Safety during Transient Response in Direct Current Microgrids using Control Barrier Functions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decentralized control approach using control barrier functions to ensure safe transient voltages and currents in DC microgrids despite uncertainties in system dynamics and load variations.

Contribution

It develops an optimization-based, decentralized control method employing control barrier functions to guarantee safety in DC microgrids under uncertain conditions.

Findings

Controller maintains voltage and current within bounds during transients

Decentralized design enhances robustness to load uncertainties

Method applicable without precise system dynamic knowledge

Abstract

We consider the problem of guaranteeing that the transient voltages and currents stay within prescribed bounds in Direct Current (DC) microgrids, when the controller does not have access to accurate system dynamics due to the load being unknown and/or time-varying. To achieve this, we propose an optimization based controller design using control barrier functions. We show that the proposed controller has a decentralized structure and is robust with respect to the uncertainty in the precise values of the system parameters, such as the load.