DC microgrids (MG) are becoming popular as they offer several advantages over an AC MG. The interactions among different power converters in a DC MG can give rise to system-level stability challenges. Such undesirable interactions could be avoided by modifying the control systems of individual power converters. However, in most of the practical DC MG applications, there is the possibility of installing off-the-shelf power converters with little flexibility and access for controller auto-tuning. To tackle this, a hardware-based active voltage stabilizer solution is proposed to stabilize the DC MG. The active stabilizer and its associated control configuration involve only local voltage sensing and are non-intrusive to existing converters in the DC MG. Further, as the active stabilizer is not rated to handle any continuous power, the cooling overhead can be minimized, potentially leading to highly power dense solutions.
Reference:
Vishnu Mahadeva Iyer, Srinivas Gulur, Subhashish Bhattacharya, Jun Kikuchi, Srikanthan Sridharan, Ke Zou, Chingchi Chen, “An Active Voltage Stabilizer for a DC Microgrid System,” IEEE Access, 2021
