A Novel Voltage Stabilization and Power Sharing Control Method Based on Virtual Complex Impedance for an Off-Grid Microgrid

Abstract

Microgrid (MG) usually operates in medium/low-voltage systems, where the line impedance parameters are mainly resistive, and traditional P-f/Q-U droop control is no longer applicable. When the virtual complex impedance method is adopted, the resistance component of line impedance can be counteracted by a virtual negative resistance. Unfortunately, the improper design of the virtual negative resistance will result in an unstable system due to the problem of line impedance parameter drift and estimation error. According to the line parameters characteristics of the off-grid MG with medium/low voltage, the P-U/Q-f droop control is adopted in this study, where the virtual complex impedance composed of a virtual negative inductance and a virtual resistance is introduced in the control loop. The virtual negative inductance is used to reduce the power coupling caused by the inductive component of the system impedance. The virtual resistance is implemented to enhance the resistive component and adjust the impedance matching degree for raising the accuracy of power sharing. However, the power sharing is still affected by the system hardware parameters; meanwhile, the voltage deviation caused by the droop control and the virtual impedance exists. In this study, a novel voltage stabilization and power sharing control method based on the virtual complex impedance is investigated to achieve accurate power sharing without the impact of hardware parameters variations and to improve the voltage quality. Moreover, the small-signal model of the inverter-based off-grid MG with the proposed controller is established, which can be utilized to analyze the stability and dynamic performance of the system. Meanwhile, the control parameters can be sequentially determined. Analysis shows that the strategy is robust against the line-impedance parameter drift and the estimation error and has a large stability margin and fast dynamic-response speed. Finally, numerical simulations and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method in comparison with traditional frameworks.