Design Power Control Strategies of Grid-Forming Inverters for Microgrid Application

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

10 Scopus Citations

Abstract

This paper develops and compares two control schemes in the application control layer of a non-phase-locked loop (non-PLL) grid-forming (GFM) inverter to gain insight and understanding into how the two schemes affect the dynamic responses of GFM inverters and the transition operation of microgrids. The first scheme adopts power tracking based on an outer current loop in grid-connected mode and droop control in islanded mode, and the second uses droop control in both grid-connected and islanded modes. Analytical study is developed to compare the performance of these two strategies from various aspects, including fundamental differences, transition operation, power tracking, and P-Q capability with low point-of-common-coupling (PCC) voltages. Extensive simulation testing is carried out to validate the control performance of these two control strategies, and the simulation testing confirms the findings of the analytic study. Finally, the second strategy is recommended because of its superior control performance and ease of implementation. The analysis and results are useful in developing reliable control schemes for non-PLL GFM inverters because increasing numbers of inverters will work as non-PLL grid-forming sources in future grids because of their improved stability and reliability.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages1079-1086
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event13th IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2021 - Virtual, Online, Canada
Duration: 10 Oct 202114 Oct 2021

Conference

Conference13th IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2021
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVirtual, Online
Period10/10/2114/10/21

Bibliographical note

See NREL/CP-5D00-78874 for preprint

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-5D00-82059

Keywords

  • grid-forming inverter
  • P-Q capability
  • power tracking
  • smooth microgrid transition operation

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