1
Experimental Transient Stability Analysis of
MicroGrid Systems: lessons learned
R. Belkacemi, Member, IEEE, S. Zarrabian, A. Babalola, Student Members, and R. Craven, Member
IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, TN 38505
 as active damping control [3] and frequency control with
Abstract—A Transient Stability Analysis of a low inertia
microgrid system is presented in this paper. The analysis is
performed on experimental data collected for different case
scenarios of grid disturbances. The test bed consists of a
reconfigurable 100kW MicroGrid system with more than 10
rotating generators, PV, and Wind penetration capabilities. Both
islanded and non-islanded situations are considered for a solid
three phase fault analysis and comparison. The paper also
presents the results of fault scenario when the rotating machines
are pushed to an unstable region. The experimental results and
system behavior observed show interesting phenomena. The
MicroGrid showed higher resiliency for faults than expected even
if the relative angles are more than 160º and even if the fault is
sustained for a long time.
Index Terms— Experimental data, Microgrid, Test bed, Three
phase fault, Transient Stability
I. INTRODUCTION
I n recent years, centralized generating facilities are giving
away to smaller distributed generation or microgrids. These
microgrids encompass wide range of energy resources, such as
combustion generator, photovoltaic, wind, and fuel cells that if
operated as an isolated network will give rise to numerous
problems and challenges in terms of control and stability of the
system because of the low inertia and intermittency of the
resources. Unlike traditional large scale grids, microgrids are
very sensitive to any disturbances in the system and can easily
go unstable because of the lack of inertia.
Microgrids can operate either connected to the main grid
(grid connected operation) or separately in stand-alone mode
operation (autonomous or islanded operation). Although this
integration of distributed resources makes the system more
flexible from an operation and control point of view, it also
makes the power grid more vulnerable to oscillations resulting
from grid disturbances. Therefore, research into microgrid
stability is of great importance. For instance, authors of [1, 2]
investigated the effect of loading structure and condition in
micro grid stability. Some literatures propose control methods
for mitigating the effect of some the causes of instability, such
This project is partly funded by the Center for Energy Systems Research,
Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee.
.
978-1-4673-8040-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
voltage regulation after islanded mode operation [4] or smooth
islanding operation with state feedback control [5, 6].
Transient stability analysis is one the other main aspect of
stability studies in microgrids. In fact, for renewable resources
with current and reactive power support limitations, it is
crucial to provide appropriate operation of microgrids after
large disturbances through accurate transient studies. In [7],
the concept of energy function has been proposed for studying
the transient stability analysis of microgrids, while [8] presents
transient stability studies considering both voltage source
inverter based resources and traditional synchronous
generators in the model. Some researches carry out the
stability studies for different types of distributed resources, for
instance, [9] demonstrates the stability analysis of a microgrid
having diesel generators and [10-13] analyze the stability of
microgrids with PV-diesel integration.
One of the other stability aspects in microgrids is the small
signal stability. Some effective methods have been proposed to
improve small signal stability in microgrids such as the use of
energy management systems, effective coordinated control of
DGs, addition of supplementary control loops, and use of
stabilizers for DGs. For voltage stability enhancement in micro
grids, the following methods have been previously
investigated: Reactive compensation, load shedding, and
voltage regulations with DGs [13].
Most of the work done on transient stability after major
disturbances in microgrids is based on simulations of
linearized or nonlinear models. In this work, we present some
of experimental observations and analysis of a microgrid
system under large disturbances. The analysis covers the
islanded and non-islanded mode of operation. The results are
very educative and meant to help researchers in the area
understand unusual behaviors in terms of stability.
II. MICROGRID TESTBED
Fault scenarios have been implemented on a real time
testbed system including both hardware and software setups.
The system has been provided by Tennessee Technological
University Smart Grid Laboratory. The testbed system has the
capability of running 100-bus power system with two-way
communication infrastructure. The hardware structure can be
set up either for micro-grid or smart grid applications and can

accommodate any grid configuration with more than 20
rotating machines. The hardware infrastructure offers the
capability of integrating wind and solar energy at any bus on
the system.
The main hardware setup consists of power generators with
a rating of 11.5 kW, transmission lines, loads, measurement
devices, breakers, switches, and Data Acquisitions Cards
(DAQ).
LABVIEW and Visual Studio provided the software
interface platforms which are used for programming and
controlling the hardware setups through network shared
variables. In fact, the measurements from the real time system
are stored in shared variables and can be read from the
software interface for control and programming purposes. In
Fig.1, a view of hardware and software of the test bed system
is shown. For this experiment, a 9-bus microgrid system is
designed.
Figure 1. Hardware software setup
Induction machine with its rotor windings short circuited is
used as a wind turbine generator. The stator can be connected
directly to the grid. The wind turbine model is implemented on
real time simulator RTDS/RSCAD then the output is fed to
induction generator as shown in Fig.2.
2
Figure 2. Schematic of the Wind Turbine Emulator Setup
For the solar emulation, the photovoltaic power profile
emulation (PPPE) software automatically calculates solar array
voltage and current profiles based on user-defined parameters.
These profiles are sequentially sent to a Magna-Power
Electronics power supply, which emulates defined
characteristics. The output from the power supply is then fed
to an IGBT inverter for grid integration. Fig.3 show the PV
integration setup.
Figure 3. Solar integration setup
The SixPac™ from APS Inc. is a flexible, highly integrated
IGBT based power assembly with a wide range of
applications. The SixPac™ can be configured as a full bridge
or three-phase bridge inverter mounted on an air-cooled or
liquid-cooled heat sink.
Fig.4 shows the single line diagram of the MicroGrid. The
microgrid under study is a meshed network of 9-bus system
interconnected by 13 transmission lines. The Microgrid is grid
connected to the power utility which is in this case Tennessee
Valley Authority. The connection to the utility side is done in
hardware by using a phase lock approach. The frequency and
the voltage magnitude of the microgrid are controlled in a way
to allow for synchronization (phase sequence and voltage
magnitude difference).
 3

210
G1
G2
200
G3

190

Internal Volatge E [V]

180

170

160

150

140

130

120
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [sec]
Figure 6 Generators internal Voltage for fault on grid connected case
125

Figure 4. Single line diagram of the microgrid

Generator Bus Voltage rms [V]

120

III. TRANSIENT ANALYSIS

115

Stability analysis of different case fault scenarios is presented

in this section. 110
A. Three phase to ground fault on the grid connected case Vbus1
In this scenario, a three phase to ground fault was applied on Vbus2
105 Vbus3
Bus 8 of the system at t = 6 sec. The microgrid was connected
to the main grid via a PCC (Point of Common Coupling)
switch at Bus 9. The experimental results obtained are shown 100
0 5 10 15 20 25

in Fig. 5 - 8. The results show that there was not much Time [sec]
transient difference before and after the fault and there was Figure 7. Generators bus Voltage for fault on grid connected case
only a small disturbance at the time when the fault was applied 60.4
and after that the system returned to its pre-fault state in about f2
60.35 f3
2 sec. Fig. 5 shows the load angles of the generators. After
small deviation at the time of fault, each generator’s angle 60.3
Mech Frequency [Hz]

returned to its initial level. Fig. 6 and 7 show the generators’ 60.25
internal and bus voltages respectively. There was a small sag
60.2
in the internal voltages, but the bus voltage dip for generator 1
was considerable because it is closer to the fault (see Fig. 7). 60.15
The change in bus voltages was about 8%, 4%, and 3% for 60.1
generators 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
60.05

60
-2 0 5 10 15 20 25
G1 Time [sec]
G2
-4 G3 Figure 8. Generators mech. Frequency for fault on grid connected case
Relative angle G [deg]

-6
B. Three phase to ground fault on the islanded case
-8

-10 In this scenario, a three phase to ground fault was applied on

-12
Bus 8 at t = 5 sec while the system was on islanded mode
operation. The results obtained are shown in Fig. 9 – 11. Fig. 9
-14
shows the load angles of the generators for this scenario.
-16 Compare this to Fig. 5, it is obvious that there wasmore
-18
deviation in the load angle for the islanded case than for the
0 5 10
Time [sec]
15 20 25
grid-connected case. Moreover, by looking at Fig. 10, it can be
Figure 5 Relative generator angles for fault on grid connected case
clearly seen that there was a high internal voltage dip at the
time of the fault. Fig. 11 indicates that the bus voltages of the
generators went to a very low level during the fault. The bus
voltage of 1 decreased by 25% (0.25 p.u deviation in voltage).
 4

-5
experiencing the greatest change in values (see Fig. 12 and
G1
G2
13).
G3 Angle

-10 -4
G1
Relative angle G [deg]

G2
-6
G3
-15

Realative Angle G [deg]

-8

-20 -10

-12
-25

-14

-30
0 5 10 15 20 25 -16
Time [sec]
Figure 9. Relative generator angles for fault on islanded case -18
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [sec]
240
Figure 12 Relative generator angles on grid disconnected case
220
210
Internal Voltage E [V]

200
200

180

Internal Voltage E [V]

190

160
180
G1
140 G2
170 G3
G1
120 G2
G3 160

100
0 5 10 15 20 25 150
Time [sec]
Figure 10. Generators internal Voltage for fault on islanded case 140
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [sec]
125
Figure 13 Generators internal Voltage on grid disconnected case
120
Generator Bus Voltage rms [V]

123
115 G1
122 G2
G3
110
Generator Bus Votage [V]

121
105
120

100 119

95 Vbus1 118
Vbus2 117
90
Vbus3
85 116

80
115
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [sec] 114
0 5 10 15 20 25
Figure 11. Generators bus Voltage at fault on islanded case Time [sec]
Figure 14. Generators bus Voltage on grid-disconnected case

C. PCC main grid open switch fault
In this scenario, the main grid was suddenly disconnected from
the microgrid system. The results are presented in Fig. 12 – 14.
In this case, it can be observed that all the load angles, internal
voltages, and bus voltages of the generators remained in stable
condition after the disconnection from the main grid. The
microgrid can smoothly supply the loads in stand-alone
condition that explains why there was no deviation seen in the
plot of generation bus voltages (see Fig. 14). It could be seen
that after the disconnection all the generators’ load angle and
internal voltages settled at a new value to make up for the
increase in demand on each of the generators with Generator 1
D. Sever Three phase to ground fault on the islanded case
In this case, one of the generators was loaded to an angle of 35
degrees and then a fault was applied; the microgrid was
operating in an islanded mode. The system experiences a very
low voltage profile during the fault. The results can be seen in
Fig. 15 – 18. Fig. 15 shows a severe deviation in the angles of
the generators. The internal voltage of the generators
decreased drastically, for instance, Generator 1 endured more
than 50% of voltage drop during the fault (see Fig. 16). In
addition, the bus voltages decreased sharply, e.g., the bus
voltage of Generator 1 decreased by about 63% of its initial
value; this is shown in Fig. 17. We noticed for this case that if
 5

the fault in maintained and not cleared, the system starts IV. CONCLUSION
oscillating. This paper presents experimental results of transient stability
40 response of microgrids. The four scenarios are presented to
G1
20 G2 study the transient behavior of microgrids in different fault
G3
circumstances. The results prove that when a microgrid is
0
operating in islanded mode, it would be more vulnerable to
Relative Angle G [deg]

-20
faults and abnormal conditions. In two of case studies
-40 performed in this paper, a fault condition is applied when the
-60 microgrid was operated in islanded mode. In these cases, the
-80
system became unstable with high voltage drop and angle
deviation in the generators. On the other hand, in the two other
-100
scenarios implemented while the system was connected to the
-120 main grid, the voltage and angle of the generators remained in
-140
0 5 10 15 20 25
an acceptable range of operation and with the least deviation.
Time [sec] The results showed a stable operation of microgrid during and
Figure 15. Relative generator angles on sever three phase fault after the fault and prove the robustness in grid connected mode
250 operation.
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200 G2 REFERENCES
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Internal Volatge E [V]

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