DC Microgrids – Part I: A Review of Control Strategies and Stabilization Techniques

This paper presents a review of control strategies, stability analysis and stabilization techniques for DC microgrids (MGs). Overall control is systematically classified into local and coordinated control levels according to respective functionalities in each level. As opposed to local control which relies only on local measurements, some line of communication between units needs to be made available in order to achieve coordinated control. Depending on the communication method, three basic coordinated control strategies can be distinguished, i.e. decentralized, centralized and distributed control. Decentralized control can be regarded as an extension of local control since it is also based exclusively on local measurements. In contrast, centralized and distributed control strategies rely on digital communication technologies. A number of approaches to using these three coordinated control strategies to achieve various control objectives are reviewed in the paper. Moreover, properties of DC MG dynamics and stability are discussed. The paper illustrates that tightly regulated point-of-load (POL) converters tend to reduce the stability margins of the system since they introduce negative impedances, which can potentially oscillate with lightly damped power supply input filters. It is also demonstrated how the stability of the whole system is defined by the relationship of the source and load impedances, referred to as the minor loop gain. Several prominent specifications for the minor loop gain are reviewed. Finally, a number of active stabilization techniques are presented.