Robustness-oriented distributed cooperative control for ac microgrids under complex environments

• Published in: IET control theory & applications Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 1473 - 1482
• Main Authors: Lai, Jingang, Lu, Xiaoqing, Dong, Zhengcheng, Tang, Ruo-li, Li, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 02.07.2019
• Subjects: ac microgrids; accurate power sharing property; accurate proportional power sharing; additive noise; complex environment; control method; control multiple PVGs; control strategy; differential equations; distributed control; distributed power generation; environmental noises; existing distributed control strategies; inherent communication delays; islanded microgrid test system; Lyapunov methods; noise disturbances; photovoltaic power systems; power distribution faults; power generation control; power sharing problem; PVG; Research Article; robust control; robustness‐oriented; smart power grids; sparse communication network subject; time delay; transmission time delays; voltage control; PVG; control strategy; power generation control; power distribution faults; smart power grids; sparse communication network subject; distributed power generation; ac microgrids; differential equations; robustness-oriented; robust control; control multiple PVGs; accurate power sharing property; accurate proportional power sharing; islanded microgrid test system; distributed control; photovoltaic power systems; noise disturbances; existing distributed control strategies; time delay; transmission time delays; inherent communication delays; control method; complex environment; additive noise; environmental noises; power sharing problem; Lyapunov methods; voltage control
• ISSN: 1751-8644; 1751-8652
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-cta.2018.5698

In this study, the power sharing problem of ac microgrids with massive penetration of photovoltaic generators (PVG) is addressed. A robust distributed cooperative control strategy is proposed to control multiple PVGs in ac microgrids under a complex environment (e.g. subject to transmission time delays and noise disturbances). The existing distributed control strategies have been commonly designed assuming ideal communication among PVGs. However, due to inherent communication delays and environmental noises, the real-life practical channels are affected by time delay and additive noise leading each PVG to receive measurements of the states of its neighbours. Thus, the proposed distributed cooperative control strategy will achieve the accurate power sharing property among PVGs through a sparse communication network subject to time delays and noise disturbances. The theoretical concepts and necessary conditions for stability and robust performance of the proposed distributed cooperative control strategy are outlined by the Lyapunov functional method and stochastic differential equation theory. Furthermore, the proposed control strategy is fully implemented and thus satisfies the plug-and-play feature of the future smart grid. Simulation results on an islanded microgrid test system are provided to reveal the effectiveness of the proposed control method to provide accurate proportional power sharing in the MATLAB/SimPowerSystems Toolbox.