IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 4, NO.
1, MARCH 2016 93
Stability Analysis and Dynamic Performance
Evaluation of a Power Electronics-Based DC
Distribution System With Active Stabilizer
Mehdi Karbalaye Zadeh, Roghayeh Gavagsaz-Ghoachani, Serge Pierfederici,
Babak Nahid-Mobarakeh, Senior Member, IEEE, and Marta Molinas, Member, IEEE
Abstract— The stability of dc microgrids is influenced by
the nonlinear behavior of the converter-controlled loads with
constant power characteristics. This nonlinear dynamic, in line
with reduced size input filters used in the embedded power
distribution of transportation systems, has a degrading effect
on the dynamic performance and stability of the system. This
paper presents the complete stability analysis of a dc distribution
system composed of power electronics-based source and load.
For this objective, a discrete-time dynamic model is developed
and is applied to the studied system. Here, for the first time,
the dynamic effect of the load controller is taken into the
system model. In the studied system, the load converter is
connected in cascade with the rest of the system, and is equipped
with an input LC filter, representing a common distributed
architecture for the transportation applications. The controller
of the source converter employs an active stabilizer to extend
the stability margin of the system. This stabilizer uses high-
pass-filtered voltage of the dc bus following with a proportional
compensator. The dynamic behavior of the controller and the
stabilizer is experimented through a series of laboratory tests.
Different load dynamics are implemented to demonstrate the
impact of slow and fast load dynamics on the stability of the
system.
Index Terms— DC–DC power converters, power electronics,
power system dynamics, stability analysis, transportation.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A CTIVE dc power systems are embedded in hybrid
ac/dc networks, in the form of dc microgrids, providing
the efficient and reliable energy distribution [1], [2]. The
dc microgrids facilitate integrating the emerging dc renewable
Manuscript received May 17, 2015; revised August 19, 2015; accepted
September 17, 2015. Date of publication September 29, 2015; date of current
version January 29, 2016. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor
Johan H. R. Enslin.
M. Karbalaye Zadeh is with the Department of Electric Power Engineering,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7491,
Norway (e-mail: mehdi.zadeh@ntnu.no).
R. Gavagsaz-Ghoachani, S. Pierfederici, and B. Nahid-Mobarakeh are with
the Groupe de Recherche en Électrotechnique et Électronique de Nancy, Ecole
Nationale Supérieure d’Electricité et de Mécanique, Université de Lorraine,
Nancy 54000, France (e-mail: roghayeh.gavagsazghoachani@univ-lorraine.fr;
serge.pierfederici@univ-lorraine.fr; babak.nahidmobarakeh@univ-lorraine.fr).
M. Molinas is with the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7491, Norway (e-mail:
marta.molinas@elkraft.ntnu.no).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JESTPE.2015.2484218
2168-6777 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
energy sources, e.g., photovoltaic and fuel cell, or energy stor-
age devices, e.g., battery and supercapacitor, as well as modern
power electronic loads, by eliminating the redundant energy
conversion [3], [4]. Moreover, the development of dc micro-
grids can overcome the practical issues of ac networks,
such as frequency synchronization, reactive power flow, inrush
current of transformers, and current harmonics [5], [6].
Therefore, such small-scale dc power systems, namely, dc
nanogrid, are introduced as key technologies for the smart grid
development toward embracing more distributed renewable
sources, and providing higher efficiency power distribution to
future building electric systems [7]–[12].
In addition to the smart grid applications, dc microgrid is
an optimized solution for the next generation transportation
systems, such as electric ships, more electric aircraft (MEA),
and advanced automotive systems [13]–[17]. In this direc-
tion, mechanical actuators in aircrafts are replaced by
converter-controlled electric drives, which are supplied by a
dc microgrid [18]. However, the stability of dc power systems
is a major concern, due to the nonlinear characteristics of the
power electronics systems, which can lead to unstable oscilla-
tions propagating in the dc system [19]. These oscillations may
be initiated either by the interactions between the controllers
and the nonlinear switching effect of the converters [20] or
by the constant power dynamic of tightly regulated active
loads [21]. Such loads are usually controlled by pulsewidth
modulated (PWM) inverters or dc–dc converters connected
in cascade to the rest of the system. The control bandwidth
of such load converters is sufficiently high to ensure that
the regulated load power is not influenced by fluctuations in
dc bus voltage [17]. In stability studies, such power electronic-
based loads have been usually simplified as constant power
load (CPL), introducing negative impedance characteristics at
the load terminals [21]–[30]. Though this model is valid for the
overall stability of the system, dynamic of the load converter
is still not considered.
The schematic of a dc microgrid is shown in Fig. 1. In such
distribution systems, LC filters are added to the point of load
converters, not only to reject the load oscillations, but also to
meet power quality standards considering the harmonic effects
and electromagnetic interference [31]. The stability of CPL,
in a large extent, depends on the input filter. Therefore, to
meet the stability requirements, designers usually use big filter
94 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2016
Fig. 1. Schematic of a dc distribution system for transportation applications.
capacitors, when inductance cannot be reduced as it is defined
by the length of the wire.
However, the increased capacitance is not preferred,
particularly for MEA, where size and weight of the system
components should be minimized. To control the degrading
effect of CPLs, several techniques have been proposed, such
as passive damping, virtual capacitor and resistor, and active
stabilization [32]–[36]. The damping of converter-fed electric
drive has been increased by adding resistance to the input filter,
but this solution is not applicable for transportation systems
because of the power losses on the filter resistance [32], [33].
Linear and nonlinear active stabilization methods are reported
in [34]–[36].
In [34], the system damping is increased by adding a
virtual capacitance to the controller. In this method, the control
structure is modified to establish a nonlinear control stabilizer
system. This, consequently, increases the complexity of the
control system. A nonlinear centralized active stabilizer, for
global stability of a dc microgrid, was proposed in [35].
However, the centralized approach needs a large amount of
data processing [37]. A distributed load-side stabilizer is
presented in [36] as a multiagent approach. In that work, an
individual linear compensator is used for each load.
In [22], we proposed a source-side stabilizer to increase the
maximum stable power supplied by a dc–dc buck converter to
a CPL. This stabilizer is implemented with a simple structure
and uses high-pass-filtered voltage of the dc bus. Here, unlike
the previous research, the stabilizer is implemented on the
source converter. This is advantageous over the load-side
techniques, since it is not affected by the load controllers.
Moreover, this method does not change or modify the control
structure, and hence, it can be added as a stabilizing block
to different types of controllers (i.e., linear or nonlinear).
The application of the proposed method is also generalized
to a multiload dc power system in [19]. In that work, the
system model is established based on the proposed discrete-
time method, and the asymptotic stability of the dc distribution
system is then analyzed using the system eigenvalues. The
impact of the filter sizing on the critical power is also studied,
and the stabilizer is used to compensate the degrading effect
of the reduced size filter. However, the dynamics of the load
controllers are still not taken into the system analysis, since
the load model is reduced to an ideal CPL.
In this paper, for the first time, the load converter is
taken into the discrete-time model of the system, in order
to study the effect of the load controller on the dynamic
performance and the stability of the system. Therefore, using
the proposed model, a more accurate pattern of stability can
be achieved. On the other hand, the dynamic behavior of
the system is analyzed with the bifurcation diagrams. Using
the complete model of the system, the qualitative studies
with the bifurcation analysis can demonstrate how the char-
acteristics of the system change as a function of a control
parameter.
The proposed model is applied to a simple cascade archi-
tecture, comprised of a source converter regulating the dc bus
voltage, a load converter, and an input filter. It is regarded
a generic system configuration for the dc distribution sys-
tems, particularly for transportation applications. The studied
system includes the main elements of distributed system
architecture, and can be generalized to any such dc systems,
which can represent many applications, e.g., local dc power
systems in MEA or battery-fed dc–dc converters in electric
vehicles.
One main objective of this paper is to identify the unstable
operating points and the root cause of instabilities under vari-
ation of control parameters. For this objective, the state-space
model of the complete system is established using an exact
discrete-time method developed for PWM converters [38].
After developing the system model, the Jacobian matrix of the
system is used to calculate the discrete-time eigenvalues [39],
and system bifurcations are also studied using a discrete
Poincare formulation [40]. The dynamic behavior of the
system can then be studied using bifurcation diagrams, and
the asymptotic stability of the system is investigated using the
eigenvalues.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The studied
system, the controller, and the stabilizer are described
in Section II. Section III analyzes the dynamic performance
and the stability of the system, where stable and unstable
operating points are predicted. In Section IV, the laboratory
experiments are used to study the performance of the stabilizer
and the dynamic effect of slow and fast loads. Finally, we
conclude this paper in Section V.
II. S YSTEM R EPRESENTATION AND C ONTROLLER
An electrical diagram of the studied system is shown
in Fig. 2. The source converter is a buck dc–dc converter,
which supplies the dc bus with a regulated voltage Vs . The
load converter is a boost dc–dc converter cascade connected
to the dc grid through an input LC filter. In this scheme, the
filter represents either input filter of the load converter or stray
inductance of the cable.
The parameters r f , C f , and L f are the resistance, capac-
itance, and inductance of the filter, respectively; C is the
dc bus capacitance; L 1 and r1 are the series inductance and
resistance of the source converter; and L 2 and r2 indicate the
inductance and resistance of the load converter. A dc source
provides dc voltage Ve . Here, i L 1 , i L 2 , and i dc are inductor
current of the source, load current, and dc current, respectively.
Vs , Vcf , and Vo are dc bus voltage, filter voltage, and the output
voltage of load converter, respectively. The system model is
KARBALAYE ZADEH et al.: STABILITY ANALYSIS AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION 95

Fig. 2. Electric diagram of the studied dc power system.

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the control system.

then described by the differential equations of the physical f s : switching frequency), and are used to generate the control
system as follows: commands.
⎧ The measured and sampled values of the system currents
⎪
⎪
di L 1
=
1
(u s · Ve − Vs − r1 · i L 1 ) and voltages are given in the form of i L 1 _mes , i L 2 _mes , i dc_mes ,
⎨
dt L1 Vs_mes , Vcf_mes , and Vo_mes with mes referred to measured
(1)
⎪
⎪ d Vs 1 values. The load controller regulates its output power P.
⎩ = (i L 1 − i dc )
Hence, the power control block translates the reference load
⎧ dt C
⎪
⎪
di dc 1 power Pref to a reference current [i 2,ref = (Pref /Vcf_mes )]
⎨ dt = L (Vs − Vcf − r f · i dc ) used by the load’s current controller. Reference current of the
f
(2)
⎪
⎪ d V cf 1 source converter is generated by the voltage controller. The
⎩ = (i dc − i L 2 ) voltage controller is functioned to regulate the dc bus voltage
dt Cf
⎧ by a PI compensator as follows:
⎪ di L 2 1
⎪
⎨ dt = L (Vcf − r2 · i L 2 − (1 − u l )Vo )
2 K iv
  (3) Cv (s) = K pv + . (4)
⎪
⎪ d V 1 Vo s
⎩ o = (1 − u l )i L 2 − .
dt Co R Both source and load current controllers are designed based
on a switching surface depending on the current error. It forces
the inductor current, by driving the system trajectories to a
A. Voltage and Current Controller
desired surface. The block diagram of the source controller and
The block diagram of the control system is shown in Fig. 3. the stabilizer are shown in Fig. 4, and the current controller
The source controller is comprised of a voltage control loop, of the load converter is presented in Fig. 5: K i1 and λ1 are
a current control loop, and the stabilizer. The voltage controller control coefficients of the source; K i2 and λ2 are the control
uses a linear proportional–integral (PI) compensator. The coefficients related to the load controller. The calculation of the
current controller is established based on the indirect sliding- control coefficients is detailed in [43]. These coefficients allow
mode approach, and the control command is derived from tuning the dynamic response of the controller. K i1 and K i2
equivalent control law [41], [42]. The converter controllers define the bandwidth of the source and the load controller,
are implemented in digital form to be applied to a dSPACE respectively. By applying the desired switching surface, the
digital control card in the laboratory. duty cycle is derived and is used to generate the switching
Then, the control variables are sampled by a sam- command. Here, Ds and Dl are the duty cycle of the source
pling rate equal to the switching frequency (T = (1/ f s ), and the load converter, respectively.
96 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2016
Fig. 4. Block diagram of the source controller and the stabilizer.
Fig. 5. Current controller of the load converter.
B. Stabilization System
The stabilizer is implemented based on a high-pass filter
followed by a proportional compensator. This filter enables
preserving the system dynamics while rejecting the voltage
oscillations. Then, an additional duty cycle is produced by the
stabilizer, which is used to damp the system oscillations. Here,
the cutoff frequency of the filter is ωsf , which corresponds to
the voltage oscillations. K stab is stabilizer’s gain, which will be
tuned with respect to the dynamic and transient performance
of the system. Finally, the stabilizing duty cycle Dstab is
added to the main duty cycle of the current controller D0
(see Fig. 4). The switching command (u s ) is then generated
through a PWM.
III. S TABILITY A NALYSIS
The stability of the dc power system, as shown in Fig. 2,
is analyzed in this section. For this objective, a discrete-time
state-space model of the complete system is developed based
on the discrete-time method that we first proposed in [22].
Here, both the source and the load dynamics are taken into
the system model. Consequently, the Jacobian matrix of the dc
power system is established, and the system’s eigenvalues are
calculated: the eigenvalues are used to identify the stable and
unstable operating points. The stability pattern of the system
can then be derived based on the stable and unstable operating
points. Moreover, the dynamic behavior of the system is stud-
ied using the bifurcation analysis [44]. Bifurcation diagrams
are used for qualitative studies of changes in the system’s
characteristics as a function of a bifurcation parameter, which
may be a passive element or a control parameter [45], [46].
Here, the control parameters, including the load
power (Pref ) and the control bandwidth of the source and
load converters (K i1 and K i2 ), are the bifurcation parameters.
The dynamic properties of the dc power system can then
be investigated as the function of the control bandwidth.
TABLE I
VALUES OF THE S YSTEM C OMPONENTS AND C ONTROL PARAMETERS
Different case studies are carried out to study the effect
of different control parameters on the system stability. The
values of the filter parameters as well as the parameters
of the outer loop control, such as K pv and K iv , are given
in Table I.
A. Bifurcation Analysis
A bifurcation corresponds to the loss of system stability in a
specific operating point, which is called bifurcation point [40].
Beyond this point, the system variables bifurcate, as imposed
by the system dynamics [40]. Here, the bifurcation diagrams
are derived from the sufficient data sets of the state variables
resulting from the analytical model of the system. This is
repeated for the different values of the bifurcation parameter.
The dynamic analysis is performed in two cases: 1) with the
change of the load power Pref and 2) with changing the control
bandwidth.
1) Effect of the Load Power: As the first step, the reference
power of the load converter Pref is changed, and the system
dynamic is studied with the bifurcation maps. In this paper,
the parameters of the source converter’s current controller
are set to K i1 = λ1 = 1500: the control parameters of the
source converter are K i2 = λ2 = 4000, and the stabilizer
is initially deactivated (K stab = 0). The bifurcation diagrams
for the inductor currents of the source converter (i L 1 ) and
the load converter (i L 2 ) are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b),
respectively. When the reference power exceeds a certain
KARBALAYE ZADEH et al.: STABILITY ANALYSIS AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION 97

Fig. 6. Bifurcation diagram of the currents with the variation of Pref , Fig. 7. Bifurcation diagram of the currents with the variation of Pref ,
without stabilizer (K stab = 0). (a) Inductor current of the source converter i L 1 . with stabilizer (K stab = 4). (a) Inductor current of the source converter i L 1 .
(b) Inductor current of the load converter i L 2 . (b) Inductor current of the load converter i L 2 .

value, namely, critical power P0 , bifurcation occurs and the

system loses the stability. In this case, the critical power is
observed ∼600 W. Beyond this point (Pref > P0 ), limit cycle
oscillations appear in the bifurcation map. This phenomenon
corresponds to Hopf or Neimark bifurcation [44]. Then, the
stabilizing signal is enabled with K stab = 4, and the system
model is established with the same control parameters as the
previous study. Again, the system variables result from the
system model, and bifurcation maps of the inductor currents
are shown in Fig. 7. By enabling the stabilizer, the bifurcation
point moves forward toward the reference power, and the Fig. 8. Bifurcation diagram of the inductor current i L 1 with the change
new critical power appears ∼1100 W. This confirms that the of K i1 , Pref = 700 W, K i2 = 4000, and K stab = 0.
maximum stable power delivered by the dc system is increased
by enabling the stabilizer.
2) Effect of the Control Bandwidth: As the next step of
analysis, the effect of the control parameters of the source
and load converters on the dynamic behavior of the system
is investigated using the bifurcation maps. In this case, the
reference power is fixed at Pref = 700 W, and the stabilizer
is deactivated (K stab = 0). First, the control parameter of the
source controller K i1 is changed, which defines the bandwidth
of the current controller. The controller of the source converter
is designed such that the bandwidth of the voltage controller
is sufficiently lower than the current controller. Therefore, the
dynamics of the system are defined by the current controller. Fig. 9. Bifurcation diagram of the inductor current i L 1 with the change
of K i2 , Pref = 700 W, K i1 = 1500, and K stab = 0.
In this case, the bifurcation map of the source current is shown
in Fig. 8. It is observed that the stability margin of the system
can be increased by increasing the control bandwidth of the Second, the bandwidth of the load controller K i2 is changed
source converter. However, the increased bandwidth is not as the bifurcation parameter. The effect of increasing the load
recommended because of its negative effect on the transient converter’s control bandwidth is investigated with the bifur-
behavior of the system. cation map, as shown in Fig. 9. As seen from the map, the
98 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2016
Fig. 10. Stability pattern of the system with the change of K i2 and Pref :
K i1 = 2000 and K stab = 0. Black circles: stable operating points.
Red crosses: unstable operating points.
Fig. 11. Stability pattern of the system with the change of Pref and K i2 :
K i1 = 1500 and K stab = 0. Black circles: stable operating points.
Red crosses: unstable operating points.
Fig. 12. Stability pattern of the system with the change of Pref and K i2 :
K i1 = 1500, with the stabilizer (K stab = 4). Black circles: stable operating
points. Red crosses: unstable operating points. The maximum stable power is
increased by ∼80%, compared with the case without stabilizer.
faster load controller has the opposite effect from the source
controller. It means that the stability margin of the system is
reduced by increasing the bandwidth of the load controller.
In fact, the very fast load controller behaves like CPL [22].
B. Eigenvalue Analysis
The asymptotic stability of the system is analytically
investigated through the identification of instabilities in the
steady state of the system: eigenvalues of the system’s
Fig. 13. Stability pattern of the system with the change of Pref and K stab :
K i1 = 1500 and K i2 = 3500. Black circles: stable operating points.
Red crosses: unstable operating points.
Fig. 14. Experimental setup.
Jacobian matrix are calculated; then, stable and unstable
operating points are identified, and are used to draw the
stability pattern of the system [39]. In this paper, the system
analysis is repeated with changing the reference power of
the load converter (Pref ). The influence of the load controller
is also studied with the change of the control bandwidth.
Three different scenarios are investigated corresponding to
three different sets of control parameters.
In the first scenario, the bandwidth of the source controller
is fixed at K i1 = λ1 = 2000 and the stabilizer gain K stab = 0.
In this case, the bandwidth of the source is relatively high,
namely, fast controller. The dynamic of the load controller then
changes from K i2 = 3400 to K i2 = 5400, and the stability
pattern results, as shown in Fig. 10. The stable and unstable
operating points are shown with black circles and red crosses,
respectively. The stability pattern has two variables, such as
reference power Pref and K i2 . This is observed that lower
load power can be controlled in the system with faster load
controller. However, the change of the stability margin for
different control bandwidths is not uniform, since the system
model is nonlinear.
In the second scenario, the bandwidth of the source con-
troller is reduced to K i1 = λ1 = 1500 (and K stab = 0).
In this case, the controller’s dynamic is similar to the study
of Section III-A. Again, the stability pattern of the system
results from the eigenvalues, with the change of Pref and K i2 ,
as shown in Fig. 11. This is observed that the stability margin
of the system is reduced for all the values of K i2 , compared
KARBALAYE ZADEH et al.: STABILITY ANALYSIS AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION 99

Fig. 16. Experimentally generated phase portrait of system variables

i L 1 and vs with the change of Pref , without stabilizer (K stab = 0). (a) Stable
Fig. 15. Experimental waveforms of voltage and currents with behavior with the fast load dynamic. (b) Instability with slow load dynamic.
Pref = 500 W → 1000 and without stabilizer (K stab = 0). (a) Fast load
dynamic. (b) Slow load dynamic. The system loses stability with the slow
load ramp, while the fast load ramp prevents the system from the unstable
oscillations.

with the pattern of Fig. 10. In fact, the system dynamic

is associated with the ratio of the bandwidth of the source
controller with those of the load controller (K i2 /K i1 ). This
means that when the load bandwidth is sufficiently higher than
the source controller, lower power can be delivered to the load
through the dc power system. However, the control bandwidths
of the load converters are practically much higher than the
source, in order to make the regulated load power independent
of the dc bus oscillations. Therefore, this is important to
consider the fast load controllers.
Experimental step response of the source current. Results
are compared in the case of without stabilizer( ) and with
stabilizer with different values of . (a) Dynamic oscillations.
(b) Transientresponse.
In the third scenario, the stabilization signal is applied to Fig. 17. Experimentally generated phase portrait of system variables
the controller, in order to increase the stability margin of i L 1 and vs with the change of Pref , with stabilizer (K stab = 4). (a) Fast
load dynamic. (b) Slow load dynamic.
the system. Then, the second control scenario is repeated
with K stab = 4 (K i1 = λ1 = 1500). Again, the stability IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
pattern of the system is constructed, and is shown in Fig. 12.
In this case, the stable load power is increased for all the The dynamic behavior of the studied system is tested on a
values of K i2 . This was predicted by the bifurcation diagram laboratory setup, including the source and the load converters,
for a single control parameter. as shown in Fig. 14. The source converter is fed by a program-
Finally, the effect of the stabilizer gain on the critical power mable dc source supplying the dc voltage Ve . The maximum
is investigated using the stability pattern of the system, as current delivered by the source is limited to 10 A. The con-
shown in Fig. 13. In this paper, the reference power Pref and verters are built with Semikron trench insulated-gate bipolar
the stabilizer gain K stab change, while the control bandwidth transistor, and the converter controllers are implemented
is constant: K i1 = 1500 and K i2 = 3500. According to the with a dSPACE real-time processor (DS1103). The switching
system analysis, the critical power is increased by increasing frequency is 10 kHz, and the sampling rate of the controller
the stabilizer gain. The qualitative behavior of the stabilizer is is equal to the switching frequency. In the measurement unit,
studied using the laboratory tests in Section IV. the wide frequency Tektronix current probes are used with
100 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2016
Fig. 18. Experimental step response of the source current. Results are compared in the case of without stabilizer (K stab = 0) and with stabilizer with different
values of K stab . (a) Dynamic oscillations. (b) Transient response.
the bandwidth up to 100 MHz. Then, the PWM command
is generated by dSPACE. In the experimental circuit, a buck
dc converter is used as the source converter, and a boost dc
converter acts as the load converter. An LC filter is added to
the point of the load converter in order to reduce the harmonic
effects. The load converter (boost converter) regulates its
output power with the capability of dynamic changes, to
emulate the constant power dynamic of the load. Stepwise and
ramped changes are implemented in the reference power of the
load, allowing slow and fast load changes. The parameters of
the system components used for the experimental tests are the
same as those used for the simulations.
A series of experimental tests is performed to study the
system dynamics: the impact of fast and slow load change
on the dynamic behavior of the system is studied, the experi-
mental analysis is repeated with the stabilization system, and
the influence of the stabilizer’s gain K stab on the dynamic and
transient behavior of the system is investigated.
In the first test, the stabilizer is switched OFF, and the
reference power of the load converter is formed to simulate
the desired load dynamic. The voltage of the dc bus is fixed
at Vsref = 150 V. The reference power is increased abruptly
from a stable operating point Pref = 500 W to an unstable
operating point Pref = 1000 W, and is reduced back to the
initial value with a ramp. The slope of the decreasing ramp
defines how the dynamic of the load power is fast.
First, a fast ramp is applied to the load power, and the sys-
tem response is shown in Fig. 15(a). The green line (P) shows
the reference power. i dc , i L 2 , and vs are dc current, inductor
current of the load, and dc voltage oscillation, respectively. The
dc part of voltage Vs is removed, and only the voltage oscilla-
tion (vs ) is kept, for better visibility. As shown in Fig. 15(a),
the fast load change prevents the system characteristics from
the limit cycle oscillations. Therefore, the system stays stable,
and the power controller follows the reference without failure.
Second, the same step (Pref = 500 W → 1000 W) is applied
with a slow reducing ramp, and the system response is shown
in Fig. 15(b): obviously, the system loses the stability. In fact,
a large disturbance can destabilize the system variables if it
remains for the sufficient time duration.
For the given scenario, the experimental phase portraits are
also used to study the trajectory of state variables i L 1 and vs as
a function of the load power P. In Fig. 16(a), the experimental
data are used to draw the 3-D phase portrait for the case of
fast load change, corresponding to Fig. 15(a). In this case,
the system trajectory moves toward a spiral pattern, and then
settles down in the vicinity of the stable operating point.
On the contrary, Fig. 16(b) shows the experimental phase
portrait for the slow load change, corresponding to the exper-
iment of Fig. 15(b). Here, the state of the system moves from
a stable equilibrium point to unstable limit cycle oscillations,
and cannot move back to the stable point. In other words, the
system trajectory has a torus limit cycle attractor, meaning
that the trajectory is attracted to periodic orbits on a torus
surface [44]. The periodic orbits in Fig. 16(b) correspond to
Hopf or Neimark bifurcation, as predicted by the bifurcation
map in the section III (see Fig. 6).
Finally, the stabilizer is activated with K stab = 4, and the
experimental tests are repeated with Pref = 500 W → 1000 W,
as shown in Fig. 17: the system trajectory for the fast load
change is presented in Fig. 17(a), and the result of the slow
load change is shown in Fig. 17(b). Clearly, the system
trajectory undergoes transients and moves back to a stable
equilibrium, for the two cases. The experimental results are in
agreement with the bifurcation analysis.
As the next laboratory test, we investigate the performance
of the stabilizer and the influence of changing the gain K stab on
system transients. For this objective, the load power is changed
stepwise from Pref = 500 W → 1000 W, and the performance
of the controller is compared with and without stabilizer. The
experimental data are used to plot the waveform of the inductor
current (i L 1 ), as shown in Fig. 18.
First, the stabilizer gain (K stab ) is set to zero, and the
system gets unstable oscillations, which is shown by the
blue dashed line. Then, the stabilizer is activated, and
the experiment is repeated with different stabilizer gains:
K stab = 2.25, 4, and 5.5. According to the experimental
results, the system can tolerate the load change, and the current
oscillations are damped.
However, the system damping and the frequency of
oscillations depend on K stab . Therefore, adjusting K stab
allows achieving sufficient overshoot and settling time.
Indeed, a higher K stab provides a relatively higher stability
margin. However, the increased gain increases the over-
shoot, which should be limited to meet the quality standards.
This also increases the transient energy and power.
KARBALAYE ZADEH et al.: STABILITY ANALYSIS AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Consequently, an optimal gain should be adjusted based on
the load properties.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented the stability analysis of a dc power
system for transportation applications: the influence of the
load characteristics, control parameters, and the stabilization
system on the dynamic behavior of the dc system has been
studied using the theoretical and experimental analyses. In the
theoretical analysis, the dynamic behavior of the system has
been investigated using bifurcation diagrams as well as an
analytical stability pattern of the system eigenvalues. Here,
the dynamic model of the load converter has been taken into
the system analysis. The proposed method has been applied
to a simple dc distribution system with a cascade architecture,
as a generic system model.
According to the theoretical results, the stability margin and
the dynamic performance of the system are influenced by both
source and load controllers. Faster load reduces the stable
power, while faster source controller increases the stability
margin. Load shaping is also an important factor, which
influences the load dynamics and, consequently, the stability
of the system, as has been validated by the laboratory tests.
Moreover, the impact of the stabilizer on the system stability
has been investigated in the steady state and transients. Based
on the experimental results, the stabilizer gain can be adjusted
to provide the required system damping. This defines the tran-
sient characteristics of the system response, such as overshoot
and settling time.
The stability margin of the system may also be affected
by multiloads in larger microgrids. However, the dynamic
behavior of the system is mainly influenced by the interaction
between the source and the load converter. In the proposed
model, the main system components are included into the
discrete-time model of the system. Therefore, the stability
analysis performed in this paper can be generalized to larger
microgrids with multiple loads.
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Mehdi Karbalaye Zadeh received the M.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the University of
Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 2010. He is currently pur-
suing the Ph.D. degree with the Department of
Electric Power Engineering, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
His current research interests include control and
stability analysis of power electronic systems, smart
grid, and dc power distribution.
Roghayeh Gavagsaz-Ghoachani received the
M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Nancy,
France, in 2007, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the Université de Lorraine, Nancy,
in 2012.
She is currently a Researcher with the Groupe
de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique
de Nancy, Université de Lorraine, and also an
Associate Professor with the Department of
Renewable Energies, Shahid Beheshti University,
Tehran, Iran. Her current research interests include the stability study and
control of power electronics systems.
Serge Pierfederici received the Dipl.-Ing.
degree in electrical engineering from the Institu
National Polytechnique de Lorraine (INPL), Ecole
Nationale Supérieure d’Electricité et de Mécanique,
Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France, in 1994, and
the Ph.D. degree from INPL, in 1998.
He has been with INPL since 1999, where he
is currently a Full Professor. His current research
interests include stability study of distributed
power systems and modeling and control of power
electronic converters.
Babak Nahid-Mobarakeh (M’05–SM’12) received
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Nancy,
France, in 2001.
He was with the Centre de Robotique,
Electrotechnique et Automatique, University of
Picardie, Amiens, France, as an Assistant Professor,
from 2001 to 2006. In 2006, he joined the
Ecole Superieure d’Electricite et de Mecanique,
Université de Lorraine, Nancy, where he is currently
an Associate Professor. He is also with the Groupe
de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique de Nancy. He has authored
or co-authored over 100 international journals and conference papers. His
current research interests include nonlinear and robust control techniques
applied to electric systems, fault detection and fault tolerant control of power
systems, and stabilization of microgrids.
Marta Molinas (M’94) received the Diploma
degree in electromechanical engineering from
the National University of Asuncion, Asuncion,
Paraguay, in 1992, the M.Eng. degree from
Ryukyu University, Okinawa, Japan, in 1997, and
the D.Eng. degree from the Tokyo Institute of
Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 2000.
She was a Guest Researcher with the
University of Padua, Padua, Italy, in 1998. From
2004 to 2007, she was a Post-Doctoral Researcher
with the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, and a Professor with the
Department of Electric Power Engineering, NTNU, from 2008 to 2014.
In 2014, she was with Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, where
she was involved in microgrids for developing regions. She is currently with
the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU, as a Full Professor.
From 2008 to 2009, she was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Research Fellow for ten months with the Energy Technology Research
Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology,
Tsukuba, Japan. Her current research interests include stability of power
electronics systems, harmonic and oscillatory phenomena, and nonstationary
signals from human and machines.
Dr. Molinas has been an AdCom Member of the IEEE Power Electronics
Society. She is a Reviewer of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL
E LECTRONICS and the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON P OWER E LECTRONICS .