Overview of Power Converter Control in Microgrids—Challenges, Advances, and Future Trends

As the electronic interfaces between distributed energy resources and the electrical network, power converters play a vital role in voltage stabilization and power conversion. So far, various power converter control methods have been developed. Now it is urgently needed to compare and understand these approaches to support the smart microgrid pyramid. This article provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of parallel power converter control in microgrid applications. The most important control schemes to address existing challenges, including concentrated control, master–slave control, droop mechanism, virtual synchronous generators, virtual oscillator control, distributed cooperative control, and model predictive control, are highlighted and analyzed in detail. In addition, the hierarchical control structure, as well as future trends, are reviewed and discussed.