University of Kurdistan

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Smart/Micro Grid Research Center
smgrc.uok.ac.ir

Virtual synchronous generators: A survey and new perspectives

Bevrani H, Ise T, Miura Y

Published (to be published) in: International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems

(Expected) publication date: 2014

Citation format for published version:

Bevrani H, Ise T, Miura Y (2014) Virtual Synchronous Generators: A Survey and New Perspectives.
International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems (IJEPES), Vol: 54. pp: 244-254. Jan
2014

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Copyright © Smart/Micro Grid Research Center, 2016

 Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Virtual synchronous generators: A survey and new perspectives

Hassan Bevrani a,b,⇑, Toshifumi Ise b, Yushi Miura b
a
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., University of Kurdistan, PO Box 416, Sanandaj, Iran
b
Dept. of Electrical, Electronic and Information Eng., Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In comparison of the conventional bulk power plants, in which the synchronous machines dominate, the
Received 31 December 2012 distributed generator (DG) units have either very small or no rotating mass and damping property. With
Received in revised form 12 June 2013 growing the penetration level of DGs, the impact of low inertia and damping effect on the grid stability
Accepted 13 July 2013
and dynamic performance increases. A solution towards stability improvement of such a grid is to pro-
vide virtual inertia by virtual synchronous generators (VSGs) that can be established by using short term
energy storage together with a power inverter and a proper control mechanism.
Keywords:
The present paper reviews the fundamentals and main concept of VSGs, and their role to support the
Virtual inertia
Renewable energy
power grid control. Then, a VSG-based frequency control scheme is addressed, and the paper is focused
VSG on the poetical role of VSGs in the grid frequency regulation task. The most important VSG topologies
Frequency control with a survey on the recent works/achievements are presented. Finally, the relevant key issues, main
Voltage control technical challenges, further research needs and new perspectives are emphasized.
Microgrid Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction A solution towards stabilizing such a grid is to provide addi-

tional inertia, virtually. A virtual inertia can be established for
The capacity of installed inverter-based distributed generators DGs/RESs by using short term energy storage together with a
(DGs) in power system is growing rapidly; and a high penetration power electronics inverter/converter and a proper control mecha-
level is targeted for the next two decades. For example only in Ja- nism. This concept is known as virtual synchronous generator
pan, 14.3 GW photovoltaic (PV) electric energy is planned to be (VSG) [3] or virtual synchronous machine (VISMA) [4]. The units will
connected to the grid by 2020, and it will be increased to 53 GW then operate like a synchronous generator, exhibiting amount of
by 2030. In European countries, USA, China, and India significant inertia and damping properties of conventional synchronous ma-
targets are also considered for using the DGs and renewable energy chines for short time intervals (in this work, the notation of
sources (RESs) in their power systems up to next two decades. ‘‘VSG’’ is used for the mentioned concept). As a result, the virtual
Compared to the conventional bulk power plants, in which the inertia concept may provide a basis for maintaining a large share
synchronous machine dominate, the DG/RES units have either very of DGs/RESs in future grids without compromising system stability.
small or no rotating mass (which is the main source of inertia) and The present paper contains the following topics: first the funda-
damping property. The intrinsic kinetic energy (rotor inertia) and mentals and main concepts are introduced. Then, the role of VSGs
damping property (due to mechanical friction and electrical losses in microgrids control is explained. In continuation, the most
in stator, field and damper windings) of the bulk synchronous gen- important VSG topologies with a review on the previous works
erators play a significant role in the grid stability. and achievements are presented. The application areas for the
With growing the penetration level of DGs/RESs, the impact of VSGs, particularly in the grid frequency control, are mentioned. A
low inertia and damping effect on the grid dynamic performance frequency control scheme is addressed, and finally, the main tech-
and stability increases. Voltage rise due to reverse power from nical challenges and further research needs are addressed and the
PV generations [1], excessive supply of electricity in the grid due paper is concluded.
to full generation by the DGs/RESs, power fluctuations due to var-
iable nature of RESs, and degradation of frequency regulation 2. Fundamentals and concepts
(especially in the islanded microgrids [2], can be considered as
some negative results of mentioned issue. The idea of the VSG is initially based on reproducing the dynamic
properties of a real synchronous generator (SG) for the power
⇑ Corresponding author at: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., University of electronics-based DG/RES units, in order to inherit the advantages
Kurdistan, Sanandaj, PO Box 416, Iran. Tel.: +98 8716660073. of a SG in stability enhancement. The principle of the VSG can be
E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Bevrani). applied either to a single DG, or to a group of DGs. The first

0142-0615/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2013.07.009
 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254 245

Nomenclature

CHP combined heat and power PI proportional integral

DG distributed generator PLL Phase Locked Loop
LC load controller PV photovoltaic
LV low voltage VSG virtual synchronous generator
MC microsource controller RES renewable energy sources
MG microgrid SG synchronous generator
MGCC microgrid central controller SOS state of charge
MV medium voltage
PCC point of common coupling

application may be more appropriate to individual owners of DGs, Here Dx ¼ x  x0 and x0 is the nominal frequency of the grid.
whereas the second application is more economical and easier to First term (P0) denotes the primary power that should be trans-
control from the network operator point of view [5]. The dynamic ferred to the inverter. Second term indicates that power will be gen-
properties of a SG provides the possibility of adjusting active and erated or absorbed by the VSG according to the positive or the
 
reactive power, dependency of the grid frequency on the rotor negative initial rate of frequency change dDdtx . KI is the inertia emu-
speed, and highlighting the rotating mass and damping windings lating characteristic and can be represented by (2); where, Pg0 is the
effect as well as stable operation with a high parallelism level [6]. nominal apparent power of the generator and H shows amount of
The VSG consists of energy storage, inverter, and a control inertia.
mechanism as shown in Fig. 1. The VSG is usually located between
a DC bus/source/DG and the grid. The VSG shows the DC source to 2HP g0
the grid as a SG in view point of inertia and damping property. KI ¼ ð2Þ
x0
Actually, the virtual inertia is emulated in the system by control-
ling the active power through the inverter in inverse proportion Since, actually the initial rate of frequency change just provide
of the rotor speed. Aside from higher frequency noise due to an error signal (with equilibrium of zero), power will be exchanged
switching of inverter’s power transistors [7], there is no difference only during the transient state without necessarily returning back
between the electrical appearance of an electromechanical SG and the frequency of the grid to the nominal value. In order to cover
electrical VSG, from the grid point of view. this issue, a frequency droop part should be added as shown in
Since the VSG should be able to inject or absorb power, the the third term of (1). The KP emulates the damper windings effect
nominal state of charge (SOC) of the energy storage in the VSG in a SG, and represents the linear damping. It must be chosen so
should be operated at about 50% of its nominal capacity in a sta- that the PVSG to be equal with the nominal power of the VSG when
tionary situation. The VSG operation states can be defined based the frequency deviation is at the specified maximum value [9].
on the SOC situation according to the specified lower and upper Actually, the grid frequency and rotational speed drop can be
limits (e.g., 20% and 80% of maximum charge [8]). When the SOC reduced by increasing the virtual mass but the synchronous units
is between about these limits, the VSG is working in its active may tend to pole wheel oscillation [9]. Considering just virtual
(VSG) mode, when the energy in the system excesses, the VSG is inertia (KI) reduces the maximum deviation of the rotor speed fol-
working on the virtual load mode. The limits can be determined lowing a disturbance; however the natural frequency and the
based on the used energy storage technology. damping ratio of the system may be decreased [10].
The output power of a VSG unit can be simply described as In summary, the virtual mass counteracts grid frequency drops
follows: and the virtual damper suppresses grid oscillation so these features
are equally effective to electromechanical synchronous machines.
dDx The KP and KI are negative constant gains and should be fixed so
PVSG ¼ P0 þ K I þ K P Dx ð1Þ
dt that the VSG exchanges its maximum active power when the max-
imum specified frequency variation and rate of frequency change

Fig. 1. General structure and concept of the VSG.

246 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

occur. Increasing KP and KI means that more power will be either 3.1. Microgrid structure
injected or absorbed for the same amount of frequency deviation
and rate of frequency change, respectively. The VSG systems can be used as effective control units to com-
In a real synchronous generator, energy consumed by damping pensate the lack of inertia and in result the control of active and
term is absorbed by resistance of damping windings. However, in reactive power as well as MG voltage and frequency. A simplified
the case of VSG, this power fluctuation should be absorbed by MG architecture with VSG units is shown in Fig. 2.
the energy storage device to balance the grid powers. In order to In a MG, each feeder has a circuit breaker and a power flow con-
select the storage technology for an VSG application case, the most troller commanded by the central controller or energy manager.
important parameters are [11]: maximum power of the loads in The circuit breaker is used to disconnect the correspondent feeder
the considered grid; the power of the controllable generation (and associated unit) to avoid the impacts of sever disturbances
units; averaged SOC at normal operation; detection time; control through the MG. The MG is connected to the distribution system
delay; and maximum total response time delay. by a point of common coupling (PCC) via a static switch (SS in
As mentioned, increasing of KI provides a higher amount of Fig. 2). The static switch is capable to island the MG for mainte-
equivalent inertia for the VSG, however there is a limit. This limit nance purposes or when faults or contingency occurs [13]. The
is mainly imposed by inverter capacity and PLL accuracy. The in- MG central controller (MGCC) facilitates a high level management
verter capacity does not have the overload capacity of a synchro- of the MG operation by means of technical and economical func-
nous machine. Thus, a high derivative term leads to bigger power tions. The microsource controllers (MCs) control the microsources
overshoots during transients (frequency deviations), and the inver- (DGs) and the energy storage systems. Finally, the controllable
ter must sustain an important overload. The accuracy in frequency- loads are controlled by load controllers (LCs) [13,14].
tracking depends to the used Phase Locked Loops (PLL). Therefore, The VSGs can be connected between a DC bus/source and an AC
the optimal value of derivative term in (1) can be obtained by a bus, anywhere in the MG. These systems are going to be more vital
tradeoff between the virtual inertia, the inverter overload capacity, to overcome fluctuations caused in the MG due to integration of
and the PLL characteristics. large number of DGs with low or no inertia. On the relationship be-
tween rating power of the MGs and amount of required VSG power
(from all installed VSGs), there is no a particular suggestion in the
3. VSG in microgrids literature. But, since the VSGs mainly support the primary regula-
tion control level, considering about 5% of total MG power as the
A microgrid (MG) is an interconnection of domestic distributed required VSG power could be quite effective for the regulation pur-
loads and low voltage distributed energy sources, such as micro- pose (It is noteworthy that amount of reserve power for secondary
turbines, wind turbines, PVs, and storage devices. The MGs are regulation purpose in a power grid is about 10–15% of total avail-
placed in the low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) distribu- able power).
tion networks. This has important consequences. With numerous Small power systems such as MGs are characterized by very fast
DGs connected at the distribution level, there are new challenges, changes in the rotating speed of generators after any sudden
such as system stability, power quality and network operation that imbalance between production and demand such as the loss of a
must be resolved applying the advanced control techniques at LV/ large generating unit. Conventional technologies used for power
MV levels rather than high voltage levels which is common in con- generation are not always capable of responding quickly enough
ventional power system control [12,13]. to prevent unacceptably low frequency in such cases, even when

Fig. 2. Simplified MG structure with VSG units.

 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254 247

the available amount of frequency control reserve exceeds the be able to operate autonomously but also interact with the main
power deviation. It results in relatively frequent use of load-shed- grid. In islanded mode, to cope with the variations, and to response
ding, with subsequent consequences on the economic activity, to to load disturbances; and performing active power/frequency reg-
restore the power equilibrium and prevent frequency collapse ulation, and reactive power/voltage regulation, the MGs need to
[32]. With an appropriate control strategy, the VSGs equipped with use proper control loops. In this mode, the MG operates according
fast-acting storage devices can help MGs to mitigate the frequency to the available standards, and the existing controls must properly
excursions caused by generation outages, thus reducing the need work to supply the required active and reactive powers as well as
for load-shedding. to provide voltage and frequency stability. A general scheme for
As the reactive power generated by the DG increases (becomes operating controls in a MG is shown in Fig. 3.
more capacitive), the operating voltage increases, too. Therefore Similar to the conventional power systems [17], a MG can oper-
the local voltage set-point should be reduced to keep the voltage ate using various control loops. The control loops in MGs can be
at or near its nominal set-point. Same behavior exists for frequency mainly classified in four control levels: local, secondary, central/
and active power. In the case of parallel inverters, these control emergency, and global controls. The local control deals with initial
loops, also called P  x and Q  V droops, use feedbacks from the primary control such as current and voltage control loops in the
voltage and frequency of each DG/inverter for sensing the output microsources. The secondary control ensures that the frequency
active and reactive powers to emulate virtual inertias. and average voltage deviation of the MG is regulated towards zero
Therefore, in power electronic-based MGs, the droop control after every change in load or supply. It is also responsible for inside
can be done by adding virtual inertias and controlling the output ancillary services. The central/emergency control is performed by
impedances; and can be useful to control active and reactive power the MGCC which interfaces between the MG and other MGs as well
injected to the grid. However, in the later case, the droop control is as higher distribution networks (such as main grid). This control le-
in face of several challenges that should be solved using advanced vel covers all possible emergency control schemes and special pro-
control methodologies. A slow transient response, line impedance tection plans to maintain the MG stability and availability in the
dependency, and poor active/reactive power regulation are some face of contingencies. The emergency controls identify proper pre-
of these challenges [13]. ventive and corrective measures that mitigate the effects of critical
Usually in a MG, if the reactive power (Q) generated by the DGs contingencies. The global control coordinates the MGCC units in an
increases, the local voltage must decrease, and vice versa. Also, interconnected MGs network. The global control as a centralized
there is similar behavior for frequency vs. real power (P). These control allows the MG operation at an economic optimum and
relationships which are formulated in (2) and (3), allow us to organizes the relation between the MG and distribution network
establish feedback loops in order to control MG’s real/reactive as well as other connected MGs. In contrast to the local control,
power and frequency/voltage [13]. operating without communication, global control may need com-
munication channels.
Dx ¼ x  x0 ¼ RP ðP  P0 Þ ð3Þ
During the grid-connected operation, all the DGs and inverters
in the MG use the grid electrical signal as reference for voltage
Dx ¼ V  V 0 ¼ RQ ðQ  Q 0 Þ ð4Þ
and frequency. In this mode, it is not possible to highlight the
x0, P0, V, and Q0 are the nominal values (references) of frequency, VSG contribution to the grid inertia, due to system size differences.
active power, voltage and reactive power, respectively. However, in islanding, the DGs lose that reference. In this case the
It is noteworthy that the described droop controls characteris- DGs may use the VSG units, and may coordinate to manage the
tics in (2) and (3) have been obtained for electrical grids with simultaneously operation using one of effective control techniques
inductive impedance (X >> R) and great amount of inertia, which such as master/slave control, current/power sharing control, and
is the case in conventional power system with high voltage lines. generalized frequency and voltage droop control techniques [13].
In a conventional power system, immediately following a power The balance between generation and demand of power is one of
imbalance due to a disturbance, the power is going to be balanced the most important requirements of the islanded operation modes.
by natural response generators using rotating inertia in the system In the grid-connected mode, the MG exchanges power to an inter-
via the primary frequency control loop [15]. As mentioned, in the connected grid to meet the balance, while, in the islanded mode,
MG on the other hand, there is no significant inertia and if an the MG should meet the balance for the local supply and demand
unbalance occurs between the generated power and the absorbed using the decrease in generation or load shedding.
power, the voltages of the power sources change. Therefore in this During the islanded mode, if there are local load changes, local
case, voltage is triggered by the active power changes. DGs will either increase or reduce their production to keep con-
In fact, for medium and low voltage line which the MGs are stant the energy balance, as far as possible. In an islanded opera-
working with, the impedance is not dominantly inductive tion, a MG works autonomously, therefore must have enough
(X ffi R). For resistive lines, reactive power Q mainly depends on d local generation to supply demands, at least to meet the sensitive
and real power P depends on voltage V [16]. This fact suggests dif- loads. In this mode, the VSG systems may present a significant role
ferent droop controls characteristics, called opposite droops. How- to maintain the active and reactive power. Without VSGs, the DG
ever, each microgenerator has a reference reactive power to obtain units may trip. That is not a problem in grid-connected operation,
a voltage profile which matches the desirable real power. In low because in this situation, the main grid compensates the increases
voltage grids, Q is a function of d, which is adjusted with the V or decreases of the load.
vs. P droop. It means there is possibility to vary the voltage of gen- Immediately after islanding, the voltage, phase angle and fre-
erators exchanging the reactive power [13]. So, the conventional quency at each DG in the MG change. For example, the local fre-
droops are still operable in low voltage grids and MGs. quency will decrease if the MG imports power from the main
grid in grid-connected operation, but will increase if the MG ex-
3.2. Microgrid controls and the VSGs role ports power to the main grid in the grid-connected operation.
The duration of islanded operation will depend on the size of stor-
Control is one of the key enabling technologies for the deploy- age systems. In this case they are sized to maintain the energy bal-
ment of a MG system. A MG has a hierarchical control structure ance of the tested network for few minutes. The VSG control
with different layers. It requires effective use of advanced control algorithms for islanding and grid-connected modes are different,
techniques at all levels. As already mentioned, the MGs should as the islanded MG has to define its own frequency and voltage
248 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

Fig. 3. A general scheme for MGs control levels.

to maintain operation [18]. When the main grid has returned to output is used to drive the inverter. As described in [3], in addition
normal operation, the frequency and voltage of the micro-grid to the emulation of inertia, the PLL also provides the phase angle
must be synchronized with and then reconnected to the main grid. reference for rotating frame for dq control of inverter quantities.
A detailed configuration of an improved version of above VSG is
depicted in Fig. 5a. The ‘‘reference current’’ block processes all re-
4. Existing VSG topologies and applications
quired information in order to produce the error current signal
(idq). KSOC is must be set such that the active signal (P) is equal to
From 2008 up to now, several topologies are introduced for the
the nominal VSG output power, when the SOC deviation (DSOC)
VSG systems, world wide. The VSYNC project under the 6th Euro-
is at its maximum level. Similarly, the Kv must be chosen such that
pean Research Framework program [3,5,8,9,11,18–21,24], the
the VSG produce its maximum reactive power for a specified volt-
Institute of Electrical Power Eng. (IEPE) at Clausthal University of
age deviation (e.g., 10% [19]).
Technology in Germany [6,7,25,26], the VSG research team at
In other effort related to the VSYNC research group [20], the
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHIs) [27], and the ISE Laboratory in
current of DC bus at the VSG is controlled by collecting some infor-
Osaka University [28–30] in Japan, can be considered as some of
mation such as grid frequency and the batteries SOC as a result of
the most active research groups in this area. Most of addressed
monitoring of the energy exchange VSG-battery pack. In the ad-
topologies are designed to provide a dynamic characteristic similar
dressed approach the frequency is estimated based on the zero-
to the described one in (1). In this section, the overall frameworks
crossing method, and finally the current set point (Isp) is computed
of some developed VSG structures are explained.
from the following equation:

4.1. VSYNC’s VSG topology

The VSYNC research group realized the concept of VSG system

as shown in Fig. 4 [3]. Here, the VSG comprises an energy storage
unit connected to a DC link and a power inverter with LCL grid fil-
ter. The Eigen-frequency of the LCL circuit is positioned approxi-
mately halfway between the nominal power frequency and
converter switching frequency. A current mode control for grid
currents is commonly employed.
Current reference templates (Iref) are provided by the PLL cir-
cuit. Although, the PLLs are often used to synchronize two period-
ical processes or to measure frequency, in this structure it can be
used to produce the VSG reference current using the grid terminal
voltage (Vg). Here, the PLL provides a response similar to the SG’s
one, and emulates its electro-mechanical characteristics. The PLL Fig. 4. VSG structure using PLL to emulate the synchronous generator behavior.
 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254 249

Fig. 5. VSG structure using PLL: (a) detailed framework, (b) reference current block.

K I dDdtx þ K P Dx
Isp ¼ ð5Þ
V DC
where dDdtx is the rate of frequency change, KI is a dimensionless fac-
tor and KP is expressed in kg m2/s2. Eq. (4) can be easily obtained
from Eq. (1) after neglecting P0.

4.2. IEPE’s VSG topology

In [6,7], based on dynamic of a simplified SG model, a topology

which provides the reference current (voltage) from the grid volt-
age (current) is suggested. The overall VSG scheme is shown in
Fig. 6a.
In this structure, the output active/reactive power of the VSG, as
well as the amount of inertia and damping effect can be easily set
by adjusting the model parameters such as those parameters rep-
resent the virtual torque and virtual excitation of a real SG in a
power plant. Fig. 6b shows the simplified model of SG to produce
the reference current (iref ;abc ) from the grid voltage signals (v g;abc ).
In Fig. 6b, J is the moment of inertia, Rs is the stator resistance
and Ls is the stator inductance, KP is the mechanical damping fac-
tor, u(s) is the phase compensation term, x is the angular velocity,
h is the angle of rotation, Te and Tm are the electrical and mechan-
ical torque. The phase compensation term ensures that the virtual
damping force counteracts any oscillating movement of the rotor
in opposite phase. Despite of simplifying the excitation winding,
the induced electromotive force (EMF) is given by adjustable
amplitude Ep and the rotation angle h.

4.3. ISE lab’s VSG topology

Fig. 7 shows the block diagram of a VSG system suggested by

ISE laboratory in [28]. In this scheme, the well-known swing equa- Fig. 6. VSG structure based on current–voltage (voltage–current) model of SG: (a)
tion of a SG, given in (6), is realized as the heart of VSG model. VSG topology, (b) current–voltage model of SG.
250 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

Here, Pin is input power (as same as prime mover power in a SG), the excursion is not improved. The authors suggested that the
Pout is output power, J is the moment of inertia of the rotor, x is magnitude of the excursion can be reduced by applying reactive
the virtual angular velocity of the virtual rotor (Dx ¼ x  x0 ) power.
and D is the damping factor. The VSGs can contribute to voltage compensation during a short
circuit in order to reduce voltage dip (like rotating machines inject
dDx
Pin  Pout ¼ J Dx  D Dx ð6Þ reactive power to the system during a fault). Laboratory scale re-
dt
sults and field demonstration was planed at two sites located in
By solving this equation in each control cycle, the momentary the Netherlands and in Romania [22]. Thus, it is expected that
frequency x is calculated and by passing through an integrator, the VSG also can prevent the electricity grid blackouts due to volt-
the virtual mechanical phase angle, hm is produced for generating age instability and can retain safety in fault situations.
PWM pulses. Several research works have considered the application of the
As shown in Fig. 7, the output power and grid frequency are cal- VSGs in active/reactive control, and hunting reduction control
culated in the power/frequency meter block. The grid frequency is [27,29,30]. Frequency control is also known as an important con-
known to compute Dxm (the virtual angular velocity deviation of trol problem which can be effectively addressed by the VSGs
the virtual rotor) based on swing Eq. (6) by the VSG control block, [31–35]. Next section is focused on the frequency control issue
and then the obtained hm (virtual mechanical phase angle) is sup- using virtual inertia provided by the VSGs.
plied to the inverter through the PWM unit as a phase command.

4.4. KHI’s VSG topology 5. VSG-based frequency control

The KHI uses an algebraic type model to establish the VSG [27]. In system dynamic point of view, the SGs, due to their high iner-
In this model, in order to guarantee a desirable operation under all tia provide a long time constant; such that the rotor speed and thus
types of load (specifically unbalanced and nonlinear loads), a cur- the grid frequency cannot alter suddenly while the load changes.
rent feedback loop to produce the current reference according to Hence the dynamic frequency stability will be enhanced by the to-
the phasor diagram of a SG is used. Furthermore, two loops for tal rotating mass.
compensating of angular velocity and line voltage deviations are In future, a significant share of DGs in the electric power grids is
also considered. The block diagram of the proposed VSG by the expected. This increases the total system generation power, while
KHI is shown in Fig. 8. does not contribute to system rotational inertia. Because most of
In this figure, DP ¼ P  P0 and Dx = x  x Rare the grid power DGs do not present rotational inertia, or due to using interfaced
active and power reactive deviations, respectively. x0 is the nom- switching converters, there is no direct connection between their
inal angular velocity (frequency) of the grid. The xR and x are rotational speeds with the system frequency.
angular velocity of virtual rotor and estimated by the PLL, In these grids the natural power exchange of the DGs with the
respectively. grid has less influence on the system frequency performance. This
results in larger frequency variations due to changes in generation/
4.5. VSG applications load power, such that the existing conventional frequency control
loops may lose their effectiveness to provide a desirable perfor-
Over the last three years, several applications have been sug- mance and to maintain the system stability.
gested for the introduced VSG topologies (described in previous As already mentioned, in these grids, the VSGs may provide a
section) in the power system. In [3], the VSG is used to improve solution, by adding virtual inertia to the DGs. The purpose of using
the rotor angle stability. Although, the performed simulation VSG in frequency control is to take advantage of the short response
shows that the VSG improves the damping, but the magnitude of time of storage devices to improve the frequency response

Fig. 7. Ise lab VSG structure.

 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254 251

Fig. 8. The VSG block diagram developed by KHI.

performances of the power systems. Frequency control in a power of energy source present in the VSG. In case of DG, possibly con-
system with the SVG unit can be done via a fast active power ex- verting some forms of renewable energy to electricity, the main
change between energy store and grid. In this way the overall sys- purpose of the inverter will be to deliver active power to the grid,
tem may contain amount of inertia that still is proportional to the leaving only a limited amount of inverter power for compensation
total generation power, resulting in the same amount of frequency of frequency deviations (virtual inertia emulation). Depending on
fluctuations as in the current power system. The goal of VSG con- the nature of the primary energy source, a part of the energy stor-
trol is to emulate an energy source with rotational inertia. First, it age capacity will be used to provide a more or less constant active
is needed to review the relationship between the active power and power to the grid, and the remaining part can be used to emulate
inertia for a conventional SG. rotational inertia [33].
The active power balance for a system containing several SGs
5.1. Active power compensation and Inertia and VSG units can be expressed by:

DP ¼ DPSG þ DPVSG
In case of occurring an imbalance between the generated and X X
consumed power (DP) in a conventional grid, the kinetic energy ¼ DP sg;i þ DPv sg;j
i j
(Ek) stored in the rotating mass of a generator is used to compen- ! !
sate for this deviation. As the grid frequency is determined by X Jsg;i Dx2 X Jv sg;j Dx2
¼ dtd 2
g
þ dtd 2
g
the speed of the SG, this results in a frequency deviation from its
i j ð11Þ
nominal value [8]. The amount of produced active power from a X dDx
X dDx
SG, say i-th SG, can be described as follows: ¼ J sg;i Dxg dt g þ J v sg;j Dxg dt g
i j
d !
DP i ¼ Ek;i ð7Þ X X dDx
dt ¼ J sg;i þ J v sg;j Dxg dt g
i j
The kinetic energy stored in the rotor of a SG, having a moment
of inertia J [kg/m2] and rotating at grid frequency xg (rad/s) is gi- and, comparing (4) and (6) gives:
ven by: X X
J eq ¼ J sg;i þ J v sg;j ð12Þ
2
J i Dx g i j
Ek;i ¼ ð8Þ
2
Here, DPSG and DPVSG are the total active power produced by the
Therefore, SGs and VSGs, respectively.
dDxg Virtual inertia emulation requires the inverter to be able to
DP i ¼ J i Dx g ð9Þ store or release an amount of energy depending on the grid fre-
dt
quency’s deviation from its nominal value, analogous to the inertia
For a power system with n SGs, the total active power can be of a SG. As can be seen from (9), the maximum virtual inertia is
obtained as follows, where Jeq is the equivalent system inertia proportional to the nominal power of the VSG converter divided
constant. by the maximum rate of frequency change allowed. Depending
! on the application case and desired nominal power of the VSG,
X
n Xn
dDxg dDxg
DP ¼ DP i ¼ J i Dx g ¼ Jeq Dxg ; the best type of electrical storage should be determined [23]. It
i¼1 i¼1
dt dt can be shown that the smallest possible size of VSG storage is pro-
X
n portional to the product of virtual inertia emulated and the maxi-
J eq ¼ Ji ð10Þ mum frequency deviation allowed [34].
i¼1
In a MG, the active power response to a frequency deviation is
In order to program this behavior into the control of a grid-con- governed by both power-frequency droop and inertia constant, im-
nected inverter, one must determine the amount of active power posed by the mechanical part (e.g. micro-hydro turbine). This ac-
that the inverter needs to exchange with the grid as a function of tion has the advantage of increasing the system damping [35]
the grid frequency. The amount of power that the inverter can and thus the faster stabilizing of frequency. Similar idea is also
use to compensate frequency deviations also depends on the type studied for many kinds of DGs [36–39], such as for the wind
252 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

turbines. Using the kinetic ESS (blade and machine inertia) to par- VSG power for the required inertia can be estimated as follows
ticipate in primary frequency control is addressed in [39]. Fre- (here, KI = K1J):
quency regulation impacts are defined to be those impacts that
occur on the basis of a few seconds to minutes. Therefore, when dDx
DPVSG ¼ K 1 J þ K P Dx ð13Þ
comparing different wind integration studies, it is important to dt
adopt a clear definition of the time scales involved [40]. Finally, reference current Iref to activate the PWM units can be
Integrating energy storage systems (ESSs) or energy capacitor calculated based on the existing relationship function between
systems (ECSs) into the wind energy system to diminish the wind the transferred power from inverter and command current signal,
power impact on power system frequency has been addressed in i.e., Iref = (DPVSG). This function can be obtained from (13) by con-
several reported works [40–43]. In [40–43], different ESSs by sidering the relationship between reference current signal and
means of an electric double-layer capacitor and superconducting the transferred power from DC bus, similar to the equation given
magnetic energy storage and energy saving are proposed for wind by (5).
power leveling. The impact of wind generation on the operation In summary, as shown in Fig. 9, following a disturbance, the re-
and development of the UK electricity systems is described in quired virtual rotational inertia should be immediately calculated
[44]. Impacts of wind power components and variations on power by the VSG algorithm, and next the VSG is activated in order to ver-
system frequency control are described in [40,45–47]. ify its frequency stabilizing properties. In an effective control
The technology to filter out the power fluctuations (in result framework, the VSG algorithm must adaptively made a trade of be-
frequency deviation) by wind turbine generators for the increasing tween amount of damping and inertia properties requirement.
amount of wind power penetration is growing. The new generation Starting time of power injection by the VSG and duration time
of variable-speed, large wind turbine generators with high mo- of power delivery is very important to get a desirable dynamic per-
ments of inertia from their long turbine blades can filter power formance. As the frequency deviation, and the rate of frequency
fluctuations in the wind farms. change exceed from the specified thresholds (e.g., 0.5 Hz and
Some preliminary studies showed that the kinetic energy stored 1 Hz/s), the dynamic reserve must be deployed by the VSG as fast
in the rotating mass of a wind turbine can be used to support pri- as possible (e.g., within 1 s, [31]) before load shedding relays start
mary frequency control for a short period of time [39]. The capabil- the operation. The amount of dynamic reserve should be sized so
ity of providing a short-term active power support of a wind farm that the frequency nadir (xmin) can remain above a predetermined
to improve the primary frequency control performance is dis- value.
cussed in [36]. To support primary frequency control for a longer
period, some techniques such as using a combination of wind
and fuel cell energies are suggested [48]. 6. Technical challenges and further research need

Using significant number of VSGs into power systems adds new

5.2. Frequency control framework technical challenges. As the electric industry seeks to reliably inte-
grate large amounts of DGs/RESs into the power system in regu-
Over the last few years, the main contributions to frequency lated environment, considerable effort will be needed to
control in a DG-based MG are the energy storage units, which com- accommodate and effectively manage the installed VSG units. A
pensate the difference between the DGs production and the loads key aspect is how to handle changes in topology caused by pene-
power demand [2]. It has been shown that fast-operating storage tration of numerous VSGs as new control devices in the network
devices such as lithium-ion batteries or advanced flywheels can and how to make the power grid robust and able to take advantage
provide frequency control services more effectively than conven- of the potential flexibility of distributed VSGs. Here, some impor-
tional resources, at lower life-cycle cost and reduced CO2 emissions tant challenges and a scope for further research are briefly
[31]. explained.
Concerning the VSG concept, the DG units could also actively
participate to MG frequency control, either in primary or second- 6.1. Improvement of computing techniques and measurement
ary levels; however their power reserve is a concern in the case technologies
of RESs. In frequency control point of view, using multi VSGs with
even the same structure but different parameters may provide a The ability of VSG to respond to the fast grid frequency changes
better dynamic performance [25]. In this case, the dynamic param- depends of pre-existing knowledge on the network operation and
eters of the spread installed VSGs must be adjusted in coordination real-time frequency measurements. Most critical for the VSG algo-
with each other. rithm quality are the frequency estimation block and the state of
In a VSG unit, in addition to the main control algorithm for cal- charge estimation. Any improvement in VSG control methods
culating the active and reactive power that to be exchanged be- needs a better frequency calculation and/or improved filtering
tween the inverter and the grid in order to achieve the control and sensing modules on the VSG hardware platform [20]. The ef-
goal, e.g. grid frequency regulation; two other control loops exist forts to design more flexible and effective VSGs are directed at
to operate in a lower control level [33]: (i) a control loop for deter- developing computing techniques and monitoring /measurement
mining the inverter output voltage which to be applied in order to technologies to achieve optimal performance. Advanced computa-
achieve the active and reactive power exchange between the inver- tional methods for predicting grid situation, and improved measur-
ter, the energy storage units and the grid as demanded by the main ing technologies, are opening up new ways of controlling the
VSG control. (ii) a control loop to control of the DC–DC converters power system via VSG units.
interfacing the energy storage units to the DC bus of the VSG. This As mentioned, the accuracy in frequency-tracking depends to
work is mainly focused on the main VSG control issue. the used PLL and this issue directly affects the VSG performance.
A general VSG control framework is shown in Fig. 9. For a fre- Develop a more precise alternative for the PLL to be important.
quency variation and rate of frequency change larger that a speci- But, in this case the delay imposed by the filters and existing mea-
fied limit, the VSG algorithm computes the required inertia J to be surement channels should be carefully noticed. The delay, specifi-
added to the system and initiates the power transfer (DPVSG) be- cally in the ADC and DAC channels [24], is an important reason for
tween the grid and the storage. According to (1), the amount of degrading of the VSG performance and even inaccuracies in the
 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254 253

Fig. 9. A general frequency control scheme using VSG concept.

simulation environments. A relatively large time constant may To avoid this undesirable effect, coordination between VSGs and
make a delay in the starting time. As already explained the starting conventional SGs in the grid frequency control is needed.
time of power injection by the VSG as well as the duration time of Standards related to overall reliable performance of the power
power delivery is very important to get a desirable dynamic system as instituted by technical committees, reliability entities,
performance. regulatory bodies and organizations ensure the integrity of the
Design of more accurate and sensitive grid frequency change whole power system is maintained for credible contingencies
and rate of frequency change detectors requires extensive research and operating conditions. There exist some principles to be taken
to incorporate signal processing, adaptive strategies, pattern recog- into account in the future standards development on MG system
nition and intelligent features. Advanced computing algorithm and in the presence of DGs/RESs and VSG units. Standards should be
fast hardware measurement devices are also needed to realize comprehensive, transparent and explicit to avoid misinterpreta-
optimal/adaptive VSG schemes for modern power grids. tion. Interconnection procedures and standards should be en-
hanced to address frequency regulation, real power control, and
inertia response and must be applied in a consistent manner to
6.2. Improvement of modeling and analysis tools
all DG technologies.
The reliability-focused equipment standards must be also fur-
A complete understanding of reliability considerations via effec-
ther developed to facilitate the reliable integration of additional
tive modeling/aggregation techniques is vital to identify a variety
VSGs into the power grid. From a grid system reliability perspec-
of ways that power grids can accommodate the large-scale integra-
tive, a set of interconnection procedures and standards are re-
tion of the VSGs in future. A more complete dynamic frequency re-
quired which applies equally to all generation resources
sponse model is needed in order to VSG analysis and synthesis in a
interconnecting to the grid including VSG units. Further work is re-
grid with a high degree of DG/RES penetration. A proper dynamic
quired to standardize basic requirements in these interconnection
modeling and aggregation of the VSG units, for performance and
procedures and standards, such as the ability of the VSGs owner to
stability studies, is a key issue to understand the dynamic impact
provide inertial-response.
of VSGs and simulate their functions in new environment.
To allow for increased penetration of VSGs, a change in regula-
tion reserve policy may be required. In this direction, in addition to
6.3. Develop effective intelligent and robust VSG control algorithms deregulation policies, the amount and location of VSG units, oper-
ation technology, and the size and characteristics of the grid must
Additional flexibility may be required from various VSGs so the be considered as important technical aspects. Moreover, the updat-
system operator can continue to balance supply and demand on ing of existing frequency control levels concerning economic
the modern power grids. The contribution of VSGs in frequency assessment/analysis the frequency regulation prices and other is-
regulation task refers to the ability of these units to regulate their sues; and quantification of reserve margin due to increasing VSGs
power output, by an appropriate control action. More effective penetration are some important research needs.
practical algorithms and control methodologies are needed to do
this issue, effectively. Further studies are needed to coordinate
7. Conclusion
the timing and the size of the kinetic energy discharge with the
characteristics of conventional SGs.
With growing the penetration level of DGs, the impact of low
inertia and damping effect on the grid stability and dynamic fre-
6.4. Coordination between VSGs and SGs, and revising of existing quency performance increases. A solution towards stability
standards improvement of such grids is to provide virtual inertia by VSGs
that can be established by using short term energy storage to-
In case of supporting frequency system, an important feature of gether with a power inverter and a proper control mechanism. In
VSG units is the possibility of their fast active power injection. Fol- this paper, the most important issues on the VSG concept with
lowing a power imbalance, the active power generated by VSGs the past achievements in this literature are briefly reviewed. The
quickly changes to recover the system frequency following a dis- main VSG design frameworks and topologies are described.
turbance. As this increased/decreased power can last just for a It is shown that the virtual inertia can be considered as an effec-
few seconds, conventional SGs should eventually take charge of tive solution to support the primary frequency control and com-
the huge changed demand by shifting their generation to compen- pensate the fast frequency changes. By injecting active power by
sate power imbalance. But the fast power injection by VSGs may the VSGs in the timescale of hundreds of milliseconds up to a
slow down to a certain extent the response of conventional SGs. few seconds after a severe load/generation disturbance, they can
254 H. Bevrani et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 54 (2014) 244–254

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