10th International Conference on Power Electronics-ECCE Asia

May 27 - 30, 2019 / BEXCO, Busan, Korea

A Study on Autonomous Distributed Control

and Grid Accident Robust Control Technique
for Energy Router in Distributed Generation
Linked Clusters
Bonghoon Jung, Kyungsoo Lee
Department of Energy and Electrical Engineering, Korea Polytechnic University, Republic of Korea

Abstract—This This paper shows the study of energy router generation and the system instability in the grid according
in the clustered Distributed Generation systems(DGs). The topol- to the balanced load, unbalanced load, and nonlinear load in
ogy of the energy router uses a Back-to-Back Voltage Source the cluster composed of PV. Fig. 1 shows the mutual power
Converter(BTB-VSC) capable of bidirectional active power con-
trol and reactive power control proposes an autonomous dis- compensation scheme between clusters using the proposed
tributed control scheme. In addition, the effectiveness of the energy router.
control method is simulated using PSIM by applying the energy
router to the harmonic generation and the system instability in
the grid according to the balanced load, unbalanced load, and
nonlinear load in the cluster composed of PV.
Index Terms—energy router, Back-to-Back Voltage Source
Converter, autonomous distributed control scheme.

I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, DGs Such as Pohotovoltaic(PV), Wind tur-
bine(WT) and Energy Storage System(ESS) Sysrems have
been increasing rapidly, so that DGs is clustered at a local
level and a power generated by a battery used or stored as
needed respectively Also, various attempts have been made to Fig. 1: Configuration of mutual power compensation between
exchanges power between clusters[1]-[5]. clusters using Energy Router.
The DGs in the cluster has intermittent output characteristics
according to the weather environment, which makes it difficult II. ENERGY ROUTER
to maintain the power quality of the system. Especially in
case of exchanging power between the clusters, it is necessary
to control the active power and reactive power between the
clusters in order to suppress fluctuation of the frequency and
AC voltage due to changes in the amount of sunshine and
wind speed.
However, research on active power control through linkage
between transmission networks such as High Voltage Direct
Current(HVDC) has been actively carried out, but research
in the viewpoint of power distribution system is insufficient.
Also, it is very vulnerable to the generation of reverse power
flow by DGs, generation of harmonics by the nonlinear load,
reverse phase due to an unbalanced load, and system fault.
Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately adjust the mutual Fig. 2: Back-to-Back Voltage Source Converter Topologie.
AC voltage and frequency in the situation of exchanging
power between the clusters. The BTB-VSC combines two power systems of different
In this paper, The topology of the energy router uses a Back- frequencies to control the flow of active power in both di-
to-Back Voltage Source Converter(BTB-VSC) capable of bidi- rections and independently control the reactive power of the
rectional active power control and reactive power control combined AC system. BTB-VSC, which is one of bidirectional
which proposes an autonomous distributed control scheme. In AC / AC converter topologies, can be classified into two types:
addition, the effectiveness of the control method is simulated a current source converter using a thyristor as a switching
using PSIM by applying the energy router to the harmonic device and a voltage source converter using an IGBT as a

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switching device. In this case, the voltage source converter Figure 4 shows the structure and controller of a BTBVSC
having an IGBT as a switching element shows a configuration using a voltage source converter. When the direction of power
in which two three-phase converters including a DC Link are flow is formed from Cluster1 (C1) to Cluster2 (C2), VSC1
connected in series. In order to control bi-directional active controls DC Link voltage, and VSC2 controls active power
power and reactive power, a topology capable of four-quadrant and reactive power or the output voltage and frequency.
operation is essential, and BTB-VSC is used as a topology Conversely, when the direction of power flow is formed from
suitable for energy routers. Figure 2 shows the BTB-VSC Cluster2 (C2) to Cluster1 (C1), VSC1 controls active power
topology. and reactive power or controls output voltage and frequency.
VSC2 controls the DC Link voltage. At this time, C1 and
A. BTB-VSC control schematic C2 are asynchronous and may have different frequencies.
Therefore, VSC1 should be controlled in synchronization
with the voltage of C1, and VSC2 should be controlled in
synchronization with the voltage of C2. That is, separate phase
locked loop (PLL) control is required for each of VSC1 and
VSC2.

Fig. 3: Voltage source converter configuration diagram.

Figure 3 shows the general circuit diagram of the Voltage

source converter connected to the AC circuit on the primary
side and the DC circuit on the secondary side. The AC terminal (a) BTB-VSC with LCL filter
of the converter is connected to the connection point Vpcc
through a reactor for connection. The reactor is required
to reduce harmonics of the output current supplied by the
converter and to control the active power and the reactive
power. In this paper, IEEE std. 519 , the LCL filter was
designed to be less than 5% THD. Zs means line impedance
and the line impedance component of the transmission line
shows the characteristic of the resistive line component from
the high voltage to the low voltage. Table 1 shows the typical
line parameter. The BTB-VSC connected to the grid can be (b) Converter mode control block diagram
used as a synchronous generator connected to the grid. On
the high voltage line basis, the resistive component of the
line impedance is low and the inductive component is high.
Therefore, resistive components are ignored. The relation of
the active power and reactive power delivered at high voltage
is as follows.
Vconv Vpcc
P = sinα (1)
X
V 2 − Vconv Vpcc Cosα
Q = conv (2)
X (c) Inverter mode control block diagram
XP
α∼ = (3) Fig. 4: Block diagram of BTB-VSC control.
Xconv Vpcc
XQ
Xconv − Vpcc = (4) B. Load Characteristic Analysis
Vconv
The types of loads configured in a cluster can be assumed
On the low voltage line basis, the inductive component of
as three phase balanced loads, unbalanced loads, and
the line impedance is low and the resistive component is high.
non-linear loads. When unbalanced loads are connected,
Therefore, the inductive component is ignored.
voltage unbalance occurs. Voltage unbalance is divided into
2
Vpcc − Vpcc Vconv Cosα zero-phase voltage unbalance and negative phase voltage
P = (5) unbalance. The effect of reverse phase voltage unbalance
R
Vpcc Vconv degrades the stability of the grid. Nonlinear loads generate
Q=− sinα (6)
R harmonics in the grid due to switching elements such as
RP
Xconv − Vpcc = (7) Switched-Mode Power Supply(SMPS). In order to suppress
Vconv
RQ this harmonic problem, harmonic compensation control must
α∼
=− (8) be added to suppress harmonics generated from the nonlinear
Vconv Vpcc

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 Fig. 7: Energy Router in Distribution model.
load. Also, the DGs does not consume power at the load as a stand-alone one. Voltage drops were analyzed under light
when the power generation is large and generates reverse and heavy load conditions at the top of the distribution grid.
power flow in the grid. This reduces the stability of the grid, They were also analyzed under light and heavy loads at the
especially when the DGs is concentrated at the ends of the end of the distribution grid. DGs simulated the PV system as
distribution grid. Therefore, the characteristics according to a current source and analyzed the voltage rise due to reverse
the load are analyzed through simulation. power flow. It can be seen that the problem of voltage drop and
voltage rise at the low end is larger than at the top. Therefore,
in this paper, we connect of distribution grid A and B with
energy routers.
TABLE I
DISTRIBUTION GRID MODEL PARAMETERS
Parameter Value Unit
∆− Y transformer 22.9/380 kV/V
Impedance to HV line 0.626 + j0.754 Ω/2 km
Impedance to LV line 0.025 + j0.020 Ω/40 m
Impedance to Lead line 0.0552 + j0.037 Ω/20 m
Fig. 5: Load characteristic simulation configuration diagram. Light Load 4.08 Ω
Heavy Load 1.02 Ω
C. Load Characteristic Analysis
DGs(Current Source) 3 kW
In the event of a short circuit in the power system, a
Grid Frequency 60 Hz
very large short-circuit current flows and the voltage drops to
around zero at around the fault point. Therefore, the systematic The back-to-back converter was constructed as shown in
accident analysis is carried out by simulating the short-circuit Table 2. The capacity of the back-to-back converter is set to
accident of the power system. 10[kVA]. LCL filters were added to reduce harmonic on the
primary and secondary sides.
TABLE II
BACK-TO-BACK CONVERTER PARAMETERS
Parameter Value Unit
Max output power, Pmax 10 kVA
Grid phase voltage, Vg 220 Vrms
Grid line to line voltage, V L− L 380 Vrms
Grid frequency 60 Hz
Input voltage, Vdc 700 V
Fig. 6: Grid accident simulation configuration diagram. Filter inductance, Linv 1.306 mH
Filter capacitance, Cf 9.185 uF
III. CASE STUDY Filter inductance, Lgrid 77 uH
The distribution grid modeling was conducted with param- Damping rasistance, Rd 0.9378 Ω
eters as shown in Table 1. The distribution grids A and B are DC link capacitance, C DC 5000 uF
regarded as separate, and the distribution grid B can be defined Switching frequency, fsw0 20 kHz

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A. Power flow control from Grid A to B
In the case A, it is simulated that reverse power is generated
by DGs in Grid A whereas power shortage is implemented
in Grid B. Grid B normally operates to supply power to a
10[ kW] load. At this stage, a load of 10[ kW] is added to
the Grid B at 0.2 [sec], and an overload occurs. The energy
router operates to reduce the reverse power flow of Grid A
and the power shortage of Grid B. Figure 8 shows the results
of the energy router control.

(e)

(f)
Fig. 8: Power flow control from Grid A to B.

The reverse power flow of the Grid A occurs at 0.05 [sec].

At the same time, an overload occurs in the Grid B. The energy
router performs active power and reactive power control from
grid A to grid B at 0.2 [sec]. The size of the reverse power flow
of the Grid A reduces, as the overload of Grid B insufficient
power of Grid B disappears. At this time, the direction of
power can be seen to be confirmed by DC Link current in
Fig. 8(f).
B. Power flow control from Grid B to A
In the case B, it is simulated that reverse power is generated
by DGs in Grid B whereas power shortage is implemented in
Grid A. Grid A normally operates to supply power to a 8[ kW]
load. At this stage, a load of 8 [kW] is added to the Grid A at
0.2 [sec], and an overload occurs. The energy router operates
to reduce the reverse power flow of Grid B and the power
shortage of Grid A. Figure 9 shows the results of the energy
router control.

(d) (a)

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 The reverse power flow of the Grid B occurs at 0.05
[sec]. At the same time, an overload occurs in the Grid A.
The energy router performs active power and reactive power
control from Grid B to Grid A at 0.2 [sec]. The size of the
reverse power flow of the Grid B reduces, as the overload
of Grid A insufficient power of Grid A disappears. At this
time, the direction of power can be seen to be confirmed by
DC Link current in Fig. 9(e).
C. Grid accident reactive current control
In the case C, Grid A simulates a normal state, and Grid
B simulates a voltage drop due to a three-phase equilibrium
accident. In case of a grid fault, the energy router detects the
residual voltage of grid B and conducts Constant Peak Current
Control. Constant Peak Current Control is a technique for
outputting the reactive current without causing an overcurrent
problem. The reactive current amount is determined according
to the residual voltage amount, and the reactive current output
amount is controlled according to the size of the accident to
support the system accident recovery.

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 10: Grid accident reactive current control.

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 IV. CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposes autonomous distributed control method
and robust control method in case of reverse power flow
and grid fault for energy router. We verified the autonomous
distributed control among Distribution grid model through
simulation using the energy router, we analyzed the reverse
power flow and the control technique for three-phase equi-
librium accident through the simulation with connection to
the separated power distribution system low end. Future plans
are to simulate nonlinear loads and unbalanced loads and
simulate the occurrence of systematic accidents under various
load conditions. In addition, we plan to verify the proposed
energy router control technique through experiments.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by Korea Electric Power Cor-
poration(KEPCO)(2018I02411) and Korea Institute of Energy
Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP)(2018G03371).

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