This paper proposes an asychronous distributed leader-follower control method to achieve conservation voltage reduction (CVR) in three-phase unbalanced distribution systems by optimally scheduling smart inverters of distributed energy resources (DERs). One feature of the proposed method is to consider integrated primary-secondary distribution networks and voltage dependent loads. To ease the computational complexity introduced by the large number of secondary networks, we partition a system into distributed leader-follower control zones based on the network connectivity. To address the non-convexity from the nonlinear power flow and load models, a feedback-based linear approximation using instantaneous power and voltage measurements is proposed. This enables the online implementation of the proposed method to achieve fast tracking of system variations led by DERs. Another feature of the proposed method is the asynchronous implementations of the leader-follower controllers, which makes it compatible with non-uniform update rates and robust against communication delays and failures. Numerical tests are performed on a real distribution feeder in Midwest U. S. to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.
This paper proposes a decentralised secondary voltage control strategy that has several benefits over the existing centralised strategies. For that, a new structure for the control is proposed in terms of an inner and outer loops for each generator. The individual generators of a particular zone participate in the secondary voltage control by aligning their reactive powers with respect to the pilot point voltage reference. The decentralised nature of the proposed control strategy enables plug and play operation: run with different numbers of generators without any need of regulators reconfigur…
Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) has been widely implemented in distribution networks and helped utilities effectively reduce energy and peak load. However, the increasing penetration level of solar photovoltaic (PV) has affected voltage profiles and the performance of CVR. It remains an outstanding question how CVR and solar PV interact with each other. Understanding this interaction is important for utilities in implementing CVR and assessing its performance. This paper studies the impact of solar PV on CVR in a real distribution system in the Midwest U.S. using comprehensive simulations…
The ongoing energy transition challenges the stability of the electrical power system. Stable operation of the electrical power grid requires both the voltage (amplitude) and the frequency to stay within operational bounds. While much research has focused on frequency dynamics and stability, the voltage dynamics has been neglected. Here, we study frequency and voltage stability in the case of simple networks via linear stability and bulk analysis. In particular, our linear stability analysis of the network shows that the frequency secondary control guarantees the stability of a particular elec…
In this paper, we present a data-driven secondary controller for regulating to some desired values several variables of interest in a power system, namely, electrical frequency, voltage magnitudes at critical buses, and active power flows through critical lines. The power generation system is based on distributed energy resources (DERs) interfaced with either grid-forming (GFM) or grid-following (GFL) inverters. The secondary controller is based on online feedback optimization leveraging the learned sensitivities of the changes in the system frequency, voltage magnitudes at critical buses, and…
This paper proposes a distributed secondary voltage control method based on extended state Kalman-Bucy filter (ESKBF) and fast terminal sliding mode (FTSM) control for the resilient operation of an islanded microgrid (MG) with inverter-based distributed generations (DGs). To tackle the co-existence of multiple uncertainties, a unified modelling framework is proposed to represent the set of different types of disturbances, including parameter perturbation, measurement noise, and immeasurably external variables, by an extended state method. Kalman-Bucy filter is then applied to accurately estima…
Due to market, there is flexibility in the price for power purchase by the utility. At the maximum loading condition the cost of power is high, hence conservation voltage reduction (CVR) is a useful technique in reducing power demand of the distribution system. Further, by installing battery energy storage system (BESS) in the distribution system, power can be stored in the BESS when the price is low and can be utilize to supply the demand when the price is high. In this paper, power conserving and cost saving problems are investigated. As we consider loads in distribution system as voltage de…
Fully Distributed Secondary Voltage Control in Inverter-Based Microgrids
Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学计算机科学与电气工程学院）；Advanced Power & Electricity Research Group (APERC)（先进电力与能源研究小组 (APERC)）；Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSAN) Research Group（无线传感器执行器网络研究小组）
Low inertia, nonlinearity and a high level of uncertainty (varying topologies and operating conditions) pose challenges to microgrid (MG) systemwide operation. This paper proposes an online adaptive Koopman operator optimal control (AKOOC) method for MG secondary voltage and frequency control. Unlike typical data-driven methods that are data-hungry and lack guaranteed stability, the proposed AKOOC requires no warm-up training yet with guaranteed bounded-input-bounded-output (BIBO) stability and even asymptotical stability under some mild conditions. The proposed AKOOC is developed based on an …
Voltage control devices are employed in power distribution systems to reduce the power consumption by operating the system closer to the lower acceptable voltage limits; this technique is called conservation voltage reduction (CVR). The different modes of operation for system's legacy devices (with binary control) and new devices (e.g. smart inverters with continuous control) coupled with variable photovoltaic (PV) generation results in voltage fluctuations which makes it challenging to achieve CVR objective. This paper presents a two-timescale control of feeder's voltage control devices to ac…
In this work, we present new secondary regulators for current sharing and voltage balancing in DC microgrids, composed of distributed generation units, dynamic RLC lines, and nonlinear ZIP (constant impedance, constant current, and constant power) loads. The proposed controllers sit atop a primary voltage control layer, and exchange information over a communication network to perform secondary control actions. We deduce sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium point, and show that the desired objectives are attained in steady state. Our control design requires o…
In a purely inverter-based microgrid, both grid-forming (GFM) and grid-following (GFL) inverters will have a crucial role to play in frequency/voltage regulation and maintaining power sharing through their grid support capabilities. Consequently, the coordination between these two technologies becomes increasingly important for optimal system performance. However, the existing work does not consider GFL's potential to participate in a secondary control in coordination with GFM, thus not able to utilize the full capability of inverter resources. In this paper, we show that it is possible to ful…
This paper proposes a new distributed consensus-based control method for voltage and frequency control of fully inverter-based islanded microgrids (MGs). The proposed method includes the active power sharing in voltage control to improve the reactive power sharing accuracy and thus generalizes some existing secondary frequency and voltage control methods. Firstly, frequency is regulated by distributed secondary frequency control. Secondly, voltage is regulated by distributed average voltage control and decentralized individual voltage control. It offers a tunable trade-off between voltage regu…
Decision-focused Conservation Voltage Reduction to Consider the Cascading Impact of Forecast Errors
Key Laboratory of Control of Power Transmission and Conversion, Ministry of Education, and Shanghai Non-Carbon Energy Conversion and Utilization Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（电力传输与转换控制教育部重点实验室、上海非碳能源转化利用研究所，上海交通大学）；College of Smart Energy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学智能工程学院）；State Grid Shanghai Pudong Electric Power Supply Company（国网上海市浦东供电公司）
In this work, we present a novel consensus-based secondary control scheme for current sharing and voltage balancing in DC microgrids, composed of distributed generation units, dynamic RLC lines, and nonlinear ZIE (constant impedance, constant current, and exponential) loads. Situated atop a primary voltage control layer, our secondary controllers have a distributed structure, and utilize information exchanged over a communication network to compute necessary control actions. Besides showing that the desired objectives are always attained in steady state, we deduce sufficient conditions for the…
Current-fed half bridge converter with bidirectional switches on ac side and a full bridge converter on dc side of a high frequency transformer is an optimal topology for single stage galvanically isolated ac-dc converter for onboard vehicle charging application. AC side switches are actively commutated to achieve zero current switching (ZCS) using single phase shift modulation (SPSM) and discontinuous current phase shift modulation (DCPSM). Furthermore, zero voltage turn-on (ZVS) is achieved for dc side switches. Compared to SPSM, DCPSM maintains a constant peak current in the converter throu…
This paper presents the operation modes and control architecture of the grid-connected hydrogen electrolyzer systems for the provision of frequency and voltage supports. The analysis is focused on the primary and secondary loops in the hierarchical control scheme. At the power converter inner control loop, the voltage- and current-control modes are analyzed. At the primary level, the droop and opposite droop control strategies to provide voltage and frequency support are described. Coordination between primary control and secondary, tertiary reserves is discussed. The case studies and real-tim…
Distributed Multiconsensus Control of BESSs Based on Centrality of Eigenvectors
College of Artificial Intelligence, Nankai University（南开大学人工智能学院）；Tianjin Key Laboratory of Interventional Brain-Computer Interface and Intelligent Rehabilitation, Nankai University（南开大学天津市介入式脑机接口与智能康复重点实验室）
Hierarchical architectures stacking primary, secondary, and tertiary layers are widely employed for the operation and control of islanded DC microgrids (DCmGs), composed of Distribution Generation Units (DGUs), loads, and power lines. However, a comprehensive analysis of all the layers put together is often missing. In this work, we remedy this limitation by setting out a top-to-bottom hierarchical control architecture. Decentralized voltage controllers attached to DGUs form our primary layer. Governed by an MPC--based Energy Management System (EMS), our tertiary layer generates optimal power …
The smart transformer (ST) implemented using power electronics converters, has the capability of independent voltage control and reactive power isolation between its primary and secondary terminals. This capability provides a flexibility in the power system to support the voltage at the primary side and control the demand at the secondary side. Using this flexibility, the system power flow could, for example, be optimized for lower costs. This paper proposes an ST model suitable for OPF analysis. The effects of using multiple STs at different penetration levels, on the daily generation costs i…
Grid-forming inverter-based autonomous microgrids present new operational challenges as the stabilizing rotational inertia of synchronous machines is absent. The design of efficient control policies for grid-forming inverters is, however, a non-trivial problem where multiple performance objectives need to be satisfied, including voltage/frequency regulation, current limiting capabilities, as well as active power sharing and a scalable operation. We propose in this paper a novel control architecture for frequency and voltage control which allows current limitation via an inner loop, active powe…
This paper presents a distributed data-driven control to regulate the voltage in an alternate current microgrid (MG). Following the hierarchical control frame for MGs, a secondary control for voltage is designed with a data-driven strategy using the Koopman operator. The Koopman operator approach represents the nonlinear behavior of voltage as a linear problem in the space of observables or lifted space. The representation in the lifted space is used together with linear consensus to design a model predictive control (MPC). The complete algorithm is proved in an MG model including changes in l…
This paper addresses the problem of distributed secondary voltage control of an islanded microgrid (MG) from a cyber-physical perspective. An event-triggered distributed model predictive control (DMPC) scheme is designed to regulate the voltage magnitude of each distributed generators (DGs) in order to achieve a better trade-off between the control performance and communication and computation burdens. By using two novel event triggering conditions that can be easily embedded into the DMPC for the application of MG control, the computation and communication burdens are significantly reduced wi…
Plug-and-play and coordinated control for bus-connected AC islanded microgrids
United Technologies Research Center Ireland（联合技术研究院爱尔兰）；Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell’Informazione, Università degli Studi di Pavia（帕维亚大学工业与信息技术系）；Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University（奥尔堡大学能源技术研究所）；Automatic Control Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院自动控制实验室）
In recent times, non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) has emerged as an important tool for distribution-level energy management systems owing to its potential for energy conservation and management. However, load monitoring in smart building environments is challenging due to high variability of real-time load and varied load composition. Furthermore, as the volume and dimensionality of smart meters data increases, accuracy and computational time are key concerning factors. In view of these challenges, this paper proposes an improved NILM technique using multi-head (Mh-Net) convolutional neura…
High-voltage direct-current (HVDC) systems for constant or intermittent power delivery have recently been developed further to support grid frequency regulation (GFR). This paper proposes a new control strategy for a line-commutated converter-based (LCC) HVDC system, wherein the DC-link voltage and current are optimally regulated to improve real-time GFR in both rectifier- and inverter-side AC networks. A dynamic model of an LCC HVDC system is developed using the DC voltage and current as input variables, and is integrated with feedback loops for inertia emulation and droop control. A linear q…
With the gradual transformation of power generation towards renewables, distributed energy resources are becoming more and more relevant for grid stabilization. In order to involve all participants in the joint solution of this challenging task, we propose a distributed, model-based and unifying controller for frequency and voltage regulation in AC microgrids, based on steady-state optimal control. It not only unifies frequency and voltage control, but also incorporates the classic hierarchy of primary, secondary and tertiary control layers with each closed-loop equilibrium being a minimizer o…
The distributed cooperative controllers for inverter-based systems rely on communication networks that make them vulnerable to cyber anomalies. In addition, the distortion effects of such anomalies may also propagate throughout inverter-based cyber-physical systems due to the cooperative cyber layer. In this paper, an intelligent anomaly mitigation technique for such systems is presented utilizing data driven artificial intelligence tools that employ artificial neural networks. The proposed technique is implemented in secondary voltage control of distributed cooperative control-based microgrid…
This paper presents a distributed voltage regulation method based on multi-agent system control and network self-organization for a large distribution network. The network autonomously organizes itself into small subnetworks through the epsilon decomposition of the sensitivity matrix, and agents group themselves into these subnetworks with the communication links being autonomously determined. Each subnetwork controls its voltage by locating the closest local distributed generation and optimizing their outputs. This simplifies and reduces the size of the optimization problem and the interactio…
A new control approach is proposed for the grid insertion of Power Park Modules (PPMs). It allows full participation of these modules to ancillary services. This means that, not only their control have some positive impact on the grid frequency and voltage dynamics, but they can effectively participate to existing primary and secondary control loops together with the classic thermal/inertia synchronous generators and fulfill the same specifications both from the control and contractual points of view. To achieve such level of performances, a system approach based on an innovatory control model…
