Reactive Power Coordination Between Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Battery for Microgrid Frequency Control

This paper uses the coordination between the reactive power of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and a battery to control the frequency within an islanded microgrid. By this coordination, the microgrid frequency regulation becomes faster and better during contingencies. Moreover, the energy storage capacity, which is usually required for the frequency control of islanded microgrids, has significantly been reduced. Furthermore, there will be no need to consider reserve capacity in renewable sources for frequency control. Therefore, renewable energy sources can be operated at their maximum power point. Also, this paper introduces a new frequency-reactive power control concept and a related coefficient that shows the degree of dependence of the microgrid frequency on the injected reactive power changes at each bus. This coefficient determines the priority of buses for the installation of reactive power control devices to control the frequency of the microgrid. Simulation studies have been performed in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. The results show the applicability and accuracy of the proposed coefficient and demonstrate the effectiveness of the coordinated control of reactive power between the SOFC and the battery for frequency control.