2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)

Small-signal Stability Analysis of Islanded DC

Microgrid under DBS Control

Yang Jiajia, Zhang Hui Zhi Na

Faculty of Automation ad Information Engineering Faculty of Automation ad Information Engineering
Xi’an University of Technology Xi’an University of Technology
Xi’an, China Xi’an, China
gofeet@163.com, zhangh@xaut.edu.cn zhina@xaut.edu.cn,

Abstract—There is an increasing focus on DC microgrid design of the filter in section IV. In section V, the simulations
nowadays due to its varied advantages. Taking a photovoltaic- based on MATLAB/Simulink evaluate the control strategy.
based DC microgrid as an example, different operation states are Section VI concludes this paper.
described and the DBS (DC Bus Signaling) control strategy is
proposed to keep the power balance. System stability issues arise
from dynamical interactions between the components and II. DBS CONTROL STRATEGY
various loads. In this paper, the small-signal models of interface The typical configuration of islanded DC microgrid based on
converters with different control modes are established. Based on PV generation system is shown in Fig.1. Consists of the
the GMPM (the gain margin and phase margin) criterion, the
stability of the microgrid in each state and the influence of filter following 3 parts: 1). PV generation group, by two
parameters on the stability are discussed. Simulation results photovoltaic power generation units in parallel to the DC bus
verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis and the control by Boost converters; 2). The energy storage unit, the battery
strategy.
energy storage in parallel to the DC bus through a bidirectional
Keywords—component; formatting; style; styling; insert (key DC/DC converter. 3). Load cell, the resistive load located
words) behind the passive LC filters which to cut the current ripple and
the resonant peak.
DC Bus
I. INTRODUCTION +
Distributed power generation systems based on renewable
energy sources are attracting the market and research interests
as a feasible choice in a sustainable development environment 1#PV
[1]
. Since the renewable energy sources are decentralized (10kW) 1#Boost 2#PV
converter 2#Boost
connected to the common DC bus in a microgrid, the converter
(5kW)
coordinated control between various micro sources is essential
to keep the power balance and the common DC bus voltage
stable [2,3]. The DC bus voltage hierarchical control strategy is
proposed due to its high reliability and the advantage of non- Load
communication among sources. In order to minimize the DC Battery Bi-DC/DC
bus current ripple, the intermediate LC filter is commonly (5kW) converter
installed on the DC bus side. Positive damping is widely used
to reduce the impedance peaking of LC filter [4]. The F. C. Fig.1 The construction of islanded DC microgrid
Lee’s GMPM criterion is diffusely applied for the stability When the DC bus voltage is fluctuated within ±5%, the
analysis in DC microgrid [5]. However, few researchers have operating voltage is 380V~420V. In Fig.2, the curve 1, 2 and 3
studied the stability in different operation states with various are the output characteristic of 1#Boost converter, 2#Boost
control strategies.
converter and the Bi-DC/DC converter, and kPV1, kPV2 and kb
This paper is organized as follows. The DBS control are droop coefficients, respectively.
strategy applied in the islanded DC microgrid is analyzed in
section II. Small-signal models of interface converters for PV
array and battery are developed in section III. According to the
well-known GMPM criterion, the stability of the microgrid in
each state is discussed, and the relationship between the system
stability and the filter parameters is analyzed to guide the
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51277150/51307140); Key Science and Technology Program of Shaanxi
Province (2013K07-05); Industrialization Cultivation-item of Shaanxi Province
Educational Department (14JF020).
978-1-5090-1210-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

978-1-5090-1210-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)

two working modes: the droop control and the MPPT control,
as shown in Fig.4. When ubus410V, Boost converter works in
the droop control mode, otherwise it works in the MPPT
control mode.

Fig.2 Interface converters output characteristic curves Fig.3 PV interface Boost converter
State 1: DC bus voltage is operated in 410V~420V. The
generating capacity is larger than the load, Boost converters
work in the droop control mode to limit the output of PV array
and Bi-DC/DC converter works in the constant-current
charging control mode to prevent battery from overcharging.
State 2: DC bus voltage is operated in 400V~410V. With the
load power increasing, Boost converters work in the MPPT
control mode and Bi-DC/DC converter works in the droop
charging control mode to store excess energy.
Fig.4 Boost converter control block diagram
State 3: DC bus voltage is operated in 390V~400V. In this
The model of Boost converter with the droop control is
state, load power exceeds its rated value, Boost converters shown in Fig.5, where GiiPV, GidPV and TiiPV are the transfer
work in the MPPT control mode and Bi-DC/DC converter function of output current, duty cycle and input current to
works in the droop discharging control to compensate for the inductor current, GudPV and TuiPV are the transfer function of
shortage energy. duty cycle, input current to DC bus voltage, GuiPV and TudPV are
the transfer function of duty cycle, input current to DC bus
State 4: DC bus voltage is operated in 380V~390V. As the
voltage, GPVu, GPVi represents the voltage PI controller and the
load power continues increasing, Boost converters work in the current PI controller, respectively, and ZoPV is the open-loop
MPPT control and Bi-DC/DC converter works in the constant- output impedance of Boost converter.
current discharging control mode to prevent battery from over iˆdcPV
iˆPV
discharging.
Tab.1 lists every working state of inverters under DBS
control strategy.
Tab.1 the working states of inverters under DBS control strategy
unit
PV1# PV2# Battery û*dcPV ûdcPV
states
constant
1 Droop Droop current
charging
Droop
2 MPPT MPPT charging Fig.5 Small-signal control block diagram of the Boost converter with
Droop the droop control
3 MPPT MPPT discharging According to Fig.5, the closed-loop output impedance of
constant Boost converter with the droop control can be obtained as:
4 MPPT MPPT current
charging uˆbus Z oPV − kPVGPVu GicPVGudPV − GiiPVGicPVGudPV (1)
Z PVd = =
ˆidcPV 1 + GPVu GicPVGudPV
III. ISLANDED DC MICRDGRID MODELING
where GicPV is the closed-loop transfer function of the inner
In order to analyze the stability of DC microgrid, the small- current loop.
signal model based on the state-space average method of the
system is developed in the following section The model of the Boost converter with the MPPT control is
shown in Fig.6, where GPV represents the voltage PI controller.
A. Control Modeling of Boost Converter
The PV interface Boost converter is shown in Fig.3, where
iPV is the PV array output current, uPV is the PV array output
voltage and ubus the DC bus voltage. The Boost converter has
 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)

iˆdcPV uˆbus GiibGicbGudb − Z ob − kbGbu GicbGudb (3)

Z ba = =
iˆdcb 1 + Gbu GicbGudb
The closed-loop output impedance of Bi-DC/DC converter
û *PV ûdcPV
in Boost mode can be obtained as:
uˆbus Z ob − kbGbu GicbGudb − GiibGicbGudb (4)
Z bb = =
iˆdcb 1 + Gbu GicbGudb
Fig.6 Small-signal control block diagram of the Boost converter with On the basis of the aforesaid, when the Bi-DC/DC
MPPT control converter works in the Buck converter mode, it can be
According to Fig.6 the closed-loop output impedance of equivalent to the input voltage source in series with the closed-
Boost converter with MPPT control can be obtained as: loop input impedance, which always be regarded as constant
power load (CPL); when the Bi-DC/DC converter works in the
uˆbus G G G Boost converter mode, it can be equivalent to the output
Z PVm =
= Z oPV − uiPV PV udPV (2) voltage source in series with the closed-loop output impedance.
iˆdcPV 1 + GPVTudPV
Therefore, the Boost converter can be equivalent to the
output voltage source in series with the closed loop output IV. STABILITY OF THE ISLANDED DC MICRDGRID
impedance no matter in the droop control mode or the MPPT Middlebrook is the earliest researcher to study the
control mode. impedance forbidden region criterion [6]. However, his criterion
is too conservative. Therefore, F. C. Lee proposed the
B. Control Modeling of Bi-DC/DC Converter improved impedance forbidden region criterion — GMPM
Fig.7 shows the battery interface Bi-DC/DC converter, criterion as shown in Fig.9 and Fig.10 [5].
where ub is battery output voltage. The control block diagram is
Z Li
shown in Fig.8. The Bi-DC/DC converter can be divided into

Magnitude (dB)
two working modes: When ubus > 400V, the converter works in
the Buck converter mode and the battery charges; otherwise it Z so

works in the Boost converter mode and the battery discharges.

Phase (deg)
∠Z so
∠Z Li

Fig.9 The Nyquist of GMPM Fig.10 The Bode of GMPM

Fig.7 Battery interface Bi-DC/DC converter The GMPM criterion proposed that if the Nyquist curve of
Zso / ZLi doesn’t get into the forbidden region as shown in Fig.9,
the system stability can be ensured with a GM(gain margin) of
6dB and PM(phase margin) of 60°. The forbidden region can
be described as:
 ZLi − Zso > 6dB (3)

−120° < ∠Zso − ∠ZLi < 120°
Fig.8 Bi-DC/DC converter control block diagram Therefore, When the total source converter closed-loop
ûb iˆdcb output impedance Zso is smaller, the larger total load converter
closed-loop input impedance ZLi (there is no intersection
Giib between the two amplitude curves), the more stable the system
++ is. According to the GMPM criterion, the stability of DC
kb Giub microgrid in each state is discussed.
Guub Zob
+ + û When the DC microgrid works in state 1 or state 2, the Bi-
û *dcb
Gbu + Gbi Gm
d Gudb + + dcb
DC/DC converter is regard as CPL because of the battery in the
+
charging mode. The equivalent circuit model is depicted in
Gidb Fig.10.(a). Damped resistor Rs is connected series with the
filter capacitor Cs to suppress the resonant peak of the LC filter
[4]
Fig.9 Small-signal control block diagram of Bi-DC/DC converter . When the DC microgrid works in state 3 or state 4, the Bi-
DC/DC converter is regard as a source converter because of the
Based on the complementary PWM modulation, the model
battery in the discharging mode. The equivalent circuit model
of Bi-DC/DC converter is shown in Fig.8, where Gbu, Gbi
is depicted in Fig.10.(b).
represents the voltage PI controller and the current PI
controller, respectively. According to Fig.9, the closed-loop
input impedance of Bi-DC/DC converter in Buck mode can be
obtained as:
 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)

Bode Diagram
50

40

30

20

Magnitude (dB)
10

-10

-20

-30
180

90

-90

Phase (deg)
-180

(a). DC mircogrid working in state 1 or state 2

-270

-360

-450

-540
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (rad/sec)

Fig.12 The Bode diagram of ZLi

According to the GMPM criterion, the DC microgrid is
more stable when Zso is smaller and ZLi is higher. However, it’s
observed that the Zso is the highest and that the ZLi is the
(b). DC mircogrid working in state 3 or state 4 smallest in state 2, therefore the stability of DC microgrid is the
Fig.10 The equivalent circuit model of DC mircogrid worst in state 2. The Nyquist curves of Zso / ZLi is shown in Fig.
According to Fig.10, the total source converter closed-loop 13. It is obvious that the microgrid is stable in every state and
output impedance Zso and the total load converter closed-loop that the Nyquist curves of Zso / ZLi in state 2 is the nearest from
input impedance ZLi can be calculated as: the forbidden region (the shaded part in Fig.13), which
illustrates that stability margin is the least and that the anti-
Zso = ZPV1 / / ZPV2 , Z Li = sLs + (1 sCs + Rs ) / / Z b / / Rload disturbance is the worst in state 2.
state1 and state 2
 (6)

Zso = ZPV1 / / ZPV2 / / Z b , ZLi = sLs + (1 sCs + Rs ) / / Rload
Nyquist Diagram
15
0 dB

state 3 and state 4 10

The system parameters are shown in Tab.2. 5

2 dB -2 dB

Im a g in a r y A x is
4 dB -4 dB

Tab.2 DC microgrid system parameters 0

Models Parameters -5

Rated power 10kW kPV1 0.41 -10

LPV 6mH GPVu (5s+1)/s

1#Boost
CPV1 80μF GPVi (1s+0.05)/s -15
-5 0 5 10 15 20
Real Axis
25 30 35 40 45

CPV2 1000μF GPV (20s+0.5)/s

Rated power 5kW kPV2 0.82
LPV 8mH GPVu (10s+30)/s 0.8
Nyquist Diagram

2# Boost 4 dB 2 dB 0 dB -2 dB -4 dB

CPV1 100μF GPVi (100s+0.8)/s

6 dB -6 dB

0.6

CPV2 800μF GPV (5s+1)/s 0.4

10 dB -10 dB

Rated power 5kW kb 0.78 0.2

Bi-DC/DC Lb 3mH Gbu (2s+300)/s 20 dB -20 dB

Im ag in a r y A x is

Cb 600μF Gbi (100s+100)/s

Filter Ls 2μH Cs 40μF Rs 12Ω
-0.2

-0.4

Plot the Bode diagram of the Zso and ZLi in every state,
-0.6

which are shown in Fig.11 and Fig.12.

-0.8
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Real Axis

Bode Diagram
30

20

10
Fig.13 The Nyquist curves of Zso/ZLi in four states
The maximum or minimum filter value can be achieved
Magnitude (dB)

-10

-20

-30
through analyzing the system stability influenced by filter
-40
45
values in the worst working condition (state 2). As shown in
Fig.14, with Cs decreasing to 10μF, Ls increasing to 10μH, or
0

-45
Phase (deg)

-90

-135

-180
Rs decreasing to 12 Ω, the Nyquist curve of Zso / ZLi gradually
-225

-270
10
-2 -1
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
gets into the forbidden region which leads to the unstable of the
DC microgrid.
Frequency (rad/sec)

Fig.11. The Bode diagram of Zso

 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)

2.5
Nyquist Diagram
mode 1: Boost converters working in the droop control to limit
the output power of the PV units, battery charges and the
0 dB
2 dB -2 dB
2

1.5

4 dB -4 dB
charging current reaches its limit value; In 0.15s~0.3s, the load
current up to 30.27A, the DC voltage can been stabilized at
1

6 dB -6 dB
0.5

405V and all components run in mode 2: Boost converters

10 dB -10 dB
Im a g in a r y A x is

-0.5
working in the MPPT control and the maximum output power
-1
is 4.90W, battery charges; In 0.3s~0.45s, the load current is
40.01A, the DC voltage can been stabilized at 395V and all
-1.5

-2

-2.5
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
components run in mode 3: Boost converters working in the
Real Axis

MPPT control, battery discharges; In 0.45s~0.6s, the load

(a). change Ls from 2μH to 16μH
current is 49.58A, the DC voltage can been stabilized at 385V
and all components run in mode 4: Boost converters working in
2
2 dB 0 dB
Nyquist Diagram

-2 dB
the MPPT control, battery discharges and the charging current
1.5
reaches its limit value. The simulation results verify the
1
4 dB

6 dB -6 dB
-4 dB
effectiveness of the DBS control strategy.
0.5
10 dB -10 dB 16000
Im a g in a ry A x is

20 dB -20 dB
0
14000

-0.5
12000

-1
10000

-1.5

8000

-2
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Real Axis 6000

4000

(b). change Cs from 40μF to 10μF 2000

Nyquist Diagram
0
4
0 dB

-2000
3 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

2 dB -2 dB
2

1
4 dB

6 dB -6 dB
-4 dB (a) Ls changes
10 dB -10 dB
Imaginary Axis

1400
0

-1
1200

-2

1000

-3

800
-4
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Real Axis

600

(c). change Rs from 12Ω to 1 Ω

400

200

Fig.13 The Nyquist curves of Zso/ZLi with different filter values in

state 2 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

V. SIMULATION RESULTS (b) Cs changes

Simulations based on MATLAB/Simulink are performed to 2000

validate the DC bus voltage hierarchical control strategy and

the stability analysis under load variation in this section.
1500

ipv2
30 1000
20
10
0
ipv1 500
20

10

0
ib 0
20

-20
-500
idc 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
50

(c) Rs changes
0
vdc
440
420
400
380 Fig.16 Bus voltage waveform with different filter values
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

The influence of filter parameters on stability is discussed

Fig.14 simulation results of the DBS control strategy
in the case of state 2(ubus=405V). As shown in Fig.16(a), in
0.5s, change the filter inductance Ls from 2μH to 16μH, the bus
Fig.14 is the DC bus voltage and the output current of the voltage diverged; As shown in Fig16(b), change the filter
interface converters when load power changes. In 0s~0.15s, the capacitance Cs from 40μF to 10μF, the bus voltage diverged;
load current is 5.24A, the simulation result shows that the DC As shown in Fig16(c), change the damping resistance Rs from
voltage can been stabilized at 415V and all components run in
 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia)
12Ω to 1 Ω, the bus voltage diverged. It is concluded that the
variation of filter parameters leads to the collapse of DC
microgrid, which is consistent with the result of impedance
analysis in section IV.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the DBS control strategy in the proposed
islanded DC micorgrid is analyzed. Small-signal models of
interface converters in different states are established.
According to the GMPM criterion, the theoretical analysis
proves that the proposed DC microgrid is stable in every state,
and that the relationship between filter parameters and the
system stability in the worst state are analyzed. The results
have actual directive significance to the design of the filter.
Finally, the simulations validate the control strategy.
REFERENCES
[1] H.Kakigano,Y.Miura,andT.Ise,“Low-voltagebipolar-typedcmicrogrid for
super high quality distribution,” IEEE Trans on Power Electronics,2010,
vol. 25,no. 12, pp.3066–3075.
[2] Lu D D, Agelidis V G. “Photovoltaic battery powered DC bus System
for common portable electronicdevices,” IEEE Trans on Power
Electronics, 2009, vol. 24,no. 3, pp.849-855.
[3] Cvetkovic I, Boroyevich D, Mattavelli P, et al. “Non-linear, hybrid
terminal behavioral modeling of a dc-based nanogrid system,” Applied
Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 2011 Twenty-
Sixth Annual IEEE. 2011, pp.1251-1258.
[4] Cespedes M, Xing L, Sun J. “Constant-Power Load System Stabilization
by Passive Damping,” IEEE Trans on Power Electronics, vol.26, no.7,
pp. 1832-1836, 2011.
[5] Feng X, Liu J, Lee F C. Impedance specifications for stable DC
distributed power systems[J]. IEEE Trans on Power Electronics, vol.17,
no.2,pp. 157-162, 2002.
[6] Middlebrook R D. “Input filter considerations in design and
application of switching regulators”. IEEE Industrial
Application Society Annual Meeting. Chicago, USA: IEEE,
1976:366-382.