
system at the point of interface given by Zbus = = Zs Zl . In order to
Ib us
establish stability of the system, the passivity property should hold
upon the system. A network is passive if and only if; (a) All the poles of
Zbus(s) are in the left-hand side of imaginary axis. (b) Real part of
Zbus ( jω) is greater than or equal to zero, or −90 0 ≤ ∠Zbus ( jω) ≤ 90 0 , for
all frequency range. System is considered a stable system, if these two
conditions hold.
3.9. Mixed-potential function based criterion
This criterion is based on nonlinear circuit theory developed by
Brayton and Moser. It is a design criterion, used to ensure the large-
signal stability of a system and estimate the ROA of an equilibrium
point. Application of this criterion results in design constraints on filter
parameters e.g. dc-link capacitor to ensure asymptotic large-signal
stability of an equilibrium point with a sufficiently large ROA. The
application of the criterion involves developing a Lypunov-type Mixed
Potential Function using the elements and the topology of the circuit
under study, and then imposing one of the five Brayton and Moser's
theorems, under certain conditions [37–39]. The criterion of Mixed
Potential Function is used to study the large-signal stability of dc
source feeding CPL(s) with input LC filter in [37], and large-signal
stability and to estimate ROA of cascaded dc power system in [38]. The
detailed information large-signal stability tools such as multimodel
approach, block diagonalized quadratic Lyapunov functions (BDQLF),
and reverse trajectory tracking can be found in [39].
3.10. Phase-plane analysis
In phase-plane analysis, the system differential equations are
graphically solved (plotted), which gives an insight about how the
system dynamics evolve with time [40–42]. This technique can be used
to study global close-loop behaviour of the converters loaded with
CPLs. The method does not give a particular solution to the differential
equations describing the dynamics of a system. The phase-portrait of a
buck converter loaded with a CPL is shown in Fig. 8. In [40], the phase-
plane analysis tool is used to analyze the large-signal closed loop
behaviour of a PD controlled dc/dc buck converter loaded with CPL,
and to determine region of attraction (ROA) of an equilibrium point. It
has been shown that ROA depends on the controller and converter
parameters, and it does not include origin. Same approach is applied to
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S. Singh et al.
SEPARATRIX
LIMIT CYCLE
Inductor current
Fig. 8. Phase-portrait of an ideal buck converter loaded with a CPL (Vin = 380 V , D=0.5,
CPL Power P=4 kW, L=2 mH, C=1 mF).
study the large-signal behaviour of a state feedback controlled dc/dc
boost converter loaded with a CPL in [41], and ROA of equilibrium
points is determined. It is shown that the boost converter has two
equilibrium points in first quadrant. Furthermore, authors show that
the boundary of ROA to ensure stability is determined by stable
manifold of the unstable equilibrium point. Authors in [42] presented
analysis of start-up and transient response of an average current
controlled dc/dc buck converter feeding a CPL using phase-plane
approach. Furthermore, design criteria to ensure the stability during
start-up, transients and current limiting value to avoid converter
clamping, are also proposed.
3.11. Bifurcation analysis
In bifurcation analysis, the region of stable operation is determined
through the search of hopf bifurcation points (where eigenenvales of
system Jacobian matrix consists of one pair of pure imaginary and
others with non-zero real part) [43]. This gives an insight into how the
variations in the system parameters influence region of stable opera-
tion. This knowledge can be effectively used by the system designers to
ensure the stability of the actual system. Authors in [43], presented
Hopf bifurcation search using indirect (eigenvalue analysis) and direct
(numerical computation of Hopf points) methods to determine the
boundary of the stable region, for an equivalent dc microgrid loaded
with CPL. The Boundary of the stable operation is determined by
selecting filter parameters (R, L, and C) and load power P as bifurcation
parameters. In [44], the stability analysis of two configurations of the
DC systems feeding CPLs is presented using numerical continuation
method. A limit on CPL power and corresponding ROA is determined
using Hopf bifurcation search. Furthermore, state feedback controllers
are proposed to enlarge the ROA.
Several criterion for stability analysis are summarized in Table 3
also.
4. CPL stabilization techniques
The basic concept of CPL compensation involves increasing the
effective system damping through some modifications at feeder/source
level, load level or the use of some additional circuits [24]. These
modifications can be done in system hardware or in their control loops.
The techniques based on hardware modifications are known as passive
damping techniques and those based on modifications in the control
structures are known as active damping techniques. The techniques
based on some specialized control approaches, discussed separately
here, are also usually considered under active damping. A broad
classification of the CPL compensation techniques is shown in Fig. 9.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
In the following subsections, different CPL compensation techniques
are reviewed.
4.1. Passive damping
In this method, in order to compensate the negative incremental
impedance effect of the CPLs, the system damping is increased by
adding passive components (resistances, resistance-capacitance, and
resistance-inductance) to the system under consideration. This ap-
proach results in an increased size, cost, and weight of the system.
Furthermore, passive components lead to high power dissipation,
particularly when resistance is used in parallel with filter capacitor,
which is detrimental to the system efficiency. The application of the loss
free resistance (LFR) [45] is used to reduce the power dissipation. The
challenge with LFR is that, it increases the system size, complexity, and
cost. In [46], the interaction of CPL's small-signal negative input
resistance with input LC filter is analyzed and a passive damper
consisting of a series RC branch in parallel with filter capacitor is
proposed to stabilize the system. Cespedes et al. [47], have proposed
three different passive dampers to stabilize the input filter of a CPL and
presented an analytical theory to determine the required value of
damper parameters is also presented. The design of the dc bus
capacitor, to ensure the desired stability margins using impedance
criteria under three different droop control schemes, is presented in
[48]. The considered test system consists of a dc aircraft power system
having parallel sources driving a CPL. The influence of the converter
paracitics (switch ‘ON’ resistance, inductor resistance, and diode
resistance) in the presence of CPLs is analyzed in detail in [49], under
both CCM and DCM operation. Furthermore, design recommendations
are presented to avoid CPL induced instabilities in a dc DPS feeding
pure CPL and combination of CPL with conventional resistive loads.
4.2. Active damping
The underlying concept of active damping is to create the damping
effect of series/parallel resistances and dc bus capacitance through the
modifications in the control structure of the feeder or load subsystem.
In addition to this, an auxiliary circuit can also be connected at the load
terminals to inject a compensating current or to emulate variable
impedance, so as to mitigate the CPL induced instabilities [50,24].
Next, the active damping techniques realized at feeder side, load side
and through auxiliary system will be discussed separately.
4.2.1. Feeder side active damping
In this section, active damping methods implemented through the
modification in control loops of the feeder subsystem are reviewed
[50–61,33]. The compensation of the CPL effect at the upstream feeder
level is applicable only when, the upstream feeder subsystem is a
switched dc/dc or ac/dc converter. When the feeder subsystem of the
CPL is an input LC (inductance-capacitance) filter or uncontrolled
rectifier, CPL compensation at the feeder side is not possible. In active
damping at the feeder side, the additional compensation loops modifies
the output impedance Z0 of the feeder converter, so as to satisfy the
impedance stability criterion. The major advantage of this approach is
that the system can be stabilized without compromising the load
performance [24,15]. An active damping technique which emulates a
resistance in series with the converter inductor to stabilize the basic dc/
dc converters loaded with a CPL is presented in [50]. The measured
inductor current is passed through a feedback coefficient RLA and is
subtracted from control voltage to emulate a resistance in series with
the inductor, which increases the system damping (see Fig. 10).
Furthermore, the technique is extended to the isolated dc/dc con-
verters loaded by a CPL. Through active damping, only a limited
amount of the CPL can be compensated. In [51], the global behaviour
of a dc/dc buck converter is analyzed using phase-plane analysis,
wherein the system is controlled using current feedback loop with
S. Singh et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421

Table 3
Summary of criteria for stability analysis.

Criterion Merits Challenges

Middlebrook's Criterion
Gain Margin and Phase Margin
Criterion (GMPM)
The Opposing Argument Criterion
ESAC Criterion
Three Step Impedance Criterion
Model Analysis
μ-sensitivity Criterion
Passivity Based Criterion
Mixed-potential Function based
Criterion
Phase-plane Analysis
Bifurcation Analysis
Most basic and easiest to apply; Ensures both, stability and
performance.
Considers both, magnitude and phase of MLG; Smaller
forbidden region.
Applicable for single/multiple load-source systems; Less
conservative; In case of multiple loads, considers individual
MLGs.
Less sensitive to component grouping; Smallest forbidden
region.
More Generalized; No need to check individual subsystem
stability.
Very useful in design phase; Simple procedure.
Broader and direct insight into influence of system parameters
on stability.
Large-signal stability; Reduces a multi-port system to a single
port network.
Large-signal stability; Applicable for multiple loads system also.
Gives global behaviour of the closed-loop system; Very useful in
design phase.
Gives boundary of stable operation; Very useful in design phase
Small-signal stability; Zout of source and Zin of load should be known;
Does not use impedances phase information
Small-signal stability; Focuses on individual subsystems; Requires
knowledge of GM and PM of each subsystem
Small-signal stability; Results are valid in limited frequency range;
Require knowledge of PM and GM of source and each load subsystems
Small-signal stability; Intensive calculations
Small-signal stability
Small-signal stability; Not reliable in system stability
Applicable to LTI systems only; Small-signal stability
Does not give stability margins
The system under consideration should be ‘topologically complete’
Does not give a particular solution to system differential equations
Small-signal stability;Considers open-loop system

converters in a CPL dominated dc microgrid, two active compensators

Fig. 9. Broad classification of CPL compensation techniques: (a) Feeder side compensa-
tion, (b) Load side compensation, (c) Compensation using auxiliary circuits.
are proposed in [55] using two different approaches based on linear
theory. In addition to stabilize the feeder converters, the active
damping loops also improve the dynamic performance of the micro-
grid. Active damping control to emulate virtual resistance in a source
dc/dc buck converter supplying power to paralleled CPLs with their
input filter is presented in [56] (Fig. 12). The major disadvantages of
the proposed method are; in order to stabilize the system the closed
loop bandwidth of source converter should be greater than the resonant
frequencies of the input LC filter and resonant frequencies of the filters
must be different.
Shafiee et al. [57], have proposed a concept of dc active power filter
(APF) to stabilize a dc microgrid under load changes and while
connecting it to other dc microgrids. A small-signal model of the
system is derived to analyze the effect of CPLs and tie line impedance
on the stability. To implement the active damping current loop, the
information of load current and current disturbance in tie line are used
and compensation gain is selected through root locus analysis. For
more feeder side active damping methods, see [58–61,33], the
references therein.

4.2.2. CPL Side active damping

Fig. 10. Active damping of dc/dc converters.
hysteresis and PI voltage controller. In [52], it is shown that peak and
valley current mode control can be used to stabilize a dc/dc boost
converter loaded with a CPL. The stability of the system is analyzed in a
small-signal sense. Furthermore, concept of load current feed forward
is used to improve the transient response.
Authors in [53], proposed active damping of a bidirectional voltage
source converter (VSC) interfacing a dc microgrid, by injecting a
damping signal in its outer, intermediate, and inner control loop
(concept is shown in Fig. 11). The stability of the compensation is
analyzed in small-signal sense and sensitivity analysis of the compen-
sation and voltage control dynamics is also presented. It is shown that
the intermediate loop dynamics provides best performance in terms of
damping capabilities and its influence on the voltage control loop. In
[54], active compensators are proposed to reshape input admittance of
the tightly-regulated VSCs in a hybrid ac/dc distribution system to
stabilize the system in the presence of interaction dynamics and
negative impedance effect of the CPLs. In order to stabilize the feeder
Under the situations when the feeder subsystem of a CPL is an
input LC filter or an uncontrolled ac/dc rectifier (behaves as LC filter),
CPL compensation from feeder side is not possible, due to the absence
of control loops associated with feeder subsystem [62–72]. In such
cases, there are two alternatives available for CPL compensation: CPL
side compensation and the use of an active shunt damper between
feeder and load subsystems. In this section, the active damping
methods based on CPL side compensation will be reviewed. In these
methods, a compensating current/power is injected into the CPL
control loops to modify the input impedance Zin of the CPL subsystem,
such that Middlebrook's stability criteria is satisfied. The main draw-
back of this approach is that the compensation loop dynamics may
interfere with the main control loop, and may deteriorate the load
performance. On the other hand the approach is advantageous as CPL
itself is utilized to mitigate the negative impedance instabilities. In
[62,63], a nonlinear system stabilizing controller (NSSC) is presented
to mitigate the negative impedance instabilities as shown in Fig. 13(a),
where n is a real number. The controller is tested on a tightly-regulated
induction motor drive and a dc/dc converter with input LC filter,
controlled through a nonlinear PI controller. It is shown that, the

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Fig. 11. Active damping of grid-connecting VSC in a DC microgrid.

Fig. 12. Active damping of a dc/dc buck converter loaded with CPL.

controller stabilizes the system, however, significantly deteriorates the

load performance. A negative input-resistance compensator (NIRC) is
proposed in [64] as shown in Fig. 13(b), to stabilize a brush-less dc
motor drive exhibiting a CPL behaviour. The compensator design using
small-signal analysis and sensitivity analysis with motor performance
is also presented. In order to further reduce the effect of the
Fig. 14. Reference voltage based active compensators (RVC-1 and RVC-2).
compensator on motor performance and to improve immunity to input
voltage disturbances, an improved version of NIRC, known as state
central stabilizing controller is proposed to ensure the system's global
feed-forward stabilizing controller (SFSC) (Fig. 13(b)) is proposed in
stability and to reduce the size of input filter components. The main
[65]. The controller takes input filter inductor current and input
drawbacks of the proposed scheme are requirement of large number of
voltage as its inputs.
sensors and high control bandwidth. To reduce the number of sensors
In [66], the local stability of a permanent-magnet synchronous
required, the authors proposed an observer in [69] to estimate the load
motor (PMSM) inverter drive with an input LC filter, and tightly
voltages. In [72], the active stabilization of a CPL supplied through a
controlled using linear controllers, is analyzed using Nyquist and bode
LC input filter is formulated as linear H∞ optimization problem with an
plots. An additional compensation block consisting of a band-pass filter
objective to minimize the degradation of load performance while
and a proportional controller is proposed to compensate for the input
ensuring desired stability and robustness. It has been shown that main
voltage oscillations and to reduce dc bus capacitor size. Compensation
CPL control bandwidth is limited by LC filter's resonant frequency.
block parameters can be tuned to get an optimum motor performance
Details about more CPL side active damping methods can be found in
and suppression of oscillations. Authors in [67], have proposed a
references [70,71,73] and the references therein.
reference voltage based active compensator (RVC) and its improved
version to mitigate the negative impedance instabilities in a PMSM
drive. It has been shown that, low-pass filter (RVC-1) and band-pass 4.2.3. Active damping using auxiliary circuits
filter (improved version, RVC-2) active compesnators stabilize the In this method, to mitigate the destabilizing effect of CPL, an
system without compromising the motor torque and speed perfor- additional circuit is connected between feeder and load subsystems,
mance. Second configuration RVC-2 is found to be more effective, leaving the feeder and load systems intact. This additional circuit is
resulting in reduced interaction dynamics between compensator and usually a dc/dc converter which is controlled to inject a desired
motor-drive main control (see Fig. 14). Magne et al. [68], have compensating current in the entire operating range of the main system.
presented a small-signal stability analysis of a system consisting of The method, although eliminates the challenges of the above two
an inverter motor-drive, dc/dc converter with resistive load, and a approaches, results in increased cost and increases overall complexity
bidirectional dc/dc converter (BDC) interfacing a supercapacitor. A of the system. In [74], a BDC interfaced with a storage capacitor is
connected between CPL and its input LC filter to eliminate the

Fig. 13. (a) Nonlinear system stabilizing controller, (b) Negative input-resistance compensator (NIRC) and state feedforward stabilizing controller (SFSC).

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S. Singh et al.
oscillations in the input voltage. The controller uses voltage and current
variables of the filter and BDC, to place the poles of the overall dynamic
system at the desired location. Furthermore, a second order observer is
also proposed to reduce the number of sensors required. Authors in
[75], have proposed the placement of a suitably sized capacitor and a PI
controlled BDC with storage, at the terminals of a tightly controlled
inverter drive with an input LC filter, to stabilize the dc bus voltage. The
concept of an auxiliary smart active damper is presented in [76] to
stabilize a dc telecommunication power system and data center dc
microgrids. The active damper which emulates the RC damper
characteristics, is realized through a non-isolated BDC without any
additional storage, and communicates with source and load subsystems
in real time to determine the desired damping current required to
stabilize the system under various input and load conditions. The inner
loop of the damper is controlled in peak-current mode at a fixed
frequency, while outer loop eliminates the deviation in the peak and
average current of the inductor.
4.3. Feedback linearization
Linearizing a nonlinear plant about an operating point ensures
stability only in small-signal sense. Feedback linearization is a non-
linear control approach used to compensate CPL effect in dc DPSs,
wherein a nonlinear feedback is chosen to cancel the nonlinearities
introduced in the system due to the presence of CPL [77]. Basically,
this involves a nonlinear coordinate transformation which allows
access to the system nonlinearities through input channel, such that
the resultant system is linear [78]. Consequently, control system can be
designed using conventional linear control theory. In contrast to the
active damping technique, feedback linearization can compensate any
amount of CPL and stabilizes the system in large-signal sense. The
major drawbacks of this approach are its noise sensitivity due to the
presence of differentiator and slower transient response compared to
techniques which handle CPL nonlinearity directly, such as sliding
mode control and synergetic control [79,80].
Authors in [78], used feedback linearization through nonlinear
coordinator transformation to stabilize a dc/dc buck converter feeding
CPL. It is shown through Lyapunov analysis that the transformation
results in an extension of local asymptotic stability. Stabilization of a
dc/dc buck converter driving a combination of resistive load and CPL is
presented in [77] and the large-signal stability of the system is proved
using Lyapunov approach. Rahimi et al. [81], have proposed loop
cancellation technique to stabilize all basic dc/dc converters feeding a
resistive and CPL using suitable nonlinear feedback, which cancels
nonlinearity introduced due to the presence of CPL. It is shown that the
value of feedback gain to cancel CPL nonlinearity depends on input,
load and the converter parameters. To overcome this problem, the
value of feedback gain is chosen such that, under all the operating
conditions, the sign of resultant nonlinear term remains positive. This
implies that the resultant nonlinear term can be represented by a
positive equivalent resistance, which helps to increase the system
damping. In [82], a nonlinear coordinate transformation is applied to
a dc/dc buck converter loaded with a pure CPL to obtain its linear
model. To obtain near exact linearization, the converter parameters (L
and C) to be entered in the controller are assumed to be equal to their
actual values. Furthermore, a reduced order observer is proposed to
estimate the CPL power and its derivative, to ensure the accuracy of
linearization in entire operating range, i.e., to improve the transient
performance. A full-order feedback controller is proposed for the
linearized converter model. The sensitivity analysis of parameter
mismatch on the performance of observer and closed loop system is
also presented.
A technique based on linearization via state feedback (LSF) is
presented in [83] to stabilize a medium voltage shipboard dc power
system in the presence of CPLs. The method involves defining two
functions, one to linearize the nonlinear system and other to realize the
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
Fig. 15. Block diagram of the Pulse-adjustment control technique.
pole placement at the desired location. A PD controller is proposed and
the sensitivity analysis of system parameter mismatch on the perfor-
mance of the linearizing function is also presented.
4.4. Pulse adjustment
The pulse-adjustment control [84,85], is a digital control technique
in which the task of converter output voltage regulation is achieved by
supplying high and low-power pulses to the converter. Depending on
measured actual output voltage and the reference voltage, the con-
troller chooses either high or low-power pulse. If vout < Vref , the
controller generates switching pulse of duty ratio DH (high duty ratio)
until desired voltage level is reached, otherwise switching duty ratio DL
(low duty ratio) is selected to regulate the output voltage to its
reference value. The ratio DH presents a trade-off between output
DL
voltage ripple and the voltage regulation, and can be chosen to satisfy a
particular application requirement. The selected value of the high pulse
duty cycle DH is such that the converter operates in DCM. The output
voltage sampler and switch driver being synchronized, the technique
ensures constant frequency switching of the converter. A block diagram
of the pulse-adjustment technique is shown in Fig. 15.
In [84], the pulse-adjustment technique is applied to stabilize a dc/
dc buck-boost converter loaded with a CPL. A model of the converter
loaded with CPL and operating in DCM is derived, which is then used
to analyze system stability and to determine the output voltage
variations during high and low-power pulses. Furthermore, a detailed
sensitivity analysis of the output voltage variations and stable CPL
power range with respect to switching frequency, input voltage,
reference voltage, and converter parameter (L and C) variations is
presented. It is shown that the output voltage contains undesirable
disturbances under the input voltage variations, if not filtered properly.
The authors proposed a modified pulse-adjustment technique in [85]
with variable DH and applied to a buck-boost converter to minimize
the effect of input voltage variations on the output voltage. The
technique of pulse-adjustment is inexpensive and simple to implement
using digital tools, gives fast response, and does not require a detailed
small or large-signal model of the converters. The main limitation is
that it can stabilize the system in the limited range of CPL power.
4.5. Digital charge control
Digital charge control is yet another digital control technique used
to compensate the effect of CPL in DC systems. The block diagram of
the digital charge control technique is shown in Fig. 16. In [86] the
digital charge control method is applied to a dc/dc boost converter
feeding a CPL, and small-signal analysis is also presented. An improved
version of the technique known as digital forecast charge control is also
presented to eliminate the undesirable phenomenon of duty cycle
jumping. The salient features of this technique include simple im-
plementation and fast response.
S. Singh et al.
Fig. 16. Block diagram of digital charge control technique.
4.6. Sliding mode control
Sliding mode control (SMC) is a robust nonlinear control technique
which falls under variable structure system control (VSSC) [87]. In
SMC, depending on the switching conditions a switching system
( f (x, u , t )) can be decomposed into a set of subsystems, wherein each
subsystem exhibits a fixed characteristics in a specified region of state
space. An important task for a designer is the selection of a stable
switching function (s ) and a switching control law (u), such that the
control forces the representative point (RP) from an arbitrary point to a
predefined switching surface (s=0), within a finite time. The existence
of sliding mode and stability of switching surface must be proved for
the chosen switching function. The existence condition is proved by
satisfying η-reachability condition,
sT . s˙ < − η|s|
The existence of sliding mode results in reduced order dynamics and
during sliding mode the system dynamics is insensitive to the matched
uncertainties and system parameters. The system dynamics during
sliding mode is completely governed by the parameters of the chosen
switching function. The stability of system dynamics during sliding
mode (s=0) can be proved using linearization or nonlinear Lyapunov
approach. SMC approach can be used to design conventional discon-
tinuous controller or fixed frequency PWM controller. The main
challenge of discontinuous SMC is practical bang bang operation i.e.
an infinite frequency discontinuous operation which causes chattering.
In order to overcome the chattering phenomenon a fixed frequency
based equivalent SMC can be used, however, it degrades the robust-
ness. The discontinuous and equivalent control laws can be defined as
follows,
udisc = K . sign (s )
ueqv = (SB )−1Sf (x , t )
where S has dimensions of mxn (m-inputs, n-order), whose elements
are the derivatives of s with respect to the state variables, B is input
matrix and K is a tuning parameter. The two different methods of SMC
are shown in Fig. 17 in different colors. A SMC can be designed with
continuous equivalent control law, discontinuous control law, or a
combination of two.
SMC has a wide range of applications due to its robustness and
simple implementation. It has been widely used to control dc/dc and
ac/dc power converters in general and mitigation of CPL induced
instabilities in particular. Emadi et al. [88], have presented a simple
SMC for a dc/dc buck converter which ensures supply of constant
power to the load. One of the limitation of proposed SMC is that it does
not ensure the regulation of converter output voltage. Authors in [89],
have proposed a sliding mode duty cycle ratio controller for buck
converter feeding a CPL, to stabilize the dc bus voltage, in an
application of medium voltage dc shipboard power system. The
designed control law, in addition to equivalent control term, contains
a switching term which provides robustness to line and load distur-
bances during reaching phase. A geometric control based on a circular
switching surface for constant power load stabilization in buck and
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
Fig. 17. Equivalent and Discontinuous SMC, shown in Red and blue respectively. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the
web version of this article).
boost cascade topology interfaced with battery has been proposed in
[90]. The authors have shown the minimum switching action of the
controller for stabilization of CPLs with different bandwidth. A SMC
using a washout filter for a bidirectional converter feeding a mixed load
is proposed in [91].
Authors in [92], have proposed a PWM based sliding mode control
using a nonlinear switching function, to mitigate negative impedance
instabilities in a dc/dc buck converter supplying mixed load (CPL and
CVL). Mitigation of CPL induced instabilities in a dc/dc boost converter
with a pure CPL has been presented in [93,79] using a nonlinear
(11) switching function based sliding mode controller.
4.7. Synergetic control
Synergetic control [94,95] is a non-linear technique which encom-
passes dissipative structure algorithms. This control technique shares
similarity with SMC and ensures constant frequency switching. The
control design follows an analytical procedure using state space
approach. The steps involved in control design through synergetic
control are as follows,
4.7.1. Plant modeling
In this step, a mathematical model of the dynamic system is
described using differential equations of the following form,
x˙ = f (x, u , t ) (14)
(12) where x is the state vector of dimension n, and u is the control vector of
dimension m. Then, a macro variable ψ (x ) and control law are
(13) designed, such that the control law forces the system trajectory from
an arbitrary initial condition, towards the predefined invariant mani-
fold, ψ (x ) = 0 and constrain it to manifold then on. The macro-variable
can be any function of the state variables. The number of macro
variables should be less than the number of control channels.
4.7.2. Control law synthesis
To synthesize a control law, a dynamics governing the evolution of
the macro-variable towards the manifold is defined. The required
dynamic evolution of the macro-variable is given by
Tψ˙ + ψ = 0; T>0 (15)
where T is a parameter of the above dynamics which controls the speed
of convergence of trajectory toward the manifold. The control is
obtained by solving (15) with (14) for u. The order of the system on
the manifold is reduced to (n-m).
In [96], authors have proposed synergetic controllers for dc voltage
stabilization and dynamic current sharing between two buck converters
with constant power load and operating in CCM, and for voltage
regulation of a single buck converter with CPL, considering DCM
operation of the converter. The authors extended this work and
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proposed a generalized synergetic control strategy in [97], for the dc
voltage regulation and dynamic current sharing among m-number of
paralleled buck converters feeding constant power load.
4.8. Passivity based control
Passivity based control (PBC) is a non-linear control approach to
design static/dynamic controller for a physical system described by the
Euler-Lagrange (EL) [98–100]. The central idea of passivity based
control design is to passivize the system by applying following two
steps
(1) Energy shaping by assigning a closed loop storage function to
compensate the energy difference between the energy of the system
and energy injected by the controller. This results in modification
in the potential energy function (PEF) only, in order to get the
strict local minimum of PEF at required equilibrium point.
Basically, PBC works on the principle of energy conservation, i.e.
Esupplied = Estored + Edissipated
(16)
(2) Modification of the dissipation energy function by damping injec-
tion in order to make equilibrium point a globally asymptotic
stable point. This is achieved by adding a virtual impedance
matrix.
Some researchers have used Port Controlled Hamiltonian (PCH)
model, instead of Euler-Lagrange equations, to a nonlinear electrical dc
power system and to implement interconnection and damping assign-
ment (IDA)-PBC. A PBC combined with IDA technique used for
stability analysis and to design a linear PD (proportional-derivative)
controller for a buck converter, and a nonlinear inverse quadratic PD
controller for a boost, and buck-boost converters in a dc microgrid
application, have been proposed in [101]. However, the PD controller
poses noise susceptibility issue, therefore an appropriate filter is
needed. Furthermore, IDA technique has been designed with fixed
parameters (i.e. for specific operating point of CPL), which is not
always the case in practical systems. To mitigate this problem, a
complementary PI (proportional-integral) controller along with adap-
tive IDA-PBC technique for dc/dc boost converter is proposed in [102].
A PBC with Immersion and Invariant controller has been proposed for
dc bidirectional converter interfaced with a battery in [103]. This
combined control ensures improved transient performance of the
converter feeding a mixed load (CPL and resistive load). Two different
PBC design approaches using PD and IDA controllers for dc bus
regulator are shown in Fig. 18.
4.9. Power shaping stabilization
In power shaping control strategy to mitigate the destabilizing effect
Fig. 18. PBC control techniques.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
of CPLs, the system differential equations are re-formulated in terms of
rate of energy or instantaneous power. This basically results in a linear
system, thus eliminates the nonlinearity introduced by the CPL. The
power shaping control strategy is relatively easy in design and
implementation, and results in desired regulation of dc bus, while
maintaining large-signal stability. The authors in [104], have proposed
stabilization of a dc distribution system supplying constant power loads
using power stabilization control strategy.
4.10. Coupling based techniques
An amplitude death solution or coupling based technique, is
basically coupling induced stabilization of the equilibrium points of
an unstable dynamic system [105–107]. The sufficient strength of
coupling and different natural frequencies of the systems being
coupled, are the two main requirements for amplitude death. The
technique originally belongs to nonlinear dynamical systems and has
recently been applied for open-loop stabilization of the dc-dc con-
verters in a dc microgrid in the presence of CPLs. Authors in [105],
have proposed a heterogeneous and time-delay coupling to stabilize a
dc/dc buck converter supplying a CPL. Konishi et al. [106], have
presented a bifurcation analysis of instability phenomenon of dc bus
voltage in the presence of CPLs and proposed a delayed feedback
control to stabilize the system. The concept of delayed feedback control
has been further extended in [107], to a networked system having
multiple dc bus systems, connected through resistive links. The
delayed-feedback control is applied to each unit, in a decentralized
manner to stabilize the system. Moreover, it has been shown that
stabilization is independent of the number of dc buses and the network
topology. The block diagram of the techniques discussed in this section
is shown in Fig. 19.
4.11. Pole placement
In [108], the pole placement control has been used to relocate right-
half s-plane pole of a buck converter loaded with a CPL to stabilize the
system. By placing the unstable poles at the desired location, the effect
of CPL is compensated. It is shown that, the technique results in the
reduced size of the filter capacitor while maintaining system stability.
In order to use pole placement technique all the states are required to
Fig. 19. Block diagram of coupling based techniques: (a) Heterogeneous and delayed
coupling; (b) Delayed feedback control.
S. Singh et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421

Table 4
Comparison of CPL compensation techniques for DC DPS.

Stabilization Salient features Challenges Damping improvement in CPL dominated system

Technique

Passive Damping Simple to implement; No change in source or High power dissipation; Modifies source or CPL adds negative impedance to the system. This results
load hardware. load hardware in decrease of system overall damping. Adding passive
components (R,L,C) to improve the system damping
Active Damping No change in source or load hardware; Higher Can compensate limited amount of CPL; May System damping can be improved using active damping
efficiency and reliability. interfere with other control objectives; methods such as adding virtual impedance, bandwidth
Switching frequency affects the effectiveness. control, improving system stability margins etc
Feedback Can compensate any amount of CPL; Can Sensitive to noise in the output channel; Feedback gain adds a positive impedance term,
linearization achieve stability in large-signal sense; Uses Dynamic response is not comparable to that equivalent to CPL negative impedance to the control,
conventional linear control design techniques. offered by nonlinear controls such a SMC and such that resultant load impedance appears a positive
synergetic control. impedance to front end converter
Pulse Adjustment Fast dynamic response; Insensitive to system Sensitivity to input variations; Stable in Region of stability of a system feeding CPL can be
parameters; Inexpensive implementation; limited range of CPL. increased by increasing ON time of duty cycle and
Reduced switching losses and EMI noise, due number of pulses or decreasing the number of OFF time
to DCM operation pulses per period
Sliding mode Insensitive to matched uncertainties; Large- Variable frequency switching and chattering Sliding mode makes system immune to system
control signal stability; Fast response issue; Higher sensor requirement parameters variations like CPL negative impedance
Synergetic control Fixed frequency switching; Large-signal Sensitive to high frequency noise; Higher Similar to sliding mode control, in this technique also,
stability; Suitable for digital implementation. sensor requirement. RP on system trajectories is forced to track a predefined
stable manifold and keep system immune to parameter
variations
Passivity based Simple Implementation; Robust; Energy based Sluggish transient response Low damping caused by presence of CPL is improved by
control modeling. inserting an impedance matrix in control and reshaping
of energy function
Power Shaping Power based modeling; Large-signal stability; Increased computation needs. Energy stored in output filter capacitor of converter
stabilization Reduced control bandwidth requirement. feeding a CPL is a function of Vc2, i.e. square of capacitor
voltage. Control of capacitor power controls output
voltage indirectly. Instability induced by CPL can be
eliminated by properly reshaping the power balance
equation i.e. 0.5CVc2 = Pinput − CPL
Coupling based Low implementation cost. Limited to open-loop stabilization; Exchange of energy between coupled systems mitigates
techniques Implementation issue, when sources are at destabilizing effect of CPLs
different locations
Digital charge Simple to implement; Fast response. Higher computational needs. This method can forecast voltage jumping caused by low
control damping of system such as CPL fed dc-dc converter. For
forecasting, charge value proportional to reference
voltage is considered
State space pole Unstable poles can be placed at the desired All system states need to be sensed, if there is Suitably designed feedback gain vector relocate unstable
placement location; Can compensate desired CPL no observer; Required feedback gains may poles of control to voltage open loop transfer function of
amount. vary with load. CPL fed converter, in order to make closed loop system
stable around a given operating point
New converter Duty ratio can be kept low; Higher efficiency; Can compensate limited amount of CPL; More New converter topologies with improved output
topologies Improved dc-bus power quality. number of switching devices, i.e. complex impedance characteristics are used to compensate the
control. CPL effect

implement the state feedback control.
4.12. New converter topologies
Hou et al. [109], have presented impedance analysis of the
interleaved boost converter with coupled inductor (DPCI) loaded with
CPL and compared the same with that of conventional boost converter.
It is shown that, the DPCI exhibits better output impedance character-
istics compared to conventional bidirectional dc/dc converter, such
that the negative impedance effect of the CPLs is reduced. The stability
analysis is presented in small-signal sense based on Bode and Nyquist
plots.
Comparison of several techniques for CPL compensation are
summarized in Table 4 also.
5. Discussion
Tightly regulated power electronic converters behave like CPL. Its
negative incremental impedance reduces overall damping of power
system and its interaction with other neighborhood converters induces
instability in the overall system. Therefore, ensuring stability in the
presence of CPL and the sub-system interaction-dynamics is of prime
importance. Several criteria have been set forth to study the stability of
a dc power system both, in small-signal and large-signal sense.
Middlebrook's, GMPM, the opposing argument and ESAC stability
criteria use Nyquist stability approach to determine the system stability
in a small-signal sense. Methods such as phase-plane and bifurcation
analysis are very useful to determine the boundary of stable operation
with respect to variations in the system and controller parameters, and
to design a stable system. Passivity based criterion and Mixed-potential
function based criteria ensure the system stability in large-signal sense.
Methods ensuring large-signal stability of the system are obvious
choice due the highly nonlinear nature of the dc power systems in
the face of uncertainties associated with renewable sources and the
presence of CPLs.
The compensation of CPLs can be applied at the feeder subsystem
level, CPL level itself or through some auxiliary dc/dc converter. Feeder
level CPL compensation is applicable to the cases when feeder of CPL is
a switched converter, on the other hand, CPL compensation at the load
system level has the major disadvantage that, the compensation loop
may interfere with main control loop, and may degrade the load
performance. The third alternative is based on the introduction of an
auxiliary dc/dc converter between the feeder and load systems. In this
method, no modifications are applied to the feeder and load subsystem.
However, it increases the overall size, weight, cost, and complexity of
the system. From system stability point-of-view, some of the techni-

418
S. Singh et al.
ques utilize the linearized system model and ensure the stability in the
small-signal sense. While, the techniques which handle the system
nonlinearities directly ensure system stability in large-signal sense.
Given the overall system objectives, operating conditions, and other
considerations, a suitable compensation technique can be chosen.
To evaluate the performance of a particular CPL compensation
technique, the amount of CPL it can compensate, robustness, the speed
of response, noise immunity and its ability to ensure large-signal
stability, are some of the most important parameters. The active
damping technique, although widely applicable, is operating point
dependent, and can compensate only a limited amount of CPL.
Feedback linearization ensures compensation of any amount of CPL
and large-signal stability, however, performs poorly in terms of
robustness, speed of response and noise immunity. Power shaping
stabilization, in which a linear model of the system is obtained by re-
formulating it in term of instantaneous power, ensures better robust-
ness and noise immunity, compared to that with feedback linearization,
however, it requires current loop bandwidth to be sufficiently higher
than that of voltage-squared loop. Pulse adjustment technique ensures
robustness and fast response, however, it has limitations of poor line
rejection, operates in DCM and ensures stability with a limited range of
CPL. Passivity based control has poor noise immunity due to the
presence of differentiator and is sluggish in response. Synergetic
control, similar to sliding mode control in many respects becomes
problematic in DCM and is sensitive to high frequency noise.
Furthermore, the dynamics of the macro-variable does not ensure
finite time converge, thus reaching phase response is slow, because
response becomes extremely slow in the vicinity of switching function.
Sliding mode control technique ensures invariance to matched un-
certainties and variations in the system parameters, can compensate
any amount of CPL, and ensures system stability in a large-signal
sense. Furthermore, sliding mode control of dc/dc converter provides
better steady-state and dynamic response, less EMI, and results in an
inherent order reduction, compared to linear controllers. Depending on
system specific requirements a suitable CPL compensation technique
may be chosen.
6. Recent challenges in DC distribution systems
Renewable sources based dc microgrids, a class of dc distributed
power systems are gaining increased attention to integrate local
renewable sources and storage units to supply high quality and reliable
power to the local loads. A dc microgrid may be connected to the utility
grid for bidirectional power exchange, and can operate in island or
grid-connected mode. The microgrids present a complex dynamics due
to a number of sources in parallel, tightly-regulated converter behaving
as CPL, uncertainties associated with renewable power sources, and
interaction-dynamics in different operating modes. To ensure the
stability of dc microgrids in different operating modes, it is necessary
that detailed model of each subsystem be developed, to obtain an
aggregated model of the system. The aggregated model can be used to
analyze the effect of different controller parameters (voltage, current
and droop control), system parameter including resistance of connect-
ing cables and CPL, on the system stability. In an ac power system,
supply frequency being universally constant around the network is
used to estimate the load demand. However, in dc power systems, there
is no such parameter to estimate the load demand. Therefore, load
demand estimation in dc power systems is really a challenge, particu-
larly when load consists of CPL, CVL and constant current components.
In dc microgrid serving large number of electric vehicles, the aggre-
gated charging load profile is of pulse power load (very high load for
some time and low or no load for other time duration, having a low
frequency periodicity). Such high magnitude pulse power loading may
be detrimental to the system stability. Therefore, extensive analysis of
dc microgrids with pulse power loads and its mitigation could be an
important topic of research. Development of efficient power manage-
419
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 72 (2017) 407–421
ment schemes is very important to improve the overall system
efficiency and smooth mode transitions. Selection of current sharing
control scheme, switching control of source side converter between
MPPT and voltage control mode, inclusion of battery state-of-charge
(SoC) and its equalization, in the current sharing controller of storage
units, are some of the important decisions which largely affects the
efficiency of a power management scheme.
7. Conclusion
The stability of the dc distributed power systems has been a major
challenge due to the inherent nature of uncertainty in power generation
of renewable energy source, nonlinearities induced by indispensable
power converters and interaction among the dynamics of different
subsystems. The pervasiveness of tightly regulated power converters
i.e. constant power loads in modern dc microgrids make them more
prone to instability. Nonlinear nature of CPLs adds complexity to the
control and its negative incremental impedance characteristics not only
induces instability at the point of load, but also reduces the effective
damping of the system. Low damping and instability caused by
negative incremental impedance of CPLs in a dc microgrid, are the
real challenges. This paper has presented an overview of modeling,
behaviour, and effects of CPLs in dc power systems. Various stability
criteria to study the stability of a dc power system in the presence of
CPLs have been reviewed with the merits and associated challenges of
each criterion. These criteria are discussed for both single-input single-
output (SISO) and multiple-inputs multiple-outputs (MIMO) system
stability point of view. This helps reader/researcher in the selection of
suitable stability criterion accordingly for their ease in the analysis of
complex nonlinear systems. Furthermore, several techniques to com-
pensate the destabilizing effect of CPL are classified and an extensive
review has been presented for each technique with its salient features.
Linear and nonlinear control techniques are discussed for the mitiga-
tion of the CPL nonlinearities in the context of small-signal and large-
signal disturbance around operating points. Finally, a discussion and
brief overview of recent challenges in dc microgrids have been
presented.
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