Reactive power sharing and voltage restoration in islanded AC microgrids

Authors: KHURRAM HASHMI, RIZWAN ALI, MUHAMMAD HANAN, WASEEM ASLAM, ABUBAKAR SIDDIQUE, MUHAMMAD MANSOOR KHAN

Abstract: Microgrids (MG) are a new and innovative concept in modern distribution networks. Several challenges are associated with the operation and control of MG networks. Active and reactive power sharing among energy resources interfaced through power electronic conversion stages is a major challenge. Although active power sharing can be achieved under varying scenarios, sharing of reactive power between distributed generation units is difficult to achieve. This paper presents a novel and innovative control scheme to ensure sharing of reactive power between Distributed generation units within an autonomous, islanded AC microgrid. A framework composed of novel multiagent moving average estimators is proposed to make the participating nodes share active and reactive power among themselves. Detailed case studies are carried out in MATLAB and Simulink environment to verify the efficacy of the proposed control scheme. Furthermore, a lab scale MG set up is implemented to verify the operation of the control scheme in an MG environment.

Keywords: Reactive power sharing, microgrids, power electronics, voltage regulation, frequency regulation

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