An Autonomous Control Scheme for

DC Micro-Grid System

Wang Panbao, Wang Wei, Xu Dianguo, Liu Guihua Li Ming

School of Electrical Engineering and Automation Digital Control IC Design Center
Harbin Institute of Technology International Rectifier Corporation
Harbin, China Xi’an, China
wangpanbao@hit.edu.cn mli1@irf.com

Abstract—This paper presents an autonomous control scheme disable in this control method. Reference [15] described the
for DC micro-grid system both in grid-connected and islanding hardware architecture and power management scheme in
conditions. The proposed DC micro-grid architecture consists of master-slave mode and experimental prototype was
a wind turbine generation unit, a photovoltaic generation unit, implemented.
two battery stack units, a grid-connected inverter/rectifier and
loads. Corresponding control strategy of each unit is presented. Autonomous control is the alternative method for DC
DC droop control method is adopted into voltage control loop to micro-grid. This method need no communication link and is
suppress the circulating current when two or more voltage completely decentralized. By using the droop control[16],
sources are connected to DC bus. The energy that flows through multiple voltage type converters can connect together through
each unit and different operating modes of the system both in the DC bus and avoid circulating current between each other.
grid-connected and islanding conditions are analyzed. Power In [17], the principle of droop control and the design approach
management method to balance the energy of the system and of droop’s ratio has been presented. In the system, a battery
stable the DC bus voltage is presented. Simulation results verify energy storage unit and an AC grid-connected inverter unit
the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in various were set as voltage sources, and droop control was added into
operating conditions. the voltage control loop. When the power of DGs were greater
than the loads, the excess power could be charged to storage
Keywords—DC micro-grid; architecture; autonomous control;
unit and inverted to AC grid. When the DGs’ power was
power management; droop control; energy store
insufficient, the needed power could be discharged from
storage unit and AC grid. They could work cooperatively by a
I. INTRODUCTION optimized droop method to ensure that the AC grid-connected
As one part of distributed generations (DGs) system, inverter sent or received power less than storage unit when the
micro-grid is a more economic and efficient way to utilize load was light or the storage unit was charging. In the opposite
renewable energy [1]–[3]. According to the voltage case, the AC grid-connected inverter sent or received power
characteristics of micro-grid’s public bus, it can be divided into more than storage unit. The presented control scheme realized
AC micro-grid and DC micro-grid [4]. A typical DC micro- the seamless switching between AC grid-connected inverter
grid usually consists of DGs (as photovoltaic (PV) generation and storage unit but the system couldn’t operate without AC
and wind turbines (WT) generation), energy storage system grid.
(ESS) and DC load [5], [6]. Compared with AC micro-grid,
DC micro-grid uses dc bus voltage as the control information, II. DC MICRO-GRID ARCHITECTURE
and the DC converters are more simpler and more efficient.
The proposed DC micro-grid system architecture (Fig. 1)
Moreover, DC micro-grid doesn't need to consider the reactive
consists of a PV energy generating unit, a WT generating unit,
power [7]. Since the PV and ESS are DC sources, and more
two BS units, DC load and a bidirectional AC/DC
DC electric devices in families and offices become popular, the
inverter/rectifier connected to the single-phase AC grid. The
DC micro-grid will have a encouraging development.
DC bus voltage is 380V.
Different architectures and control schemes of DC micro-
In PV energy generating unit, PV arrays are connected to
grid have been proposed [8]–[13]. In [14], A master-slave
the DC bus through a boost type DC/DC converter with the
control method has been applied and a large capacity
maximum power tracking function. The WT uses permanent
generating unit was set as a voltage source, while other units
magnet synchronous generator and outputs three-phase voltage.
were set as current sources. A center controller was employed
Through an uncontrolled rectifier, the DC power is sent to a
to regulate each unit power flow to ensure the power balance.
boost type DC/DC converter also with the maximum power
That control strategy can achieve quick adjustment by high-
tracking function. BS units can storage energy and supply
speed communication link and is suitable for a small scale site.
power to the DC bus in charging and discharging status by
However, a long distance between the units might reduce the
using a bidirectional DC/DC converter. The AC grid can
communication speed and the “plug and play” function is also

978-1-4799-0224-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 1519

supply power to or take power from the DC micro-grid through and BSs status and the needs of load.
a bidirectional AC/DC inverter/rectifier depending on the DGs

Fig. 1. Proposed DC micro-grid architecture

The main features of this DC micro-grid are:

• It is suitable for DC type sources such as PV and energy
storage devices like batteries and super capacitors. After
rectifying, WT’s power is also DC type. Fig. 2. Control diagram of PV & WT converter (MPPT)
• The system can operate both in grid-connected and
islanding conditions. It can offer power to the AC grid The MPPT mode of PV and WT generating units can be
if the DGs power is sufficient and can operate thought as current sources inject current to DC micro-grid. But
independently when the AC grid break down. in other conditions, a constant voltage control (CVC) mode is
needed.
• The PV energy generation unit and WT generation unit
A problem is that if the voltage sources are connected
can work together and complement each other. For
directly in parallel, there will be a circulating current between
instance, when the PV have no power in night, the WT
them. This paper employed a droop control method [19] to
can continue to supply power.
suppress the circulating current. This method needs no
• In order to improve the system stability, two BS units communication lines and can realize “plug and play” function.
are installed. If one breaks down, the other one can The control principle is roughly adding a current feedback in
maintain normal operation of the system. the voltage control loop and make the output voltage
characteristics to be soft by this virtual resistance method.
III. CONTROL STRATEGY FOR EACH UNIT The principle of DC droop method can be expressed as
Corresponding control strategies for each unit are shown in follow
the followings.
*'
U DC *
= U DC − KI DC (1)
A. Control Strategy for DG Units
According to the characteristics of PV and WT, there exits Where the U*DC is the given voltage reference, IDC is the
a maximum power point (MPP) when the PV/WT and the outputting current, K is the droop ratio and U*’DC is the voltage
converter’s impedance are matched. Taking PV generating unit reference after droop adjusting.
for example, UPV and IPV are sent into the maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) module as shown in Fig. 2. It outputs K can be seen as an equivalent resistance, it can be
the PV’s reference voltage U*PV and a voltage control loop designed by the parameters of DG’s capacity and the DC bus
regulates the boost type converter to make UPV reach U*PV. voltage level.
Incremental conductance MPPT method [18] can be adopted to
track the PV/WT MPP in real time. K = ΔU DC *(U DC − ΔU DC ) / PR (2)

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 Where ∆UDC is the DC bus voltage UDC allowed floating C. Control Strategy for Grid-Connected Inverte /Rectifier
value. PR is the rated power of the voltage source. As shown in Fig. 6, when the grid-connected
Fig. 3 shows the CVC control diagram of PV and WT inverter/rectifier unit is running at inverting condition, the DC
converters. It contains the droop control, an outer voltage bus voltage is regulated by a double closed loop. The outer
control loop and an inner current control loop. loop is a voltage control loop and inner loop is a current control
loop. A phase locked loop (PLL) is used to track the AC grid’s
UDC IDC frequency and phase, thus generating a synchronous sinusoidal
U*DC U*'DC I*DC
PI PI PWM S1 waveform signal. The voltage control loop’s output I*ac
multiplies this synchronous sinusoidal signal and then is
K IDC compared with the inverter’s sample current iac before being
sent it to the current control loop.
Fig. 3. Control diagram of PV & WT converter (CVC)

The PV and WT output power may be changed rapidly due

to the impact of surrounding environment. The current inner
loop can improve the system response speed.

B. Control Strategy for BS Units Fig. 6. Control diagram of grid-connected inverter/rectifier

As shown in Fig. 1, two BS units are connected to the DC
bus and each BS unit is controlled as a voltage source to realize When the AC grid sends power to DC micro-grid, the grid-
the redundancy in CVC mode when the BS status is connected inverter/rectifier unit is running on the rectifying
discharging. status. The rectification control strategy is similar with the
inverting control.
Fig. 4 shows the control diagram of the bidirectional
DC/DC converter at discharging status. The difference between IV. POWER MANAGEMENT METHOD
UDC and U*’DC is sent to the voltage PI regulator and the output
is sent to the PWM generator to drive S2. S3 is always off and A DC micro-grid system can operate both in grid-
the converter operates at boost type. The droop control is also connected mode and islanding mode. The system can take
added to suppress the circulating current between the BS units. power from AC grid when the DGs’ energy can’t afford load
and can send power to AC grid when the DGs’ energy is
surplus in addition to meeting the requirements of loads. If AC
grid breaks down, the system can disconnect it. DGs and BSs
can provide energy to loads at the same time. If the BSs’
energy is insufficient while DGs’ is sufficient, DGs can
translate power to BSs.
Fig. 4. Control diagram of BS converter (Discharging)
In grid-connected mode, the DC bus voltage is controlled
by the grid-connected inverter/rectifier in CVC mode. DGs are
Fig. 5 shows the control diagram of the bidirectional
always running in MPPT mode. If DGs’ energy is sufficient
DC/DC converter at charging status. There are two control
enough to supply to load and the not fully charged BSs (As
loops, an inner current control loop and an outer voltage
shown in Fig. 7 (a)), the rest power is sent to AC grid by grid-
control loop. A current limiter was insert in the current loop to
connected inverter and BSs units are controlled at discharging
limit the charging current. S2 is always off and the converter
mode. If DGs’ energy is insufficient to supply to load and the
operates at buck type.
not fully charged BSs (As shown in Fig. 7 (b)), the needed
power is supplied by the rectifier from AC grid. If BSs’
charging is completed, they should disconnect from the DC bus
as standbys for discharging when the DC micro-grid is working
at islanding mode.
Fig. 5. Control diagram of BS converter (Charging)

Battery charging can usually be divided into two stages:

constant current charging stage and constant voltage charging
stage. At first, the difference between UBS and U*BS made the
voltage PI controller output a large value. But due to the effect
of the current limiter, the I*BS can only reach the limit value, so
the charge stage is constant current charging. As the BS’s
voltage rising, the voltage PI controller output becomes smaller
gradually. When the output value is less than the limit, the
outer voltage control loop is available, and the charging status
switches to constant voltage charging stage seamlessly.
Fig. 7. Power Management in grid-connected condition

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 In islanding mode, the DC bus voltage is controlled by the decreases correspondingly. At 0.6s, the load power is quite
DGs or BSs. The grid-connected inverter/rectifier is always small and BSs stop discharging. DG units return to the CVC
offline. If DGs’ energy is sufficient enough to supply to loads mode.
and the not fully charged BSs, it operates at CVC mode. If the
DGs’ energy is insufficient to supply to load, the units switch In all of the processes above, the DC bus voltage is stabled
to MPPT mode, while the BS units start charging and are by grid-connected inverter/rectifier, DG units and BS units
running at CVC mode. respectively in CVC mode at setting value 380V. When DG
units or BS units are running at CVC mode, the droop control
is available to suppress the circulating current. Even at the
switching moment, the fluctuation of DC bus voltage is smooth
enough.
400

AC Voltage (V)
200
0
-200
-400
0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
5

AC Current (A)
Fig. 8. Power Management in islanding condition 0

When the DG generating units operate at CVC mode and -5

0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
BSs need charging, the power balance among DGs, BSs and 420

DC Bus Voltage (V)

load should be considered. The charging current can be set to 400
maximum when the DGs’ energy is sufficient. On the contrary, 380
if the DC bus voltage falls, the DGs’ energy must be 360
340
insufficient and the system should calculate the rest energy that
320
can offer to BSs and reduce the BSs’ charging current by the 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
current limiter to ensure the stability of DC micro-grid system. 2000
Load Power (A)

1500
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulation is constructed in MATLAB/Simulink 1000
environment to verify the proposed DC micro-grid architecture 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
Time (s)
and control scheme. The simulation parameters are set below:
the DC bus voltage is 380V, the AC grid RMS is 220V, the Fig. 9. Grid-connected simulation result
DGs maximum power is 1500kw, the load maximum power is
2000kw, the each BS unit is 120V/55Ah. 1500

Fig. 9 shows the system operation processes at grid- 1000 0

.
connected mode. Before 0.3s, the load power is 1200kw and 500 8
the grid-connected unit operates at inverting mode, DGs offer 0
energy to load and AC grid. At 0.3s, the load power jumps to 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

1800kw. At the same time, the grid-connected unit switches to 1500

rectifying mode. DGs and AC Grid offer energy together to 1000
load.
500
Fig. 10 shows the system operation processes at islanding 0
mode and the DC bus voltage is stabled by DG units. After 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

0.3s, BSs start charging and DGs output power increases. In 400
0.4-0.7s, the load power continue to increase. At 0.5s, BSs’ 390
charging current decreases as DGs output power is close to its 380
370
rated power. At 0.6s, BSs stop charging and DGs’ power is 360
sent to loads only. 3500.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Fig. 11 shows the system operation process at islanding 10
mode and contains a switching process of DG units between
CVC mode and MPPT mode. Before 0.3s, DG units are 0
running at CVC mode and stable the DC bus voltage. At 0.3s,
the load power increases and DGs can’t afford it. BS units start -10
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
discharging and stable the DC bus voltage. DG units switch to Time (s)
MPPT mode to track the maximum power of DGs. At 0.5s, the
load power decreases and the BSs’ discharging current Fig. 10. Islanding simulation result (ESs Charging)

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