Virtual Inertia Control of the Virtual Synchronous Generator: A Review

TL;DR

This paper reviews virtual inertia control in virtual synchronous generators, discussing its significance, design principles, and recent strategies to enhance stability in low-inertia power systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of virtual inertia concepts, influencing mechanisms, design frameworks, and recent adaptive control strategies for VSGs.

Findings

Analysis of virtual inertia sources and functions

Framework for designing virtual inertia considering system constraints

Review of recent adaptive inertia control strategies

Abstract

With the increasing impact of low inertia due to the high penetration of distributed generation, virtual synchronous generator (VSG) technology has been proposed to improve the stability of the inverter-interfaced distributed generator by providing "virtual inertia". This paper presents a recent review of virtual inertia control covering significance, features, design principles, and state-of-art inertia strategies from both physical and mathematical perspectives to facilitate the wide application of the VSG. The definition and source of virtual inertia are given to help researchers to establish the concept of "virtual inertia". Then, this paper covers influencing mechanism studies of virtual inertia to reveal its functions. Also, a design framework of the virtual inertia is established by considering both the characteristics of the control system and the limitation of energy storage systems and renewable energy resources. Finally, several novel adaptive inertia control strategies are reviewed, and some aspects of potential future research are recommended.