Stability margin monitoring for DC distributed power systems via perturbation approaches

In multi-module power electronics systems, especially DC distributed power systems, the small-signal stability issues are often dealt with by employing Middlebrook's impedance criterion. However, for on-line system stability margin monitoring, directly measuring impedance of the source and load subsystems then making quantitative comparisons is too complicated and difficult. This paper proposes practical and simple methods, which involve applying current or voltage perturbation to the dc side of distributed power systems then only measuring the amplitude of two currents or voltages in order to monitor the stability margin. For both methods (current perturbation and voltage perturbation), an implementation approach that does not employ external voltage or current perturbation source is also presented. All these methods and approaches are equivalent to the impedance measuring and comparing method based on the impedance criterion with different forbidden regions. A comparative evaluation of each method and its corresponding implementation approach is provided.