Control of Power Converters in ac and dc Microgrids

ac and dc microgrids (MGs) are small and localized power electronics intensive systems that are key enablers of the distributed generation (DG) paradigm. They will facilitate integration of distributed energy resources including renewable energy, microgeneration, and energy‐storage systems. On the other hand, owing to lack of natural inertia in power electronics converters and nonlinearities caused by their switching procedures, MGs are a challenging technology from a control point of view. In that sense, significant efforts have been taken over the past decade to understand, improve, and standardize the control structure of both ac and dc MGs. This article presents a review of several well‐known and also some recently proposed control algorithms for the realization of a stable and well‐behaved performance of such systems. Experimental results are provided to validate the performance of several selected methods. The article is concluded with the introduction of some emerging research topics and future MG development trends. They are mostly related to the design of intelligent energy management systems within the individual MG, as well as with the integration of multiple MGs into the future smart grid with the help of information and communication technologies (ICT).