2023 IEEE International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2023 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power
Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS Europe) | 979-8-3503-4743-2/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/EEEIC/ICPSEUROPE57605.2023.10194829
Frequency Stability Enhancement in Low-Inertia
Power System Using an Optimal Control Scheme
Ola Ali, Student Member IEEE and Osama A. Mohammed, Fellow IEEE
Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Florida International University
Miami, Fl 33174, USA
oali009@fiu.edu, mohammed@fiu.edu
Abstract— Power system dynamics have significantly changed
with the global integration of renewable energy sources (RESs).
Traditionally, the stored kinetic energy is used for compensating
the generation mismatch using the rotating mass of the
Synchronous Generators (SGs). With the increase in RESs
penetration, SGs are being replaced by inverter-based RESs
generation systems which are decoupled from the power systems
through power converters. Therefore, the total inertia of the
system has decreased, and the system's stability is significantly
impacted as the value of the rate of change of frequency
(ROCOF) and frequency deviations will be increased. To
overcome these challenges, inertia emulation from various
energy storage systems (ESS) is used to act as a virtual source of
inertia power. This work presents an isolated microgrid (MG)
that includes conventional power generation sources and RESs,
and an optimal virtual inertia (VI) control loop is proposed for
frequency stability enhancement. Supercapacitors (SC) bank
with a PID controller presents the VI control loop and acts as a
supplementary source for inertia power to support the
frequency stability of the system. A genetic algorithm (GA) is
used as an optimization technique to get the optimal values of
the PID controller gains. The performance of the islanded MG
with the proposed optimal control scheme is examined under
different operating conditions with varying levels of RESs
penetration and system parameters uncertainties. The proposed
technique showed its effectiveness and robustness over the
system’s operation without VI control for keeping the system
stable under different operating conditions.
Keywords—Renewable energy sources (RESs), Rate of change of
frequency (ROCOF), Virtual Inertia Control (VI), Energy storage
systems (ESS), Genetic algorithm (GA)
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the share of renewable energy sources (RESs) in
electricity generation has increased due to the advantages of
having no carbon emissions, being a clean source, being
widely available, and being environmentally friendly.
However, variations and uncertainty in RES such as solar and
wind energy can have drawbacks to the operation and stability
of power systems. By replacing the conventional power
sources based on synchronous generators (SGs) in operation
with inverter-based RESs, the power system will be
considered a low-inertia power system as these resources do
not share in the total inertia of the system [1].
Inverter-based power generation systems are decoupled
from the power system. They cannot support the inertia of the
system. For example, photovoltaic generation systems (PV)
require power electronic converters to integrate with the grid
or work in an islanded mode to feed loads, this source of
power does not offer inertia to the connected system. In
A grant from the US Department of Energy grant # DE-NA0004016 and the National
Science Foundation grant#2113880 partially supported this work. The authors are
with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International
University, Miami, FL, USA. (e-mail: mohammed@fiu.edu)
979-8-3503-4743-2/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE
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addition, power generation based on wind energy needs power
converters that decouple the existing inertia in the wind
turbine from the grid. With high penetration of renewable
energy sources RESs, fluctuation in the connected load
demand, and the unpredictable changes in the environmental
conditions that affect the generation level of the RESs, the
power system stability will be badly impacted. Therefore, the
reduction in the value of the power system's inertia
significantly increases the rate of change of frequency
(ROCOF) and frequency deviation (∆F) in a short time which
affects the frequency response and its stability in the power
system [2]. The load frequency control (LFC) in power
systems works to improve the system frequency oscillations
regarding any sudden change that happens or disturbances
during the power system operation to keep the system
frequency at its rated value (50Hz or 60Hz).
In conventional power systems, SG regulates the
frequency stability with the stored kinetic energy in its rotating
parts. However, with high penetration of renewables, the
inertia of the power system will be decreased. It cannot
overcome the change in frequency after any contingency event
(an unexpected loss of generation or load). The frequency
nadir (the lowest point of frequency) rises with less inertia, for
the frequency nadir increases with the power generation from
RES increases [3]. From the power system stability point of
view, the low-inertia power systems have drawbacks in the
forms of having high ROCOF which leads to the trip of the
protection relay, and having a high-frequency nadir, which
leads to unintentional load shedding.
Different control techniques are required to improve the
system's total inertia to enhance the frequency stability within
low-inertia power systems. Virtual inertia control is a control
method used to improve the power system's frequency
stability with high penetration of RESs. In this method of
control, the total inertia of the system can be increased
virtually by using energy storage systems (ESS) to emulate the
supporting of the inertia power of synchronous generators
during transients to ensure the system stability. Different types
of ESS have been used to support the low-inertia power
systems' frequency stability. In [4] Superconducting energy
storage system (SMES) is used for damping the frequency
fluctuations during any disturbances in the MG. Fuzzy control
for self-tuning the VI control as a control scheme was
presented in [5] to improve the frequency stability with high
penetration of RESs. Furthermore, the flywheel energy
storage system (FESS) in [6] has been used to improve the
frequency stability within an isolated MG based on different
types of distributed generators.
This paper presents an optimal Virtual inertia (VI) control
scheme to ensure frequency stability in an islanded MG that
combines both high/low inertia sources of power. A
 supercapacitor bank (SC) is used as an ESS to support the
inertia power with its fast-acting characteristics during any
sudden change in the system's operating conditions of the
system with a GA-PID controller. Modeling and simulation of
the proposed system and the control scheme have been
developed using MATLAB/SIMULINK.
II. LOAD FREQUENCY CONTROL IN POWER SYSTEMS
The power system frequency is mainly dependent on the
active power balance between the power generation and the
total load demand, with any mismatch between both of them
the frequency stability will be affected. Therefore, the
frequency deviation (∆F) can be used to monitor any
generation/load imbalance. The process of regulating the
power the from generation unit corresponding to the variation
that happens in the system to keep the frequency value at a
certain limit without any deviation from its rated value is
called load frequency control (LFC) [7].
A. Conventional power systems
In conventional power systems, the units of generators
(SGs) in each area are responsible for keeping the value of
frequency at a certain limit (50Hz or 60Hz) during the
operation by controlling the speed (acceleration or
deceleration) for compensating the power mismatch and
ensure the system stability as a primary control loop. The
secondary control loop (LFC) eliminates the system's
frequency deviation. The mathematical equation that
describes the relationship between the power generation and
the load demand in SGs based power system is well-known
as the swing-equation [7]:
∆ ∆
∆ −∆ =2 + ∆
Where H and D are the inertia and damping coefficients
of the power system, respectively. To ensure the system's
stability and eliminate any deviations in frequency, different
control loops are working in a certain sequence. The primary
control loop regulates the speed of the governor to keep the
system frequency stable, but if we use this control loop alone,
the steady-state error of the system cannot be eliminated so
the secondary control loop is used which is called system
LFC center (secondary control loop) to eliminate the
frequency deviation. Within a short time (0-10 sec) before the
operation of the primary control loop, the frequency stability
is controlled by the inertia of the rotating parts of the system
for damping any oscillations and ensuring system's stability
in high inertia power systems.
B. Low-inertia power systems
With the increase in the RESs within the power system,
the total inertia of the system has decreased as the
conventional units that are based on SGs were replaced by
inverter-based power generation units without inertia [8]. As
a result, the ROCOF and the frequency deviation (∆F) will be
increased if any contingency event occurs. The kinetic energy
stored in the rotating part of the SGs serves to control the
frequency of the system during any disturbances while
operating the system for a short period before the operation of
the primary control loop. Without the power that comes from
the stored inertia, the frequency response's nadir will increase.
There is no sharing in the total inertia of the system from the
connected RESs side.
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Therefore, there is an essential need for the emulation of
the inertia response that occurs naturally in conventional
generations in low-inertia power systems. This can be done by
providing a source of power that operates only during the
range of operation of the inertia control to act as a virtual
source of inertia that supports the system before operating the
primary control loop.
III. VIRTUAL INERTIA CONTROL IN LOW-INERTIA POWER
SYSTEMS
Virtual inertia (VI) control in low-inertia power systems
acts as a supplementary source of power that gives the
required energy that virtually emulates the power that comes
from SG inertia. This is to ensure the frequency stability of the
system within a period of operation of (0- 10sec) until the
primary control regulate the system's frequency. Energy
storage systems (ESS) can be a proper solution in low-inertia
power systems for emulating the inertia effect in low-inertia
power systems by charging/discharging during the system
operation in transients. The concept of control based on virtual
inertia is to imitate the desired inertia power from the VI
control loop from any energy storage system (ESS).
According to the swing equation (1), the system inertia
value of power is represented by the part of the power system
inertia constant H multiplied by the (ROCOF) and the
damping power part defined by the system damping
coefficient D multiplied by the frequency deviation ∆ .
Hence, to emulate the swing equation in a low-inertia power
system it is needed to use the ROCOF and ∆ as the inputs
to the VI control loop and the power that will come from the
virtual source of inertia can be described as:
(1) ∆ = + ∆ (2)
Where and are the inertia and damping coefficients
in the VI control loop, respectively. The structure of the
conventional VI control loop can be presented as shown in
Fig, 1. The inertia and damping parts are emulated by and
, respectively; their summation is the input to the ESS
model. This part is constant with any selected ESS, and based
on the selection of the ESS, its mathematical model with its
parameters will be implemented in this control loop. Based on
charging and discharging within the ESS, the frequency of the
system will be controlled to keep the system stable during any
operating conditions.
Damping power
Dsc
∆F + ESS ∆Psc
+ Model
d/dt Hsc
Inertia power
Fig. 1 Conventional VI control loop
IV. MODELING AND CONTROL OF THE PROPOSED
MICROGRID
For studying and analyzing the frequency stability in a
low-inertia power system, the dynamic model of the proposed
MG is presented in Fig.2. The studied MG includes different
sources of generation to study the frequency performance with
high penetration of renewable energy sources. The proposed
system and the proposed virtual inertia control are modeled
and simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Fig. 2 The proposed dynamic model for an isolated microgrid with the
proposed virtual inertia control
A. Modeling of the proposed islanded microgrid
The conventional power generation based on synchronous
generation is represented by a thermal non-reheat power plant
with an installed capacity of 15 MW. The renewable energy
sources (RESs) sharing in the total generation come from a
wind farm with a maximum power that can be generated equal
to 6MW and a PV system with a maximum generated power
of 4 MW. Both types of RESs have no sharing in the total
inertia of the system, hence it affects the stability of the
system, and the system is considered a low inertia power
system.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
In this part based on the proposed model, a discussion and
analysis of the frequency stability are demonstrated under
different operating conditions as in the following scenarios.
A. scenario 1
The impact of a load disturbance on the system's
performance will be tested. The frequency performance is
tested with/without the proposed virtual inertia control in this
scenario. The proposed islanded MG is tested under the
operating conditions described in Table I. The wind
generation and PV generation in this scenario are considered
as low penetration as presented in Fig. 4. Here, Fig. 5 depicts
the performance of the frequency deviation of the system
under the operating conditions listed for this scenario in the
form of comparison between the system without VI control,
with conventional VI control, and with the proposed optimal
VI control scheme. From Fig. 5, it is noticeable that the
frequency performance of the proposed model of the islanded
microgrid is enhanced by using virtual inertia control by
using the supercapacitor controlled by an optimal GA-PID
controller. In terms of decreasing the values of the maximum
overshoot, the settling time, and the frequency oscillation
compared to their values while operating without inertia
support.
TABLE I. OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR (SCENARIO 1)
Scenario 1 (Low penetration of RESs)
% Load change % PV Generation % Wind Generation

For the emulation of the inertia response in the proposed 10% 5% 3%

system, the energy storage system (ESS) is used in the form Connected at Connected at Connected at
of a supercapacitor (SC) bank of 5 MW. The load time = 100 s time = 300 s time = 600 s
consumption on the proposed system is represented by the
customers' load with a peak power of 15 MW. According to
the time-varying and highly non-linearities nature of the
power systems, modeling these types of systems can be
complicated. However, to study the frequency stability of the
power system, a frequency response model can be used as a
low-order linearized model [7].
B. Modeling of the proposed optimal virtual inertia control
This work presents an optimal control scheme for virtual
inertia control, as demonstrated in Fig. 3 by using a
supercapacitor bank controlled by a PID controller. GA is
used as an optimization technique to get the optimal values of
the PID controller parameters, integral square error (ISE) as a
fitness function is used in this work and it can be expressed as
[9]:
= (3) Fig. 4 Power profile for wind and PV generation systems (scenario 1)
GA-PID Controller Conventional VI control B. scenario 2
GA Damping power
Optimization The performance of the system is examined under
Kp Ki Kd
Control
Dsc uncertainties in the parameters of the system to show the
∆F PID Signal +
+
Supercapacitor
Bank
∆Psc behavior and the effectiveness of the proposed control
Controller Model technique. The proposed system is operating under a 50%
d/dt Hsc drop in the microgrid inertia constant . The islanded MG
is operated under the same operating conditions in scenario 1.
Inertia power
However, a change in the load's pattern as described in Fig. 6
Fig. 3 The proposed optimal VI control scheme will be used in this scenario.

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 Connection of Connection of
Load Change PV Generation Wind Generation
at t= 100 sec at t=300 sec at t=600 sec

Fig. 5 Frequency response of the MG with/without VI control (scenario 1)

As presented in Fig. 7, the proposed configuration of the
optimal VI control loop shows its effectiveness in testing the
effect of the uncertainty in the system's parameters compared
to the system without VI control and the conventional VI
control. The frequency oscillation is absorbed by
charging/discharging through the VI control loop. The system
remains stable with a fast response.
Fig. 8 Power profile for wind and PV generation systems (scenario 3)
Fig. 9 demonstrates the performance of the frequency
deviation of the system without virtual inertia control which
shows that the system will lose its stability if operates under
high penetration of RESs because the total inertia of the
system is decreased that is the reason behind using the ESS as
a virtual source of inertia power in low-inertia power systems.
With the proposed optimal VI control the system will be stable
and the frequency deviation is eliminated even with high
penetration of RESs and proving its superiority over using the
VI control in its conventional form as presented in Fig. 10.

System is stable System is unstable

(High-inertia MG) (Low-inertia MG)
Fig. 6 Load demand profile in pu (scenario 2)

Load Change at
t=100 s & t= 200 s

System response
before RESs
Connection of Connection of power sharing
PV Generation Wind Generation
Load Change at t=300 sec at t=600 sec
at t= 200 sec Fig. 9 Frequency response of the MG without VI control (scenario 3)

Fig. 7 Frequency response of the MG with/without VI control (scenario 2)

Connection of
C. scenario 3 PV Generation
at t=300 sec
In this scenario, the performance and the frequency Connection of
Load Change at Wind Generation
stability of the isolated MG are tested with high penetration of t=100 sec & t= 200 sec at t=600 sec
RESs as presented in the power profile for the wind and PV
generation systems in Fig.8. The load demand profile in this
scenario is the same as scenario 2. The islanded MG is
operated under the conditions described in Table II.
TABLE II. OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR (SCENARIO 3)

Scenario 3 (High penetration of RESs)

% Load change % PV Generation % Wind Generation

Random load change 20% 30%

Changes within t=0s Connected at Connected at

to t=1000s time = 300 s time = 600 s Fig. 10 Frequency response of the MG with VI control (scenario 3)

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 D. scenario 4
In this scenario, the impact of communication delay in the
secondary control process (LFC) will be taken into
consideration. As in actual operation, there are
communication channels that transmit the measurements and
control signals between the system and the control center as
presented in Fig. 11, and it is needed to test the effectiveness
of the proposed controller with this type of uncertainty during
operation. The system operates under the same operating
conditions as in scenario 3 while considering the
communication delay. In this study the delay time (Td = 2
sec).
Fig. 11 Representation of the time delay in the LFC system
The analysis of the proposed system without VI control
under uncertainty due to communication delay depicts that
the system will lose its stability even without RESs sharing
in power generation as shown in Fig. 12. In contrast, the
proposed control technique proves its effectiveness in
operation as presented in Fig.13. While operation with high
inertia, both conventional and optimal VI control is keeping
the system stable, however, the proposed technique has a fast
response with less frequency nadir. Moreover, with RESs
power generation the system is stable with a steady-state error
in the case of using conventional Vi control, and by using the
proposed optimal VI control, the steady-state error is
eliminated, and the system is stable while considering the
communication delay.
System is unstable System is unstable
(Low-inertia MG) (Low-inertia MG)
Fig. 12 Frequency response of the MG without VI control (scenario 4)
Connection of
PV Generation
at t=300 sec
Connection of
Load Change at Wind Generation
t=100 sec & t= 200 sec at t=600 sec
Fig. 13 Frequency response of the MG with VI control (scenario 4)
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VI. CONCLUSION
The increase in the inverter-based RESs decreases the
system's total inertia as they decoupled from the power
system. Therefore, in low-inertia power systems there is an
essential need to support the frequency stability during any
contingency events by compensating the system's transient
changes with a virtual inertia power source, and using ESS is
a proper solution. The proposed optimal VI control scheme
has shown its effectiveness and superiority over operation
without emulating the inertia effect and also over the VI
control in its conventional form.
The effectiveness of the proposed technique has been
provided under different operating conditions including
low/high RESs penetration and system parameters uncertainty
that may impact the value of the MG inertia coefficient.
Moreover, testing the system's operation with communication
delay in the LFC system has been presented. With all the
indicated influences that affect the system stability, the
proposed technique has shown its effectiveness with less
settling time, less maximum overshoot, and a noticeable
reduction in frequency oscillation. In future work, studying
the system performance and the proposed control scheme can
be assessed as a cyber-physical system through a co-
simulation platform including real-time simulation of the
power system and the communication network infrastructure.
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