Distributed Data-Driven Secondary Regulation for the Conflict Between Voltage Recovery and Accurate Current Sharing in DC Microgrids

The problem of voltage restoration and current balancing has been a hot topic in the study of DC microgrids (MGs), and how to engineer a secondary controller to solve the conflict between these two is the concern of this paper. With the above consideration, an optimal distributed data-driven secondary control strategy is proposed, relying entirely on the input and output data of DC MGs. The proposed framework completes the design of a secondary control strategy based on a data model for the first time, which incorporates the physical coupling relationship between voltage and current into the controller design and is independent of the global circuit parameters and topology information. By means of a proposed cost function, the designed control strategy enables DC MGs to achieve better output current quality at steady state. Unlike the existing schemes based on average voltage observer, this paper resorts to a combination of limiting the voltage reference value generated by the secondary controller and a current cooperative strategy based on the data model to achieve an easy-to-use trade-off between the two objectives of voltage regulation and current sharing. Then, an analytical model of a closed-loop DC MG system under the proposed control scheme is developed, and the analysis of stability and consensus of weighted output current is given accordingly. Finally, the proposed control strategy is tested on a hardware DC MG system with solar panels and a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller.

Automated summary

The paper presents an optimal distributed data-driven secondary control strategy for voltage restoration and current balancing in DC microgrids. The strategy uses input and output data of DC microgrids to design a controller that incorporates the physical coupling relationship between voltage and current. By using a cost function, the designed control strategy achieves better output current quality at steady state. The strategy combines limiting the voltage reference value generated by the secondary controller and a current cooperative strategy based on the data model to achieve a trade-off between voltage regulation and current sharing.