A Robust $H_\infty$ Multivariable Stabilizer Design for Droop Based Autonomous AC Microgrid

The autonomous microgrid (MG) with multiple voltage source inverters (VSI) is operated in droop mode to share the load proportionally. These VSI controllers require higher droop constants if the feeder lines connecting the VSI to microgrid has a low X/R ratio. The higher droop gains and large loading conditions in the microgrid may exhibit instability with the low frequency power modes (LFPM). This paper details a systematic multivariable plant model of the MG using dynamic phasor modeling of power flow transfer functions to analyze the LFPM. Further, a robust supplementary multivariable controller is developed to stabilize the developed plant model, damp LFPM and improve transient power sharing performance of VSIs without affecting their steady-state power sharing. This stabilizer is developed based on Glover-McFarlane H
_∞
loop shaping robust stabilization technique with an additional pole placement constraints formulated in linear matrix inequality framework. A laboratory scale experimental validation is presented to evaluate the performance of proposed stabilizer under various operating conditions and uncertainties in the autonomous MG. Moreover, the transient power sharing performance of DGs with proposed controller was compared with that of widely used derivative droop controller.