2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

Dynamic Modeling and Simulation Analysis on Micro-grid Based on

DIgSILENT
DING TongLE, WANG Gang, LI HaiFeng
School of Electric Power, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China;

Abstract: In this paper, dynamic models of main micro-generation sources are described and built based on their mathematical
model in particular, the models of Micro-turbine, Wind turbine with full rated converter, Photovoltaic Systems and Battery
Energy Storage System (BESS). In addition, control mode of their power electronic interfaces are given and analyzed based on
the characteristic of Distributed Generations (DGS). A micro-grid adopting peer-to-peer control mode is then built comprising
these micro-generation source and a battery energy storage system. Dynamic characteristics of frequency response and voltage
response are made under operating mode switch of micro-grid between grid connected mode and islanded mode. According to
the simulation case study, the battery energy storage system using droop control is essential to the micro-grid in islanded,
which can increase the speed of response of micro-grid efficiently.

Keywords: DIgSILENT, micro-grid, distributed generation, peer-to-peer, BESS

storage system. The rules of dynamic changes of frequency

and voltage are obtained.
1 Introduction

Micro-grid can be defined as a cluster of distributed genera- 2 Models of distributed generations

tions (DGS), storage system, loads and control systems, which
is viewed as a subsystem of distributed network [1]. Mi- There are two basic classes of micro-source systems; one is a
cro-grid can operate either in grid-connected mode or in is- D.C. source, such as fuel cells, photovoltaic, the other is high
landed mode depending on factors like planed disconnections, frequency ac source such as the micro-turbine, which needs to
grid outages or economical convenience. The islanded mode is be rectified. In both cases, the D.C. voltage needs to be inter-
very important, it will intentionally disconnect from grid and faced to the ac network using a voltage source inverter [3].
provide power services to its sensitive load independently (e.g., Distributed generations such as micro-turbine, photovoltaic
faults and voltage collapse) or the quality of power from grid system, permanent magnet wind generator with full rated
falls below certain standards. Therefore, it can greatly enhance converter and storage devices are analysed. The interface of
reliability of power supply. However, in islanded operation, distributed generations to the grid as shown is figure 1.
the voltage and frequency of micro-grid can only be main-
tained by various distributed generations. Therefore, the dy-
namic response behaviour of micro-grid in islanded mode is
dependent on the characteristics of various distributed genera-
tions and control mode of their interface to grid.
Distributed generations (DG) encompasses a wide range of
prime mover technologies, such as micro-turbines, photovol-
taic, fuel cells, and wind power [2]. Dynamic characteristics of Figure1 interface of distributed generations to grid
distributed generations are different from each other. In this
paper, models of different distributed generations are firstly
built and its characteristic are analysed, and then, a model of The active power and reactive power need to control at
micro-grid is built which adopts the peer-to-peer control mode. least. A decoupled control method of active and reactive pow-
In the end, a comparative analysis of micro-grids frequency er could be implemented based on the instantaneous power
and voltage response characteristics are made between the theory [4].
micro-grid including and not including the battery energy
2.1 Micro-turbine

*Corresponding author (email: tlding@126.com) APAP2011 www.apap2011.org

___________________________________
978-1-4244-9621-1/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE


 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

Micro-turbine adopts permanent magnet generator. The shaft K1w Vdc  k 2 wIdc (3)
operates at a high speed between 15,000 and 90,000 revolu-
tions per minute, so the generator provides a high frequency K1 and K2 are defined as:
AC voltage source. This will need an interface to the grid.
This interface consists of a rectifier, an inverter and a dc bus 3KV 3L
k1 K2 (4)
with a capacitor as showed in figure 2. The inductance is the S S
equivalent inductance for each phase of the generator.
If the micro-turbine is power loss, its mechanical power
will equal its electrical power, then,

pm pe k1wI dc  k2 wI dc 2 (5)

From equation (5), the mechanical shaft torque can be ex-

pressed

pm
Figure 2 permanent magnet generator with a dc bus Tm k1 I dc  k2 I dc 2 (6)
w
For a permanent generator, the line to line voltage can be ex- The equation of the shaft of micro-turbine is:
pressed as:
dw
TT  Tm J (7)
vll K v w sin( wt ) (1) dt
Where Kv is a voltage constant, w is the electrical angular Where TT is the mechanical torque of prime mover, Tm is
frequency. If the D.C. current is constant, then mechanical shaft torque, J is the time inertia constant of gen-
erator.
3 3wL The model of micro-turbine built is shown as figure 3,
v dc Vll  I dc (2)
S S
Equations (1) and (2) allow the dc voltage to be expressed
as below:

Figure 3 Model of micro-turbine


 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

The model of permanent magnet synchronous generator

2.2 Photovoltaic systems
comprises prime mover, maximum power tracking, shaft
The power output from single PV cells is relatively small mode and constant field of excitation control model. The
(approximately 0.5 Watts). To produce the required voltage control frame just as follow,
and power, PV cells are connected in series and parallel [5].
Photovoltaic system comprises photovoltaic battery arrays,
D.C. capacitor and inverter to interface with the grid. The
model of photovoltaic system is shown as follow:

Figure 6 The control frame of permanent magnet synchronous generator

Figure 4 Model of photovoltaic system

Where vw is the wind speed, R is blade of rotation radius,

The maximum power tracking of photovoltaic system is
Pwind is wind energy, pt is mechanical power of shaft, cu-
implemented to control the D.C. bus voltage. At a certain
rex is the excitation current of generator, ut is the terminal
temperature and solar radiation, there will be a maximum
voltage of generator, hpi is a calculate constant, its value is
power tracking D.C. bus voltage Umpp at the D.C. bus.
2*pi*F(HZ).
When the temperature is 25C, solar radiation is
1000w/m, the maximum tracking voltage is Umpp0. Where 2.4 Battery energy storage system
the temperature varies, there will be a correction factor for
this change. Equation just as follows: A battery model should depict the terminal voltage and the
internal resistance which are a function of several in-
Umpp Umpp0*ln  E  / ln 1000  *Tempcorru
Tempcorru 1  au *T-25
Where E is solar radiation, T is ambient temperature in
degree, Tempcorru is the correction factor for temperature,
au is a constant and its value is 0.0039.
The control frame of photovoltaic system in DIgSILENT
is shown as follow:
pist
Figure 5 The control frame of photovoltaic system
2.3 Permanent magnet synchronous wind generator
(PMSG)
The PMSG can be directly driven or have smaller gearboxes
or even gearless and is connected to the ac power grid
through the power converter. Use of the power converter is
tern-related variables such as the Battery State of Charge
(SOC), the age and temperature of the battery [7].
(8) A simplified electric equivalent for a battery is shown as
figure 7. The State of Charge corresponds to the current
loading state of the battery. The battery is fully loaded if the
SOC is one and it is zero if the battery is empty.
Figure 7 A simplified battery electric equivalent
Where Z(S,SOC) is the internal resistor of battery,
E(S,SOC) is the open voltage. Both are a function of Bat-
tery State of Charge (SOC). Udc is the dc voltage. The SOC
is calculated with an integrator, counting the current of the
battery.
At 0.2<SOC<1 range, Udc can express as this equa-
tion:
essential because it allows the linkage of the generator op- Udc Umax *SOC  Umin * 1  SOC   I * Zi (9)
erating at variable speed to the ac power grid at a fixed
electrical frequency [6]. Where Umax is voltage when the battery is fully loaded


 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

and Umin is voltage when the battery is empty. Zi is the
internal resistor, I is battery current.
Battery energy system contains two parts. Firstly, a
storing part that could store/restore energy in an electro-
chemical process, secondly a rectifier/inverter that could
transform the DC-voltage from the storing part to the
AC-voltage needed for the grid and vice versa. The storing
part contains a simplified battery and dc voltage control
component; the rectifier/inverter contains charge/discharge
current component, frequency control component and PV
control component. The structure of battery energy storage
system is showed as figure 8.
Frequency
fgrid
controller
Pref
master slave control mode, reliable communication is
needed to detect and transmit information. Faults of com-
munication and control part will lead to unbalance of the
entire system. Meanwhile, micro-grids expanding will be
constrained by the communication cost and communication
bandwidth. Compared with the master-slave control mode,
the peer-to-peer control mode doesnt need communication
component, having more advantages in implementing the
plug in and play.
The droop control is a common control strategy in the
peer-to-peer control mode. For the distributed generation
using the inverter connecting to the grid, the droop control-
ler regulate the output of active power according to the de-
viation of frequency, and the reactive power according to
voltage bias.

Pmeas PQ 4 Simulation results

controller
Umeas
Idref Iqref In this paper, a typical micro-grid structure is shown in fig-
Charge SOC ure 10. Photovoltaic system and permanent synchronous
Bat-model generator are maximum power tracking model, mi-
Controller
Udc cro-turbine adopting the droop control, the impendence of
loads is constant. The micro-grid connects the external grid
Idc through a 10kV/0.4kV transformer. When a fault occurs in
the external grid, the breaker at PCC will detect the fault
and the breaker should open in time. Meanwhile, distributed
generations should adopt appropriate control strategy to
maintain the micro-grid frequency and voltage stability and
running smoothly from the transition to a islanded status,
Figure 8 Structure of the BESS which can ensure to supply power to its sensitive load and
improve reliability.
When building the charge/discharge current control
component, the maximum charge current, and the minimum
switch time limit between charge state and discharge state
are taken into account.

3 Control strategies of micro-grid

Now there are two main control strategies of micro-grid.

One is the master-slave control mode [8], the other is
peer-to-peer control mode [9]. The master to slave control
mode can be divided into two categories according to
whether a distributed generation as the main unit, one is
using the one distributed generation as the main control unit,
the other using the above controller as the main control unit.
Master-slave control unit contains the top master controller
unit and the bottom slave control unit. The top master con-
trol unit will send control signals to the bottom slave control
unit. Peer-to-peer control is put forward for plug and play
distributed generation. Distributed generation operates in Figure 9 A typical structure of micro-grid
the mode of automatic control based on local signals. In
Simulation case 1: micro-turbine is used as the pow- The micro-grid runs in a grid-connected status, the total
er-conditioning unit when micro-grid in islanded mode, active and reactive load are respectively 380kW and 60kvar.
adopting the droop control mode. The active power and reactive power obtained from the ex-


 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

ternal grid are respectively 150kW and 40kvar.

The simulation time is 20 seconds. At 3 seconds of sim-
ulation time, a there phase fault occur in Terminal 1. At 3.04
seconds, the breaker at PCC will detect the fault and open,
the micro-grid operates in islanded mode. The voltage and
frequency response at PCC are shown as figure 10 and fig-
ure 11. The speed of micro-turbine 1 and micro-turbine 2
are shown as figure 12 and figure 13.

Figure 13 The speed of micro-turbine 2 (rad/s)

The simulation shows: the terminal bus will have a bias

from initial states, meanwhile, others buses voltage has too.
The frequency will operate at 48.98HZ after 13 seconds,
About 13 seconds from the three phases fault, mi-
cro-turbine 1 and micro-turbine 2 restore the stable opera-
Figure 10 The voltage response at PCC (p.u.)
tion. This show: the voltage support of distributed genera-
tions within micro-grid is weak. As the length of lines is
short, the bias of voltage is little, the Wind turbine and pho-
tovoltaic system operating in maximum power tracking sta-
tus, it will adjust the reactive power when its inverter to grid
detects the voltage sag. However, its voltage support is
weak because of its limited capacity. Lots of buses voltage
cannot restore the initial state when the micro-grid operating
in grid connected mode.
Simulation case 2: a BESS is installed at terminal 4, the
inverter of BESS adopts the droop-control. Other simula-
tions conditions are same as simulation case 1.
The voltage and frequency response at PCC are shown as
Figure 11 The frequency response at PCC HZ
figure 14 and figure 15. The speed of micro-turbine 1 and
micro-turbine 2 is shown as figure 16 and figure 17. The
active power and reactive power of BESS is shown as fig-
ure 18.

Figure 12 The speed of micro-turbine 1 (rad/s)

Figure 14 The voltage response at PCC (p.u.)


 2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

cro-grid operates in the stable state. The rapid response of

BESS greatly inhibits the deviation of voltage and frequen-
cy due to the slow response micro-turbine. The BESS is
conducive to the stable operation of micro-network.

5 Conclusions

Due to the power electrical interface to grid, distributed

generations of micro-grid have low response characteristics
Figure15 The frequency response at PCC (HZ) and are inertia-less. BESS is indispensible equipment in
micro-grid. When the micro-grid in grid-connected mode
switches to the islanded mode, or the load changes in is-
landed mode, the BESS is particularly important. The BESS
can improve the response speed of micro-grid and damp the
frequency fluctuations caused by the slow dynamical re-
sponse of micro-turbine.

This work was supported by The National Basic Research Program of China
(973 Program) (2009CB219704)the Crucial Field and Key Breakthrough
Project in Guangdong-Hongkong (No. 2009A091300011), and the Fun-
damental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.2009ZM0080).

Figure 16 The speed of micro-turbine 1 (rad/s) 1 European research project Microgrids. [R/OL]. [2008.06.12]. http:
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Figure 18 the active power and reactive power of BESS (MW)

Simulations results show: the frequency has a very small

deviation from the normal state, about 0.02HZ. the speed of
the micro-turbine 1 and micro-turbine 2 will have a little
change and restore the stable operation after 3 seconds, the
biggest deviation of frequency is 0.13HZ.There will be a
small frequency deviation about 0.01HZ when the mi-