An enhanced second-order-consensus-based distributed secondary frequency controller of virtual synchronous generators for isolated AC microgrids

At present, the distributed cooperative control method has been widely adopted in the secondary control of the conventional droop-based microgrid (MG). However, its application in the secondary control of Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) is relatively lagging. Based on the conventional virtual governor, this paper designs the frequency distributed secondary control strategy of VSG based on the theory of nonlinear heterogeneous multi-agents and presents the distributed active power sharing control strategy. The frequency will converge to the frequency reference value through the consensus protocol, instead of relying on the virtual frequency modulation coefficient. To reduce the communication burden, a control strategy based on event-triggered is adopted in the distributed secondary control. The distributed control is used in frequency strategy, compared with the VSG secondary control proposed previously, the distributed generations (DGs) can collaboratively work. Compared with the existing conventional droop-based distributed secondary control, the proposed scheme retains the characteristics of VSG and can provide virtual inertia to MG. An islanded microgrid test system was established to verify the proposed control strategy. The results show that the proposed control strategy can restore the frequency to the reference value and accurately share the active power, while greatly reducing the communication burden.

This article presents an improved virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) during symmetrical voltage fault. Based on VSG control, DFIG can behave like a conventional synchronous generator (SG), which can support frequency and voltage in grid-connected mode. Moreover, when microgrid disconnects from grid, DFIG can provide voltage and power for local loads. However, during symmetrical voltage fault, the transient components in DFIG cannot be controlled properly by VSG. To solve this problem, the air-gap flux feedback is designed in VSG control to accelerate the decay of transient components, and rotor current limiting method is also introduced in the article. In the proposed method, there is no need to switch the control structure or control targets. DFIG always works in the VSG control. Therefore, DFIG can operate in the standalone mode when the connection to grid is cut off. The decay time constant, the voltage control, current limiting control and parameter variation of the improved VSG control are analyzed in detail. Finally, the simulation and experimental results in both normal and fault grid condition are given to validate the effectiveness of proposed VSG control strategy.

In recent researches on inverter-based distributed generators, disadvantages of traditional grid-connected current control, such as no grid-forming ability and lack of inertia, have been pointed out. As a result, novel control methods like droop control and virtual synchronous generator (VSG) have been proposed. In both methods, droop characteristics are used to control active and reactive power, and the only difference between them is that VSG has virtual inertia with the emulation of swing equation, whereas droop control has no inertia. In this paper, dynamic characteristics of both control methods are studied, in both stand-alone mode and synchronous-generator-connected mode, to understand the differences caused by swing equation. Small-signal models are built to compare transient responses of frequency during a small loading transition, and state-space models are built to analyze oscillation of output active power. Effects of delays in both controls are also studied, and an inertial droop control method is proposed based on the comparison. The results are verified by simulations and experiments. It is suggested that VSG control and proposed inertial droop control inherits the advantages of droop control, and in addition, provides inertia support for the system.

With the continuous development of wind power capacity, a large number of wind turbines connected by power electronic devices make the system inertia lower, which leads to the problem of system frequency stability degradation. The virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control can make wind turbines possess inertia and damping. However, the stochastic dynamic behavior of wind generation results in the stochastic changing of operating condition; this paper presents an adaptive subsynchronous oscillation (SSO) damping control method for the wind generation with VSG control. Firstly, the small signal model of the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) with VSG is built, and the model of state space is derived and built. The active power of PMSG is selected as the variable parameter vector to establish a polytopic linear variable parameter system model. Then, based on the hybrid H2/H∞ control method, each vertex state feedback matrix is solved by linear matrix inequality, and a subsynchronous oscillation adaptive damping controller with polytope is obtained. Finally, the 4-machine 2-area system connected to two PMSGs with VSG control is used as the test system for time domain simulation. The simulation results demonstrate that the LPV based adaptive damping controller could provide enough damping under the circumstances of wider changes of wind power outputs.

Virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control is a promising communication-less control method in a microgrid for its inertia support feature. However, active power oscillation and improper transient active power sharing are observed when basic VSG control is applied. Moreover, the problem of reactive power sharing error, inherited from conventional droop control, should also be addressed to obtain desirable stable state performance. In this paper, an enhanced VSG control is proposed, with which oscillation damping and proper transient active power sharing are achieved by adjusting the virtual stator reactance based on state-space analyses. Furthermore, communication-less accurate reactive power sharing is achieved based on inversed voltage droop control feature ( V–Q droop control) and common ac bus voltage estimation. Simulation and experimental results verify the improvement introduced by the proposed enhanced VSG control strategy.

For a VSC-HVDC transmission system based on a hybrid topology converter of full-bridge and half-bridge, a kind of virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy which can be applied to modular multilevel converter (MMC) grid-connected structure was researched and proposed. First, based on the conventional VSG control strategy, the energy stored in the equivalent capacitor of MMC power module was used to imitate the rotor inertia of synchronous generator. The characteristics of generator can be simulated during transient frequency fluctuations and it can help relieve the power fluctuations. Secondly, with respect to the structural characteristics of the direct grid connection through the reactor on the AC side of the MMC, which is unlike the microgrid inverter, there are no additional filter capacitors. So, the existing commonly used VSG control strategy of the microgrid inverter and double-closed-loop structure composed of filter capacitor voltage and AC current cannot be directly applied. For this, a method where the given values of inner current loop are calculated by grid impedance matrix was used. So, a double-closed-loop control structure composed of a power outer loop based on VSG control and a current inner loop is obtained. It can effectively improve the current control capability during the transient process. Finally, a hybrid MMC simulation model was built based on PSCAD to verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed methods.

The increasing penetration of renewable energy, such as photovoltaic generation, makes it essential to enhance power system dynamic performance through improved grid-forming control strategies. In the grid-forming control system, the virtual synchronous generator control (VSG) is currently widely used. However, the inertia (J) and damping (D) in the traditional VSG are fixed values, which can result in large overshoots and long adjustment times when dealing with disturbances such as load switching. To address these issues, this paper proposes an adaptive virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy for grid-side inverters, which is accomplished by adaptively adjusting the VSG’s inertia and damping. Firstly, we established a photovoltaic-storage VSG grid-forming system; here, the photovoltaic power is boosted through a DC-DC converter, and the energy storage is connected to the common DC bus through a bidirectional DC-DC converter. We analyzed how J and D shape the system’s output characteristics. Based on the power-angle characteristic curve, the tanh function was introduced to design the control function, and a JD collaborative adaptive control (ACL) strategy was proposed. Finally, simulation experiments were conducted under common working conditions, such as load switching and grid-side voltage disturbance, to verify the results. From the results shown, the proposed strategy can effectively improve the response speed of the system, suppress system overshoot and oscillation, and, to a certain extent, improve the dynamic performance of the system.

This paper develops the transient stability enhancement of the inverter-based resources (IBRs) with the virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control employed. Firstly, based on the large-signal model, the instability phenomenon of the VSG control during voltage dips is fully analyzed. It is found that the frequency deviation Δω in the active power control loop (APCL) of VSG is always positive when the VSG is transiently unstable. Then, for guaranteeing stronger transient stability, an additional integral controller with the frequency deviation is added to the APCL in the VSG control. Moreover, a large-signal model of the proposed strategy is established. Then, the phase portraits with an integral controller in the APCL disabled/enabled are presented. It is seen that the improved control strategy has better transient stability under voltage dips. Finally, the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The hybrid AC/DC microgrid gains a great attention in recent years as it can improve the energy efficiency and ensure the reliability of the system. This paper makes an investigation on the operation mode switching performance of an AC/DC combined hybrid microgrid based on a real system at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. An improved virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy is developed to optimize the switching performance from the grid-tied mode to the islanding mode. The basic VSG principle is described and the improved VSG model is introduced. Based on the improved model, a pre-synchronization method is proposed. Comparison of the microgrid performance between conventional droop control and the improved VSG control is carried out by simulation on Matlab/SIMULINK environment. Simulation results show the advantage of VSG control strategy and the validity of the pre-synchronization method.

The high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) results in a low‐inertia, weak power grid. To mitigate this and restore system inertia, it has been widely proposed to operate the inverters of RES units to mimic synchronous generators; this technology is known as a virtual synchronous generator (VSG). In weak grids there is, however, strong coupling between active power () and reactive power (), and any VSG technique therefore requires decoupling in order to operate effectively. This article proposes a new decoupling technique based on the transformation of the power circle of a VSG connected to a weak grid: first, the power circle is translated from its designed position to that of a conventional synchronous generator (SG) connected to a strong grid, achieving partial decoupling. Then, to achieve full decoupling, the authors propose further to modulate the radius of the translated power circle; this is achieved using a series resistance‐capacitance–inductance () circuit which is virtually implemented in the VSG controller. The efficacy of the proposed scheme is validated using a modified synchronverter connected to the weak grid in representative loading scenarios. It is demonstrated that the technique achieves a decoupled control for the synchronverter connected in a weak grid. Moreover, the modified synchronverter is capable of supporting frequency and voltage regulation in the grid without inducing large transient grid currents during mild frequency and voltage variations.

The construction of multiple microgrid clusters (MMGCs) contributes to incorporating increasing distributed energy generations flexibly, supplying local power loads conveniently, and decreasing operating losses appreciatively. To promote the progress of the MMGCs further, research on the transient stability of the MMGCs based on the virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy is done in this paper. Firstly, through introducing the P-ω and Q-V control of the synchronous generator (SG), the theoretical modeling of the VSG control strategy is conducted, which is implemented on the MMGCs. Then, using the Lyapunov direct method, the shrinking admittance matrix model and the rotor motion equation of the MMGCs are established. Therewith, the transient energy function of the MMGCs in the center of the inertia frame is derived. In light of the MATLAB environment, a detailed electromagnetic transient model of the MMGCs with three MGs based on the VSG control is created, and the simulations are carried out to check the suitability of the presented energy function model and the stability analysis method. In the simulations, the effects of the fault clearance time, size of inertia, and voltage droop coefficient on the power angle stability of the MMGCs are quantitatively assessed. The theoretical analysis is well following the simulation findings to determine the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Synchronous generators (SGs) inherently support grid stability through their physical inertia and capability to tolerate overcurrent conditions during faults. In contrast, inverter-based resources (IBRs), due to the limitations of semiconductor switching devices, lack such overcurrent handling capacity, making them vulnerable during grid disturbances. This paper investigates the low voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability of IBRs employing virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control to enhance their transient response during fault-induced voltage sags. A comprehensive VSG model is developed, incorporating virtual inertia and damping emulation to replicate the dynamic behavior of SGs. The proposed control strategy is validated through time-domain simulations in MATLAB/Simulink under both symmetrical and asymmetrical fault conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the VSG control effectively enables voltage recovery, sustains stable power output, reduces the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF), and ensures grid code-compliant current injection with acceptable total harmonic distortion (THD). The findings confirm the potential of VSG-based control in fulfilling LVRT requirements and enhancing grid resilience in high-renewable penetration scenarios.

The conventional synchronous generator (SG) can regulate the active and reactive power for frequency and voltage stability, when the system fluctuates. In renewable energy generation system (RES), the stability problem of RES can be solved by adding virtual inertia and damping in the control strategy of the grid-connected inverter. The grid-connected inverter and renewable energy system with this kind of control strategy, called as virtual synchronous generator (VSG), acts as a synchronous generator. In this paper, the topology of grid-connected PV array and energy storage system is proposed. The VSG used in grid-connected inverter, is modelled as stator and rotor model by stator voltage equation and rotor motion equation, respectively. Meanwhile, the VSG control mechanism, based on droop control and model of VSG, can be divided as active power-frequency and reactive power-voltage control. Besides, the system stability is analyzed based on small signal model, for the design of inertia and damping. The simulation model is designed by MATLAB/Simulink for the implementation of VSG. In simulation, it is compared that the dynamic regulation performance of VSG with different control coefficient, such as virtual inertia, virtual damping, droop coefficient and integral coefficient. The optimization for regulation performance in simulation provides an appropriate selection method of the control coefficient for VSG.

In recent years, Virtual Synchronizer Generator (VSG), which simulates the inertia and damping of the synchronous generator, has been gradually applied in microgrid. This paper studies the microgrid inverter using the VSG control strategy. Due to the existence of virtual inertia and damping coefficient in the VSG, the frequency and output active power of the microgrid inverter will oscillate when the active power scheduling command is abrupt, and the inverter will break down in severe cases due to over-current protection. Aiming at this problem, based on the root trajectory analysis of active power closed-loop transfer function, the influence of damping coefficient on VSG stability and dynamic performance is studied, combined with the physical meaning of the power angle curve and damping coefficient of VSG, the fuzzy algorithm is proposed to configure virtual damping coefficient. The VSG adaptive control algorithm of the coefficient is given, and the membership function and fuzzy rule table are given. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the control strategy are verified by constructing the simulink simulation model.

The virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control is regarded as an effective solution for operating converters in weak grid conditions due to its excellent grid support functions. However, successful implementation of the VSG control of an AC/DC converter relies on the existence of a steady DC voltage at the DC side, while this is not easy to achieve for the cascaded converter system of this work, i.e., the Modular Multilevel Converter-based High-Voltage Direct-Current (MMC-HVDC) transmission systems with offshore wind farm integration. To address this issue, a novel grid-forming control strategy with real-time inertia support and direct DC-link voltage regulation is proposed for the Receiving End Converter (REC) of the MMC-HVDC. The intrinsic power balancing regime of the internal energy stored in MMC's submodule (SM) capacitors is utilized for grid synchronization rather than emulating the swing equation as requested by the VSG control. For being more robust to sudden power variations, proper insertion strategies of the REC are developed to decouple the DC-link voltage of MMC-HVDC from the voltage of SM capacitors. Furthermore, in terms of the grid fault-ride-through issue of the REC, an associated FRT control strategy is proposed aiming for power angle stability and the stability of SM capacitor voltage. Finally, simulation results in PSCAD/EMTDC show that the proposed control can provide fast inertia support with satisfactory control of DC-link voltage and FRT capability, etc.