Pan Shen

Bio: Pan Shen is an academic researcher from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. The author has contributed to research in topics: Current loop & Harmonic. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 7 publications receiving 639 citations. Previous affiliations of Pan Shen include Chongqing University.

Review of Active and Reactive Power Sharing Strategies in Hierarchical Controlled Microgrids

Abstract: Microgrids consist of multiple parallel-connected distributed generation (DG) units with coordinated control strategies, which are able to operate in both grid-connected and islanded modes Microgrids are attracting considerable attention since they can alleviate the stress of main transmission systems, reduce feeder losses, and improve system power quality When the islanded microgrids are concerned, it is important to maintain system stability and achieve load power sharing among the multiple parallel-connected DG units However, the poor active and reactive power sharing problems due to the influence of impedance mismatch of the DG feeders and the different ratings of the DG units are inevitable when the conventional droop control scheme is adopted Therefore, the adaptive/improved droop control, network-based control methods, and cost-based droop schemes are compared and summarized in this paper for active power sharing Moreover, nonlinear and unbalanced loads could further affect the reactive power sharing when regulating the active power, and it is difficult to share the reactive power accurately only by using the enhanced virtual impedance method Therefore, the hierarchical control strategies are utilized as supplements of the conventional droop controls and virtual impedance methods The improved hierarchical control approaches such as the algorithms based on graph theory, multi-agent system, the gain scheduling method, and predictive control have been proposed to achieve proper reactive power sharing for islanded microgrids and eliminate the effect of the communication delays on hierarchical control Finally, the future research trends on islanded microgrids are also discussed in this paper

An Enhanced Power Sharing Scheme for Voltage Unbalance and Harmonics Compensation in an Islanded AC Microgrid

Abstract: In this paper, an enhanced hierarchical control structure with multiple current loop damping schemes for voltage unbalance and harmonics compensation (UHC) in ac islanded microgrid is proposed to address unequal power sharing problems. The distributed generation (DG) is properly controlled to autonomously compensate voltage unbalance and harmonics while sharing the compensation effort for the real power, reactive power, and unbalance and harmonic powers. The proposed control system of the microgrid mainly consists of the positive sequence real and reactive power droop controllers, voltage and current controllers, the selective virtual impedance loop, the unbalance and harmonics compensators, the secondary control for voltage amplitude and frequency restoration, and the auxiliary control to achieve a high-voltage quality at the point of common coupling. By using the proposed unbalance and harmonics compensation, the auxiliary control, and the virtual positive/negative-sequence impedance loops at fundamental frequency, and the virtual variable harmonic impedance loop at harmonic frequencies, an accurate power sharing is achieved. Moreover, the low bandwidth communication (LBC) technique is adopted to send the compensation command of the secondary control and auxiliary control from the microgrid control center to the local controllers of DG unit. Finally, the hardware-in-the-loop results using dSPACE 1006 platform are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Control Strategies for Islanded Microgrid Using Enhanced Hierarchical Control Structure With Multiple Current-Loop Damping Schemes

Abstract: In this paper, the modeling, controller design, and stability analysis of the islanded microgrid (MG) using enhanced hierarchical control structure with multiple current loop damping schemes is proposed. The islanded MG consists of the parallel-connected voltage source inverters using inductor-capacitor-inductor (LCL) output filters, and the proposed control structure includes the primary control with additional phase-shift loop, the secondary control for voltage amplitude and frequency restoration, the virtual impedance loops which contain virtual positive- and negative-sequence impedance loops at fundamental frequency and virtual variable harmonic impedance loop at harmonic frequencies, and the inner voltage and current loop controllers. A small-signal model for the primary and secondary controls with additional phase-shift loop is presented, which shows an over-damped feature from eigenvalue analysis of the state matrix. The moving average filter-based sequence decomposition method is proposed to extract the fundamental positive and negative sequences and harmonic components. The multiple inner current loop damping scheme is presented, including the virtual positive, virtual negative, and variable harmonic sequence impedance loops for reactive and harmonic power sharing purposes, and the proposed active damping scheme using capacitor current feedback loop of the LCL filter, which shows enhanced damping characteristics and improved inner-loop stability. Finally, the experimental results are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Stationary Frame Current Control Evaluations for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters with PVR-based Active Damped LCL Filters

Abstract: Grid-connected inverters (GCIs) with an LCL output filter have the ability of attenuating high-frequency (HF) switching ripples. However, by using only grid-current control, the system is prone to resonances if it is not properly damped, and the current distortion is amplified significantly under highly distorted grid conditions. This paper proposes a synchronous reference frame equivalent proportional-integral (SRF-EPI) controller in the αβ stationary frame using the parallel virtual resistance-based active damping (PVR-AD) strategy for grid-interfaced distributed generation (DG) systems to suppress LCL resonance. Although both a proportional-resonant (PR) controller in the αβ stationary frame and a PI controller in the dq synchronous frame achieve zero steady-state error, the amplitude- and phase-frequency characteristics differ greatly from each other except for the reference tracking at the fundamental frequency. Therefore, an accurate SRF-EPI controller in the αβ stationary frame is established to achieve precise tracking accuracy. Moreover, the robustness, the harmonic rejection capability, and the influence of the control delay are investigated by the Nyquist stability criterion when the PVR-based AD method is adopted. Furthermore, grid voltage feed-forward and multiple PR controllers are integrated into the current loop to mitigate the current distortion introduced by the grid background distortion. In addition, the parameters design guidelines are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. Finally, simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed control approach.

Resonance damping and parameter design method for LCL-LC filter interfaced grid-connected photovoltaic inverters

Abstract: In order to attenuate PWM harmonics effectively and reduce filter cost and volume, LCL-LC filter is proposed using a combination of LCL filter and an LC series resonant part. Compared with LCL filter, LCL-LC filter is characterized with decreased total inductance and better switch-frequency harmonics attenuation ability, but the resonant problem affects the system stability remarkably. In this paper, active damping based on the capacitor voltage feedback is proposed using the concept of the equivalent virtual impedance in parallel with the capacitor. With the consideration of system delay, this paper presents a systematic design method for the LCL-LC filtered grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system. With this method, controller parameters and the active damping feedback coefficient are easily obtained by specifying the system stability and dynamic performance indices, and it is more convenient to optimize the system performance according to the predefined satisfactory region. Finally, the simulation results are presented to validate the proposed design method and control scheme.

MAS-Based Distributed Coordinated Control and Optimization in Microgrid and Microgrid Clusters: A Comprehensive Overview

Abstract: The increasing integration of the distributed renewable energy sources highlights the requirement to design various control strategies for microgrids (MGs) and microgrid clusters (MGCs). The multiagent system (MAS)-based distributed coordinated control strategies show the benefits to balance the power and energy, stabilize voltage and frequency, achieve economic and coordinated operation among the MGs and MGCs. However, the complex and diverse combinations of distributed generations (DGs) in MAS increase the complexity of system control and operation. In order to design the optimized configuration and control strategy using MAS, the topology models and mathematic models such as the graph topology model, noncooperative game model, the genetic algorithm, and particle swarm optimization algorithm are summarized. The merits and drawbacks of these control methods are compared. Moreover, since the consensus is a vital problem in the complex dynamical systems, the distributed MAS-based consensus protocols are systematically reviewed. On the other hand, the communication delay issue, which is inevitable no matter in the low- or high-bandwidth communication networks, is crucial to maintain the stability of the MGs and MGCs with fixed and random delays. Various control strategies to compensate the effect of communication delays have been reviewed, such as the neural network-based predictive control, the weighted average predictive control, the gain scheduling scheme, and synchronization schemes based on the multitimer model for the case of fixed communication delay, and the generalized predictive control, networked predictive control, model predictive control, Smith predictor, $H_{\infty}$ -based control, sliding mode control for the random communication delay scenarios. Furthermore, various control methods have been summarized to describe switching topologies in MAS with different objectives, such as the plug-in or plug-out of DGs in an MG, and the plug-in or plug-out of MGs in an MGC, and multiagent-based energy coordination and the economic dispatch of the MGC. Finally, the future research directions of the multiagent-based distributed coordinated control and optimization in MGs and MGCs are also presented.

On the Secondary Control Architectures of AC Microgrids: An Overview

Abstract: Communication infrastructure (CI) in microgrids (MGs) allows for the application of different control architectures for the secondary control (SC) layer. The use of new SC architectures involving CI is motivated by the need to increase MG resilience and handle the intermittent nature of distributed generation units. The structure of SC is classified into three main categories, including centralized SC (CSC) with a CI, distributed SC (DISC) generally with a low-data-rate CI, and decentralized SC (DESC) with communication-free infrastructure. To meet the MGs’ operational constraints and optimize performance, control and communication must be utilized simultaneously in different control layers. In this survey, we review and classify all types of SC policies from CI-based methods to communication-free policies, including CSC, averaging-based DISC, consensus-based DISC methods, containment pinning consensus, event-triggered DISC, washout-filter-based DESC, and state-estimation-based DESC. Each structure is scrutinized from the viewpoint of the relevant literature. Challenges such as clock drifts, cyber-security threats, and the advantage of event-triggered approaches are presented. Fully decentralized approaches based on state-estimation and observation methods are also addressed. Although these approaches eliminate the need of any CI for the voltage and frequency restoration, during black start process or other functionalities related to the tertiary layer, a CI is required. Power hardware-in-the-loop experimental tests are carried out to compare the merits and applicability of different SC structures.

Model Predictive Control of Bidirectional DC–DC Converters and AC/DC Interlinking Converters—A New Control Method for PV-Wind-Battery Microgrids

Abstract: In renewable energy systems, fluctuating outputs from energy sources and variable power demand may deteriorate the voltage quality. In this paper, a model predictive control strategy without using any proportional–integral–derivative (PID) regulators is proposed. The proposed strategy consists of a model predictive current and power (MPCP) control scheme and a model predictive voltage and power (MPVP) control method. By controlling the bidirectional dc–dc converter of the battery energy storage system based on the MPCP algorithm, the fluctuating output from the renewable energy sources can be smoothed while stable dc-bus voltage can be maintained. Meanwhile, the ac/dc interlinking converter is controlled by using the MPVP scheme to ensure stable ac voltage supply and proper power flow between the microgrid and the utility grid. Then, a system-level energy management scheme is developed to ensure stable operation under different operation modes by considering fluctuating power generation, variable power demand, battery state of charge, and electricity price. Compared with the traditional cascade control, the proposed method is simpler and shows better performance, which is validated in simulation based on a 3.5-MW PV-wind-battery system with real-world solar and wind profiles.