An Effective Economical Hierarchical Control Scheme for Low-Voltage AC Microgrids

In this paper, a hierarchical control scheme for low-voltage AC microgrids is presented. The proposed control scheme provides coordinated and reliable operation of AC microgrids while enabling their most economical operation. The proposed control scheme has four coordinated levels and the desired operation of each level is directly dependent on proper operation of the lower level control systems. Moreover, the top control level can modify the performance of a lower control level to minimize the cost of supplying loads. An approach for implementing each control level is discussed and then applied to a sample distribution system. Finally, the effective operation of the proposed hierarchical control scheme is verified by real-time simulations for a representative low-voltage microgrid.