Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Committee Chair

Sarika Khushalani Solanki

Committee Member

Jignesh Solanki

Committee Member

Muhammad Akram Choudhry

Abstract

Renewable energy sources such as photo-voltaic and wind energy are integrating very rapidly in power systems. These energy-based systems typically adopt power-electronic interfaced inverters to connect to the grid. However, unlike traditional generators, these sources have low inertia, resulting in system stability issues, especially in microgrids where they are the primary sources. To mitigate the low-inertia effect, the inverters are modeled as virtual synchronous generators (VSG), and their control is designed. The VSG emulates the inertia effect of the synchronous generator and maintains the stability of the system. Even though the droop control provides the primary control, it is insufficient due to the high variability of the power electronics in inverter systems. Hence, optimal and efficient power-sharing among distributed generators (DGs) is needed through secondary control. The consensus-based algorithm is proposed in this thesis to overcome the control challenges of inverters in a microgrid to obtain control under fast-changing system conditions and unbalanced scenarios. The developed controller is tested on microgrid systems through simulations in MATLAB/Simulink, and the performance is compared with other controllers and with just the primary controller.

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