Reactive Power Control for Multiple Batteries Connected in Parallel Using Modified Power Factor Method

Abstract

This research designs a new approach for the reactive power sharing of distributed battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in smart grids. Droop control is the most commonly used approach in sharing the active/reactive powers between BESSs. However, this strategy never considers the operating power factor of BESSs, which might introduce high losses and equipment cost. The proposed control methodology in this paper attempts to remedy the unbalanced reactive load distribution problem for batteries and is aimed at driving the power factors of all the batteries connected in parallel to operate around the same point, close to unity power factor. A controller is designed based on the modified power factor strategy to synchronize the power factors of energy storage devices. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is verified using simulation results comparing the reactive load before and after the deployment of the proposed control method on a microgrid with three BESSs using MATLAB/Simscape power system toolbox.