Title: Small-signal Stability Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Microgrids under Distributed Control,
Abstract: Distributed control, as a potential solution to decreasing communication
demands in microgrids, has drawn much attention in recent years. Advantages of
distributed control have been extensively discussed, while its impacts on
microgrid performance and stability, especially in the case of communication
latency, have not been explicitly studied or fully understood yet. This paper
addresses this gap by proposing a generalized theoretical framework for
small-signal stability analysis and performance evaluation for microgrids using
distributed control. The proposed framework synthesizes generator and load
frequency-domain characteristics, primary and secondary control loops, as well
as the communication latency into a frequency-domain representation which is
further evaluated by the generalized Nyquist theorem. In addition, various
parameters and their impacts on microgrid dynamic performance are investigated
and summarized into guidelines to help better design the system. Case studies
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.