Analysis and mitigation of low-frequency oscillations in hybrid AC/DC microgrids with dynamic loads

The microgrid concept has gained enormous popularity in the power industry due to recent advances in the power electronic converter (PEC) technology and environmental concerns over green-house gas emissions from power generation. Among microgrids, the hybrid AC/DC microgrid concept has been promoted as a viable concept to reduce energy conversion losses. However, hybrid AC/DC microgrids are susceptible to stability issues during high penetration of dynamic loads (e.g. induction machines). The non-linear dynamics of induction machines result in sustained voltage/frequency oscillations following disturbances in the microgrid, which is a major challenge for stable operation of the hybrid AC/DC microgrid. The PEC-based energy storage systems (ESSs) are used as an effective solution for power balancing in the microgrid; hence with the fast response of the PEC, microgrid voltage/frequency could be stabilised rapidly. Thus, a supplementary power oscillation damping (POD) controller is proposed in this paper for the ESS to damp low-frequency oscillations (LFOs) in the hybrid AC/DC microgrid. The effectiveness of the proposed damping controller is verified using non-linear simulations considering different penetration levels of dynamic loads and disturbances in a hybrid AC/DC microgrid. Results indicate that the proposed supplementary POD controller can significantly damp the LFOs in the hybrid AC/DC microgrid.