A new control method for microgrid power management

Microgrids are receiving tremendous attention due to increasing need to integrate Distributed Generations (DG) and to provide reliable power to critical loads. Proper power management in microgrid is required to regulate the system voltage and frequency, maintain power quality, and manage DGs. A microgrid system has been studied in this paper, which includes two natural gas generators, an energy storage device, solar PV, and a wind turbine. The DGs are modeled in details using PSCAD software and the practical constraints of the components are considered. The Virtual Droop Control (VDC) method for microgrid power management is proposed and described in details. The proposed technique has been applied to adjust the active and reactive power of each component in order to manage the system. Unit commitment algorithm has also been implemented to improve the system efficiency.