Energies, Vol. 10, Pages 760: Robust Frequency and Voltage Stability Control Strategy for Standalone AC/DC Hybrid Microgrid (Energies)

The microgrid (MG) concept is attracting considerable attention as a solution to energy deficiencies, especially in remote areas, but the intermittent nature of renewable sources and varying loads cause many control problems and thereby affect the quality of power within a microgrid operating in standalone mode. This might cause large frequency and voltage deviations in the system due to unpredictable output power fluctuations. Furthermore, without any main grid support, it is more complex to control and manage the system. In past, droop control and various other coordination control strategies have been presented to stabilize the microgrid frequency and voltages, but in order to utilize the available resources up to their maximum capacity in a positive way, new and robust control mechanisms are required. In this paper, a standalone microgrid is presented, which integrates renewable energy-based distributed generations and local loads. A fuzzy logic-based intelligent control technique is proposed to maintain the frequency and DC (direct current)-link voltage stability for sudden changes in load or generation power. Also from a frequency control perspective, a battery energy storage system (BESS) is suggested as a replacement for a synchronous generator to stabilize the nominal system frequency as a synchronous generator is unable to operate at its maximum efficiency while being controlled for stabilization purposes. Likewise, a super capacitor (SC) and BESS is used to stabilize DC bus voltages even though maximum possible energy is being extracted from renewable generated sources using maximum power point tracking. This newly proposed control method proves to be effective by reducing transient time, minimizing the frequency deviations, maintaining voltages even though maximum power point tracking is working and preventing generators from exceeding their power ratings during disturbances. However, due to the BESS limited capacity, load switching (load shedding scheme) as last option is also introduced in this paper. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy from both frequency and voltage perspectives.