Breaking the Hierarchy: Distributed Control and Economic Optimality in Microgrids

DOI10.1109/TCNS.2015.2459391zbMATH Open1370.93157arXiv1401.1767MaRDI QIDQ5358501FDOQ5358501

Authors: Florian Dörfler, John W. Simpson-Porco, Francesco Bullo 

Publication date: 21 September 2017

Published in: IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Modeled after the hierarchical control architecture of power transmission systems, a layering of primary, secondary, and tertiary control has become the standard operation paradigm for islanded microgrids. Despite this superficial similarity, the control objectives in microgrids across these three layers are varied and ambitious, and they must be achieved while allowing for robust plug-and-play operation and maximal flexibility, without hierarchical decision making and time-scale separations. In this work, we explore control strategies for these three layers and illuminate some possibly-unexpected connections and dependencies among them. Building from a first-principle analysis of decentralized primary droop control, we study centralized, decentralized, and distributed architectures for secondary frequency regulation. We find that averaging-based distributed controllers using communication among the generation units offer the best combination of flexibility and performance. We further leverage these results to study constrained AC economic dispatch in a tertiary control layer. Surprisingly, we show that the minimizers of the economic dispatch problem are in one-to-one correspondence with the set of steady-states reachable by droop control. In other words, the adoption of droop control is necessary and sufficient to achieve economic optimization. This equivalence results in simple guidelines to select the droop coefficients, which include the known criteria for power sharing. We illustrate the performance and robustness of our designs through simulations.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1767

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Distributed algorithms (68W15) Synthesis problems (93B50) Discrete-time control/observation systems (93C55) Applications of design theory to circuits and networks (94C30)

Cited In (35)

• Distributed control of inverter-based lossy microgrids for power sharing and frequency regulation under voltage constraints
• On the Robust Distributed Secondary Control of Islanded Inverter-Based Microgrids
• A communication‐less distributed frequency restoration and economical active power control scheme for islanded AC microgrids
• Robustness to noise of distributed averaging integral controllers in power networks
• An asynchronous distributed and scalable generalized Nash equilibrium seeking algorithm for strongly monotone games
• Secant and Popov-like conditions in power network stability
• Clustering approach to model order reduction of power networks with distributed controllers
• Grid-forming control for power converters based on matching of synchronous machines
• Robust leader-follower synchronization of electric power generators
• Frequency-driven market mechanisms for optimal dispatch in power networks
• Ultimate boundedness and regions of attraction of frequency droop controlled microgrids with secondary control loops
• A survey on conic relaxations of optimal power flow problem
• Hybrid online learning control in networked multiagent systems: A survey
• Asynchronous networks and event driven dynamics
• Power-imbalance allocation control of power systems-secondary frequency control
• Synchronisation of heterogeneous Kuramoto oscillators with sampled information and a constant leader
• Robustness of distributed averaging control in power systems: time delays \& dynamic communication topology
• Mathematical compendium of uncertainty cost functions and their validation for controllable renewable systems
• A novel distributed economic model predictive control approach for building air-conditioning systems in microgrids
• Gather-and-broadcast frequency control in power systems
• A distributed continuous time consensus algorithm for maximize social welfare in micro grid
• Distributed load-side control: coping with variation of renewable generations
• Convergence and synchronization in networks of piecewise-smooth systems via distributed discontinuous coupling
• Dynamic consensus and extended high gain observers as a tool to achieve practical frequency synchronization in power systems under unknown time-varying power demand
• Primary frequency regulation in power grids with on-off loads: chattering, limit cycles and convergence to optimality
• A real-time control framework for smart power networks: design methodology and stability
• Secondary frequency control in power systems with arbitrary communication delays
• Distributed secondary frequency control in microgrids: robustness and steady-state performance in the presence of clock drifts
• Distributed gradient tracking methods with finite data rates
• Distributed finite-time tracking control for multiple uncertain Euler-Lagrange systems with error constraints
• Decentralized adaptive terminal sliding mode control design for nonlinear connected system in the presence of external disturbance
• Stability analysis of power systems: a network synchronization perspective
• Distributed optimal load frequency control considering nonsmooth cost functions
• A relaxed characterization of ISS for periodic systems with multiple invariant sets
• Exponential convergence under distributed averaging integral frequency control

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