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Frede Blaabjerg

Publications and source records attributed to Frede Blaabjerg.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

On Power Control of Grid-Forming Converters: Modeling, Controllability, and Full-State Feedback Design

The popular single-input single-output control structures and classic design methods (e.g., root locus analysis) for the power control of grid-forming converters have limitations in applying to different line characteristics and providing favorable performance. This paper studies the grid-forming converter power loops from the perspective of multi-input multi-output systems. First, the error dynamics associated with power control loops (error-based state-space model) are derived while taking into account the natural dynamical coupling terms of the power converter models. Thereafter, the controllability Gramian of the grid-forming converter power loops is studied. Last, a full-state feedback control design using only the local measurements is applied. By this way, the eigenvalues of the system can be arbitrarily placed in the timescale of power loops based on predefined time-domain specifications. A step-by-step construction and design procedure of the power control of grid-forming converters is also given. The analysis and proposed method are verified by experimental results.

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A non-invasive fault location method for modular multilevel converters under light load conditions

This paper proposes a non-invasive fault location method for modular multilevel converters (MMC) considering light load conditions. The prior-art fault location methods of the MMC are often developed and verified under full load conditions. However, it is revealed that the faulty arm current will be suppressed to be unipolar when the open-circuit fault happens on the submodule switch under light load. This leads to the capacitor voltage of the healthy and faulty submodules rising or falling with the same variations, increasing the difficulty of fault location. The proposed approach of injecting the second-order circulating current will rebuild the bipolar arm current of the MMC and enlarge the capacitor voltage deviations between the healthy and faulty SMs. As a result, the fault location time is significantly shortened. The simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, showing that the fault location time is reduced to 1/6 compared with the condition without second-order circulating current injection.

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Grid-Forming Inverter-based Wind Turbine Generators: Comprehensive Review, Comparative Analysis, and Recommendations

High penetration of wind power with conventional grid following controls for inverter-based wind turbine generators (WTGs) weakens the power grid, challenging the power system stability. Grid-forming (GFM) controls are emerging technologies that can address such stability issues. Numerous methodologies of GFM inverters have been developed in the literature; however, their applications for WTGs have not been thoroughly explored. As WTGs need to incorporate multiple control functions to operate reliably in different operational regions, the GFM control should be appropriately developed for the WTGs. This paper presents a review of GFM controls for WTGs, which covers the latest developments in GFM controls and includes multi-loop and single-loop GFM, virtual synchronous machine-based GFM, and virtual inertia control-based GFM. A comparison study for these GFM-based WTGs regarding normal and abnormal operating conditions together with black-start capability is then performed. The control parameters of these GFM types are properly designed and optimized to enable a fair comparison. In addition, the challenges of applying these GFM controls to wind turbines are discussed, which include the impact of DC-link voltage control strategy and the current saturation algorithm on the GFM control performance, black-start capability, and autonomous operation capability. Finally, recommendations and future developments of GFM-based wind turbines to increase the power system reliability are presented.

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Multivariable Grid-Forming Converters with Direct States Control

A multi-input multi-output based grid-forming (MIMO-GFM) converter has been proposed using multivariable feedback control, which has been proven as a superior and robust system using low-order controllers. However, the original MIMO-GFM control is easily affected by the high-frequency components especially for the converter without inner cascaded voltage and current loops and when it is connected into a strong grid. This paper proposes an improved MIMO-GFM control method, where the frequency and internal voltage are chosen as state variables to be controlled directly. In this way, the impact of high-frequency components is eliminated without increasing the complexity of the control system. The H-infinity synthesis is used to tune the parameters to obtain an optimized performance. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Power Control of Grid-Forming Converters Based on Full-State Feedback

The active and reactive power controllers of grid-forming converters are traditionally designed separately, which relies on the assumption of loop decoupling. This paper proposes a full-state feedback control for the power loops of grid-forming converters. First, the power loops are modeled considering their natural coupling, which, therefore, can apply to all kinds of line impedance, i.e., resistive, inductive, or complex. Then a full-state feedback control design is used. By this way, the eigenvalues of the system can be arbitrarily placed to any positions in the timescale of power loops. Therefore, the parameters can be directly chosen by the predefined specifications. A step-by-step parameters design procedure is also given in this paper. Experimental results verify the proposed method.

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Augmentation of Generalized Multivariable Grid-Forming Control for Power Converters with Cascaded Controllers

The classic design of grid-forming control strategies for power converters rely on the stringent assumption of the timescale separation between DC and AC states and their corresponding control loops, e.g., AC and DC loops, power and cascaded voltage and current loops, etc. This paper proposes a multi-input multi-output based grid-forming (MIMO-GFM) control for the power converters using a multivariable feedback structure. First, the MIMO-GFM control couples the AC and DC loops by a general multivariable control transfer matrix. Then, the parameters design is transformed into a standard fixed-structure H-infinity synthesis. By this way, all the loops can be tuned simultaneously and optimally without relying on the assumptions of loop decoupling. Therefore, a superior and robust performance can be achieved. Experimental results verify the proposed method.

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Home Energy Management Systems: Operation and Resilience of Heuristics against Cyberattacks

Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced communication technologies have demonstrated great potential to manage residential energy resources by enabling demand-side management (DSM). Home energy management systems (HEMSs) can automatically control electricity production and usage inside homes using DSM techniques. These HEMSs will wirelessly collect information from hardware installed in the power system and in homes with the objective to intelligently and efficiently optimize electricity usage and minimize costs. However, HEMSs can be vulnerable to cyberattacks that target the electricity pricing model. The cyberattacker manipulates the pricing information collected by a customer's HEMS to misguide its algorithms toward non-optimal solutions. The customer's electricity bill increases, and additional peaks are created without being detected by the system operator. This article introduces demand-response (DR)-based DSM in HEMSs and discusses DR optimization using heuristic algorithms. Moreover, it discusses the possibilities and impacts of cyberattacks, their effectiveness, and the degree of resilience of heuristic algorithms against cyberattacks. This article also opens research questions and shows prospective directions.

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Generalized Multivariable Grid-Forming Control Design for Power Converters

The grid-forming converter is an important unit in the future power system with more inverter-interfaced generators. However, improving its performance is still a key challenge. This paper proposes a generalized architecture of the grid-forming converter from the view of multivariable feedback control. As a result, many of the existing popular control strategies, i.e., droop control, power synchronization control, virtual synchronous generator control, matching control, dispatchable virtual oscillator control, and their improved forms are unified into a multivariable feedback control transfer matrix working on several linear and nonlinear error signals. Meanwhile, unlike the traditional assumptions of decoupling between AC and DC control, active power and reactive power control, the proposed configuration simultaneously takes all of them into consideration, which therefore can provide better performance. As an example, a new multi-input-multi-output-based grid-forming (MIMO-GFM) control is proposed based on the generalized configuration. To cope with the multivariable feedback, an optimal and structured $H_{\infty}$ synthesis is used to design the control parameters. At last, simulation and experimental results show superior performance and robustness of the proposed configuration and control.

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Model-Free Voltage Regulation of Unbalanced Distribution Network Based on Surrogate Model and Deep Reinforcement Learning

Accurate knowledge of the distribution system topology and parameters is required to achieve good voltage controls, but this is difficult to obtain in practice. This paper develops a model-free approach based on the surrogate model and deep reinforcement learning (DRL). We have also extended it to deal with unbalanced three-phase scenarios. The key idea is to learn a surrogate model to capture the relationship between the power injections and voltage fluctuation of each node from historical data instead of using the original inaccurate model affected by errors and uncertainties. This allows us to integrate the DRL with the learned surrogate model. In particular, DRL is applied to learn the optimal control strategy from the experiences obtained by continuous interactions with the surrogate model. The integrated framework contains training three networks, i.e., surrogate model, actor, and critic networks, which fully leverage the strong nonlinear fitting ability of deep learning and DRL for online decision making. Several single-phase approaches have also been extended to deal with three-phase unbalance scenarios and the simulation results on the IEEE 123-bus system show that our proposed method can achieve similar performance as those that use accurate physical models.

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Multiuser Communication through Power Talk in DC MicroGrids

Power talk is a novel concept for communication among control units in MicroGrids (MGs), carried out without a dedicated modem, but by using power electronics that interface the common bus. The information is transmitted by modulating the parameters of the primary control, incurring subtle power deviations that can be detected by other units. In this paper, we develop power talk communication strategies for DC MG systems with arbitrary number of control units that carry out all-to-all communication. We investigate two multiple access strategies: 1) TDMA, where only one unit transmits at a time, and 2) full duplex, where all units transmit and receive simultaneously. We introduce the notions of signaling space, where the power talk symbol constellations are constructed, and detection space, where the demodulation of the symbols is performed. The proposed communication technique is challenged by the random changes of the bus parameters due to load variations in the system. To this end, we employ a solution based on training sequences, which re-establishes the signaling and detection spaces and thus enables reliable information exchange. The presented results show that power talk is an effective solution for reliable communication among units in DC MG systems.

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Power Talk in DC Micro Grids: Constellation Design and Error Probability Performance

Power talk is a novel concept for communication among units in a Micro Grid (MG), where information is sent by using power electronics as modems and the common bus of the MG as a communication medium. The technique is implemented by modifying the droop control parameters from the primary control level. In this paper, we consider power talk in a DC MG and introduce a channel model based on Thevenin equivalent. The result is a channel whose state that can be estimated by both the transmitter and the receiver. Using this model, we present design of symbol constellations of arbitrary order and analyze the error probability performance. Finally, we also show how to design adaptive modulation in the proposed communication framework, which leads to significant performance benefits.

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Power Talk: How to Modulate Data over a DC Micro Grid Bus using Power Electronics

We introduce a novel communication strategy for DC Micro Grids (MGs), termed power talk, in which the devices communicate by modulating the power levels in the DC bus. The information is transmitted by varying the parameters that the MG units use to control the level of the common bus voltage, while it is received by processing the bus measurements that units perform. This communication is challenged by the fact that the voltage level is subject to random disturbances, as the state of the MG changes with random load variations. We develop a corresponding communication model and address the random voltage fluctuations by using coding strategies that transform the MG into some well-known communication channels. The performance analysis shows that it is possible to mitigate the random voltage level variations and communicate reliably over the MG bus.

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