Large-Signal Stability Guarantees for a DC Microgrid with Nested Nonlinear Distributed Control: The Slow Communication Scenario

Abstract

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources into electrical grids necessitates a paradigm shift toward advanced control schemes that guarantee safe and stable operations with scalable properties. Accordingly, this paper investigates large-signal stability guarantees for cyber-physical DC microgrids employing a nonlinear distributed consensus-based control scheme to enable coordinated integration and management of distributed generation units within an expandable framework. The proposed control framework adopts nested control loops; inner (decentralized) and outer (distributed), specifically designed to simultaneously achieve uniform voltage containment within pre-specified limits, and proportional current sharing in steady state. Our scalable stability result relies on singular perturbation theory and Lyapunov arguments to prove global exponential stability when imposing a sufficient time-scale separation at the border between the nested control loops, while relying on some practical parameter-setting schemes. The effectiveness and versatility of the proposed control strategy are then validated through time-domain simulations performed on a case-specific low-voltage DC microgrid and the modified IEEE 33-bus radial distribution system. Moreover, a small-signal stability analysis is conducted to derive practical guidelines that enhance the applicability of the method.