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Microgrids

Microgrids are part of the modern trend towards decentralised
management of energy production through distributed generation.
A microgrid is a low voltage coordinated assemblage of modular
generator systems, loads and energy storage devices. There is
normally one master unit responsible for maintaining the voltage
and frequency which could be a generator unit or it can be the point
of connection to the wider network. There could also be a range of
supporting power units under the control of the master unit. The
rest of the system is composed of loads and uncontrollable
generators (e.g. wind energy). Microgrid generators have a power
rating in the range of a few kW to a hundred kW. Typical microgrid
generators are fuel cells, wind turbines, photo-voltaic systems,
combined heat and power systems and diesel gensets. The
microgrid can be interconnected as a controllable element of the
power network, it can be an emergency back up system when a
power outage occurs or a completely autonomous or islanded unit.
Autonomous microgrids present significant challenges for power
quality and safety. The small scale of the system means that load
and generator changes have a large impact and distributed
generation increases the fault current levels in an unregulated way.

Control schemes

The control options for a microgrid are active load sharing or droop
control. With active load sharing there is a communication link so
that the load of the generators can be tightly controlled. This,
however, limits the modularity of the system and complicates its
expandability. With droop control each generator independently
supports the system through their own droop control settings which
has the advantage of providing a very flexible system that can be
easily expanded.

Some generation systems have very little controllability and their
power output can be very variable, such as for wind turbines. When
these are present in the microgrid then additional controllable
sources must be available for system stability such as batteries or
uninterruptable power supplies. PV generation is a good supplement
to wind generation as it is often available when the wind speeds are
low. A typical microgrid is shown in figure 1. The main difference
between microgrids and DG is the scale. The microgrid represents
and industrial establishment or small community for which the
majority of the power is generated locally. There will be a central
controller or one of the larger machines will act as a master
dictating the overall voltage and frequency. In this way the utility
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can treat the microgrid as a single entity connected to the
distribution system.



Figure 1 Typical microgrid arrangement


Droop Control

The droop control method has similarities with the Watt governor
control of generators. The generator or connecting invertors are
normally attached to the system by an inductance of reactance X as
shown in Figure 2.






DP
DP
OCP
OCP
OCP
MV
busbar
MV
busbar
HV/MV transformer
MV/LV transformer
OCP = over current protection
DP = differential protection
F
P
S
W
Inverter
Converter
W Wind generator

S Synchronous machine

F Fuel Cell

P Photovoltaic
Central Controller
3













Figure 2 Equivalent circuit for the attachment of a
microsource to the distribution system




Then the following relationships hold.
sin
EV EV
P
X X
o o = ~

2
cos ( )
EV V V
Q E V
X X X
o = ~


where E is the inverter voltage output, V is the system voltage at
point of connection and is the power angle . Thus negative
feedback can be achieved by increasing the speed (or angle) when
the output power decreases and increasing the voltage when the
output reactive power decreases. The scheme can be expressed by:
0
( *) m P P e e =

0
( *) E E n Q Q =


Where
0
is the no load frequency and E
0
is the no load voltage, m
and n are the droop coefficients, P* is the active power reference
and Q* is the reactive power reference which can be zero for an
islanded system or fixed so that some real and reactive power is
drawn from the network supply point or other constant power
source. The droop relationships are given in Figures 4 and 5.




i
V<0 E<
jX
S=P+jQ
4
















Figure 5 Power-Speed droop relationship

















Figure 6 Reactive Power-Voltage droop relationship

The droop coefficients are normally set by the maximum allowable
frequency and voltage amplitude error (

and
E
respectively)
using
max
m
P
e
o
=

max
2
E
n
Q
o
=


0 1
V
0
Q/Q
i
V

V
5%

q
0 1
f
0
P/P
i
f

f
2%

p
5
where P
max
and Q
max
are the real and reactive power rating of the
UPS. For the parallel operation of different rated UPSs the droop
coefficients for each unit i are then related by.
i i m
mS C =

i i n
n S C =

As shown in Figures 4 and 5 the output real and reactive power
errors due to the measurement errors in voltage or frequency are
given by.

P
m
e
c
c =

V
Q
n
c
c =

Thus power errors can be reduced by using larger m and n
coefficients but this would result in the generators not being fully
used (i.e. P
max

/m).

If the generators are connected to the system via a lossy
transmission line or there is significant resistance in the connection
reactors then the exported real and reactive power are given by

2
cos cos sin sin
EV V EV
P
Z Z Z
o u o u
| |
= +
|
\ .

2
cos sin sin cos
EV V EV
Q
Z Z Z
o u o u
| |
=
|
\ .

where the connection impedance has a magnitude Z and phase .
The droop control can then be given by

0
( sin cos ) m P Q e e u u =

0
( cos sin ) E E n P Q u u = +

Both the voltage and the frequency will be controlled together.

The droop control method has the following advantages.

- The system can easily be extended
- Does not need a communications channel
- Simple
- Enables a plug and play approach

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However measurement errors can lead to large circulating currents
and an islanding condition can go undetected. In Microgrids the
feeders have a relatively small impedance and are mostly radial so
that circulating reactive currents and power oscillations may be a
significant problem. A clear indication of possible islanding
conditions is also important to avoid asynchronous reconnection.
Without a central control the frequency and voltage may also
fluctuate wildly. For this reason more centralised control is being
considered.


Active load sharing

Under active control sharing the control options are; centralized
control, master slave control and average load sharing. Figure 1.
shows a block diagram for centralized control of a UPS power
system. The centralized controller provides the current and voltage
references for all the UPSs. For a total load current i
L
and N UPS
modules the current reference i* is
*
L
i
i
N
=

Each UPS has its own current control loop and the central controller
provides the voltage control loop. The scheme needs to know the
total load current so it is unsuitable for a large distributed system.
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Figure 1. Block diagram of a centralized control scheme




In the master slave scheme as depicted in Figure 2 the master
module regulates the voltage and fixes the reference current for the
other modules. The master module acts as a Voltage sourced
inverter and the slave modules act as current sourced inverters. If
the master fails it can be replaced by another module. The master
module can either be chosen arbitrarily or it can be set as the
module that can provide the largest current. This scheme is often
used when different sized units operate in parallel.
LC
PWM GI(s)
LC
PWM GI(s)
Gv(s)
1/N
V
ref
Whole
load
i
load
/N
V
load
i
o
i
o
Centralized
controller
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Figure 2. Block diagram of a master slave scheme


The average load scheme is depicted if Figure 3. and is a true
democratic control scheme where every module tracks the average
current of all the active modules. A single wire contains the
average current information and modules of different power ratings
can be accommodated by adjustment of the comparators resistor.
The average current of all the modules is the reference current for
each individual one. This approach can be modular and
expandable. It is also very robust and reliable.
LC
PWM GI(s)
LC
PWM GI(s)
Gv(s)
V
ref
i
m
i
s
V
o
i*
i* to other
slaves
Master (VSI)
Slave (CSI)
Whole
load
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Figure 3. Block diagram of a average load scheme


All the active load sharing schemes can also be expressed as active
and reactive power control rather then voltage and current control.
All require a communications channel of some sort.

Whole
load
CS bus
LC
PWM GI(s)
+ -
Gv(s)
V
ref
i
L
V
o
LC
PWM GI(s)
+ -
Gv(s)
V
ref
i
L
V
o
Sync bus