Power Management, Intelligent Control and Protection
in Micro-grids – A Review
Ahsan Shahid, Student Member IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Chicago
ahsanshahid2008@hotmail.com
Abstract— Micro-grid is defined as a local power network with
distributed energy resources (DERs) as micro-power sources
scattered throughout the supply area. For reliable and short
range transmission of power, micro-power sources are controlled
as standalone as well as grid-synchronized power sources. The
idea is to design a resilient, efficient and cost effective
infrastructure based on advanced communication and
information technologies (ICT) to meet the needs of future
energy demand and quality. As the grid is being modernized, the
constraints in operation such as power fluctuations, voltage
instabilities, frequency deviations, transition management and
wide area monitoring must be addressed. Therefore, more
advanced and robust control techniques are needed to deal with
the complexity of modern power infrastructure. In this paper, a
review of power management, intelligent control and protection
techniques is presented for designing efficient, reliable and
sustainable grid.
Index Terms— Communication, Intelligent, Micro-grid,
Protection, Resilient.
I. INTRODUCTION
Micro-grids provide a new infrastructure for more efficient,
resilient and cost effective power systems. This architecture
works like a power nest with scattered conventional and non-
conventional energy sources throughout the distribution
network. Micro-power sources combined with their interfaces
are categorized as distributed generators (DG). Distributed
generators work according to load demand and their converters
adjust voltage and frequency and harmonize it with the
network such that the load requirements of the end users are
met [1]. Distributed generators are considered as small power
generating units and are usually rated at < 100kW. Solar
photovoltaics, fuel cells, wind turbines, micro-turbines,
flywheels and super capacitors can all be used as micro-power
sources. Power electronic converters are utilized to connect
these sources to the supply network through a common grid
bus.
The concept of practical micro-grid originated from the
Consortium of Electric Reliability Technology Solutions
(CERTS) as “a system consisting micro-power resources
providing electric as well as heat power to the distributed
978-1-5386-2524-8/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
loads”. The energy conversion, control and storage is taken
care of by power electronic devices and components. It is
capable of operating as a singly controlled element or with the
main grid simultaneously. CERTS’s micro-grid presents a
systematic architecture, design, control, and operation in
regulating, managing and providing power [2]. This micro-
grid is shown in figure 1 with connections to micro-power
sources at nodes 8, 11, 16 and 22. It is interfaced with the
main grid through a point of common coupling (PCC). The
specific architecture varies with different types of load,
communication, control and monitoring technologies.
Structural variants are based on the distributed nature of the
supply network and have high efficiency and reliability [2]-
[3]. The control of micro-grid is a hierarchical strategy with
primary (local) and secondary (supervisory) controllers. The
job of primary control is to regulate active and reactive power
based on local voltage and frequency information. This
information is used by distributed generators to adjust their
output so as to maintain the balance of power. The secondary
control provides supervisory actions, monitoring and
protection through various ICT.
Under the recent foundational framework of IEEE 519-
2014, the supplier of electricity is responsible for the quality
of power supplied. The end-user is responsible for limiting
harmonic current injections based on the size of the end-use
load relative to the capacity of the system [4]. Large-scale use
of DG units may lead to transients, voltage instability, power
fluctuations, and harmonics. The unpredictable and unstable
nature of renewable energy resources leads to output power
fluctuations. Connection and disconnection of micro-sources
from the main grid causes unbalanced voltage and
small voltage drop due to heavy loading conditions causes
partial voltage instability [5]. As micro-grids are becoming
more common, the issues linked with micro-grids need to be
addressed to effectively improve the quality of delivered
power [5]-[6]. This paper discusses the architecture of micro-
grids, control components and systems and integration
strategies to achieve higher efficiency, resilience and
sustainability.

Fig. 1. High level diagram of CERTS micro-grid [2]
II. POWER MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
The role of different control components and power
conditioning units is very important to manage power flow
during different modes and transitions. CERTS recommends
that the addition of new micro-power sources without
damaging the existing system, the connection to or isolation
from grid seamlessly, active and reactive power processing
corresponding to load variations and independence of
choosing operation points should all be possible. It can be
categorized into different approaches depending on the
architecture of micro-grid systems, interdependency of micro-
grid components and the nature of load demand.
A. Power Flow Control
To understand how power flow is controlled in micro-
grids, let’s analyze the model of micro-sources first. There are
two fundamental components of a micro-source model. A DC
interface and a voltage source inverter (VSI). The magnitude
and phase of the output voltage is controlled by the voltage
source inverter [7]. Output voltage and frequency values
depends on real and reactive power of the micro-source. The
active and reactive power injected by the DG units to the node
can be given by
3 EVSin (δ )
P=
ωL
3V { ECos (δ ) − V }
Q =
ωL
where, V is grid voltage, E is inverter output voltage and L
is inductive reactance. Hence, the relationship between the
inverter voltage, system voltage and the inductive reactance
determines the flow of real and reactive power from the
system. The micro-source couples to the power system using
an inductor at the point of common coupling (PCC). PCC is a
node that connects micro-grid DG units to the main grid. Some
fundamental inverter based methods for power management in
micro-grids are outlined in [8]-[10].
B. Active and Reactive Power Regulation (P/Q)
In grid-connected mode of operation, the main grid
controls the micro-grid load power and fluctuations in voltage
and frequency to meet load requirements. The micro-grid does
not play any role in regulating the voltage and frequency. The
controller is configured to operate in cascaded double loop
control for feed-forward compensation in DC voltage [11].
The outer loop is designed to decouple active and reactive
power while the inner loop is designed for current feedback
regulation. The results have been verified using 5MVA feeder
providing satisfactory power tracking characteristics [12].
C. Voltage and Frequency Regulation (V/f)
In islanded mode of operation, adequate voltage and
frequency support is needed for stable standalone operation.
This can be provided by making the use of inverter voltage
and frequency regulation. Local voltage and frequency is used
as feedback. The requirement of supervisory control for global
communication is waived off. Hence, this strategy is typically
useful for islanded mode of operation. Reference [13]
discusses this in detail. A simulation is provided in [14] for
validation.
D. Load Frequency Control
There are two different strategies to regulate voltage and
frequency as a result of load unbalance during islanded
operation. Local secondary control (through a controlled DG
unit) and micro-grid central control (MGCC). The anticipated
value of the reactive power of the prime mover of the two
cases can be determined as per frequency deviation [15].
Figure 2 shows characteristics curve determined by the
MGCC known as droop curve during islanded operation for
frequency restoration satisfying the balance of power while
importing from or exporting to the grid.
(2.1)
(2.2)
Fig. 2. Active Power-Frequency control [15]
E. Decentralized Control
In decentralized control, disjoint control models can be
improvised to regulate active and reactive power. It maintains
the balance of power effectively and adds the frequency
recovery mechanism. Decentralized power control strategies
based on the characteristics curves of voltage and frequency,
voltage management and reactive power compensation, with
recovery strategy and efficient frequency control are described
in [16].
F. Harmonic Compensation
In the distribution feeders, distributed generators act like a
non-linear loads while the inverters generate higher order
harmonics. Non-linear current flowing through the load causes
voltage distortions that appear at the point of common
coupling. The type and severity of harmonics depend on the
power converter technology and interconnection configuration
[17]. The percentage of harmonics relative to fundamental and
total harmonic distortion (THD) allowed by IEEE 519-2014
can be seen from table 1.
Table 1. Percentages of allowed harmonics (IEEE 519-2014)
Harmonic Order % Relative to Fundamental
th
< 11 4%
th
<11 to <17 th
2%
th rd
<17 to <23 1.5%
<23rd to <35th 0.6%
th
35 or greater 0.3%
THD 5%
Harmonic mitigation approaches are based on making the
distributed generators of a distributed power system behave as
a resistance at harmonic frequencies. An advanced distributed
control strategy has been developed in [17] with power flow
management and power sharing functions. This useful, low
cost and compact design improves power quality effectively
without the need of separate controllers in d-q (synchronous)
and αβ (stationary) reference frames and additional phase-
locked loops (PLL) and provides smooth output voltages and
currents in grid-connected and islanded modes of operation. A
capacitive virtual impedance loop can also be used to damp
the voltage harmonics at the point of connection with load by
introducing a capacitive component and effectively distorting
the output voltage of inverter. Hence harmonic voltage is
obtained via virtual impedance to the inner loops that provide
compensation against drop due to inductive grid side
impedance [18].
III. INTELLIGENT CONTROL
The evolution of power grids has led to the usage of ICT
to meet the needs distributed power infrastructure. The
development of intelligent technologies and systems is a
major step forward to handle the complexity of highly
integrated and communicative architecture in distributed
energy systems. To cope with the challenges of efficiency,
reliability and security, some intelligent control design
strategies are proposed as follows.
A. CPS based Design
The change in hierarchy of electrical power industry needs
efficient and economic utilization of energy. The deployment
of advanced technology such as smart grid in modern power
industry to minimize continuous interruptions demands the
use of information and communication systems. The inter-
compatibility and absorbing these distributed energy resources
(DERs) into this competitive market from economic and
reliability point of view is a modern challenge. The use of
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) which use intelligent
electronic devices (IEDs) to measure physical parameters,
actuators to control and finally communicate the processed
information is a proposed turnkey solution for this problem
[19]. The cyber physical approach in energy systems can be
utilized to help achieve optimized system performance in a
safe real time environment. Practical renewable energy
sources need to have maximum reliability and affordability. A
comprehensive technique for testing and evaluation of the
system performance serves as a supplement for valid
execution of the real-time control based on cyber-physical
modeling in order for the system to operate reliably in the
condition of unwanted events [20].
A key approach to observe the real-time behavior of a
system which has a physical plant that is operated by
information and actuation layers has been presented. A set of
simulations show that different physical parts of a smart grid
act on the information provided by the operator to meet
varying load demands from different types of sources such as
large power generators and micro-sources and their
synchronization in case of extraordinary physical and
environmental conditions. The transitions among different
modes of operation of main grid with two micro-grids are
shown in figure 3. 1 denotes ON and 0 denotes OFF. The
transitions are dictated by the supervisory control. For
functional verification purposes, the model has been subjected
to a grid-side fault event where it has been demonstrated that
it is capable of maintaining the power supply by switching to
alternately available power resources every time the system is
exposed to faults. This enables a unified control design to
simulate not only the electrical behavior of the grid but also
the interactions with the real world [20].
 Fig. 3. State transitions diagram for power sources in (a) Grid-connected
mode (b) Islanded mode
B. Hybrid Control
The major challenges of a smart power network are the
control and communication of decentralized power generating
units and loads during distribution, the uncontrollable and
unstable nature of distributed energy resources (DERs)
integrated within the grid and power quality during transitory
modes and states [21]. In order to solve these issues, an
integrated control-communication strategy capitalizing on
power processing ability of a smart grid to yield smooth, safe
and reliably operation is discussed. This is done by developing
a real-time model of the system which is capable of
performing operations and making control decisions as per
utility needs [22]. For grid transition management and
supervisory control issues, loads are effectively supplied from
the main grid as well as distributed energy resources in case of
grid absence to improve overall system reliability, efficiency
and power density [22].
Smart grid is operated in two basic modes; grid-connected
(with-grid) and islanded (off-grid) mode. The control process
of combination of micro-sources in different modes is
discrete. For each micro-source and the main grid itself, the
control process is continuous. Therefore, a smart grid is
clearly a hybrid system and hybrid automaton strategy can be
used for an operating model of a distributed grid. “An
automation of a system predefines the normal and transitory
operating states and predetermines the transition routes that
the system follows when a transition happens due to change in
operating condition” [23]. The control strategy in the form of
hybrid automaton of two source grid-connected micro-grid
system is shown in figure 4. Eight combinations of three
available power sources are possible. Each of these sources
have ON and OFF states such as G=0 or G=1, and similarly
A=0 or A=1 and B=0 or B=1. When a fault occurs (on-grid to
off-grid transition), micro-grids serve as backup power. In
order to study the transient behavior to see the recovery time,
a fault condition is simulated which shows that system
maintains maximum reliability with varying dynamics and
load demand.
Fig. 4. Hybrid automaton of multi-source grid-connected micro-grid
C. Droop Control
To integration large numbers of micro-sources into an
interconnected distributed power system, voltage regulation is
necessary for local reliability and stability. Power sharing in a
multi-source multi-load distributed generation system is
handled by droop control. This method tunes the frequency of
the power electronics inverter similar to the traditional power
system frequency adjustment. For instance, as the reactive
power generated by the micro-source tends to be more
capacitive, the local voltage set-point is reduced. Conversely,
as it tends to be more inductive, the voltage set-point is
increased [24]. Figure 5 shows micro-grid control strategy
using droops. The real time values of active power, reactive
power and the voltage magnitude are calculated. Desired
voltage magnitude and angle at the inverter terminals are
generated by the control signal. The gate pulse generator is
responsible for appropriate firing pulses to the inverter to track
the control's requests. The locus where the steady state points
are constrained to come to rest is called the droop.
Fig. 5. Micro-grid control with droop functions
The frequency and magnitude of the voltage is dependent
on the voltage source invertor controlled by the droops. The
inverter can be controlled with two types of configurations.
One of them is active power-frequency (P-ω) and reactive
power-voltage (Q-V). Another one is active power-voltage (P-
V) and reactive power-frequency (Q-ω). Basic voltage and
frequency droop equations can be given as
 f = fo − k ( Po − P ) (3.3)
V = Vo − k ( Qo − Q ) (3.4)
Where, f0, V0, P0 and Q0 are the nominal values of
frequency, voltage, active and reactive power respectively. K
is the droop coefficient. A comprehensive analysis of droop
control within the perspective of micro-grid power
management and load sharing is provided in [25].
IV. MICRO-GRID PROTECTION
One of the potential advantage of DG is that it allows
standalone or islanded mode of operation which provides
uninterruptible supply of power. “Government regulations
must guarantee that distribution generation sources are
capable of supplying sufficient short circuit current” [26].
Medium and high voltage DG systems must have fault-ride-
through capability. These considerations are equally
applicable to low voltage DG systems. Few types of
protection methods are deemed fit for micro-grids as
described in the following subsections.
A. Overcurrent Protection
Overcurrent protection may utilize a communication
assisted protection selectivity strategy that has different levels
that are applied with voltage-restrained directional overcurrent
protection [26]-[28]. In overcurrent protection strategies,
device selectivity is taken into consideration and the
protection is ensured for both on-grid and off-grid modes. One
type of instantaneous overcurrent protection strategy which is
independent of the location of DG system uses two routines
that perform instant protection for local line and remote bus.
This strategy is described in detail in [29]. Another type of
overcurrent protection takes into consideration the usage of
symmetrical and asymmetrical components. This is applicable
to the micro-grids that have a communication channel which
is limited to exchanging status information and not electrical
measurements [30].
In differential overcurrent protection, each protection zone
has its own relays and current sensors on the secondary side of
transformers for every load as well as relays located at the
source side. These zone relays detect a fault (as quick as 5ms)
when DG source currents exceed the sum of load currents
within the protection zone. A signal is then sent to the
distribution generation source at the faulty zone causing it to
trip [31]-[32]. These protection techniques depend on
communication channels which in case of failure may put
protection at risk. However, DG sources are often provided
with current limiting equipment that strengthen overcurrent
protection. In low voltage micro-grids, protection is done
using microprocessors controlling overcurrent relays which
neither require communication nor the dependency on fault
current magnitude.
B. Voltage based Protection
In this type of micro-grid protection, output voltages of
DG sources are measured and then transformed into DC
quantities using the d-q reference frame for in and out of zone
faults. A communication link is deployed in the scheme to
differentiate between in-zone and out-of-zone faults using
pilot wires, ethernet or optical fibers [33]. The faulted zone is
identified by transmitting the measured voltage through
communication links between any two relays in the micro-grid
and comparing it with the mean average value of the two
relays [32]. If the fault voltage goes higher than the threshold
(that corresponds to the fault type), the zone is tripped.
C. Analytical Protection
In this type of protection, a database of calculated relay
settings for different setups is developed. This relay database
is with the new settings every time a configuration changes
[32]. Action and event tables are maintained for circuit
breaker statuses and those settings are then applied for many
other micro-grid configurations. MGCC monitors the micro-
grid's state of operation and uses the information from the
action and event tables for configuring the relays. Occurrence
and direction of a fault is detected during the real-time
operation by comparing measured current values with the
settings of the relay. However, this protection is not very
useful for large micro-grids due to memory restrictions.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Micro-grids are becoming increasingly popular due to their
flexible design, resilient operation and by providing
reliability, robustness and power quality in the electric power
supply network. They can switch between gird-connected and
islanded modes of operation which offers a high degree of
security. A number of control techniques and algorithms exist
for addressing micro-grids issues such as power quality, active
and reactive power sharing, harmonic mitigation, frequency
mismatch, voltage unbalance, voltage distortions etc. Active
power control strategy based on droop control can be used to
correct frequency deviation. To reduce the harmonic content
of the system, co-control strategy can be utilized which also
improves power sharing by tuning micro-grid inverter
parameters online. A few intelligent architectures are provided
including cyber-physical systems and hybrid automata based
control. These techniques govern the operation of a distributed
grid with efficiency, reliability and safety. The safe operation
does not only depend on the control architecture but also the
protection technique used. The best types of protection for
micro-grids have the capability to communicate and provide
real-time monitoring during all modes of operation.
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