Generation Control in Small Isolated Power

Systems
M. Milošević, Student Member IEEE, G. Andersson, Fellow IEEE

to maintain frequency in the acceptable operating range to

Abstract—Recently, interest in isolated power systems is ensure power quality.
rapidly increasing. This interest is due to the fact that larger In [3] the authors studied the characteristics of Demand
power plants are economically unfeasible in many regions due to Based Frequency Control (DBFC). It utilizes control devices
increasing system and fuel costs. When the system operates in
isolation then load tracking problem will arise which can cause
which will turn off (on) the machine/appliance in response to
voltage and frequency instabilities. One possible solution to keep frequency deviations in order to restore the supply/demand
power balance in the system and to have generation control is to balance, and will turn them back on (off) at a time when the
use DC battery storage. This paper present a study of the frequency deviations are in the acceptable range.
generation control in small isolated power network based on grid The isolated network model is given in Fig. 1. This network
voltage control and the storage frequency control. consists of a synchronous generator and renewable energy
Index Terms— frequency control, voltage control, island
network
source, connected through the voltage source inverter, as the
sources of energy, and the load.
I. INTRODUCTION

N OWDAYS there is the upward tendency to transition

from a centralized power producing system to small
isolated power systems for rural and remote areas. In these
systems the main power producers are the renewable sources
of energy (e.g, photovoltaic cells (PV), fuel cells, wind power
etc.) in combination with diesel generators. These small power
Fig. 1. Model of small isolated power network
producing networks need a distributed and autonomous
generation control.
They are generally connected to the grid at substation or This paper presents the theoretical analysis and simulation
customer loads. Many of them generate power in the form of results of the small isolated power network consisting of the
direct current (e.g. PV, fuel cells) or in the form of alternate synchronous generator, renewable energy source (PV cells)
current at a frequency different from the required 50 Hz (e.g. and energy storage interfaced through the inverters. The
wind generators, microturbine). Therefore, the system purpose of this paper is to study possibilities for small isolated
containing these sources requires a power electronic interface. power systems with respect to generation control under
Interest in small isolated power systems is also attractive for conditions of the load disturbance.
power utility companies, since they can help in improving the Generation control can be done either by voltage or by
power quality and power supply flexibility. Also, they can frequency control. These two different methods for the
provide spinning reserve and reduce the transmission and generation control are presented. One method uses the grid
distribution costs, and can be used to feed the customers in the voltage control and the second uses the frequency control of
event of an outage in the primary substation [1]. the storage.
However, in an isolated system based on a single renewable The rest of the paper is organized as follows-the system
energy source, a system with only wind power has a higher description is given in Section II, followed by the description
availability than a solar based one [2]. Adding storage of the system with storage in Section III. The active power
capability increases the availability more for solar-based voltage and frequency control are described in Section IV.
systems. Simulation results are presented in Section V, followed by
When there is unbalance between active power production conclusion in Section VI.
and active power load demand the frequency deviates from its
nominal value. Therefore, the isolated system should be able
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
M. Milosevic is with Power System Laboratory of Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (e-mail: [email protected]). The main idea for the examination of this network is that
G. Andersson is with Power System Laboratory of Swiss Federal Institute renewable energy based units are not controllable and
of Technology (e-mail: [email protected]).
therefore cannot participate in the generation control.
Renewable energy sources usually generate DC current and/or
DC voltages. Therefore, this source is modeled as a DC
current source. In other words, it can be assumed that the
current of energy source flowing into the DC link is nearly
constant during the studied period of time.
A. Model of the Synchronous Generator Fig. 2. Phase leg in voltage source inverter

The detailed model of the synchronous generator can be There are switching constraints that include capacitors (or
found in [4]. The generator is modeled using the following voltage sources) which cannot be short-circuited, and
stator winding equations: inductances (or current sources) which cannot be open-
circuited. Therefore, the two switching cells of the phase leg
U dr = − Ra I dr + x 'q I qr + E 'd should be complementary. That means that only one of the
(1) switches can be closed at any time. In other words, in order to
U qr = − Ra I qr − x 'd I dr + E 'q
prevent the current source to be open-circuited, one of the
switches has to be closed at any time. Let T be the switching
where, Ra is the stator winding resistance, x 'd and x 'q , period and m p be the duty cycle of the top switch s p , and mn
and E 'd and E 'q are d-axis and q-axis transient be the duty cycle of the down switch sn . It can be obtained the
resistances and voltages, respectively. voltage and current relationships in average, assuming the
The rotor winding equations are given by: voltage udc and the current iL are continuous:

dE 'd u = m p udc + mn udc (5)

T 'q 0 + E 'd = ( xq − x 'q ) I qr
dt idc = m p iL + mn iL (6)
(2)
dE 'q
T 'd 0 + E 'q = E f − ( xd − x 'd ) I dr
dt By connecting three average phase legs the average model
of three-phase VSI can be obtained (Fig. 3).
where, T 'd 0 and T 'q 0 are the d-axis and q-axis open circuit
transient time constants, and E f is the field voltage.
Torque equation and equation of motion are given by (3)
and (4), respectively:

Tel = I dr E 'd + I qr E 'q + ( x 'q − x 'd ) I dr I qr (3)

d ω − ωe 1 ω − ωe
= (Tmech − Tel − D ) (4) Fig. 3. Average model of three phase VSI
dt ωb 2H ωb
Mathematical equations for this model are:
where, Tel and Tmech are the electrical and mechanical torque,
D is the damping constant, H is the inertia constant, ωb is ⎡ia ⎤ ⎡ ma ⎤ ⎡u A ⎤
the base frequency and is equal 1 p.u., ωe is the excitation d ⎢ ⎥ 1⎢ ⎥ 1⎢ ⎥
ib = mb udc − ⎢uB ⎥ (7)
frequency (assume that ωe = ωb ) and ω is the rotor dt ⎢ ⎥ L ⎢ ⎥ L
⎢⎣ic ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ mc ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣uC ⎥⎦
frequency.
B. The Average Model of the Voltage Source Inverter idc = ma ia + mb ib + mc ic (8)
The average large signal model of the voltage source
inverter (VSI) is used [5]. The switching averaging in this The variables in the stationary reference frame ( X abc ) are
model is performed on a phase-leg basis. The phase leg is
usually transformed into the rotating coordinates ( X dq ) using
composed of two switching cells. It has a current source on
one side (or an inductor) and a voltage source (or a capacitor) the following equation:
on the other (Fig. 2).
X dq = TX abc (9)

where T is the transformation matrix given by:

 ⎡ 2π 2π ⎤
cos(ωt ) cos(ωt − ) cos(ωt + ) ⎥
2⎢ 3 3
T= ⎢ ⎥ (10)
3⎢ 2π 2π ⎥
− sin(ωt ) − sin(ωt − ) − sin(ωt + )
⎢⎣ 3 3 ⎥⎦

Fig. 4. Block diagram representation of the dynamic load model

Applying (9) and (10) to (7) and (8), the average model of
the VSI in rotating reference frame is given by:
III. SMALL ISOLATED POWER SYSTEM WITH STORAGE
d ⎡id ⎤ 1 ⎡ md ⎤ 1 ⎡ud ⎤ ⎡ 0 − ω ⎤ ⎡id ⎤
⎢i ⎥ = ⎢ m ⎥ udc − ⎢u ⎥ − ⎢ ⎢ ⎥ (11)
dt ⎣ q ⎦ L ⎣ q ⎦ L ⎣ q ⎦ ⎣ω 0 ⎥⎦ ⎣iq ⎦ When the power system operates in isolation, load-tracking
problems will arise because the renewable sources of energy
idc = md id + mq iq (12) are inertia-less. Grid power systems have storage in the form
of the generators’ inertia, which results in a small frequency
deviation [8] when a new load comes on line. However, this is
The DC voltage udc is calculated using the fact that VSI not the case in small isolated power system with inverter
should not have influence in the active power transmission, interfaced renewable energy sources. They cannot rely on
i.e. active power at the input ( Pin = udc idc ) of the VSI should generator inertia and must provide some form of the power
storage to keep the initial power balance.
be equal to the active power at its output ( Pout = ud id + uq iq ).
One possible solution is to use a DC battery storage
Therefore, the DC voltage link equation is given by: connected through the inverter with the system. The controller
is needed for controlling the possible load power demands (to
dudc ud id + uq iq ensure Pstorage = Pload − Pvsi − Psm ), assuming that power demand
C = I in − (13) from the storage is always within its capability (Fig. 5).
dt udc

C. Dynamic Load Model

Assuming first order dynamics, Hill and Karlsson in [6] and
[7] proposed that the load active and reactive power ( P and
Q respectively) can be given as solutions of the following
differential equations:

dPr
Tp + Pr = Ps (u ) − Pt (u ); Pl = Pr + Pt (u ) (14)
dt
dQr Fig. 5. Isolated power network with DC battery storage
Tq Qr = Qs (u ) − Qt (u ); Ql = Qr + Qt (u ) (15)
dt

where Pr and Qr are the corresponding load states, Tp and Tq IV. ACTIVE POWER AND VOLTAGE CONTROL

are the load recovery time constants. Ps , Qs and Pt , Qt are

the steady state and transient load characteristics, respectively. A. Active Power Control
They are given as a function of the node voltage u : Assuming that there is no battery storage connected at the
u u network, the total energy delivered by the PV cells may
Ps (u ) = P0 ( )α s ; Pt (u ) = P0 ( )αt overcharge the DC capacitor. This energy should be injected
u0 u0
into the system by controlling the active power fed through
u βs u the VSI. This implies having constant active power fed to the
Qs (u ) = Q0 ( ) ; Qt (u ) = Q0 ( ) βt
u0 u0 load through the VSI. In this case, the power consumption of
(16) the load is not controlled by the VSI. Therefore, the active
where, α s , α t , β s and β t are parameters that represent load power consumed by the load must be compensated with
generator production.
static and dynamic voltage dependences, and P0 , Q0 and If the type of the renewable energy source is photovoltaic,
u0 are respective variables at the initial operating condition. then it can be modeled as a constant DC current source which
The block diagram representation of the dynamic model feeds the VSI, during studied time frame. This is true since the
(active power given by (14)) is given in Fig. 4. power variation frequency of the source is very small
compared with the ac network frequency [9]. Here, acting on
the modulation index md controls the active power. Also, the
VSI reactive power is adjusted to be zero, since the
photovoltaic source of energy does not produce reactive
power, by the acting on the modulation index mq . The control V. SIMULATION RESULTS
blocks are given in Fig. 6.
Simulations are done using SIMULINK. Parameters used
for simulations are given in Table I. The values for the load
parameters Tp , Tq , α s , α t , β s and β t are chosen according to
[7,10,11]. The load disturbance is simulated by changing the
value of P0 (in (16)) by adding 5% after 40 seconds, then by
Fig. 6. Control blocks for the model with constant DC current source
subtracting 5% after an additional 40 seconds and by adding
10% after an additional 40 seconds.
This type of control would cause the frequency to change in Different active power, voltage and frequency control
the generator since the generator should compensate the load schemes are simulated. If the load demand is not equal to the
active power consumption. It will also imply change in the sum of the power generated by the generator and the power
grid voltage due to the load voltage dependency given by (14). generated by the PV, it is possible that the frequency will
exceed its acceptable limits and it would cause the system to
collapse. Therefore, it is required to have voltage and
B. Grid Voltage Control
frequency control in the system, so that they are fixed to their
Both the magnitude and the phase of the grid voltage ( u ) nominal values after a short transient.
can be controlled. In order to control the grid voltage, VSI
output voltage ( uVSI ) should be adjusted by acting on the TABLE I
PARAMETERS USED IN NETWORK MODEL
modulation index of the VSI ( m ). In this paper just the
Symbol Quantity Value
magnitude of the grid voltage is controlled. This implies that
one of the components of the modulation index should be set Ra Stator winding 0.0048 p.u
to an arbitrary value (we set mq to zero). Also, this implies resistance
xd d-axis inductance 1.79 p.u
that DC voltage udc should be controlled. Therefore, the DC xq q-axis inductance 1.66 p.u
x’d d-axis transient 0.355 p.u
current source feeding the VSI is no longer a constant. resistance
Adjusting the DC current source infeed also adjust the DC x’q q-axis transient 0.57 p.u
voltage control. Consequently, the input active power into the resistance
VSI is not constant, but it compensates the power consumed T’d0 d-axis open circuit 7.9 sec
transient time constant
by the load. And, controlling the magnitude of the grid voltage
T’q0 q-axis open circuit 0.41 sec
is done by adjusting the modulation index md , since mq = 0 . transient time constant
The control blocks are given in Fig. 7. H Inertia constant 3.77 p.u
Linv Coupling inductance 0.001 p.u
C DC capacitance 0.0022 p.u
Tp, Tq Load recovery time 100 sec
constants
αs Static active power 1.8
load dependency
parameter
Fig. 7. Control blocks for the model with controllable DC current source αt Transient active power 2
load dependency
parameter
βs Static reactive power 4
C. Load/Generation Control load dependency
parameter
There are two possible methods used to control the
βt Transient reactive 2.5
load/generation balance in this system. The first method is to power load
control the magnitude of the grid voltage. Fig. 6 gives the dependency parameter
control blocks. Acting on the modulation index of the storage
VSI controls the voltage. The second method is to control the
frequency of the storage current. The control block is given in
Fig 8, where the reference value for the magnitude of the grid A. Simulation Results with VSI Active Power Control
voltage is the output of the PI controller. In Fig. 9 it can be seen that when the active power fed by
VSI is kept constant, the electrical torque of the generator
follows the load consumption change which implies the
frequency also changes. Also, it can be seen that the node
voltage is changing due to the load dependency of this
voltage, as it is mentioned above.
Fig. 8. Control block for the controlling storage frequency
 grid voltage using the battery storage in the system are given
in Fig.11.

Fig. 9. Simulation results when the active power fed to the load through
the VSI is controlled (dashed lines present the system with initial load,
and solid line with load changes)
Fig. 11. Simulation results with grid voltage control when there is a DC
battery storage in the isolated network
B. Simulation Results with Grid Voltage Control
The simulation results of the network controlling the grid Similar behavior of the system is obtained if there are
voltage are given in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the grid oscillations in the PV active power production (Fig. 12).
voltage is kept constant which indirectly implies the control of
the frequency of the generator, since the active power load
consumption is compensated by the controllable DC current
source, not by the generator’s production.

Fig. 12. Simulation results with oscillation in PV active power production

By controlling the storage current frequency it can be seen

that frequency of the generator is also controlled, while the
grid voltage requires more time to get back to its nominal
value (Fig. 13).
Fig. 10. Simulation results for grid voltage control with controllable DC
current source infeed into VSI
C. Simulation Results with Storage
One possible solution to have frequency and voltage control
in the network is to have storage connected to the network.
The active power balance is kept by controlling the network
current frequency and controlling the grid voltage through the
active power taken from the storage. Simulation results for
this method of controlling the frequency by controlling the
 One possible solution to control load/generation balance is to
have DC battery storage.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Financial support from the Alliance of Global Sustainability
(AGS) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Fig. 14. Comparison between two methods for the load/generation control

VI. CONCLUSION
Two different methods for generation control in a small
isolated power network are presented. The grid voltage
control method has better performance with respect to the time
needed for the system recovery after the load disturbance. The
frequency control method needs more time to bring the
voltage back to its nominal values after a load disturbance.