Virtual inertia (VI) control of dc microgrids (dc MG) is a potential solution to the voltage stability issue caused by the intermittency of loads and renewable sources. Existing VI strategies… Click to show full abstract
Virtual inertia (VI) control of dc microgrids (dc MG) is a potential solution to the voltage stability issue caused by the intermittency of loads and renewable sources. Existing VI strategies for dc MG rely on a first-order differential equation relating voltage (speed) with current (torque) to control the grid-forming converters that are crucial in an autonomous dc MG. However, the output impedance of these converters can distort the inertial response. Existing research works overcome this by using a feed-forward controller (FFC) necessitating an accurate system model for proper compensation. Hence, in this article, a novel VI scheme based on capacitor current control, which does not rely on any differential equation, is proposed. The proposed VI scheme employs a static gain to restrict the capacitor current for inertia emulation without any additional FFC. Furthermore, the proposed VI scheme is extended to parallel-connected converters to study their steady-state and transient coordination. Finally, the proposed strategy is validated in simulation using MATLAB/Simulink and is also experimentally verified in a laboratory prototype using the TMS320F280049C controller.
               
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