Distributed Two-Layer Predictive Control of AC Microgrid Clusters With Communication Delays

This paper proposes a two-layer distributed network predictive control strategy for AC microgrids (MGs) clusters with communication delays. The strategy involves establishing a two-layer communication network to regulate the voltage/frequency of all distributed generators (DGs) within the MG cluster to predefined reference values while ensuring consistency in incremental costs across individual MGs. Furthermore, a multi-step predictive controller is designed, where delay information in the controller is replaced by the latest predictions, enabling proactive compensation for delays. Stability analysis of the closed-loop AC MG clusters is conducted and the response matching condition is derived between the second and tertiary levels. Finally, real-time simulations on an OPAL-RT platform are performed for AC MG clusters, validating the robustness of the proposed control method against communication delays.