Event-Based Distributed Frequency Control in Harsh Communication Conditions

In this article, distributed control methods are widely applied in the operation of distributed generators (DGs) in modern power grids. As distributed control, the control operation depends greatly on information exchange among neighboring distributed controllers, where harsh communication conditions (e.g., limited communication rates and accidental communication failures) may cause significant performance deterioration. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate distributed control of DGs under imperfect communication conditions in practical systems. This article proposes an event-based distributed DG frequency control strategy. By introducing an event-based update mechanism for real-time DG data measurements and the communication topology, the adaptability of the control strategy to low communication rates and communication failures is significantly enhanced. Besides, the above-mentioned nonideal communication conditions, the proposed control also shows high adaptability to communication delays. Furthermore, an optimal design method of the control parameters is developed, which ensures proper steady-state performance and optimizes the dynamic performance of the proposed control. Simulations based on MATLAB/Simulink and hardware experimental validations using dSPACE under various conditions verify the effectiveness of the proposed control.