Micro-grids architectures,

stability and protections

1 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 What is a Micro‐Grid?
• Small, independent power system
• Increased reliability with distributed generation
• Increase efficiency with reduced transmission length
and CHP
• Easier integration of alternative energy sources
• PROBLEM:
– Control
• Damping/Stability
• Islanding
• Load sharing
• Energy Management

2 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Components of a Microgrid
• Defining
– Multiple Distributed Generation Points
– Control System / Energy Management
• Additional
– Utility Interconnection Switch – Point of
Common Coupling (PCC)
– Energy Storage

3 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Microgrid Application
• • Communities/Neighborhoods
• Corporate/Academic Campuses
• Buildings
• Military base camps
• Naval Systems

4 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Community Microgrid
Structure

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 Corporate Building/Campus
Microgrid

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7 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 RENEWABLE Energy
Resources in microgrid
• Due to the exhaustion of conventional energy sources and growing
electricity demand, electric power systems are incorporating alternative
renewable energy sources (RESs) including photovoltaic (PV) systems,
wind energy systems, fuel cells, and micro-turbines.
• These RESs are connected to the distribution network in the form of
distributed generations (DGs).
• As the frequency of the power generated from RESs is not the same as
that of the traditional power system, power electronic converters (PECs)
are employed as interfacing devices to synchronise to the device with the
network.
• In PECs, voltage source inverters (VSIs) are used as the last step of the
conversion process to produce ac voltage.
• The VSIs regulate voltage, frequency and power output to the network
while fulfilling the grid requirements

8 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

9 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 Overview of DG Unit
• A typical DG unit consisting of an energy source, a
conversion system and an output filter.
• In the energy source block, power is converted to electric
dc form through different intermediate stages including
dc/dc conversion.
• These sources are divided into two categories, namely
renewable and non-renewable.
• Renewable sources include wind, solar, geothermal, and
biomass;
• Non-renewable sources are coal, diesel, furnace oil,
natural gas, and fuel cells

10 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

11 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 Characteristics of Microgrids
• It supervises the electrical components, such as powers, voltages and
frequencies by means of monitors.
• It has a PCC in a distribution network for connecting and disconnecting
the grid utility.
• It is a subset of LV or medium-voltage (MV) distribution networks.
• It consists of generation units, a hierarchical control approach, power
consumption places and energy storage systems.
• It facilitates an uninterrupted power supply to, at least, the highest priority
loads during a grid failure or power quality degradation.
• It has two operating modes: (1) grid-connected; and (2) islanded or
standalone (autonomous).

12 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Contd….
• • It acts as a single controllable entity from the grid perspective.
• It generates the required reference voltage and frequency in an islanded
operation.
• It is constructed in a defined location which can be in a distribution network or
remote area.
• It has the necessary protection schemes.
• It controls the power supply during both grid-connected and islanding
operations.
• It accumulates DG units, the ratings of which are less than 100 MW.
• It displays ‘plug and play’ features and ‘peer to peer’ functionality.
• It adjusts to abnormal situations (unintentional islanding or faults). Energies
2017, 10, 1300 4 of 27
• It uses local information to control the power flow of DG units.
• It can possess ac and/or dc distribution networks.
• It may provide electrical energy and thermal energy (heat and/or cool)
simultaneously.

13 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Grid-Connected Operation
• The aim of the grid-connected inverter is to export controllable power with
the established voltage.
• The generated power is controlled by the in-phase current component which
is proportional to the network power demand.
• The supervisory controller (SC), receiving power demand information from
short-term/long-term prediction values, operates DG units either in a
constant power output or in a load-following manner

14 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Grid Connected Converter
• Figure shows a block diagram of a grid-connected inverter control
strategy, where the closed-loop current controller enables output
power delivery by calculating an error signal from
measured and commanded signals.
• The reference current is determined from the set values of the
controller.
• Each inverter is responsible for controlling its output current and
power according to a power demand set by the supervisory
controller.
• The inverter power quality can be influenced by the background
network harmonics.
• However, the quality can be improved by properly designing the
controller and filter

15 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 • Some of the desired features of the inner-loop
current control are as follows:
– Accurate current control;
– High bandwidth;
– Fast dynamic response, 4–6 times faster than that
of the outer voltage controller;
– Low current distortion, and filter resonance
damping.

16 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Islanded Operation
• The lack of the grid utility supply to a microgrid operation
necessitates establishing the reference
voltage and frequency. Therefore, DG units operated in
an islanded microgrid are responsible for ensuring the
reference voltage and frequency, which are the main
functions of the inverters
• Shortcomming
• The absence of a current control can lead to a large transient
current that may damage semiconductor components during faults.
• The voltage measurement across the capacitor may not provide
accurate information regarding the network.

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18 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 • Considering the drawback of a simple VSI control, an alternative
cascaded control strategy (both the voltage and current controls) can be
applied shown in Figure 4.
• The response time of the current control loop, forming round the
inductor, is comparatively lower than the voltage control loop, which
facilitates faster current control response.
• The advantage of this strategy is that excessive current can
be limited in the voltage control loop.
• The reference current provided from the voltage control loop can
be also used in other parallel modules as a reference current for power
sharing purposes.
• In this case,the plants should be in close proximity; otherwise,
communication lines with a bandwidth 100 kb/s
are required to retain a controller performance [19].

19 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 • If the voltage controller alone is used in the inner-loop control, some
of the desired characteristics
are expected as follows:
• High loop gain at dc for regulating the voltage magnitude with a
minimum error;
• High bandwidth to eliminate harmonics;
• High loop gain at the fundamental frequency to restrain imbalance;
• Robust performance in the presence of plant model uncertainty;
• Fast response with the lowest overshoot;
• Negligible coupling between the active and reactive
powers and
• Highly stable to any non-linear network attitude.

20 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 • In voltage source inverters, the inner-
loop current control is not required,
generally, to control the voltage.
• the implementation of the current control
in a voltage control loop improves the
inverter performance and confirms
current limitations.

21 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Miscellaneous DG Operation
• If both inverter-based DG units and conventional
synchronous generators deliver power in
a microgrid, two possible solutions of connecting DG units
can be implemented.
• If a high penetrationof inverter-based DG units exists,
synchronous generators can be operated as current/power
sources synchronising with the inverters which dominate the
bus voltage and frequency control.
• In contrast, if a number of synchronous machines are higher
than inverter-based DG units, the control approaches of
inverter-connected DG units will be employed as a grid-
connected operation

22 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

Hierarchical Control of DG Units

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 Centralized Control

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 Distributed Control

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Control Methods for Power Sharing

• Communication-Based Control
• The communication-based power control
achieves good power sharing and voltage
regulation. However, expensive
communication lines between modules
decrease microgrid reliability and limit the DG
expansion and flexibility.

26 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Communication-Less Control
• In the primary control level, the control approaches of DG units are
expected without communication
• It maintain high reliability, reduce costs, avoid communication
complexity, and apply plug and play features of each unit.
• The communication-based operations are unsuitable, especially, if DG
units are placed in remote areas because of high bandwidth
communication and infrastructure, which is very costly.
• In this case, droop based control approaches can be applied, and are
able to handle different ratings of DG units with great flexibility and
reliability.
• However, this has some drawbacks, such as power (P-Q) control
coupling, voltage and frequency deviation, dependence on network
impedance, and issues with non-linear loads and accuracy

27 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Overall Control of the Microgrid

28 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Microgrids architectures and operation
• dc vs. ac
• The discussion refers to the system’s main bus..

•No frequency/phase control is necessary in dc microgrids.

• From a general point of view dc systems are simpler to control.
• Lack of a monitoring variable may complicate fault detection
and autonomous controls implementation.

• Since most distributed sources and energy storage devices have

an inherently dc output, dc architectures are a more “natural” option
for integration of such components.

• Most modern loads inherently require a dc input. Even the “most

classical” ac loads, induction motors, rely more on inherently dc
input variable speed drives (VSDs) to achieve a more efficient and
flexible operation.

29 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Microgrids architectures and operation
• dc vs. ac
• Availability: dc is several times more reliable than ac (NTT data
from 30,000 systems [H. Ikebe, “Power Systems for Telecommunications in the
IT Age,” in Proc. INTELEC 2003, pp. 1-8.])

• Efficiency:
• Efficiency gains in energy conversion interfaces makes dc
systems 5 % to 7 % more efficient than ac systems.
• dc powered VSDs are 5 % more efficient than equivalent ac
powered VSDs because the rectification stage is avoided.

• Dc systems tend to be more modular and scalable than ac systems

because dc converters are easier to control and to parallel.

• dc systems components tend to be more compact that equivalent

ac ones because of higher efficiency and for not being frequency
dependent.
30 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 Microgrids architectures and operation
• dc vs. ac

• Modular design makes dc systems more flexible and easier to

expand, allowing for a more effective capital investment
management and a better planning of the entire facility power
installation.

• Well designed dc grids can achieve both hardware and operational

cost savings over equivalent ac systems.

• Power conditioning to improve quality tends to be simpler in dc

systems.

• Stability control tends to be simpler in dc systems.

31 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Microgrids architectures and operation
• Stability issues
• Stability issues are more prevalent in microgrids than in a large
electric grid because power and energy ratings are much lower.
• Analysis of stability issues in ac microgrids follow the same
concepts than in the main grid:
• Voltage and frequency values need both to be regulated
through active and reactive power control.
• If sources are traditional generators with an ac output and
are connected directly without power electronic interfaces,
stability is controlled through the machine shaft’s torque and
speed control.
• In dc systems there is no reactive power interactions, which
seems to suggest that there are no stability issues. System
control seems to be oriented to voltage regulation only

32 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Conventional (ac) datacenters
• Typical configuration:

•Total power consumption: > 5 MW (distribution at 208V ac)

33 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012
 Conventional (ac) datacenters
• Data centers represent a noticeable fast increasing load.
• Increasing power-related costs, likely to equal and exceed
information and communications technology equipment cost in the
near to mid-term future.
• Servers are a dc load
• 860 W of equivalent coal power is needed to power a 100 W load

34 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 New (dc) datacenters
• Use of 380 Vdc power distribution for:
• Fewer conversion stages (higher efficiency)
• Integration of local sources (and energy storage).
• Reduced cable size

35 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Data centers efficiency comparison dc vs. ac
• A 380Vdc power distribution standard is currently under study by the IEC

Brian Fortenbery and Dennis P. Symanski, GBPF, 2010

36 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 New distributed (dc) datacenters
• Many “small” distributed data centers powered locally and with a
coordinated operation
• Energy is used more effectively.
• Generation inefficiencies is energy that is not harvested (i.e.
converted), contrary to inefficiencies in conventional power plants
which represent power losses.

37 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Utility DC Distribution

Jonbok Bae, GBPF 2011

38 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 DC Homes
• dc in homes allows for a better integration of distributed
generation, energy storage and dc loads.
• With a variable speed drive air conditioners can be operated
continuously and, hence, more efficiently (about 50%)
WIND
GENERATOR
PV MODULES

LED LIGHTS (DC) MAIN DC BUS

REFRIGERATOR (LOAD)

ENERGY STORAGE

ELECTRIC AIR CONDITIONER EPA 430-F-97-028

VEHICLE
FUEL CELL

39 © Alexis Kwasinski, 2012

 Structure of DC Microgrid

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 Hybrid Microgrid

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Hybrid Microgrid

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 Three Terminal Hybrid Grid

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