ABSTRACTSince the microgrid lacks inertia compared to the conventional grid with synchronous generators, the microgrid is unable to address the frequency change issues resulting from the integration of large‐scale distributed generation. Due to the ability to provide virtual inertia, generalized droop control (GDC) and virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control are considered effective solutions for improving frequency regulation. However, in response to external frequency disturbances, the grid‐connected inverters may experience a significant transient active power overshoot caused by GDC and VSG. In this paper, the GDC is used as the fundamental control architecture, and then the small signal models of the GDC and VSG are compared and analyzed under various disturbances. A reduced‐order method for the GDC model is proposed to simplify the analysis of GDC. Additionally, GDC adaptive inertia (GDCAI) and adaptive inertia for operation mode switching (AIOMS) are proposed to mitigate frequency fluctuations and improve active power response. The effectiveness of the two control strategies is verified by MATLAB/Simulink simulation and StarSim hardware‐in‐the‐loop (HIL) experiment.