University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Architectures and Algorithms for Distributed Generation Control of Microgrids

Cady, Stanton T.

Content Files
CADY-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/90729

Description

Title
Architectures and Algorithms for Distributed Generation Control of Microgrids
Author(s)
Cady, Stanton T.
Issue Date
2016-03-23
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Domínguez-García, Alejandro D.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Domínguez-García, Alejandro D.
Committee Member(s)
  • Hadjicostis, Christoforos N.
  • Sauer, Peter W.
  • Vaidya, Nitin H.
Department of Study
Electrical & Computer Eng
Discipline
Electrical & Computer Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2016-07-07T20:26:59Z
Keyword(s)
  • Power systems
  • Microgrids
  • Distributed control
  • Islanded microgrids
  • Frequency regulation
  • Optimal dispatch
Abstract
Microgrids and the control challenges they pose have recently received significant attention in a wide array of research communities. While the potential to increase efficiency, reliability, and adaptability of the utility grid is a primary motivation for their development, microgrids can also be used to meet the growing electric power demands in numerous applications. Compared with large power systems, microgrids may rely on inertia-less generators such as photovoltaic arrays that are interfaced through an inverter. Although the lack of inertia and other microgrid characteristics pose control challenges, microgrids are amenable to new control paradigms, e.g., those that rely on distributed computations rather than a centralized processor. We address the problem of distributed generation control in islanded ac microgrids with and without inertia. In the case of microgrids comprising heterogeneous generators, some of which have inertia, we propose a control architecture for frequency regulation and optimal dispatch designed to take advantage of microgrid-specific properties. For microgrids with no inertia, we propose a control architecture that is designed to drive the average frequency error to zero while ensuring that the frequency at every bus is equal and that the operating point that results is stable. In both cases, we also propose an implementation of each control architecture that relies on distributed algorithms that eliminate the need for a centralized processor with global information. For the architecture we propose for microgrids with inertia, we provide analytical and experimental results that verify the effectiveness of the proposed architecture, and illustrate the performance of the distributed algorithms on which it relies under a variety of scenarios. We verify the proposed control architecture for inertia-less microgrids by analytically showing that the resulting closed-loop system is stable; we also illustrate the features of the architecture using numerical simulations of three test cases applied to six- and 37-bus networks.
Graduation Semester
2016-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90729
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2016 Stanton T. Cady

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