SLIDING DROOP CONTROL FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION IN

MICROGRIDS

Bruno W. Frana, Emanuel L. van Emmerik, Juliano F. Caldeira and Mauricio Aredes
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Fluminense Federal University, Niteri Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Cidade Universitria Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract This paper proposes a fully autonomous possible conditions: the grid-connected mode and the
controller that slides the droop curves of a Static islanded mode.
Synchronous Generator, avoiding the need of The energy generated by renewables is usually injected
hierarchical controllers to perform power sharing and into the grid through Voltage Source Converters (VSC).
frequency and voltage regulation. The aim of this There are some restrictions to increasing the number of VSC-
controller is to enhance the primary controller in order to based distributed generators and difficulties to harmonize the
perform additional functionalities in a similar way as operation of multiple parallel-connected VSCs, e.g.
those performed in a secondary control level hierarchy, undesired circulating currents in between DG units, harmonic
avoiding the need of a communication-system and currents propagation, and the need of communication
without mischaracterizing the primary behavior as a systems to perform power sharing between DGs [1].
virtual synchronous machine. The proposed seamless A well-known control method for parallel-connected
controller is still compatible with conventional converters is the emulation of Virtual Synchronous
communication-systems, and can receive inputs from Generators (VSG). The behavior of the power converters
hierarchical controllers. In grid-connected microgrids, controlled by this method is naturally stable and they can be
DG units perform active-power supply and adequate connected in parallel with actual rotational machines like
voltage regulation, whereas the system frequency is those employed in hydropower plants. In fact, the goal is to
imposed by the grid. Contrarily, in islanded microgrids, emulate an ideal synchronous generator with adaptive
DG units have to perform active-power sharing between parameters to achieve enhanced performance [4], [5], [6],
all units, reactive-power sharing, as well as to ensure [7], [8]. The concepts of controlling a VSC as a virtual
adequate frequency control and voltage regulation. When synchronous generator are generally known as Static
static droop curves are employed, power dispatch Synchronous Generator (SSG) [5], synchronverter or cyber
planning along with coordinated set of DG units is synchronous machines (CSM) [9].
required to achieve accurate active-power sharing. This The SSG controller uses frequency and voltage droop
drawback is mitigated with the proposed fully curves to perform power sharing [10]. In islanded
autonomous controller. Simulation results were obtained microgrids, the power sharing, and frequency- and voltage-
in a microgrid scenario to demonstrate the effective regulation play a primordial role to ensure system stability
approach for power sharing. Experimental results are [11], [12]. The control of both active-power sharing and
also presented. frequency regulation are impossible to be achieved

simultaneously by using only static droop control methods.
Keywords Distributed Generation, Droop control, The same occurs for the reactive-power sharing and the
Microgrid, Static Synchronous Generator, voltage regulation. A hierarchical control architecture is
Synchronverter. necessary to perform such functionalities and to coordinate
DG units in real-time. In summary, a hierarchical control
I. INTRODUCTION structure is composed of the primary, secondary and tertiary
control levels. The primary control is local and responsible
In modern power systems, the exponential increase of for ensuring power sharing and short-term power equilibrium
renewable energy generation connections and other types of between DG units and loads. The secondary control aims to
distributed generation (DG) is changing the conventional coordinate DG units in order to restore the system frequency
Centralized Power System (CPS) arrangement. Therefore, and provide voltage regulation. Moreover, when operating
the Distributed Power System (DPS) configuration is arising, the microgrid in islanded mode, a slower synchronizing
and it is characterized by many generators spread into the scheme adjusts the frequency and phase angle at the point of
grid, in which each one generates a small rate of the total coupling with the power grid, such that it keeps ready to
power demanded by the loads [1], [2], [3]. The DPS reclose with the grid. The hierarchical control structure is
configuration also leads to the upgrowth of microgrids. The designed considering a certain dependency of data
operative modes in which a microgrid is working with communication system between units (decentralized control)
regards to the power grid are usually separated in two or between units and a centralized microgrid controller. The
higher tertiary control level concerns about economic and
energetic aspects to determine a day-ahead program for the
This footnote will be used only by the Editor and Associate Editors. The power dispatch in the microgrid.
edition in this area is not permitted to the authors. This footnote must not be
removed while editing the manuscript.
 Some hierarchical controllers have shown efficient occur especially for smaller DGs [9], the voltage profile
performance with a low-bandwidth communication link [13]. along the microgrid and the system frequency have to be kept
In a different way, i.e. without the use of a communication at acceptable values, even during islanded mode of operation.
link, this paper aims to move the secondary control This paper revises the fact that when the original controller
functions into the primary control of each DG unit. This aim of the SSG and fixed droop curves are applied, the power
follows recent trends of autonomous grid-components such sharing depends on the slope of the droop curve and active
as presented in [9]. In this respect, communication systems power set point. This is a drawback in case of power sharing
would play an important role in the management of energy between units in a system with predominance of intermittent
resources and consumption, but cannot be an obstacle in power generation and without communication system, which
terms of ensuring the system reliability. The autonomous is a reasonable configuration in microgrids with large amount
pattern of DG units may then provide suitable operational of small and medium-sized generators in which the cost of
conditions, even in the absence or break down of implementing a communication system is unreasonable or
communication, with adequate frequency control and voltage not cost-effective. The new sliding droop control method
regulation performed by the primary controller. overcomes these issues. The pattern of sliding is pre-
Dynamic droop controls were already proposed in recent established in such manner that only the measurement of
researches as in [14], [15] and [16]. In [14] the droop control local variables is required. The knowledge of the grid-
method is used as a solution to avoid critical communication impedance is not necessary and there is no need of islanding
among Uninterruptable Power System (UPS) units, which detection since the controller is the same for both situations,
are controlled as voltage sources in both islanded and grid- i.e. during grid-connected or islanded modes of operation.
connected modes. The droop coefficient is controlled as a This paper is organized in seven sections. After this
function of the State-of-Charge (SoC) of batteries, and thus introduction, Section II summarizes the classic SSG
the overall active power flow is according to the power controller and discusses some drawbacks of employing the
demand and availability. However, it still needs a low classic droop control method without a communication
bandwidth communication system to report the microgrid system in islanded and grid-connected modes. Section III
operation mode and receive the active and reactive set points. presents the sliding droop control and its implementation in
The autonomous pattern of DG units with the proposed the SSG controller. Section IV provides stability analysis,
controller provides suitable conditions of operating section V the simulation analysis and section VI the
continuously as a SSG without changes in the controller, experimental results. The final section presents the
even during transitions between islanded and grid-connected conclusions.
mode. The novelty here is to simultaneously realize
active/reactive power sharing and frequency/voltage II. REVISION OF THE DROOP METHOD
regulation without the need of any communication channel
between DG units. The sliding characteristic ensures a A. Droop method and the SSG performance
continuous variation, with fixed speed, of the droop curves. The classic droop concept will be analyzed through the
As a result, negligible frequency/voltage deviation and power active-power droop curve in Fig. 1. In this figure, is the
sharing are achieved with local voltage and current no-load frequency, is the frequency reference, is the
measurements only, thus diminishing the demand for a slope of the droop curve and is the nominal active-
communication channel. It is important to highlight that the power value of a generator. The classic droop method is a
proposed controller can be employed with all seamless well-known solution widely applied in CPS [17], [18]. In this
droop-controlled VSGs presented in the current literature.
scenario the system frequency is mainly imposed by bigger
In summary, the DG unit connected in a microgrid should
power generators that are in operation and each generator has
achieve the following goals:
In islanded mode of operation predictable power availability. Moreover, the system counts
with communication systems to establish hierarchical
x Perform suitable frequency control and voltage
regulation within a predictable margin of error; controllers. This leads to a situation where the power
x Share the active power between all DG units availability of the generator is realized as the nominal power
proportionally to their set points; , and the droop curve is easily adjusted through the
x Share the reactive power between DG units connected tertiary hierarchical controller, with the set of and
at the same bus or connected at buses that are interconnected according to economical aspects and dispatch planning.
by negligible line impedances. Analyzing the droop curve of Fig. 1 in per unit with
In grid-connected mode of operation defined as , proportional power sharing is achieved by
x Inject active power according to its set points; applying the same constant to the generators [19]. Hence,
x Inject reactive power according to the voltage set point
to perform voltage regulation along the microgrid.
Active power set points are considered to come from a
local maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in the primary
source (renewable energy generation system), though, can be
dictated by a tertiary control in case of an existing
communication channel and energy management system. In
case of absence of a communication system, expected to Fig. 1: Classic droop method.
 can established as around its reference value, according to the power being
(1) injected by the DG unit into the microgrid. The energy
management system also provides the power order, , to

where  is the maximum allowed frequency deviation. the Digital Signal Processor (DSP), which gives the
Despite the negative slope, is defined here as it is used in information about the maximum, or the desired, or even the
primary controllers, i.e. as a positive constant [5].The ongoing available power generation. In other words, the
secondary hierarchical controller slides the droop curves of active power set point can be understood as a
all generators to ensure that the operating point is positioned maximum/desired power that the DG unit should deliver to
at the grid frequency reference. Hence, Fig. 1 represents the the microgrid or to the grid.
steady-state of the droop curves of every generator in a CPS, In this work, DG units are considered to provide reactive
which results in proportional power sharing and regulated power only due to voltage deviation at the point of
frequency. Though, in a normal situation, the generated connection. In this sense, the reactive-power reference is
power is less than , resulting in a downward movement omitted since it is always considered to be zero. Moreover,
of by the secondary controller to maintain the dispatched several topologies of SSG controller may be used in the
power at . control structure of Fig. 2, such as those presented in [4],
The application of the droop method in a DPS will be [20], [21], [22]. For instance, Fig. 4 depicts a SSG control
analyzed through the generalized schematic of a DG unit structure based on [4] where the input and output variables
depicted in Fig. 2 and the example depicted in Fig. 3, which ( , ,  ,  , , and
) are highlighted.
presents the active-droop curve of two DG units connected in Fig. 3 will be analyzed in steady-state condition. The
a microgrid, with two different operating point situations. indexes identify the parameters of each SSG; is
In Fig. 2 the SSG controller receives the terminal voltage the no-load frequency; is the inner (calculated) frequency
( ) and the current ( ) of the DG unit power circuit, of all SSG, which is the same as the grid frequency in steady-
along with the control inputs from the Energy Generator state condition;  is the droop gain; is the instantaneous
System ( ).The outputs are the Pulse Width Modulated active power delivered by the DG unit; and is the active-
(PWM) gate pulses (G1to6) for the drivers of the power power deviation due to the droop effect. Hereafter, the index
converter (VSC). An LCL-filter is considered here to filter will be omitted whenever the analysis is generically applied
the switching frequency harmonics of the VSC. A common to a single DG unit. In a comparison between Fig. 1 and Fig.
circuit breaker can be used to connect the DG unit with the 3, the difference of the employment of instead of is
microgrid before startup procedures. The dc-link is clear in the DPS scenario. This change of nomenclature is
composed of a capacitor bank with a voltage that is suitable due to the intermittent power availability of
controlled by the Energy Generator System. It is assumed renewables in DPS. Then, is realized as the installed
that this Energy Generator System is provided with an capacity of the generator in order to determine constant as
energy management system. Besides, it is responsible to (1).
inject energy into the dc link and to keep the dc voltage When the microgrid is operating in grid-connected mode,
the frequency regulation ( ) is ensured by bigger
power generators, thus the power dispatch of all DG units are
equal to ( ), and is zero. This is the situation
Microgrid

Energy
ia,b,c Switching va,b,c Breaker
Filter
Generator Vdc VSC found in operating point 1. Therefore, the variability of
System

G1to6
Pset PD ref
SSG Dp
controller - Droop loop
ref, Vref, Qref
External microgrid input (hierarchical control when available) Pset
Fig. 2: Generalized control of a DG unit with SSG controller. 2Hs
-
P
P, Q and ea,b,c ea,b,c PWM
G1to6
Q generator
calculation
Qref - ia,b,c
Mf if

QD
Dq
- va,b,c Voltage va,b,c
Amplitude

Droop loop Vref

Fig. 3: Example of droop curves (in pu) and operation point
analysis. Fig. 4: Example of SSG controller.
is irrelevant for the active-power sharing. possible solution for this drawback was presented in [21],
On the other hand, in islanded microgrids the frequency where two different droop loops were used for the steady-
differs from the reference whenever the load demand is not state and transitory responses. Nevertheless, the frequency
equal to the available power. If the system counts with a measured at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) was
communication system and hierarchical controllers, the employed as input of the droop loop used for the transitory
droop curves of the DG units can be constantly adjusted and response, which may introduce the dynamics of the PLL that
power sharing and frequency regulation are ensured, tracks the PCC frequency into the SSG controller.
However, this is not the case in a DPS with no The IEEE standard 1547 [24] in the amendment [25]
communication system and with intermittent renewable determines that Distributed Resources (DR), which include
generations that continuously vary their available power DG, shall be able to provide modulated power output as a
reference values, . This situation is exemplified in function of frequency according to pre-established and field
operating point 2. In order to ensure that each DG unit will adjustable ranges of deviation. For instance, this requirement
dispatch power proportionally to its currently available is intended to permit the area EPS operator to count on DR
resource, the ratio between and have to be the same participation to support the grid robustness. In this sense,
for each unit. Thus, extending to an islanded microgrid with fixed droop curves would not be suitable to achieve both
reduced frequency deviation in islanded mode and modulated
DG units the following equation has to be satisfied.
power output in grid-connected mode.
(2)
III. PROPOSED SLIDING DROOP CONTROL
In a classic SSG controller [5], considering the design of
the controller in per unit, with approximately , and The sliding droop control term is adopted here because
with one pair of poles, the electromechanical equation can be the new control method will vary continuously the no-load
stated as reference values and of the P x Z and Q x V droop
(3) curves, as shown in Fig. 5. As the proposed control is quite
,
similar for both the active- and reactive-power loops, the
where is the virtual inertia. In steady state, no virtual analysis will remain focusing on the active-power control
kinetic energy is being exchanged between the electrical or loop. The details of the reactive-power control loop will be
mechanical system and the virtual rotor mass, that is, introduced afterwards.

. Then, according to (3): The control structure depicted in Fig. 2 is adapted with the

(4) proposed controller in Fig. 6. Although a communication
. system is not required, the proposed controller is still
compatible with conventional ones, and can receive inputs
Equation (4) means that the difference between the
from hierarchical control systems if provided. Therefore, in a
dispatched active-power and the available power of each DG
microgrid without communication system the frequency and
unit is the same, which is not the same as the proportionality
of power sharing achieved in (2). In other words, this voltage references and are preset values (),
situation leads to an equal droop value, (compare and while they are input variables in microgrids with
in Fig. 3), independently of the available power of each communication system and hierarchical control. The droop
DG unit, . Therefore, the classic SSG controller with the loops for both active- and reactive power control are
classic droop method is not able to achieve proportional removed from the SSG controller when the sliding droop
power sharing according to the available power of each DG control is employed (see the detached boxes in Fig. 4), since
unit. In actual microgrids, different values of Dp may be it will be responsible for ensuring the droop effect.
employed as a mean of weighing the power sharing between Moreover, the SSG inner control variables , , and are
generators, as usually performed in CPS. In this case, the sent to the sliding droop control, while the output replaces
power sharing in the islanded microgrid is not stated by (2) to feed the active-power set point in the SSG controller
either. and is provided as a result of the sliding of the reactive-
power droop curve (compare Fig. 2 and Fig. 6).
B. Droop method and the area Electric Power System (EPS) The sliding-droop control loops are depicted in Fig. 7. The
operation control structures are similar for both active- and reactive-
Another drawback of the conventional droop method is power control loops. The start values and can
related to the magnitude of the frequency deviation. A be obtained through an auxiliary positive-sequence detector
solution to achieve reduced frequency deviation in an [26], and are useful to avoid higher transients during the
islanded microgrid might be accomplished by decreasing startup of the DG unit. If the grid is already powered before
, which corresponds to increase the gains . the startup, the start values are equal to the grid, i.e.
However, this is not a good solution in grid-connected mode and . Hence, and are equal to
and can degenerate the performance of the DG units, as well these grid values ( and are initially zero), resulting
as cause instability during transitions between isolated and in practically zero injected powers, P and Q. Otherwise, if
grid-connected microgrid modes of operation [23]. A the grid is not powered, and .
The main idea of the sliding droop control is to slide the
droop curves in order to place them in a position that tracks The sliding-direction control block will determine if the
the frequency and the voltage in a sliding reference that is the droop curve slides up or down by controlling the input
sum of the fixed (or hierarchical-control ) references ( selector according to the following rule.
and ) and the deviations and . These     
  
(6)
deviations are determined through functions that achieve
Note that this controller does not depend on gain. In this
power sharing proportional to the set-points with reduced
deviation according to the actual active and reactive powers way, reduced frequency deviation can be achieved in steady
of the DG units and their corresponding set points. state by using a reduced value, while suitable value
The deviation function for the active-power control is can be used to work properly in grid-connected mode,
established as according to the requirements of the area EPS operator.

(5) In steady state the frequency is the same for all DG units.
   
Therefore, if there is enough available energy to feed the
where is the maximum allowed frequency deviation in system, the rules in (6) guarantee that
steady state. It is important to highlight that is constant (7)
and the same for all DG units.
and, consequently, for DG units identified by indexes
:
. (8)
By substituting (5) in (8) and simplifying, it follows that
(9)


which is the sharing condition stated in (2). Hence, the
Fig. 5: Sliding droop control method. active-power set point does not interfere on the power
sharing when the proposed sliding droop controller is
adopted. Furthermore, in islanded microgrid the frequency
deviation in steady-state is ruled by (5), (8) and (9) and can
be calculated as:

 , (10)

where is the total load connected at the microgrid.

For instance, lets suppose a microgrid with two DG units
operating in islanded mode, with  and
Fig. 6: Generalized control of a DG unit with SSG controller and   and the total load equal to .
the proposed sliding droop control. In this case, the desired power sharing would be 
and  according to (9). TABLE I and Fig. 8
P Deviation present two different scenarios of sharing in order to analyze
Pset function Sliding control Droop loop
the functionality of the proposed controller. In the first
(0 generation) (PD generation)
ref scenario the initial sharing condition is considered as
Pset
Sliding
 and , which means that has to
direction ref start
- decrease and has to increase to satisfy (9). Conversely, in
+1 k 0 Sliding 0 PD
+ limits and Dp the second scenario  and , then
-1 s protection
Input has to increase and has to decrease. Each scenario
Selector
Anti wind-up evaluates the sliding direction for three initial frequency
conditions, ruled by (6) according to the frequency deviation
(a) of the DG units ( and defined by (5)). These
Deviation scenarios cover all possibilities in terms of initial condition
Q
function
Sliding control Droop loop of active-power dispatch and microgrid frequency, related to
(V0 generation) (QD generation)
Vref and  , in normal operational condition, i.e.
Sliding V Q without overload condition.
direction Vstart V
Vref The consequences of the sliding actions in the microgrid
-
+1 kV V0 Sliding V0 QD are highlighted in the last two columns of TABLE I.
-1 s + limits and
protection
Dq Therefore, the microgrid frequency is controlled whenever it
Input is out of the range between the frequency deviations
Selector
Anti wind-up established by the DG units, and no change in the active-
power sharing occurs in this situation. This control action is
(b) realized in the first and last  curves of Fig. 8a and Fig.
Fig. 7: Sliding droop control: a) active power, b) reactive power. 8b, where both curves are sliding in the same direction.
 TABLE I
SLIDING DROOP CONTROL OPERATION IN A MICROGRID WITH TWO DG UNITS OPERATING IN ISLANDED MODE
Initial sharing Deviation Sliding Direction Active Power Microgrid
DG unit Initial frequency condition
condition eq. (5) eq. (6) change frequency change
down no change
 decrease
1 0.7  down no change
down decrease
no change
up increase
2 0.2  up no change
increase
up no change
down no change
 decrease
1 0.5  down no change
 up increase
no change
down decrease
2 0.4  up no change
increase
up no change

When the microgrid frequency is within the aforementioned and equal to , in (7) it results in and in (5)
range, the droop curves slide in opposite directions, as this leads to , that is, the delivered active power is
depicted in the middle  curves of Fig. 8a and Fig. 8b. In equal to its set point. This ensures that all DG units will
this case, TABLE I indicates that the active-power sharing dispatch the active power set point in grid-connected mode.
changes in the direction of achieving the desired power Moreover, it allows the grid-operator to indirectly control the
sharing. As a result of such active-power change, new values DG participation on the active power dispatch by imposing a
of deviations are obtained, since  assumes a new controlled frequency deviation. This frequency deviation will
value in (5). Note that, in both scenarios, the change of be exactly the deviation , which determines the ratio
and causes a tightening in the range between between the active-power dispatch and the available power
these frequency deviations, which leads both DG units to ( ). The gain of the integrator in Fig. 7a, as well as the
achieve equal values of in steady-state, as established sliding limits and protection block will be explained after
by (8). Hence, both scenarios present the desired power the following description of the reactive-power sliding
sharing in steady-state, satisfying (9), with  , control.
  and final microgrid frequency equal to The deviation function for the reactive-power control is
that is equal to (7) with the deviation calculated by , (11)
(10).
If the microgrid is operating in grid-connected mode, in where is the maximum allowed voltage-amplitude
steady state, the frequency in Fig. 7 is necessarily equal to deviation. The gain can be tuned to ensure that negligible
the system frequency . Therefore, if is regulated voltage deviation is achieved whenever the reactive power of
the DG units is enough to regulate the voltage at the bus
where it is connected. The sliding direction control block has
the same rules as for active power (6) and (7), substituting
by V and with the exception of condition ( ), which
lead to equations (12) and (13), in case of several DG units
connected at a same ac bus.
. (12)

. (13)
Hence, the reactive power sharing is ensured to those DG
units. Note that the main differences between the sliding
controllers of the active and reactive droop curves are due to
the neglecting of the reactive-power reference. However, in
future applications, this reference can be considered and
simple adaptations of the deviation function and sliding
direction rules may enable DG units to perform additional
functionalities such as [7].
The integration gains and in Fig. 7 are responsible
to determine the speeds that the curves slide, and then can be
tuned according to typical time responses of hierarchical
secondary controllers. Since the possible inputs of these
integrators are only or , the integration gains and
Fig. 8: Sliding droop control operation in a microgrid with two DG
units operating in islanded mode. determine the rate of change of and , in ,
respectively. Note that positive and negative sliding direction view, and are perturbations, though, never a step input,
oscillations, in steady state, cause negligible disturbances on because of the integrator. Besides this, the Sliding limits
and due to the large time constants and . and protection control block and equation (6) will always
The sliding limits and protection block avoids maintain the DG unit in normal operation area. At last the
undesirable behaviors that can arise during faulty power Anti wind-up block attends known instability problems as
systems, which can lead the sliding curves to outside the mentioned in [27].
limits. In other words, under abnormal situations, these
control blocks prevents the placement of the droop curves in V. SIMULATION RESULTS
areas that degrade the proper functioning of the DG units.
The anti wind-up block interrupts the integration effect Fig. 9 illustrates the power system scenario used for
whenever the sliding limits and protection block acts. The simulations. It is a microgrid with multiple DG units
output of the sliding limits and protection are the control controlled as SSGs. For simplicity, all units have the same
variables and that feed the droop loops for ensuring hardware with an Energy Generator System and dc-link
the droop effect through and power deviations, capacitor (see Fig. 6), which were replaced by ideal dc
respectively. sources, since the interest of this work is neither the Energy
Management nor the generation system. The DG units #1
IV. STABILITY and #4 have   , and DG units #2, #3 and #5 have
   during all simulation time. Thus, the total
The satisfactory behavior of the proposed sliding droop desired (available) power generation in the microgrid is far
control is completely based on the stability of every single greater than the total load in the microgrid. In other words,
controlled DG unit and the grid configuration in which the the DG units cannot deliver the desired (total available)
units operate. Lots of research has been conducted and active power during isolated mode of operation. The
published for different kind of SSG. Some examples of reference values and  are set constant and equal to
stability studies are [27] for synchronverters, [28] for current . Table II shows the parameters of the DG units. The
controllers with active damping for LCL grid-connected sliding speed of the   curves was tuned much faster than
VSCs, and [17] for generators in general. For further studies typical dynamic profile of secondary controllers in order to
on large configurations of generators and its electrical fit the results in a short simulation time. This was necessary
mechanical stability, many consolidated digital programs can due to constraints in large data storage in the digital
be found. Although they were originally developed for actual simulator. The system events are displayed at the top of Fig.
generators, SSGs can be adapted to fit in the actual models. 10.
This is especially straightforward for the synchronverter. Fig. 10 presents the simulation results with the proposed
On top of these stable considered DG units in their grid sliding droop control. From the initial condition until ,
configuration, connected at main grid or islanding, stands the
proposed sliding droop control. This control acts on the TABLE II
secondary level, that is, frequency and voltage control within DG UNIT PARAMETERS
a predictable margin of error, and , respectively, see Parameter Value
Theoretical installed-
equations (5) and (11), while power sharing is maintained. 
capacity of each DG unit
As described in the former sections, the functioning of the Switching frequency 10260 Hz (171 pu)
control is basically sliding the no load references and  
 
in up- or down-ward directions, see Fig. 5, with fixed speeds, Switching filter
  
and , respectively, as shown in Fig. 7. (LCL filter)
 
The choice of the control parameters , , and  
should be in compliance with the grid codes of the area EPS Time constants  and   and 
and and
operator where the microgrid is connected at. It seems
and 
plausible that the sliding speeds should be comparable with and and
the ones of the grid operator. If the operator decides that the
j0.03pu
contribution of the renewables is less important as a power DG unit 5
BUS 1 BUS 4
GRID
source, the gains should be chosen smaller, and vice versa.
The same is valid for the error margins. If the operator DG unit 1 DG unit 4
decides that the participation of renewables should be equal
0.1pu
j0.2pu

to conventional generators, then the margins should be equal j0.2pu 0.7pu 1.0pu j1.0pu
as well.
Whatever value is chosen for these four parameters, in
j0.1pu

Load 2
0.1pu

Load 1
BUS 2 BUS 3
terms of stability, no degradation can be expected for real
0.03pu j0.1pu
values of the parameters. Actual values of speed are DG unit 2 DG unit 3
significantly slow in comparison with primary reactions of
the DG units. Further, from a small signal model point of Fig. 9: Microgrid diagram with multiple DG units controlled as
synchronverters.
 Fig. 11: Active power sharing with fixed droop curves.
as given in Table II ( ). Fig. 11 shows that units
with different active-power set points are not able to perform
active-power sharing proportionally to the available power.
For instance, between and seconds, DG units #1
and #4 dispatch around  while DG units #2 and #3
dispatch around . The comparison with the same
result shown in Fig. 10 makes it clear that the sharing was
not performed satisfactorily. In other words, equation (9)
and, consequently, equation (2), are not satisfied.

VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Two 3.5 kVA prototypes (DG unit 1 and 2) were

connected to the same bus, as depicted in Fig. 12. The
switches SL1, SL2, SL3 and SL4 connect load 1, load 2, load 3,
and load 4, respectively. The power of the loads is given in
pu, according to the power basis of the SSGs. The system is
operating in islanded mode in order to evaluate the sharing
performance and frequency/voltage regulation. The
maximum deviations and sliding speeds were set as 
 ,    ,
Fig. 10: Simulation results.
, and   . An
units 1, 2, 3 and 4 are operating with the microgrid in oscilloscope YOKOGAWA DL850EV was employed to
islanded mode and the loads 1 and 2 connected. It is verified measure simultaneously the voltages and currents of the DG
that the active power is being shared proportionally to the units as well as to calculate the average powers, frequency
available active power in each DG unit. This situation is and voltage amplitude at the bus.
ensured even with the load change, which occurs between Fig. 13 shows the test performed to evaluate the active
 and  when load 2 is disconnected. Moreover, power sharing and the frequency regulation. In this case,
the frequency in steady state is kept within the range of . only resistive loads 1 and 2 were employed. Table III
The DG unit 5 starts at . After this time, the presents the system events, which includes startup of DG
system achieves a new operating point and the active power unit, changes in the available power, , and step load
sharing is maintained. Finally, at , the microgrid change. It is verified that the active power sharing is obtained
is connected to the grid and then all units dispatch their with reduced error ( for the worst case). Moreover, the
active-power set points to the grid. The results prove that the power sharing is achieved independently of the set point of
proposed sliding droop control enables the DG units to each unit, as well as independently from the amount of load.
perform the desired goals for active power dispatch in both Although the frequency calculated by the oscilloscope is
islanded and grid-connected modes of operation. The hardly affected by the harmonic contents of the synthesized
reactive power goals are also satisfied. This can be verified voltages, the mean value (which represents the fundamental
through the reactive-power sharing between DG units 1 and frequency) is kept within the maximum deviation stated by
5, which are connected at the same bus. All DG units provide .
the reactive-power necessary to keep the voltage amplitudes Fig. 14 shows the test performed to evaluate the reactive
within the range of in steady state. power sharing and the voltage regulation. In Fig. 14a, load 1
For comparisons, the same system was simulated again and load 3 were connected and in Fig. 14b, load 1 and load 4
with the DG units being controlled as SSGs with were connected, both during the entire test. In the initial
conventional, fixed droop curves. The slopes of the curves condition, DG unit 1 is operating in steady state with
were fixed with the maximum deviation, that is, equal to  and after seconds DG unit 2 starts with
 . It is verified that the reactive power sharing VII. CONCLUSIONS
was achieved with suitable accuracy, independently of the
active power set point and the inductive or capacitive power This paper proposes an improvement in the classic control
factor. Moreover, the voltage was kept within the maximum structure of the SSG by adding a sliding droop control at the
deviation in steady state condition for both power active and reactive power loops. This provides accurate
factors. performance in frequency/voltage regulation and power
sharing between units in an islanded microgrid. In a grid-
connected configuration, the units are able to inject the
TABLE III desired power orders imposed by and also can operate
SYSTEM EVENTS (FIG. 13) complementarily as voltage regulators. These functionalities
Event Time are achieved without the need of a communication channel
Load 1 connected and Load 2 disconnected Initial condition
DG unit 2 in steady state with  Initial condition
between the units.
DG unit 1 startup with  20.0 s The experimental and simulation results showed suitable
DG unit 1 set point change to  60.0 s performance with multiple unities in different scenarios. The
DG unit 2 set point change to  100.0 s transition between islanded and grid-connected modes was
DG unit 2 set point change to  140.0 s successfully achieved, as well as step changes in power order
Load 2 connection 160.0 s
and relatively large load rejection and reclosing. These
bus SL1 P=0.5pu
hard tests demonstrated the large stability margin of the
DG unit 1 proposed control method as a solution for DG units in
SL2 P=1.0pu
Distributed Power Systems.
DG unit 2
SL3 Q=0.4pu Future works will contain more profound stability studies,
SL4 Q=0.6pu operational performance and transitory condition of islanded
microgrids with different values of the maximum allowed
Fig. 12: Experimental bench. frequency/voltage deviation in steady state and sliding
speeds of the droop curves. These studies are necessary to
achieve suitable performance of DG units with ensured stable
conditions, reduced frequency/voltage deviation and suitable
fast response.

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