Communication-aware consensus for frequency restoration in islanded MicroGrids

MicroGrids (MGs) include spatially distributed generation (DG) systems and loads that may require operating autonomously in islanded mode. The operation of islanded MGs can benefit from consensus theory and practice, which are the foundations of distributed control. One of the main features of consensus strategies is that they rely on a cooperative scheme where inverters are required to communicate with their neighbors. Therefore properties of the communication network become fundamental. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it analyses the impact that communication properties such as transmission interval and message dropouts have in a given consensus-based frequency restoration strategy. Second, new design guidelines for the consensus policy are derived considering the communication dynamics as an opportunity for performance improvement.