Autonomous Control Strategy of DC Microgrid for Islanding Mode Using Power Line Communication

This paper proposes a DC-bus signaling (DBS) method for autonomous power management in a DC microgrid, used to improve its reliability. Centralized power management systems require communication between the power sources and loads. However, the DBS method operates based on the common DC-bus voltage and does not require communication. Based on the DC-bus voltage band, the DC-bus voltage can be used to inform the status of the DC-bus in various scenarios. The DC microgrid operates independently to maintain the system stably in the DC-bus voltage band. The DC microgrid can be divided into a grid-connected mode and an islanding mode. This paper proposes a control strategy based on power management of various independent components in islanding mode. In addition, the autonomous control method for switching the converter’s operation between grid-connected mode and islanding mode is proposed. A DC microgrid test bed consisting of a grid-connected AC/DC converter, a bidirectional DC/DC converter, a renewable energy simulator, DC home appliances and a DC-bus protector is used to test the proposed control strategy. The proposed autonomous control strategy is experimentally verified using the DC microgrid test bed.