Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents a comprehensive operation model for micro-grids (MG) operating in the islanded mode. Various energy sources of a MG including diesel engine generator, micro-turbine, wind turbine and photovoltaic cell as well as battery storage and AC/DC rectifier/inverter are modeled in the proposed framework. Fuel costs, emission costs, and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of these sources as well as their operating limits and characteristics are considered in the model. Furthermore, a new multi-cross learning-based chaotic differential evolution (MLCDE) algorithm is presented to solve the optimization problem of MG operation. The numerical results obtained from the proposed... 

In this paper, a novel droop approach for autonomous power management in low voltage DC (LVDC) microgrids based on a master-slave concept is presented. Conventional voltage-based droop approaches suffer from poor power sharing due to line resistance effects on a virtual resistance, which is solved by introducing a communication system to increase the current sharing accuracy. In this paper, a virtual frequency is superimposed by the master units, and slave units determine their output power according to the corresponding frequency-based droop characteristics. Unlike the voltage-droop methods, the proposed virtual frequency-droop approach can be applied for proportional power management among... 

Increasing rate of renewable energy sources (RESs) integration in the distribution system and development of multi-microgrids (MMG) structures have changed the operational condition of power grids. In this context, the stochastic and intermittent nature of the RESs has increased the need for ramp up power to balance the supply and demand when electricity generation of these resources drops. Moreover, bulk power generation units, which conventionally have the possibility to provide flexibility ramp, would face lack of financial justification for expansion and operation in a system with high rate penetration of RESs. Therefore, distribution system operators (DSOs) should rely on local... 

This paper analytically determines the nondetection zone (NDZ) of an active islanding detection method, and proposes a solution to obviate the NDZ. The method actively injects a negative-sequence current through the interface voltage-sourced converter (VSC) of a distributed generation (DG) unit, as a disturbance signal for islanding detection. The estimated magnitude of the corresponding negative-sequence voltage at the PCC is used as the islanding detection signal. In this paper, based on a laboratory test system, the performance of the islanding detection method under UL1741 anti-islanding test conditions is evaluated. Then, determining the NDZ of the method and proposing the... 

Conventional droop methods for load sharing control in low-voltage direct current microgrids suffer from poor power sharing and voltage regulation, especially in the case when operating many dc sources with long feeders. Hence, the communication-based approaches are employed to improve the load sharing accuracy and voltage regulation. To avoid using such an infrastructure and the corresponding effects on the reliability and stability, an adaptive droop controller based on a superimposed frequency is proposed in this paper. Load sharing accuracy is improved by adapting the droop gains utilizing an introduced ac power. The secondary controller locally estimates and compensates the voltage drop... 

In a classical ac microgrid (MG), a common frequency exists for coordinating active power sharing among droop-controlled sources. Like the frequency-droop method, a voltage-based droop approach has been employed to control the converters in low voltage direct current (LVDC) MGs. However, voltage variation due to the droop gains and line resistances causes poor power sharing and voltage regulation in dc MG, which in most cases are solved by a secondary controller by using a communication network. To avoid such an infrastructure and its accompanied complications, this paper proposes a new droop scheme to control dc sources by introducing a small ac voltage superimposed onto the output dc... 

In this paper, a new market mechanism is proposed to quantify the value of emergency energy transactions in renewable-based multi-microgrid (MMG) systems. To reach this goal, main requirements and features of such emergency market are identified. Subsequently, a hybrid market framework is proposed which integrates pool emergency transactions and bilateral contracts in order to reduce the system risk in face of different contingency events. For settling different transactions in this market, the main procedure which should be followed by distribution system operator (DSO) to properly address bidding of microgrids (MGs) as well as system technical constraints are introduced. In addition, a... 

In this paper, a new market mechanism is proposed to quantify the value of emergency energy transactions in renewable-based multi-microgrid (MMG) systems. To reach this goal, main requirements and features of such emergency market are identified. Subsequently, a hybrid market framework is proposed which integrates pool emergency transactions and bilateral contracts in order to reduce the system risk in face of different contingency events. For settling different transactions in this market, the main procedure which should be followed by distribution system operator to properly address bidding of microgrids (MGs) as well as system technical constraints is introduced. In addition, a simple and... 

In this paper, a new market mechanism is proposed to quantify the value of emergency energy transactions in renewable-based multi-microgrid (MMG) systems. To reach this goal, main requirements and features of such emergency market are identified. Subsequently, a hybrid market framework is proposed which integrates pool emergency transactions and bilateral contracts in order to reduce the system risk in face of different contingency events. For settling different transactions in this market, the main procedure which should be followed by distribution system operator to properly address bidding of microgrids (MGs) as well as system technical constraints is introduced. In addition, a simple and... 

This paper proposes a hierarchical outage management scheme to enhance the resilience of a smart distribution system comprised of multi-microgrids against unexpected disaster events. In this regard, after identifying the main features and requirements for a resilient outage management scheme, an appropriate framework is devised and the roles and tasks of different management entities in a multi-microgrids system are introduced. Based on this framework, the microgrids schedule their available resources in the first stage using a novel model predictive control-based algorithm. In the second stage, distribution system operator coordinates the possible power transfers among the microgrids and... 

This paper proposes an adaptive droop characteristic to enhance the superimposed droop frequency scheme for the control of DC microgrids. Conventional superimposed droop frequency scheme solves the poor current sharing and undesirable voltage regulation issues in DC microgrid. However, this method suffers from two main problems which are (i) instability in terms of load variation due to the limitation in transferrable reactive power, and (ii) poor voltage quality caused by the injected AC voltages in the DC system. In this paper, an adaptive droop characteristic is proposed to decrease the transferred reactive power and mitigate system overall voltage quality, and its performance is verified... 

Future of the network stability is endangered by increasing the number of Distributed Generation (DG) and Renewable Energy Source (RES) units. The idea of the Virtual Synchronous Machine (VSM) has been raised to control the power electronic-based DG/RES converters in order to have better integration with the grid. This paper introduces a new stabilizer design for VSM-based converters to guarantee the stability of the micro-grid (MG). In this regard, the Sliding Mode Control (SMC) theory, which is robust against the disturbances and uncertainties, is employed to cope with the intermittent and nonlinear nature of DGs. The mutual operation of the proposed inverter and MG stabilizer has the... 

Presence of microgrids (MGs) and renewable energy sources (RESs) in distribution power systems could result in dramatic changes in operation and planning of these systems. In this regard, operational procedures employed by utilities should take into account the intermittent nature of RESs, while coping with the independent operation of MGs. In this perspective, this paper develops a distributed power management framework based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) for distribution networks with multi-MG (MMG) structures. The proposed approach develops a transactive signal in the context of ADMM to coordinate operation of MGs in a distributed manner. In this context, the... 

DC microgrids (DC-MGs) are becoming popular as an effective means to integrate various renewable energy resources. Conventionally, the droop control is adopted as a decentralized control strategy for proper power sharing without using any communication link. However, the conventional droop control often deteriorates due to the effects of unequal line resistances. In this paper, a control strategy is proposed for a DC-MG to achieve perfect power sharing considering the effects of line resistances. The DC-MG under study consists of a photovoltaic system, two energy storage systems, a grid-connected converter system, and dc loads. The control strategy of the converters is addressed under... 

This paper presents an effective control strategy for autonomous operation of a multi-bus medium voltage (MV) microgrid (MG) consisting of several dispatchable distributed generation (DG) units. Each electronically-coupled DG unit supplies the loads which can be unbalanced due to the inclusion of single-phase loads. The proportional resonance (PR) and droop controllers are, respectively, used to regulate the load voltage and share the average powers among the DG units. The virtual negative-sequence impedance controller (VNSIC) is proposed to effectively compensate the negative-sequence currents of the unbalanced loads. Moreover, the VNSIC minimizes the negative-sequence currents in the MV... 

DC microgrids (MGs) are becoming popular as effective means to integrate different energy resources. Conventionally, the droop control is adopted as a decentralized control method for power sharing in DC MGs. However, current sharing accuracy or voltage regulation deteriorates due to the effects of line impedances. In this paper, a new adaptive control strategy is proposed for DC MGs. In low load conditions, the output currents of the DGs are far from their maximum acceptable limits. Therefore, current sharing accuracy is not important. As load increases, the output currents of the DGs approach their maximum acceptable limits. Therefore, at high load conditions, accurate current sharing is... 

This paper proposes a frequency control strategy for an islanded inverter-based microgrid which based on the priority of supply, has got two distinct types of loads, namely sensitive and deferrable. The proposed strategy consists of primary and secondary levels of generation control supported by a loadshedding scheme. The primary control regulates the output power of the distributed generator (DG) units to be proportional to their ratings while secondary control has got the duty of frequency restoration after each load change. Functionality of these two levels is demonstrated to be independent of each other. Both controls are in distributed forms which have no need of communication... 

High penetration of constant-power loads (CPL) in dc microgrids may cause a destabilizing effect on the system that can lead to severe voltage oscillations. This paper addresses stability problems of the CPLs and proposes a simple active damping technique to damp the oscillations caused by CPLs. The particle swarm optimization algorithm has been used to find the best values of the parameters of the proposed active damper to achieve maximum damping of the oscillations. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by simulations  

This paper investigates the performance of a smart distribution system comprised of multi-microgrids during emergency conditions. It also proposes a hierarchical scheme for outage management in such a system to enhance the security of supply during contingencies. This goal is achieved through sharing the available generation and storage capacities among different microgrids. In this regard, at first, a well-organized framework is devised in order to introduce the roles and tasks of each player in operation stage of a multi-microgrids system. Based on this framework, the general optimization model that needs to be evaluated in the proposed outage management scheme is formulated. Then, various... 

This paper proposes to use a back-to-back converter as the interlink between a utility grid and a microgrid. To justify this proposal, two modes of operation are explained and the benefits of the back-to-back converter over conventional static switches are shown. In mode-1, the inter-link converter injects prespecified amounts of active and reactive power to the microgrid. This mode is identified as PQ control mode. Mode-2 is the voltage control mode in which, the back to back converter controls the voltage of the microgrid and maintains the power quality of the current drawn from the utility grid in spite of nonlinear and unbalanced loads in the microgrid