A low-level distributed nonlinear controller for a DC MicroGrid integrated in a Smart Railway Station capable to recover trains' braking energy is introduced in this paper. The DC MicroGrid is composed by a number of elements: two different types of renewable energy sources (regenerative braking energy recovery from the trains and photovoltaic panels), two kinds of storages acting at different time scales (a battery and a supercapacitor), a DC load representing an aggregation of all loads in the MicroGrid, and the connection with the main AC grid. The nonlinear model of the MicroGrid is introduced, and a complete stability analysis is investigated to the purpose to meet power balance and grid voltage stability requirements. An Input-to-State Stability (ISS)-like Lyapunov function is obtained with a System-of-Systems approach, and it is utilized to develop the control laws for the converters in order to fulfill the dedicated objective each of them has. Simulation results, showing the desired grid behavior using the proposed nonlinear control laws, are introduced and compared with classical Proportional Integral (PI) linear controllers, with respect to performances and parametric robustness. The DC MicroGrid is shown to be able to operate braking energy recovery while performing load feeding and renewable energy integration and guaranteeing a proper DC voltage profile.

This article proposes an adaptive virtual inertia control system for stable operation of microgrids: it theoretically improves recent related results in the literature. The overall control system is conceived to provide ancillary services support (namely, enhanced frequency regulation with inertial response and voltage support) to an ac/dc microgrid that consists of a dc bus providing power to the ac one, being, in turn, composed of a diesel generator and loads. The ac voltages and currents are controlled via a nonlinear algorithm based on control-induced time-scale separation and singular perturbation analysis, whose use greatly simplifies the control design and the choice of the tuning gains, when compared with the classical linear controls. With the aim of reducing oscillations from the grid by assuring suitable short circuit ratio (SCR) and proper $X/R$ characteristics, a virtual impedance is also implemented, along with frequency and voltage droops: they constitute high-level controllers that give references to the virtual inertia scheme and compose a comprehensive control. Detailed simulations illustrate, in different relevant settings, the performance of the proposed scheme.

This paper proposes a combined adaptive virtual Inertia and adaptive damping control of a virtual synchronous generator (AID-VSG) to improve the dynamic frequency response of microgrids. In the proposed control scheme, the VSG’s virtual inertia and damping coefficients adapt themselves during the transients to, respectively, reduce frequency deviations and increase the oscillations’ damping. In addition, as an important feature, the proposed AID-VSG is suitable for distributed control scheme applications and is designed to not rely on phase-locked loop (PLL) measurements, which avoids PLL stability issues on weak grids. The control parameters of the proposed AID-VSG are tuned by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to minimize the overshoot and settling time of the microgrid’s frequency during an islanding event. The AID-VSG is validated by a comparative analysis with three existing VSG control schemes, also tuned by the stated optimization algorithm. The performance of each compared VSG strategy is evaluated through the simulation of a set of 10,000 initial conditions, using the islanded microgrid’s nonlinear model. The best response among the VSG strategies was achieved by the proposed AID-VSG control for both the optimization problem and the set of initial conditions’ simulations.

Recent developments in power electronics and renewable energy sources have brought the risen of Direct Current (DC) Microgrids. By power converters' utilization, a DC Microgrid is able to integrate renewables, storage systems, and other devices in a simpler topology, since the major part of the modern grid's compounds have DC nature. This paper proposes a control strategy aiming to regulate the voltage in the DC bus of a Microgrid by a supercapacitor. The control law is applied to a bidirectional boost converter that connects the supercapacitor to the DC grid. The control scheme is based on dynamical feedback linearization and consists in splitting the system in different time scale dynamics, creating consequently a simplified model. Simulations on Matlab/Simulink illustrate how the control strategy is able to regulate the DC voltage with good performance.

The power system is going through a change in its very foundations. More and more power converters are being integrated into the electric grid to interface renewable energy resources and in high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission systems. This article presents a discussion on the stability of power systems when HVDC transmission systems based on modular multilevel converters (MMC) are connected in grid-forming (GFM) mode to the legacy power system using concepts of energy functions and Lyapunov stability theory and considering aspects of the interoperability between GFM converter technologies. As a base for the stability analysis, we review the main GFM converter technologies (droop and virtual synchronous machine), highlighting their differences. Then, we present a model using the center-of-inertia formulation for a multi-machine/multi-GFM converter power system representing a close future scenario of power systems where GFM converters might adopt different technologies. To illustrate the theoretical Lyapunov-based stability analysis, simulations performed in Matlab/Simulink showed the behavior of a 12-bus test system during a frequency disturbance that originated from the sudden connection of a load. To reflect the interoperability of different GFM technologies and the power system, scenarios with one single GFM technology and a scenario with mixed technologies were investigated. For the test system considered, the frequency response with fewer oscillations and a higher frequency nadir was obtained when all GFM converters were operated as VSMs that have a higher inertial response contribution.

This letter first identifies a new mode of low-frequency harmonic instability when combining grid-forming control with the typical dc voltage droop control necessitated in multiterminal high voltage direct-current transmissions. This mode does not exist when grid-following control is applied and its mechanism is explicitly revealed by the dc-side input admittance modeling of the converter. Then, a phase compensator plus a virtual power system stabilizer are introduced to pacify the input admittance within the critical frequency range and derisk the related instability. Last, it is also demonstrated that the proposed control strategy achieves excellent performance in contingent active power imbalance ride-through in the dc system. All the analyses are verified by electro-magnetic-transient simulations with a modular multilevel converter model comprising 278 submodules per arm.