A Distributed Cooperative Control Framework for Synchronized Reconnection of a Multi-Bus Microgrid

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel distributed control framework enabling multi-bus microgrids with multiple generators to synchronize efficiently and reliably with the main grid, even with minimal communication delays.

Contribution

It proposes a bi-level cooperative control scheme that allows flexible, sparse communication among distributed generators for fast synchronization.

Findings

Effective synchronization achieved in HIL simulations.

Framework tolerates communication latency.

Supports plug-and-play microgrid operation.

Abstract

One critical value microgrids bring to power systems is resilience, the capability of being able to island from the main grid under certain conditions and connect back when necessary. Once islanded, a microgrid must be synchronized to the main grid before reconnection to prevent severe consequences. In general, synchronization of a single machine with the grid can be easily achieved using a synchronizer. The problem becomes more challenging when it comes to a multi-bus microgrid with multiple distributed generators (DGs) and dispersed loads. All distributed generators need to be properly controlled in a coordinated way to achieve synchronization. This paper presents a novel bi-level distributed cooperative control framework for a multi-bus microgrid. In this framework, DGs work collaboratively in a distributed manner using the minimum and sparse communication. The topology of the communication network can be flexible which supports the plug-and-play feature of microgrids. Fast and deterministic synchronization can be achieved with tolerance to communication latency. Experimental results obtained from Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.