Evaluation and comparison of the low-frequency oscillation damping methods for the droop-controlled inverters in distributed generation systems

Abstract

The droop-based control strategy is widely applied in the interfacing inverters for distributed generation. This can be a problem since low-frequency stability issues may be encountered in droop-based microgrid. The objective of this paper is to classify, evaluate and compare various low-frequency damping methods. First, low-frequency stability problems are analyzed and an equivalent model of a droop-controlled inverter is investigated to classify the damping methods into the source-type damping strategies and the impedance-type damping strategies. Moreover, the lead-lag compensation network insertion control is proposed as a beneficial part of the source-type damping strategies. Then, the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of damping methods are theoretically evaluated and experimentally tested. Furthermore, the damping methods are comprehensively compared to illustrate the application field of each method. Finally, the synthesis of different damping methods to enhance the low-frequency stability is discussed and experimental validation is presented.