Overview of control, integration and energy management of microgrids

Microgrids are being developed as a building block for future smart grid system. Key issues for the control and operation of microgrid include integration technologies and energy management schemes. This paper presents an overview of grid integration and energy management strategies of microgrids. It covers a review of power electronics interface topologies for different types of distributed generation (DG) units in a microgrid, a discussion of energy management strategies, as well as the DG interfacing converter control schemes. Considering the intermittent nature of many renewable energy based DG units, the ancillary services of DGs using the available interfacing converter rating are also discussed in the paper.