Microgrid Power Flow Study in Grid-Connected and Islanding Modes under Different Converter Control Strategies

The organic growth and evolution of the future smart grid is expected to emerge as a well-planned plug-and-play integration of smart microgrids. A microgrid normally comprises a variety of inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources such as solar photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, microturbines, fuel cells, energy storage devices, and controllable loads, in which a key issue is how to manage a microgrid in grid-connected and islanding modes under different converter control strategies. This paper presents a microgrid power flow study under variable load and generation conditions. The paper considers typical properties of inverter-interfaced microsources, including PQ inverter, PV inverter, and converter rated current and linear modulation constraints in the power flow study. A benchmark network is built by using PowerWorld simulator. But, variable load and generation data is created by using other software tools and then loaded into the PowerWorld simulator. The benchmark network is studied by considering different microgrid operation scenarios. Simulation evaluation demonstrates how the microgrid behaves under different power converter operating conditions in grid-connected and islanding modes, respectively.