Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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Hierarchical structure and bus voltage control of DC microgrid

⁎
Zhikang Shuaia, , Junbin Fanga, Fenggen Ninga, Z. John Shenb
a
National Power Transformation and Control Engineering Technology Research Center, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
b
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Compared to AC microgrids, DC microgrids have the advantage of higher reliability and efficiency and are
DC microgrid convenient to connect with various distribution energy resources (DERs). Concentrated in different time-scale
Primary control control objectives, a multi-level control structure can guarantee that none of the control objectives affect each
Secondary control other. Considering this, an extensive review on the hierarchical structure of the DC microgrid is applied, and two
Tertiary control
typical control structures are presented in detail: two-level control architecture and three-level control archi-
Hierarchical control scheme
tecture. Furthermore, the primary, secondary, and tertiary control levels are systematically analyzed and clas-
sified according to different control objectives. In order to improve the control capability of the primary control
level, an energy efficiency improved DC bus voltage control strategy is proposed to increase the energy efficiency
and system reliability. Finally, a distributed DC microgrid model is established and simulated in the RT-LAB to
verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

1. Introduction
Since the concept of microgrids was proposed [1], distribution DC
microgrids have been attracting increasing attention. Integrated using
various technologies including distributed renewable energy sources
(RES), energy storage system (BES), loads, grid-connected voltage
source converter (G-VSC), and control devices, and so forth, as shown in
Fig. 1, the DC microgrids have become important in coping with energy
shortage and environmental pollution [2]. Compared to AC microgrids,
DC microgrids have many advantages such as high efficiency and re-
liability, while having no frequency, reactive issues [3], and it is easy to
connect to DC micro-sources. Consequently, DC microgrids can be ap-
plied in a wide range of areas including residential buildings, data
centers, island power supplies, communication systems, electric ve-
hicles, and metro tractions [4–10] etc.
Taking into consideration the wide application possibilities of DC
microgrids, many researches have been conducted in various aspects,
such as power topology, network planning, operational control, stabi-
lity analysis, fault and protection [11–17]. In recent times, operational
control has been the focus of the researches conducted on DC micro-
grids. As a result, many different operational control methods for the
converters are proposed, and can be classified as the following: cen-
tralized control [18], master-slave control [19], multi-agent control
[20], and distributed autonomous control [21]. From the research re-
sults [22], it can be concluded that the distributed autonomous control
is the most suited method as the primary control for converters in the
DC microgrids. The reasons are as follows: (1) Less reliance on com-
munication; (2) more autonomous; (3) more suitable for plug and play
(PnP); (4) more flexible control configuration;
Depending on the local conditions, the normal operation of a DC
microgrid is a reasonable set of compromises on multiple control ob-
jectives. Thus, a hierarchical control structure was proposed to optimize
the control of the DC microgrid [23], which is used for coordinating
with multiple control objectives or optimal operation of the DC mi-
crogrid in various time-scales. Many scholars have made great efforts
on the hierarchical control structure of the DC microgrid. However, as
to the most appropriate hierarchical control structure for DC micro-
grids, there was no consensus reached.
In general, hierarchical control structures can be classified into two
major types: two-layer control structure and three-layer control struc-
ture. As described in [14], a typical three-level hierarchical control
structure is as shown in Fig. 2.
The definitions of each control level are as follows:
(1) Primary control: It is the lowest level in the control structure, and it
adjusts the voltage reference provided to the inner current and
voltage control loops.
(2) Secondary control: It is on the top of the primary control, and it
mainly focuses on solving the problem of the voltage or current
deviation.
(3) Tertiary control: It is on the top of the control structure and is
mainly responsible for the optimal operation of microgrid at the

⁎
Correspondence to: College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Hunan University, No. 2, South Lushan Road, Changsha City, Hunan Province, China.
E-mail addresses: shuaizhikang-001@163.com (Z. Shuai), 1014511552@qq.com (J. Fang), 414045479@qq.com (F. Ning), zjohnshen@gmail.com (Z.J. Shen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.096
Received 23 October 2016; Received in revised form 8 August 2017; Accepted 28 October 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Shuai, Z., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.096
Z. Shuai et al.
Fig. 2. . Hierarchical control levels of a DCmicrogrid.
system level.
In the hierarchical control structure, the main objective of the pri-
mary control is to ensure a normal and stable operation of each con-
verter unit. The voltage versus current (V–I) Droop control [24] and DC
bus signal (DBS) [25] control are the most commonly used control
methods for primary control. Compared to other control methods,
droop control and DBS control use the DC bus as a communication line,
which could make the DC microgrid operation normal even under the
failed communication or non-communication conditions. Under the
premise of the basic function of converters is achieved, the secondary
and tertiary control level are realized in a concentrated or distributed
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Fig. 1. Diagram of a DC microgrid.
control manner at the global level [26–28]. As a consequence, the
communication line is required in upper control level to collect the
operation information from basic composition unit [29,30].
In this paper, a review of the hierarchical control structure of the DC
microgrids is provided, and the primary, secondary, and tertiary control
levels are systematically analyzed and classified according to the dif-
ferent control objectives in different hierarchical control schemes. For
the existing problems in the DC bus voltage control method, a brief
solution was also proposed. This paper is organized as follows. In
Section Ⅱ and Ⅲ, the two-layer and three-layer control structures are
reviewed, respectively. Section Ⅳ presents a summary of the autono-
mous control in primary control. A brief review of the DC bus voltage
control strategy and improved DC bus control method is presented in
Section Ⅴ, and the simulation results are presented in Section Ⅵ.
SectionⅦ presents the conclusions and future trends of the hierarchical
control structure.
2. Research of primary control
In the hierarchical control structure, the distributed autonomous
primary control can maintain the voltage stability of the DC bus
without the communication line. As previously mentioned, the primary
control level mainly focused on small time scale control problems, such
as transient current /voltage control, instantaneous power sharing. For
the requirement of a very short control response time, the primary
control level is integrated with general of current and voltage control,
and located in local converters. As shown in Fig. 3, the droop based
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Fig. 3. Primary control diagram.
primary control adjusts the voltage reference provided to the inner
control loops, to maintain autonomous control for parallel operation
control of converters. For different operating environments, different
distribution autonomous control methods are used for primary control
such as droop control [24], frequency allocation approach [24], and DC
bus voltage method [25].
2.1. Droop method
The application of the droop control method in multi-terminal DC
systems was first seen in the literature [31]. As shown in Fig. 4, the V–I
droop control method is realized by linearly reducing the output vol-
tage as the output current increases, in order to compensate for in-
stantaneous mismatch between scheduled power and power demanded
by the loads without any communication technology. The output
characteristics of the droop control scheme can be equivalent to a vir-
tual resistor at the output of the converter [32]. This operational feature
makes the droop method fit nicely to the primary control to achieve the
autonomous operation of parallel-connected converters, especially,
during the absence of communication lines. In addition, this feature
makes it easy to realize the PnP capability. Moreover, the power versus
voltage (P-V) droop method is also one of the common forms of primary
control [33]. For specific control objects, a state-of-charge (SoC)-based
droop method [34], in which SoC and droop coefficients are specifically
correlated, was also adopted in the primary control.
Typically, in the V–I droop control method, a virtual resistance or
droop coefficient is adopted. Then, the output voltage vo is determined
by the magnitude of the output current io and droop coefficient RD .
vo = vref − RD⋅io (1)
Here vref is the output voltage reference at open circuit. As shown in
(1), RD⋅io causes an output voltage deviation during the operation [35].
Then, in order to obtain better control performance, many scholars pay
particularly attention to calculate the optimized parameters of droop
coefficient RD , including literature [36,37].
In addition, the accuracy of load sharing is affected by the line
impedance of the power system [38]. Taking into consideration the line
impedance RL , from the load access point, the output voltage vo can be
described as following:
Fig. 4. Principle of droop control.
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vo = vref − RD⋅io − RL⋅io (2)
From (1) and (2), we have to accept that the voltage deviation al-
ways exists in droop control, for the reason of unavoidable errors
caused by the droop coefficient RD and line resistor RL . Besides, the load
sharing accuracy and system stability have a direct correlation with the
droop coefficient. The higher the droop coefficient, the better is the
accuracy of current sharing and the larger is the voltage deviations
[39]. In [40] the design of RD is discussed in detail. Using an analysis
tool, literature [41] puts forward the idea that a tradeoff has to be made
between the power sharing and DC voltage deviation. Even so, the
conventional droop method still suffers from the drawback of poor
current sharing and voltage regulation [42]. In addition, to solve the
optimal droop coefficient, there are two additional approaches to en-
hance the performance of droop control.
2.1.1. Nonlinear droop control
The droop curve in the conventional droop control mentioned above
is linear. However, many researchers propose to introduce a nonlinear
droop curve to improve performance. In order to lower the influence of
cable resistance, a nonlinear droop method is proposed [43], in which
the value of droop resistance is a second-order function of the output
current. In [44], a kind of droop control strategy based on the hysteresis
characteristics is proposed to improve load power distribution accu-
racy. A nonlinear droop function that minimizes the operating cost of
the microgrid and shares the reactive power effectively among the
sources was proposed in [45]. Literature [46] proposes a robust droop
control approach, which promotes the power sharing accuracy and
minimizes the circulating current. In literature [47] and [48], an in-
creasing DC-bus voltage and current feedback droop control method are
proposed respectively, in which the DC-bus voltage and current signal
are transferred to the droop controller to improve the accuracy of the
power sharing. Generally, as reviewed in [49], nonlinear droop control
can ensure a higher droop gain at heavy loads and lower values at
lighter load conditions.
2.1.2. Adaptive droop control
Instead of a fixed droop coefficient value adopted in the conven-
tional droop control, an adaptive variable droop coefficient was pro-
posed. In this method, the droop resistance was adjusted to track the
variation of the load current or power supply. An adaptive droop
method was proposed to vary the virtual resistance in order to track the
variation of the load current [50] between parallel-connected DC-DC
converters. To enhance the effect of the power sharing for DC-DC
converters, an instantaneous droop calculation algorithm is proposed
[51]. In this method, the virtual resistance value instantaneously hinge
on the converters output voltage deviation. However the introduction
of negative resistance can lead to system instability [52]. In order to
optimize the power distribution of a DC microgrid, a coordinated
adaptive droop control is proposed [53], in which the droop coefficients
hinge on the available headroom of each converter station. In addition,
many other adaptive droop control methods are proposed such as fuzzy
logic-based adaptive droop control [54], consensus algorithm-based
adaptive droop control [55], and impedance-based adaptive droop
method [56].
The adaptive droop control method is more flexible and more ap-
plicable, and suffers from less voltage deviations and power sharing
errors, related to the conventional droop control. Therefore, as the
droop control adopted in primary control, an upper control level is still
needed to increase the control accuracy of the primary control, parti-
cularly when the distribution line impedances are not negligible [57].
On this occasion, an upper control level with a low-bandwidth com-
munication line is needed to provide the voltage-regulated signal to
eliminate the control deviation caused by the droop control [58].
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2.2. Frequency based control
The conventional voltage droop control mainly aims at static power
flow regulation, with no frequency-response based power flow control.
However, in a DC microgrid, there are many distribution generations
and energy storage system (ESS) integrated, and therefore, the dynamic
behaviors of each unit are variable for different time scales [59]. In a
battery and ultra-capacitor parallel-connected system, the battery and
ultra-capacitor can be considered as a high energy density storage and
high power density storage, respectively [60]. Based on this, a fre-
quency-coordinating virtual impedance based control method for DC
microgrid was proposed in [61], wherein the virtual output impedances
were modified in different frequency-domains, the battery and super
capacitor units are scheduled to absorb low-frequency and high-fre-
quency power fluctuations.
2.3. DC bus signal based control
In a DC microgrid, various micro sources, loads, and energy storage
units are connected to the DC bus in parallel. With the line resistance
ignored, the voltage of the DC bus can be regarded to be equal every-
where. Thus, all the parallel-connected converters can get the same
voltage reference. By detecting the DC bus voltage signal, the working
status of each converter can be derived [62]. The implementation of the
DBS method can be achieved without the need for the communication
lines. It uses the DC cable as a communication carrier. In the DBS
control method, the ranges of the operating voltage are generally di-
vided into pre-defined sections, which are named as voltage level or
operation mode. As presented in [63], different DC bus voltage levels
can be regarded as an information carrier and they can dictate different
operation modes. Particularly, with the pre-specified control rules, the
DBS method can realize the autonomous control for each parallel-
connected converter. Fig. 5 is the current distribution diagram with
equivalent powers of the DC microgrid.
According to Kirchhoff's current law (KCL),
IC = Is − IL (3)
The deformation of (3) can be
dVC
IC = C⋅
dt (4)
Eq. (3) can be rewritten as:
dVC 1
= ⋅(IS − IL)
dt C (5)
From the voltage change ratio in Fig. 5 and Eq. (5), the balance of
the power in the microgrid can be observed. When the load power is
greater than the output power of micro sources, the voltage decreases
and vice versa [64]. An improved DBS method is proposed in [65], the
switching frequency of a grid-connected DC/DC converter was used as
the operating information for the DC microgrid components. Another
Fig. 5. Powerflow of DC microgrid.
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Fig. 6. Operation modes of DC microgrid.
form of this method is called the mode-adaptive decentralized control,
as shown in Fig. 6. The normal operating DC bus voltage range is di-
vided into several sections or levels. Then, different control strategies
are formulated in different sections for different micro sources. Thus,
the key to the DBS method is to set reasonable control strategy rules for
different voltage sections.
Similarly, different scholars have their own comprehension on dif-
ferent bus voltage classifications. Usually, to get more flexible control
targets, the bus voltage range is divided into several different intervals.
As the DBS method is adopted in the DC microgrid, the different voltage
levels are equal to different system operation modes [66]. In [64], a
mode adaptive decentralized control strategy is proposed for the power
management of a DC microgrid, in which the DC bus voltage signal is
utilized to determine the mode conversion. In the method, three op-
eration modes are set for the converters according to different voltage
ranges. In different voltage layers, the pilot converters are switched to
maintain the normal operation of the microgrid [67]. In general, the
more the voltage level is formulated, the more flexible are the control
options of the microgrid, and vice versa.
In general, the DBS control method has the advantage of low cost
and simple control, and it requires only non-communication techni-
ques. However, there are several drawbacks of the DBS control strategy
[63]. On the one hand, the normal range of voltage is limited and the
voltage levels cannot be divided unlimitedly for sources and storages. In
other words, the control modes of converters are rather few in number.
On the other hand, voltage bus signaling can only be suitable for a
small-scale microgrid with a limited number of sources and storages
[25].
3. Two-level control structure
Hierarchical control for power distribution has been widely applied
in traditional AC power systems [68]. However, in power electronic
converter-based DC microgrids, there is no frequency, reactive power
and phase problem They are often ignored in dynamic stability [69],
and these advantages make the traditional AC hierarchical control
structure to be modified to meet the DC microgrid.
In the two-level control structure, proportional load sharing, voltage
regulations, circulating current avoidance, SoC equalization, and
charge/discharge management are the main control objectives in the
primary control level. Generally, various droop control methods and
DBS methods are applied in the primary control. However, as men-
tioned above, the voltage deviation and current sharing errors in-
evitably exist [70]. In order to rectify these problems, an upper level
controller, usually named as secondary control level was adopted. As
shown in Fig. 1, load sharing and voltage regulation between parallel
converters are achieved by the primary controller without a commu-
nication line. For getting better control effect, a secondary control level
is introduced into the control structure, which sets the reference to the
primary control and maintains the controlled parameter within an op-
timization range, As showing in Fig. 7. Fig. 7 Typical two-level control
structure.
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Generally, as an upper control level, the secondary controller can be
divided into two forms. The first one is integrated with the primary
control and is located in the power converter and the other is located
remotely [71,72]. In comparison, based on the primary control，the
control objective of the secondary control is more flexible and diverse
than the primary control. The main optimization objective of the sec-
ondary control can be described as follows.
3.1. Voltage deviation restoration
In the existing studies, many scholars hold that the main task of the
secondary control level is to cover the voltage deviation, which is
caused by the virtual impedance based droop control [73]. As shown in
Fig. 2, the secondary control level in the microgrid set the voltage
regulation factor δvo to all units connected to the DC microgrid [74].
Then, Eq. (1) can be rewritten as:
vo = vref − RD⋅io + δvo
(6)
As described in Eq. (6), by introducing the variable δvo , the output
voltage vo can be improved significantly, to achieve the objective of
voltage restoration.
In a droop control based high voltage direct current (HVDC) grid
[75], current sharing is achieved by the droop-based primary control,
and to restore the DC bus voltage deviation, five different schemes for
secondary control level are proposed and compared. To realize the DC
bus voltage regulation with low reliance on communications in a
dedicated paralleled flywheel-based energy storage system, the DBS
method is employed in the power coordination of the grid and flywheel
converters as primary control. Then, through a dynamic consensus-
based voltage observer, the secondary controller generates the DC bus
restoration signal to adjust the voltage set-point [76]. In order to avoid
the single point of failure problem, a consensus algorithm-based dis-
tributed secondary control method was proposed in [77], in which, the
compensations of current and voltage are send to the droop-based
primary control. Specific to the single point of failure, an interesting
solution was proposed in [78], in which the fault current was well re-
stricted.
To avoid the over-charging and over-discharging states of the ESS in
the islanded DC microgrid, based on the bus-signaling method-based
primary control, an additional secondary control is employed to elim-
inate the steady state bus voltage deviation [79]. In [80], a voltage
droop based primary controller is utilized to implement the current
sharing of the parallel-connected buck converters in a DC microgrid
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Fig. 7. Typical two-level control structure.
with constant power loads (CPL). A secondary controller is then set to
compensate the voltage deviation without affecting current sharing
accuracy. To overcome the drawbacks of the conventional droop con-
trol method in the DC microgrids, a secondary control level is proposed
to restore the DC voltage deviation and to improve the current sharing
accuracy by adjusting the droop coefficient [81]. In addition, [82]
proposes a two-level control strategy of the grid connected DC micro-
grids, in which a DBS and SoC-based droop method is applied in the
primary control, and then, by shifting the droop curve, the secondary
controller can restore the DC bus voltage and SoC to the nominal value.
3.1.1. Optimal power flow
In a DC microgrid, an optimal power flow (OPF) between converters
is also the pursuit of many researchers. The optimal power flow algo-
rithm can be considered originating from the AC power system [83].
Generally, the OPF algorithm in the secondary control depends on the
grid's conductance matrix and load distribution matrix [84]. In this
control architecture, different objective functions can be adopted in the
secondary control, such as transmission loss minimization [84,85],
minimal power losses [86], and maximum loadability [87]. As the
voltage droop-based primary control is adopted in the multi-terminal
DC (MTDC) grid, an OPF algorithm is executed at the secondary control
level [85], and the converters update the voltage regulator set point to
improve the power flow sharing. In such a case, the voltage-droop
characteristics curve of the primary control could be modified ac-
cording to the OPF results [88].
In multi-terminal DC transmission systems, the power balancing
between converters is controlled by a voltage-droop controller.
However, the control effect of primary control is easily affected by the
DC microgrid topology and line resistances. Aimed at this issue, [89]
proposes a secondary control strategy to restore power flow at certain
converters to presuppose operating points. In a renewable energy
source (RES) integrated HVDC transmission system, to keep the power
flows in the transmission cables within the thermal limits after dis-
turbance, a secondary controller is set to change voltage and power
settings of the primary controllers [90]. To minimize the transmission
loss of a DC microgrid, [91] proposes a power flow sharing and voltage
regulation control based hierarchical structure. Herein a voltage-droop
based primary control is utilized to improve the stability and reliability
of the grid, after which two voltage regulation signals generated by the
secondary control layer are sent to the primary controller to regulate
the power flow of the DC microgrid to the optimal condition. However,
under this condition, the complexity of this control method increased.
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Fig. 8. Typical three-level control structure.

3.1.2. Power sharing and management uppermost shortage is that complex or multi system-level control target
Many scholars consider that the objective of the secondary control is cannot be realized, because of the limited control level. As a con-
to achieve accurate power sharing and optimal management among sequence, the most common objective of the secondary control is to
parallel-operated converters in a DC microgrid. As stated in [92]，the bring the controlled converter back to scheduled operating conditions.
energy management system (EMS), which is the brain of the DC mi- However, the restoration of voltage and power deviation helps in the
crogrid, can comprehend operation status, load forecasting, operating normal operation of the DC microgrid. However, this does not mean
cost, and optimal schedules based on the output power information. In optimal operation [84], but the two control objectives can easily be
[92], a series of functions and constraints is calculated in the secondary achieved if an extra control level is provided.
control, decisions about powers and the exchange between distribution
networks are transferred to the lower level. The same control idea is
4. Three-level control structure
adopted in [72], the secondary controller shares its reference power/
current signals to the droop controller, then the droop coefficient is
According to the hierarchical intelligent control theory [97], a
dynamically adjusted to improve the power sharing in DC microgrid.
three-level intelligent control structure with the organization, co-
For example, in a RESs integrated DC microgrid, a sliding mode
ordination, and execution level was developed. By combining the
control (SMC) and a supervisory controller are scheduled in order to
hierarchical intelligent control theory and conventional hierarchical
maximize the use of the RES and minimize the connection to the grid
control of the AC grid with the inherent characteristics of the DC mi-
[84]. In the control process, the sliding surfaces, and set point of SMC
crogrid, many researchers have proposed various three-level hier-
are optimally changed by the supervisory controller according to the
archical control structures for the DC microgrid.
operating conditions. However, the utilization of the SMC as the pri-
Considering the weakness of a single optimization objective, in two-
mary control greatly increases the control complexity. [93] Presents a
level control structure, many intellectuals put forward a three-level
generalized voltage droop control strategy for a VSC-based DC micro-
control structure for a DC microgrid, a typical three-level control
grid. To improve the power-sharing capabilities of primary control, a
structure is proposed and shown in Fig. 3. As shown in the figure, the
centralized secondary controller is implemented to regulate the droop
main objective of the primary control is to realize power sharing and to
characteristics. To eliminate the influence of line resistance and im-
improve stability of the parallel-connected converters. Based on this, a
prove the accuracy of power distribution in a bipolar-type DC micro-
secondary controller is used to deal with the voltage deviations caused
grid, the droop-based primary control is utilized to achieve parallel
by primary control, and power-sharing accuracy improves simulta-
operation of converters then a distributed secondary control provides
neously. After this, a third-level or tertiary control was applied into the
the voltage and current restoration signal to improve the power dis-
control structure, which adjusts the set points for the secondary con-
tribution [94].
troller to achieve an optimal, economic, and efficient operation of the
Furthermore, except for the abovementioned applications, the two-
DC microgrid. Fig. 8 Typicalthree-level control structurent.
level control structure is also applied to hybrid energy storage systems
Based on the primary and secondary control level, for different si-
(HESS). In a multiple-parallel energy storage system [95], based on
tuations, various control objects for the tertiary control are proposed
charge/discharge monitoring and SoC detection, the distributed sec-
including economic and efficient operation, global energy management,
ondary controller alters the virtual droop resistance of each storage unit
optimal power flow, and other system-level objectives.
according to the difference between the unit SoC and the microgrid
average SoC. However, the biggest difficulty that lies in this control
structure is the precise estimation of SoC for each storage unit. 4.1. Optimal or efficiency operation
Based on the primary control, a secondary control is implemented to
obtain a better control performance, such as restoration of the voltage Similar to a conventional AC grid, the economic and efficient op-
deviation caused by primary control, better current and power sharing, eration of a DC microgrid is an objective many researchers generally
and power flow optimization. To connect the primary control with pursue. To explore a feasible DC control system for enhancing economic
secondary control, a communication line was required [96], whether in efficiency and the resilient operation of a DC microgrid [98], three-level
concentrated or distributed secondary control level. hierarchical control architecture is proposed and tested. As mentioned
As to the disadvantages of a two-level control structure, the before, V–I droop is utilized as the primary control, a secondary control
level is used to compensate the voltage deviations, and the economic

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Z. Shuai et al.
operations of DC microgrids is realized by the tertiary control by setting
the operating point for the secondary control. As described in [83], the
secondary control is disabled in the grid-connected mode since the
voltage is maintained by the utility grid. However, it does not mean that
the voltage deviations in the grid-connected mode are nonexistent. The
same control architecture is also utilized in [99] aimed at the parallel
operation of distribution energy resources. As mentioned above, based
on the droop-based primary control and voltage deviations compen-
sated by the secondary control, the tertiary controller worked si-
multaneously in the one-day-ahead dispatch and real-time-operation
dispatch to achieve an economic and optimal operation of the micro-
grid. However, both the secondary and tertiary controller work in real-
time mode, and therefore, a high-speed communication is required. To
maintain system power balance in hybrid AC/DC microgrids, [100]
proposes three-level control architecture with different control strate-
gies for AC and DC subgrid. In this method, voltage and frequency
droop-based autonomous control is scheduled for AC and DC subgrid as
the primary control respectively. Then, the secondary control is used to
recover the deviations of the bus voltage and frequency, based on the
comparison of marginal costs. The optimal power references of system
units are generated in tertiary control to achieve the power balancing.
However, with the secondary and tertiary control connected in parallel,
conflicting priorities may exist. Similar control strategies are also ap-
plicable in multi-terminal energy storage systems. In [101], a multi-
level energy management system (EMS) is proposed to achieve a su-
perior performance for DC microgrids. In addition, stable operations of
the microgrid and compensation controls are realized by the primary
and secondary control, respectively. On this basis, the optimal eco-
nomic dispatch signals are generated in the tertiary control level ac-
cording to the comparison of marginal costs of the system operation.
Thus, the operation costs of DC microgrids can be minimized.
4.2. Energy management among converters
In addition, for that the multiple renewable and micro energy
sources are installed at different locations, the energy management
among converters within a DC microgrid in the system level is also a
concern for many scholars. In [102], a three-level control strategy that
fits the smart house is proposed, based on the droop-based primary
control and the voltage deviation compensation in the secondary con-
trol. To provide a better control performance for renewable energy
generation and load sharing, the tertiary controller provides optimal
power flow control by changing the voltage reference to the secondary
control level. In general, the control architecture in [102] is widely
used in many literatures. However, it can be observed from analyzing
the function that better use of the tertiary control level can be achieved.
A similar control structure is also introduced to the hybridization of
energy storages system (HESS) to minimize system bus voltage varia-
tion and extend the ESS lifetime in a DC microgrid [103]. Based on
distributed primary control, a bus voltage restoration is implemented in
the secondary control, after which the tertiary control is used to recover
the SoC autonomously. However, the energy management of HESS is
just a part of the entire DC microgrid. With the same primary and
secondary control structure applied to DC microgrids, [66] holds that
the tertiary control could be used to deal with extreme operational
conditions such as sudden load, load shedding, or ballast. However,
within this control framework, it places greater demands on on-line
real-time processing. In [104] and [105], a hierarchical power man-
agement scheme is proposed for a typical DC microgrid, in which the
primary control is used to implement distributed operation. Then the
voltage restoration is achieved in the secondary, and the tertiary con-
trol is adopted to manage the battery charge and discharge or system
energy management. However, in this scheme, the secondary control is
connected in parallel with the tertiary control, which indicates they are
operated at the same precedence level.
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
4.3. Energy management between grids
With the development of DC microgrids, there is an increasing need
for managing the power flow between DC microgrids and other stiff
grids or microgrids. As a representative three-level control structure
[106], a droop method-based primary control is adopted to make the
system stable and more damped. The secondary control level is used to
restore the deviations that are caused by the primary control. Finally,
the power flow between the microgrid and other distribution systems is
conducted by the tertiary control. Owing to the introduction of tertiary
control level, the optimal energy flow of the DC microgrid is assured. In
an AC and DC hybrid microgrid, the same primary and secondary
control strategy mentioned in [106] is implemented, and the tertiary
control is adopted to improve the performance considering the con-
nection to a stiff AC or DC source by providing a compensating para-
meter to the secondary control level [31]. In an AC and DC bus hybrid
microgrid, with the same primary and secondary control strategy
mentioned above, the tertiary control is scheduled to deal with the
connection with an external DC system [107]. Aiming at a community
microgrid with multiple AC and DC sub-microgrids, the hierarchical
control structure is proposed to achieve the economic and coordinative
control.especially, the tertiary control is implement to ensure the op-
timal coordination of an islanded community microgrid [108].
As mentioned above, the tertiary control level conducts the power
flow according to the system requirements; however, the energy in-
teractions with other micogrids are neglected. To resolve this problem,
a three-level control method is proposed to improve the load sharing
among microgrids within a microgrid cluster [109]. In the control
scheme, the load sharing among various sources within the DC micro-
grid is managed by primary and secondary control. A tertiary control is
applied to adjust the voltage set point for each sub-microgrid, and then
the power sharing between multiple DC microgrids within a cluster is
achieved.
Compared to a two-level control structure, the three-level control
structure has inherent advantages that enable it to achieve more com-
plex control targets, especially the optimal control for DC microgrid at
the system level and the power flow management between microgrids.
In the two-level and three-level control scheme, the same primary
and secondary control objects exist, such as power sharing, stable op-
eration in primary control, voltage restoration, and energy manage-
ment in secondary control. Generally, an autonomous distributed con-
trol strategy is universally adopted in the primary and integrated with
local converters. The secondary and tertiary control can be divided into
decentralized and centralized, wherein one integrates with the primary
control in a decentralized way, and the other uses the communication
line connected to each converter in a centralized way [110]. In master-
slave and multi-agent control, the operation of the microgrids depends
on the fast communication technique. The failure of communication
results in the collapse of the whole microgrid. However, in the failure of
communication, the fundamental function of hierarchical control will
be guaranteed by the autonomous decentralized primary control. This is
the main difference between the hierarchical control and conventional
control method.
5. Energy efficiency improved DC bus voltage control
5.1. Research of DC bus voltage in primary control
As mentioned above, in a hierarchical control structure the normal
work of secondary and tertiary control depends on the communication
line. In order to ensure the safety and stability of the DC microgrid,
decentralized autonomous control in the primary control is required
[110]. Without regard for phase, frequency, symmetrical and asym-
metrical [111] problems of the DC bus voltage, the power balance
management can be considered as the DC bus voltage adjustment. To
ensure normal operation of the DC microgrid, the value of the DC bus
Z. Shuai et al.
voltage must be kept within a reasonable range [112]. In a DC micro-
grid，there are two main selections for the DC bus voltage base value:
380 V [113] and 400 V [114], and the normal operating range is de-
fined as a deviation of less than 10% [115].
Generally, DC microgrids comprise of GVSC, new energy power
generator, auxiliary power generator, energy storage system, and load.
There are multiple possibilities as to which of these components mainly
controls the DC bus voltage. In grid-connected states, there is an
emerging consensus that the GVSC unit is supposed to maintain the DC
bus voltage. However, in the island mode, there are a number of so-
lutions to realize the stability of DC bus voltages. During the operation
of a DC microgrid, over-voltage and under-voltage is a key issue in the
DC bus voltage control, which indicates the power balance between the
source and the load.
In the case of over-voltage, new energy power generation has to be
restricted and then combined with DER to maintain the DC bus voltage
balance in a normal range [115]. However this decreases the utilization
of new energy. In the case of under-voltage, non-critical load is dis-
connected according to the DC bus voltage. As proposed in [116], a
controllable DC load is utilized for dc-bus voltage regulation for a dc
distribution system with providing the demand response requirements.
In this process, a BES is usually adopted to balance the power supply
and demand. However, based on the current technical conditions, there
is still the possibility that the BES can run out of its capacity easily
[117]. Another limitation of conventional control strategy is that the
capability for peak clipping of BES is seriously affected by the SoC
[46,118].
5.2. Energy efficiency improved DC bus voltage control
In this section, an improved DC bus control method is proposed, in
which a thermal storage system (TSS) is introduced and connected to
the DC bus by a buck converter to achieve the peak clipping operation.
By detecting the DC bus voltage, the variable duty cycle control for
buck converter is achieved, and then the equivalent resistance of TSS
that is connected to the DC bus is mutable. In this case, even in the
situation of high bus voltage, the TSS and BES could achieve the peak
clipping for DC microgrid. Hence the new energy resources could work
in the MPPT state all the time and enhance the utilization of new en-
ergy. On the contrary, the TSS is off-connected to the DC bus in the
condition of low DC bus voltage, which contributes to the restoration of
the DC bus voltage.
In the DBS method, a different voltage level is employed as an in-
dicator to different control modes. In this paper, the voltage of
Vn ± 10% is considered within normal limits [115], and the voltage
range is divided into five layers. To distinguish each voltage layer, they
are named as mode I (M1), mode II (M2)…mode V (M5), from high to
low, and correspond to voltage ranges of: 1.1 p.u–1.075 p.u, 1.075
p.u–1.05 p.u, 1.05 p.u–0.95 p.u, 0.95 p.u–0.925 p.u, 0.925 p.u–0.9 p.u,
as shown in (Fig. 9).
In each voltage mode, different priorities of converters are pre-
sented in Fig. 9. Furthermore, the higher priority of the converters
implies that the unit response to the DC bus in a lower voltage deviation
(Fig. 10).
Combined with Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, the following control strategy can
be derived.
Mode 1: A relative high voltage deviation exists and new energy
generations are operated in the MPPT mode, with the cooperative
operation of DER, TSS, and G-VSC. The DC bus voltage is restricted
to 1.1 p.u.
Mode 2: The new energy generation is operated in the MPPT mode,
with the cooperative operation of BES and TSS. The DC bus voltage
is restricted to 1.075 p.u.
Mode 3: The voltage range is divided into two parts. In order to
maintain a high SoC, the BES is kept at a charging state in the
8
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Fig. 9. Threshold of each mode.
voltage range of 1.0 p.u–1.05 p.u.
Mode 4: In the grid-connected mode, the DC bus voltages are
maintained by GVSC. In the off-connected mode, the bus voltage
drops into Mode 5.
Mode 5: In this mode, the DC bus voltage is maintained by DER and
BES.
Overall, the improved DC bus voltage control method is summarized
as follows: In the high DC bus voltage, the DER, TSS, and the G-VSC are
employed to absorb the excess energy. During the process, renewable
energy units continue working in the MPPT state. With the insufficient
power supply, the G-VSC and BES are employed to provide energy in
grid-connected mode. However, in the island mode, the BES units are
responsible for the energy deficient, and the operation voltage is de-
creased properly to lower the power consumption of resistive loads. To
prolong the time of the power supply under the off-connected condi-
tion, the BES is set to keep charging in Mode 3.
6. Experimental validation
To verify the proposed improved DC bus signal control method, a
model of DC microgrid is built by the RT-LAB. As shown in Fig. 11, lead-
acid battery, photovoltaic array, wind power generation, thermal sto-
rage system, and loads are adopted to the system. Particularly, we in-
troduce a 2 kW constant power load, which accounts for 20% of the
total load and the remaining 80% is resistive load. Besides, the normal
range of the DC bus voltage is set in the range of 400 ± 10% V. This
article selects the off-connected microgrid as the subjects of the simu-
lation because it is a more challenging job to maintain the DC bus
voltage without the support of the stiff grid.
6.1. Island state with maximum load
In this case, the total load of the DC microgrid is composed of re-
sistive and constant power load to test the maximum power output of
10 kW at the off-connected mode. Fig. 12(a) shows the DC bus voltage
variation with output fluctuations of new energy generations. With the
maximum load connected, the DC bus voltage is below the rated vol-
tage, but remains in the normal voltage range. Fig. 12(b) shows the
output fluctuations of the wind power and the photovoltaic. By de-
tecting the DC bus voltage, the control signals for the converters are
given in Fig. 12(c). As a response to the control of the reference signal,
the output curve of TSS and BES is given in Fig. 12(d). Through the
analysis of Fig. 12, when the bus voltage is above 400 V, the BES is set
to charging mode. With an increase in the DC bus voltage, the TSS and
BES are whipped into service. With the insufficient new energy power
supply, DC bus voltage drops to Mode 5, and then the BES coordinated
Z. Shuai et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 10. Control strategy for converters.

with the DER is responsible for the voltage restoration. structures of the DC microgrid and DC bus voltage control. By re-
viewing the existing literatures, the primary, secondary, and tertiary
control is systematically analyzed and classified. In the hierarchical
6.2. Island state with step load
control structure, various control objectives can be set flexibly in each
control level, according to the different application fields. Finally,
In this case, DC microgrid started with a 4-kW resistive load and 2-
based on the previous analysis, we can still draw some general con-
kW constant load. To test the disruption recovery, at 10 s, a 4-kW re-
clusions:
sistive step load was connected to the DC bus. Fig. 13(a) shows the
voltage change when the step load is connected to the DC bus. Before it
(1) In hierarchical control structures, a communication line is required
is accessed, the DC bus voltage is in a relatively high level with the light
in both two-level and three-level control structures. Limited to the
load, and after that, the DC bus voltage drops when the step load is
existing communication rate and reliability, the real-time control of
connected. Fig. 13(b) shows the output fluctuations of new energy. The
different time scales in the DC microgrid is difficult to realize si-
control signals for converters are given in Fig. 13 (c), according to the
multaneously. With the development of communication, the
DC bus voltage signal. The output curve of TSS and BES is shown in
boundary of each control level shows a weakening tendency.
Fig. 13(d). With a sufficient electric energy supply, the TSS and BES are
(2) When the performance of the micro-programmed control unit
implemented to the balance in the power. As soon as the DC bus voltage
(MCU) is improved, more control goals can be achieved in the local
sags are detected, the TSS disconnects from the DC bus and BES
converter, the requirement of distributed optimization techniques is
switches to the discharge mode. From Fig. 13(c) and (d) it can be in-
achievable. The development possibility of the DC microgrid con-
ferred that, in a light load, DC bus voltage is relatively higher than
trol structure is flattening, digitalization, and integration.
Fig. 13(a) showed, and then the BES and TSS absorbs more energy from
(3) In a DC microgrid, instantaneous DC bus voltage signals contain
the DC bus. When the step load is connected to the DC bus at 4 s, the
useful information for the operating states prediction. In the pro-
TSS reduces the power absorption instantly.
cess, the intelligent estimation method can be adopted.
(4) With the development of artificial intelligent technology, optimi-
7. Conclusions and future trends zation of DC microgrid operation will obtain better control results.
(5) To improve the distributed energy resource utilization efficiency,
This paper provides an extensive review on hierarchical control

Fig. 11. Configuration of the experiment.

9
Z. Shuai et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 12. Simulation results with maximum load. (a)

DC bus voltage. (b) Output of new energy. (c) Power
reference signal. (d) Power response of converter.

Fig. 13. Simulation results with step load. (a) DC bus

voltage. (b) Output of new energy. (c) Power re-
ference signal. (d) Power response ofconverter.

10
Z. Shuai et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

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data centers to improve energy efficiency. In: Proceedings of the 29th Fenggen Ning received the B.S degree in electronic and
International Telecommunications Energy Conference, Rome, INTELEC 07; 2007. information engineering from Hunan University, Changsha,
p. 32–9. China, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the M.S
[115] Chen D, Xu L, Yao L. DC voltage variation based autonomous control of DC mi- degree in power electronics in the College of Electrical
crogrids. IEEE Trans Power Deliv 2013;28(2):637–48. Engineering. His research interests include voltage control
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controllable DC load. In: Proceedings of the 8th IEEE international symposium on
Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG), Florianopolis;
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bus signaling for Modular photovoltaic generation systems With battery energy
storage. IEEE Trans Power Electron . 2011;26(10):3032–45.
Z. John Shen (S′89-M′94-SM′01-F′11) received BS from
Zhikang Shuai (S′09-M′10-SM′17) received the B.S. and Tsinghua University, China, in 1987, and M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in
Ph.D. degree from the College of Electrical and Information
1991 and 1994, respectively, all in electrical engineering.
Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China, in 2005
and 2011, respectively, all in electrical engineering. He was He was on faculty of the University of Michigan-Dearborn
between 1999 and 2004, and the University of Central
with the Hunan University, as an Assistant Professor be-
tween 2009 and 2012, and an Associate Professor in 2013. Florida between 2004 and 2012. He joined the Illinois
Institute of Technology in 2013 as the Grainger Chair
Starting in 2014, he became a Professor at Hunan
University. His research interests include power quality Professor in Electrical and Power Engineering. He has also
control, power electronics, and Microgrid stability analysis held a courtesy professorship with Hunan University, China
since 2007; and with Zhejiang University, China since
and control. Dr. Shuai is a recipient of the 2010 National
Scientific and Technological Awards of China, the 2012 2013. His research interests include power electronics, and
power semiconductor devices, etc. Dr. Shen has been an
Hunan Technological Invention Awards of China, the 2007
Scientific and Technological Awards from the National active volunteer in the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and has served as VP of Products
2009–2012, Associate Editor and Guest Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Power
Mechanical Industry Association of China.
Electronics, technical program chair and general chair of several major IEEE conferences.

Junbin Fang received his B. S. and M. S. from the College

of Information Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan,
China, in 2012 and 2015, respectively. He joined the Hunan
University as a Ph.D. student in 2015, where he is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree in the College of Electrical and
Information Engineering. His current research interests in-
clude renewable energy, DC power systems and energy
management in distribution systems.

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