Modeling and Control of DC-AC Power Converters of Distributed Energy Resources in Microgrids

Abstract

The high penetration of power electronic interfaced distributed energy resources in microgrids raises several problems on the stability and power quality of microgrids. In this chapter, the modeling of DC-AC converters is discussed based on the characteristics of the MGs. The control techniques developed for DC-AC converters are briefly discussed. The capabilities and limits of these control methods are presented in order to enable the researchers to find suitable control strategy for a specified microgrid application. Finally, a performance test of microgrids is analyzed based on power quality and stability of microgrids. In this analysis, various scenarios are developed in order to examine the performance of the system. Some of the main issues which must be considered are discussed such as: 1) Power quality and regulation in the steady state operation, 2) Stability under low and medium frequency disturbances, 3) Stability under high frequency disturbances. This chapter is focused on the inner voltage and current controllers rather than power management of microgrids. The performance tests are developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK in which a more realistic performance of the system is tested using the SimPowerSystem Toolbox.