Distributed cooperative control of low-voltage residential microgrids

Smart micro-grids offer a new and challenging application environment for modern power electronics. In fact, smart micro-grids are populated by a plethora of distributed energy resources (DERs), which interface with the distribution grid by means of electronic power processors (EPPs). This scenario enables the distributed control of the active and reactive currents flowing in the power lines, with a tremendous potentiality to improve the grid performance in terms of distribution efficiency, power sharing, voltage stabilization, hosting capacity and demand response. This paper presents a simple and powerful approach to cooperative control of distributed EPPs, which only requires narrowband communication among neighbouring units. The proposed scalable and flexible distributed control architecture provides prompt response to power transients and efficient operation of the micro-grid in both grid-connected and islanded conditions.