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Study of Seamless Microgrid Transition Operation Using Grid-Forming Inverters

Conference ·
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This paper investigates operational techniques to achieve seamless (smooth) microgrid (MG) transitions by dispatching a grid-forming (GFM) inverter. In traditional approaches, the GFM inverter must switch between grid-following (GFL) and GFM control modes during MG transition operation. Today's inverter technology allows GFM inverters to always operate in GFM control mode, so it is worth exploring how to use them to achieve smooth MG transition operation. This paper proposes three operational techniques: a traditional scheme of switching between GFL and GFM control; a new scheme of consistent GFM control and shifting the droop intercept up before islanding operation; and a new scheme of consistent GFM control and shifting the droop intercept up before synchronization operation. A full hardware setup is established to compare the three techniques and showcase their implementations in real-world applications. The results show that the third technique outperforms the others and exhibits the best transition performance because the GFM inverter maintains the same operating points during the transition operation. Therefore, we conclude that ensuring smooth MG transition operation requires that the GFM inverter(s) maintain the same operating points (v, f, P, Q, and phase angle) during the transition operation in addition to minimizes the point of common coupling power flow.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
2282720
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5D00-88633; MainId:89412; UUID:32bcdd6b-ca1f-451d-84aa-943e77fcf60e; MainAdminID:71636
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 49th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON), 16-19 October 2023, Singapore; Related Information: 86102
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (10)

Transitions from grid-connected to island operation of Smart Microgrids
  • Cagnano, Alessia; De Tuglie, Enrico; Rasolomampionona, Desire Dauphin
  • 2019 IEEE International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2019 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS Europe) https://doi.org/10.1109/EEEIC.2019.8783746
conference June 2019
Design Power Control Strategies of Grid-Forming Inverters for Microgrid Application conference October 2021
Grid-Connected and Seamless Transition Modes for Microgrids: An Overview of Control Methods, Operation Elements, and General Requirements journal January 2022
Control Strategy for Seamless Transition of Microgrid Using Battery Energy Storage System conference September 2018
Control strategy for seamless transition from islanded to interconnected operation mode of microgrids journal August 2016
Integrated Synchronization Control of Grid-Forming Inverters for Smooth Microgrid Transition conference August 2019
Design of a Generalized Control Algorithm for Parallel Inverters for Smooth Microgrid Transition Operation journal August 2015
Design of an advanced energy management system for microgrid control using a state machine journal October 2018
Design of a Novel Hybrid Control Strategy for ES Grid-Connected Inverter for Smooth Microgrid Transition Operation journal January 2019
Seamless Transition of Microgrids Operation From Grid-Connected to Islanded Mode journal May 2020

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Related Subjects

POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
grid-forming control
islanding operation
smooth transition operation
synchronization operation