Received August 3, 2018, accepted September 4, 2018, date of publication September 10, 2018,

date of current version September 28, 2018.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2869280

Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage

Control of Islanded Microgrids With
Feedback Linearization
GUANNAN LOU1 , (Student Member, IEEE), WEI GU 1 , (Senior Member, IEEE),
WANXING SHENG2 , XIAOHUI SONG2 , AND FEI GAO2
1 School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
2 China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Corresponding author: Wei Gu (wgu@seu.edu.cn)
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China under Grant 51477029, in part by the National Key Research
and Development Program of China under Grant 2016YFB0900400, in part by the State Grid Corporation of China under Grant
PDB17201700159, in part by the Scientific Research Foundation of the Graduate School of Southeast University under Grant YBJJ1729,
in part by the China Scholar Council under Grant 201706090249, in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
of China under Grant KYLX16_0211, and in part by the Innovation Foundation of the China Electric Power Research Institute.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a novel distributed secondary control method for both voltage and
frequency regulation in islanded microgrids. Firstly, the large-signal dynamic model of inverter-interfaced
distributed generation (DG) is formulated in the form of a multi-input multi-output nonlinear system, which
can be converted to a partly linear one using input–output feedback linearization. Then, the linear-distributed
model predictive controller is designated in each DG to realize the secondary voltage control by incorporating
the forecasted behaviors of the local and neighboring DG units. Through the receding optimization index
of every update process, the implementation of optimal control action accelerates the convergence rate for
voltage magnitudes to the reference value. Following, after transforming the nonlinear DG dynamics into a
first-order linear system, a distributed proportional integral algorithm is introduced in the frequency restora-
tion while maintaining the accurate active power sharing. Our approach utilizes the distributed architecture,
which indicates superior reliability and flexibility compared to the centralized manner; moreover, it can
accommodate diverse uncertainties in communication links, model parameters, and time delays. Simulation
results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.

INDEX TERMS Cooperative control, distributed model predictive control, input-output feedback
linearization, islanded microgrids, secondary control.

I. INTRODUCTION as primary control to stabilize the microgrid and establishes

The microgrid (MG) has emerged a promising integra-
tion of distributed generations (DGs), loads and stor-
ages, to facilitate the efficient utilization of renewable
energy resources [1]–[5]. MGs are typically operated in
grid-connected mode, to inject scheduled active and reac-
tive powers to the main grid. Whereas the most attractive
advantage of the MG concept is to enter into the island-
ing status in case of planned or spontaneous events, where
appropriate control schemes are indispensable to guarantee
the reliability and efficiency of uninterrupted power supplies,
and have been aggregated into a hierarchical structure [6], [7].
Once islanded, the droop paradigm [6]–[8] which mimics the
behavior of a synchronous generator is generally employed
power sharing. However in the presence of primary function,
voltage and frequency are forced to deviate from their nom-
inal values, naturally leading to the introduction of another
control layer in the hierarchy, namely, secondary control,
to eliminate the aforementioned deviations.
Significant researches have already been undertaken with
respect to the secondary control for MGs, endeavoring from
the centralized structure [9]–[11], to the decentralized struc-
ture [12], [13], where the former indicates a complex net-
work and may suffer from a single point-of-failure and
the huge data calculation while the latter violates from the
requirement of system coordination. In recent years, the dis-
tributed control inspired by the idea of cooperative control in

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 G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs
multi-agent system has earned much attention [7], [14]–[22]
where each DG unit exchanges information with its imme-
diate neighbors upon the sparse communication topology.
In [7], a distributed-averaging proportional-integral (DAPI)
controller was proposed to compensate the voltage and fre-
quency deviations. A distributed networked approach [14]
was utilized to realize the secondary voltage and frequency
control, where each DG communicates with all DGs, and
takes the averaged values as the nominal states to complete
the information update process. Based on the principle of
distributed cooperative control, the secondary voltage control
was converted into the linear tracker synchronization prob-
lem using feedback linearization [15], [16], which however
has been geared toward the microgrid system with fixed
and accurate parameters. Further, to improve the dynamic
performance during the voltage and frequency regulation,
distributed secondary control based on finite-time algorithm
[17], [18], dynamic weights [19], and sliding-mode law [20]
have been researched. Alternatively, considering the uncer-
tainties of system parameters, communication links and
time delays in practice, novel distributed secondary control
schemes [21]–[25] were proposed to accommodate the vari-
ations in operation conditions of islanded microgrids.
To summarize up, the main challenges with respect to
the secondary control of MG lie in: 1) Distributed cooper-
ative control scheme is expected to necessitate the coordi-
nation process of voltage and frequency restoration while
maintaining accurate power sharing through spare commu-
nication networks. 2) The convergence of both voltage and
frequency regulation should be realized synchronously and
rapidly. 3) It is desirable to have a robust control paradigm
to accommodate the diverse uncertainties of DG parame-
ters, communication links and time delays. Model predic-
tive control [26], [27] has been well-accepted in industry
as an effective methodology for both dynamic performance
and robustness against system variations; however, the most
existing literature with regard to secondary control in MGs
neglect the predictive characteristics of individual DG agents.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the work concerning
the forthputting of model predictive mechanism in this aspect
was only presented in [28], but it was developed based on the
consensus tracker rule without considering the nonlinear and
nonidentical dynamics of individual DG units.
In this paper, a distributed model predictive con-
trol (DMPC) scheme is proposed for the voltage restoration
in islanded MGs. Firstly, considering the nonlinear dynamics
of heterogeneous DG units, the input-output feedback lin-
earization (IOFL) is utilized to convert the nonlinear system
to a partly linear one. Then we designate the linear model
predictive controller for each DG based on the forecasted
movements of the local and neighboring DG units. Through
the receding-horizon optimization index, the optimal control
effect allows the acceleration of synchronization process
and accommodates the variations in the operation condition.
After transforming the nonlinear model into a first-order
linear system, the distributed proportional integral frequency
50170
control is presented to regulate frequency while maintaining
accurate active power sharing. The study contributions are
listed below.
(1) In this paper, a large-signal dynamic model of
inverter-interfaced DG is presented in the form of multi-input
multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear system, which can be trans-
formed to a partly linear system using the input-output feed-
back linearization.
(2) Upon on the linear system derived via IOFL, the linear
DMPC approach is proposed for the secondary voltage con-
trol of islanded MGs by incorporating the predictive mecha-
nisms into DGs. Based on the forecasted information of local
and neighboring DG units, the receding optimization index
is formulated to derive the latest optimal control action at
each sampling instant. Compared with the existing literature,
the proposed methodology not only accelerates the conver-
gence process but also accommodates the uncertainties in
communication links and time delays.
(3) The proposed approach is fully distributed. Each DG
only communicates with its immediate neighbors through a
sparse network, obviating the requirement for a supervisory
centralized controller.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II
presents the large-signal dynamic model of inverter-based
DG. Section III introduces the preliminary of graph theory
and input-output feedback linearization. The secondary con-
trol for voltage and frequency regulation based on distributed
MPC and proportional-integral is elaborated respectively in
Section IV. Section V verifies the proposed secondary control
using a test MG system; finally a brief conclusion is drawn in
Section VI.
II. LARGE-SIGNAL DYNAMIC MODEL OF
INVERTER-INTERFACED DG
The proposed secondary control scheme is designed based
on the large-signal dynamic model of inverter- based DG.
In general, each DG deemed as a prime dc source is inter-
faced to the MG network through a voltage source inverter
(VSI), a LC filter and a RC output connector [29], as shown
in Fig. 1. Broadly speaking, there exist three control loops in
the primary controller for each DG unit, i.e., the power loop,
the voltage loop and the current control, where the power
controller provides the magnitude and frequency references
for the output voltage, while the nested voltage and current
FIGURE 1. Block diagram of an inverter-interfaced DG.
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G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs

controller is utilized to improve the voltage performance and where xi = [Pi , Qi , ωi , ildi , ilqi , vodi , voqi , iodi ioqi ]T ; ui =
reject system disturbances. With the consideration that the [ui1 ui2 ]=[uvi uωi ]T , yi = [yi1 yi2 ]T = [vodi ωi ]T and Di =
current and voltage control possess much faster dynamics [vbdi vbqi ]T represent the inputs, outputs and known distur-
than the power control [8], [17], the DG can be represented bances, respectively. The detailed expressions of fi (xi ), ki (xi ),
as a controllable voltage source, which prescribes a desired gi1 (xi ) and gi2 (xi ) can extracted from (3)-(11). Since the
relationship between active power Pi and frequency ωi , and DG output voltage holds the condition v2oi = v2odi + v2oqi ,
between reactive power Qi and output voltage v∗oi , aligning secondary control aims to select uvi and uωi such that vodi and
the magnitude on the d-axis of the reference frame, ωi approach their reference values, which are elucidated in
following sections.
ωi = ωni − mPi Pi (1)
v∗odi = Vni − nQi Qi , v∗oqi = 0 (2) III. PRELIMINARY OF SECONDARY CONTROL SCHEME
A. GRAPH THEORY AND TRACKE SYNCHRONIZATION
where mPi and nQi are the frequency and voltage droop coef- To implement the cooperative control of DGs, the microgrid
ficients, respectively; ωni and Vni are the desired frequency is considered as a multi-agent system, where each DG can
and voltage for the ith DG, respectively; v∗odi and v∗oqi are the communication with others through a spare communication
d-axis and q-axis components of v∗oi , respectively. network G = (V, E, A), with a set of n-nodes V = {v1 ,
Pi and Qi are extracted from the instantaneous powers via v2 , . . . , vn }, a set of edges E ⊂ V × V , and the associated
the two low-pass filters with the cutoff frequency ωco as adjacency matrix A = [aij ]. In a MG graph, the nodes and
Ṗi = −ωco Pi + ωco (vodi iodi + voqi ioqi ) (3) edges represent the DG units and the corresponding commu-
nication links, respectively. Each edge (vi , vj ) ∈ EG signifies
Q̇i = −ωco Qi + ωco (voqi iodi − vodi ioqi ) (4)
that node i receives information from nodej with the weight
wherevodi and voqi (resp., iodi and ioqi ) are output voltage aij > 0, otherwise aij = 0. Typically, node i obtains informa-
(resp., current) of ith DG on the d-q reference frame. tion only from its immediate neighbors, denoted as Ni , {j|(i,
Substitute (1) into (3) and introduce secondary frequency j) ∈ EG }. The Laplacian matrix of the graph, which encodes
control input uωi for frequency restoration, which yields, the information flow, P is defined as L = D − AG with D =
diag{di } and di = j∈Ni aij . Denoting the value of node i as
ω̇i − ωco (ωni + uωi − ωi ) + ωco mPi (vodi iodi + voqi ioqi ) = 0 xi , the cooperative secondary control resembles the tracker
(5) synchronization problem, where all nodes are expected to
converge to the references based on the information coupling,
Following, the differential equations for the LC filter and i.e., xi = xj = xref , ∀i, j ∈ N .
output connector while neglecting the fast dynamics of volt-
age and current controller and considering the secondary B. INPUT-OUTPUT FEEDBACK LINEARIZATION
voltage control are formulated as follows [21], [30]: Since the dynamics of DGs in a microgrid are nonlin-
Rfi 1 ear and heterogeneous, input-output feedback linearization
i̇ldi = − ildi +ωi ilqi + (Vni +uvi − nQi Qi − vodi ) (6) (IOFL) [15] can be utilized in this paper to facilitate the
Lfi Lfi
secondary controller design without linearizing the DG
Rfi voqi
i̇lqi = − ilqi − ωi ildi − (7) dynamics around the prior steady-state operating point. The
Lfi Lfi principle of feedback linearization is to transform a nonlinear
ildi − iodi system to a fully or partly linear one by means of a suitable
v̇odi = + ωi voqi (8)
Cfi coordinate conversion, of which the point of departure is the
ilqi − ioqi notation of the system relative degree.
v̇oqi = − ωi vodi (9) Define 1 [32]: The affine nonlinear system
Cfi
Rci 1 ẋ = f (x) + g(x)u
i̇odi = − iodi + ωi ioqi + (vodi − vbdi ) (10)
Lci Lci y = h(x) (13)
Rci 1
i̇oqi = − ioqi − ωi iodi + (voqi − vbqi ) (11) is said to have relative degree r at point if x0
Lci Lci
(i) Lg Lfk h(x) = 0 for all x in a neighborhood of x 0 and
where ildi , ilqi , vbdi and vbqi are the direct and quadrature terms k < r − 1;
of the inverter current ili and bus voltage vbi in Fig. 1 [15], [31] (ii) Lg Lfr−1 h(x) = 0
respectively. uvi represents the secondary voltage control where Lf h(x) is the Lie derivative of h(x) with respect to
input. f (x), defined as Lf h(x) = ∇hf (x) = (∂h/∂x)f (x), Lfk h(x) =
By combining equations (3)-(11), a large-signal dynamic (∂(Lfr−1 h)/∂x)f (x), and Lg Lfk h(x) = (∂(Lfk h)/∂x)g(x).
model of ith DG can be arranged in compact MIMO system, Thus, we consider the coordinate transformation as
ẋi = fi (xi ) + ki (xi )Di + gi1 (xi )ui1 + gi2 (xi )ui2 follows:
yi1 = hi1 (xi ) = vodi , yi2 = hi2 (xi ) = ωi (12) zp = [h(x), Lf h(x), · · · , Lfr−1 h(x)] (14)

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Considering a nonlinear system with relative degree r = n, yi1 0 1
where ziv = , Aiv = , Biv = [0 1]T and
the coordinate transformation which is required to construct yi1 0 0
a normal form is given as zi = Lfk h(x), 1 ≤ i ≤ n, which Civ = [1 0]. In the distributed control, it is assumed that
results in an exactly linear system. If r < n holds, it is each DG exchanges information with its immediate neighbors
always possible to find zr+1 , . . . , zn such that the mapping through a sparse communication network and only a small
z = [z1 , . . . , zn ] has a jacobian matrix which is nonsingular portion of DG units have direct access to the reference value
and qualifies to be partial feedback linearized [33]. We can vref . Hence, the essence of the secondary voltage control is
further decompose the states into z = [zp zn−p ]T , where zp to find a distributed vi in (20) so that yi1 → vref , ∀i. To solve
represents the r functions zi = Lfr−1 h(x) (1 ≤ i ≤ r) that this problem, the linear distributed model predictive control
are termed as a partial set of the new coordinate form while using input-output feedback linearization is presented in this
zn−p signifies the dynamics of the remaining (n − r) orders, paper.
denoted as the system internal dynamics. Therefore, it is The foremost step for the proposed distributed control is
convenient to convert the controller design of the nonlinear to determine the discrete-time model, which is formulated
system (13) to the linear controller for the following partially to facilitate the iterative characteristics of model predictive
linearized counterpart: control-based algorithm. The resulting discrete time system
of (20) can be arranged as follows,
ż1 = z2
··· ziv (k + 1) = Aid ziv (k) + Bid vi (k)
żr−1 = zr yi1 (k) = Cid ziv (k) (21)
żr = b(z) + a(z)u (15)
where Aid , Bid and Cid are system matrices obtained through
where b(z) = Lfr h(8−1 (z)) and a(z) = Lg L1r− f h (8−1 (z)), Euler discretization.
with 8−1 (z) = x. Hence, it can be arranged in a state space Denoting HP as the prediction horizon and HU as the
form as: control horizon, the future evolution of output value yi1 can
be derived according to the available current state ziv (k) and
żp = Azp + Bv (16) the protocol (21) as follows:
where A and B are the matrices for states and input, respec- yi1 (k + 1|k) = Cid Aid ziv (k) + Cid Bid vi (k) (22)
tively; v is the auxiliary control input for the partial linearized
yi1 (k + 2|k) = Cid A2id ziv (k) + Cid Aid Bid vi (k)
system in the transformed coordinate.
+ Cid Bid vi (k + 1) (23)
IV. PROPOSED DISTRIBUTED SECONDARY CONTROL ...
HP −1
In this paper, a distributed secondary control scheme is imple- yi1 (k + HP |k) = Cid AH P
id ziv (k) + Cid Aid Bid vi (k)
mented locally by choosing the appropriate control inputs uvi HP −HU
+ · · · + Cid Aid Bid vi (k + HU − 1)
and uωi to regulate the voltage magnitude vodi and frequency (24)
ωi to the reference values vref and ωref respectively, which
can be considered as a tracker consensus problem. Define vectors Yi1 (k + 1, HP |k) = [yi1 (k + 1|k)yi1 (k +
2|k) . . . yi1 (k + HP |k)]T and Vi (k, HU |k) = [vi (k)vi (k +
A. LINEAR DMPC-BASED VOLTAGE REGULATION 1) . . . vi (k + HU − 1)]T , equations (22)-(24) can be written
For the voltage dynamics in (12), the direct relationship in a compact form:
between the output yi1 and input ui1 can be generated after
Yi1 (k + 1, HP |k) = Fi ziv (k) + Gi Vi (k, HU |k) (25)
the second derivative of yi1 , indicating that the relative degree
for voltage control is r = 2: where Fi = [Cid Aid Cid A2id . . . Cid AH P T
id ]

ÿi1 = LF2i hi1 + Lgi1 LFi hi1 ui1

 
(17) Cid Bid
 Cid Aid Bid Cid Bid 
where Fi (xi ) = fi (xi ) + ki (xi )Di . Thus, we can define the .. ..
Gi =  ..
 
. . .

auxiliary control variable vi as  
P −1 HP −2 HP −HU
vi = LF2i hi1 + Lgi1 LFi hi1 ui1 (18) Cid AH
id Bid Cid Aid Bid · · · Cid Aid Bid
Bearing in mind that the target of tracker synchronization
From (18), the feedback law ui1 can be deduced
is to eliminate the local-neighboring voltage disagreement
ui1 = (Lgi1 LFi hi1 )−1 (−LF2i hi1 + vi ) (19) and to converge to the reference value, we set the following
receding-horizon optimization index as:
According to the principle of IOFL, the nonlinear dynam-
ics of each DG can be transformed into a set of internal 1 X
min Ji = || Yj (k + 1, HP |k) − Yi (k + 1, HP |k)||2Qi
dynamics and a linear state space, given by |Ni |
j∈Ni
żiv = Aiv ziv + Biv vi + ||Yr (k)−Yi (k + 1,HP |k)||2Wi +||1Vi (k,HU |k)||2Ri
yi1 = Civ ziv (20) (26)

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where |Ni | represents the number of the neighbors of ith DG; Remark 1: The selection of wi indicates whether the ith
Yr (k) = [r(k), r(k + 1), . . . , r(k + HP )]T is the desired DG has direct access to the reference value vref , similar to
output value during the predictive horizon, here Yr (k) = the pinning gain, that is, if the ith DG directly receive the
vref ∗ IHp with IHp as the HP dimensional vector of one- reference information, wi > 0, otherwise wi = 0.
entries; 1Vi (k, HU |k) = [1vi (k), 1vi (k + 1), . . . , 1vi (k + Remark 2: The computational complexity to obtain the
HU − 1)]T with 1vi (k + h) = vi (k + h) − vi (k + h−1), explicit solution mainly lies in the inversion of Hi , which can
h = 0, . . . , HU − 1. In this optimization formulation, the first be performed offline for the online calculation of the control
term penalizes the state disagreement between the ith DG and law vi (k).
its |Ni | neighboring counterparts; the secondary term stresses Therefore, the routine procedure of IOFL-based linear
the local voltage deviation from the reference value; while the DMPC algorithm can be depicted as Fig. 2:
third signifies the control energy over the future HU steps. Qi ,
Ri and Wi are the corresponding positive definite symmetric
weighting matrices for the three terms, with ||∗||2Qi = ∗T Qi ∗.
For simplicity, these matrices can be selected as Qi = qi I ,
Wi = wi I , and Ri = ri I (qi , wi , ri > 0), respectively.
Considering thatP the control effect can be obtained as vi (k+
h) = vi (k − 1) + hr = 01vi (k + r), the future evolution
of system (25) can be expressed as a function of the control
incremental sequence 1Vi (k, HU |k),
Yi (k + 1, HP |k) = Ni 1Vi (k, HU |k) + Mi (k) (27)
where Ni = Gi 0̄i , Mi (k) = Fi ziv (k) + Gi 0i0 vi (k − 1), and
   
1 1 ··· 0
0i0 =  ...  0̄i =  ... ..
.
.. 
.
1 1 ··· 1
Substitute (27) into the local cost function Ji (26), which FIGURE 2. The routine process of IOFL-based DMPC algorithm.
is formulated into an equivalent unconstrained quadratic pro-
gram (QP) problem and expected to be solved at each sam- Step 1: Each DG determines the discrete-time model (21),
pling instant, and acquires the local states xi and the output voltages of its
neighboring DGs over the current time k.
min Ji = 1ViT (k, HU |k)Hi 1Vi (k, HU |k)
1Vi (k,HU |k) Step 2: Each DG computes the optimal control sequence
− LiT (k)1Vi (k, HU |k) (28) 1Vi (k, HU |k) according to the rolling optimization index (26)
and applies the first element to generate the current control
where the positive definite matrix Hi has the form effort vi (k) according to (30).
Hi = NiT (Qi + Wi )Ni + Ri Step 3: Calculate the control input ui1 (k) through the
feedback law (19) and implement it on the local primary
and controller.
Li (k) = 2NiT [Wi (Mi (k) − Yr (k)) + Qi (Mi (k) Step 4: Increment the sampling time index k → k + 1, and
1 X repeat the above steps.
− Yj (k + 1, HP |k))] Owing to the line impedance effect, voltage restoration
|Ni |
j∈Ni
and accurate reactive power sharing could not be achieved
Let ∂Ji /∂1Vi (k, HU |k) = 0, and the explicit solution can simultaneously; therefore, a trade-off is established between
be derived with the form the voltage regulation and reactive power sharing [7], [18].
In this section, we have focused on the voltage regulation
1Vi (k, HU k) = (1 2)Hi−1 Li (k)

(29)
rather than reactive power because the latter can be realized
Following the receding horizon principle of model pre- due to the capacitive compensation of both loads and trans-
dictive control, only the first term of the optimal sequence mission lines [28].
is applied to the process. Therefore, the control action is
expressed as vi (k) = vi (k − 1) + 0i 1Vi (k, HU |k) with B. DISTRIBUTED PROPORTIONAL-INTEGRAL
0i = [1 0 . . . 0], which gives the final explicit control effort FREQUENCY REGULATION
as follows, In this section, a distributed cooperative control is elaborated
vi (k) = vi (k − 1)+0i Hi−1 NiT [Wi (Mi (k)−Yr (k))+Qi (Mi (k) for selecting an appropriate control input uωi to synchronize
individual frequency ωi to the reference ωref . In the view of
1 X
− Yj (k + 1, HP |k))] (30) nonlinear dynamics of ith DG (12), we can obtain the relation-
|Ni | ship between frequency yi2 and input ui2 using input-output
j∈Ni

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 G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs

feedback linearization:
ẏi2 = LFi hi2 + Lgi2 hi2 ui2 (31)
Equation (31) can be further written as the following first-
order system:
ẏi2 = ω̇i = (ω̇ni + u̇ωi ) − mPi Ṗi (32)
As ωni is a constant value, it can be obtained from (32)
u̇ωi = ω̇i + mPi Ṗi (33)
It should be noted that the secondary frequency con-
trol is desired to guarantee accurate active power sharing
among individual DG units, i.e., Pi /Pk = Pmax,i /Pmax,k , ∀i,
k ∈ n. Because the frequency droop coefficient mpi are
usually chosen in inverse proportion to the power rating,
i.e., mpi /mpk = Pmax,k /Pmax,i , the following equality must be
satisfied:
mP1 P1 = mP2 P2 = . . . = mPn Pn (34)
FIGURE 3. Block diagram of the proposed secondary voltage control
Therefore, the secondary frequency control for tracker based on IOFL-DMPC and secondary frequency control based on the
synchronization yi2 → ωref and regular synchronization distributed proportional integral control.
mPi Pi → mPk Pk , ∀i, k can be written as follows:
Z
uωi = (eωi + ePi ) (35)
X
eωi = cω aij (ωj − ωi ) + gi (ωref − ωi ) (36)
j∈Ni

aij (mPj Pj − mPi Pi ))α

X
ePi = cP sig( (37)
j∈Ni

where aij denotes the adjacency element of the microgrid

communication network G; gi is the pinning gain of ith FIGURE 4. Configuration of the test microgrid.
DG, nonzero for the one with direct access to the reference
command; sig(∗)a = sign(∗) | ∗ |a (a > 0) represents the sign
function with α the positive proportional gain. It is obvious
that the secondary control variable uωi consists of two parts,
the first of which in (36) indicates that the DGs act as a
group to track the reference based on the sparse communi-
cation network while the second term in (37) addresses the
finite-time accurate power sharing [28], with cω and cP as the
corresponding control parameters. FIGURE 5. Communication topology of the test microgrid.

In summary, the combination of secondary voltage control

based on linear DMPC using input-output feedback lineariza-
tion and secondary frequency control based on distributed
proportional integral methodology can be depicted in Fig.3,
both of which take the advantage of a sparse communication
structure and obviate the requirement for a central controller.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
To validate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed
secondary control, an autonomous MG test system shown
in Fig. 4 is developed in MATLAB/Simulink. The microgrid
consists of four inverter-interfaced DGs with individual load
banks. A series RL branch is used for each feeder and load.
The specifications of system and control parameters are listed
in Table I. It is assumed that each DG communications with
others through the communication network depicted in Fig. 5,
where DG1 is considered as the pinning node that has access
to the voltage and frequency references. The section consists
of four scenarios, including the investigation of controller
performance, the robustness against parameter perturbation
and time-varying communication topology as well as com-
munication delays, and a comparison with the cooperative
control method proposed in [15].
A. CASE 1: CONTROL PARAMETER
Simulations in this case demonstrate the dynamic perfor-
mance of the proposed secondary control algorithm. Sub-
sequent to the islanding process at t = 0 s, the primary

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G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs

TABLE 1. Electrical and control system parameters.

control is on operation from the beginning; while at t = 0.5s,

the secondary control is intentionally activated. It should be
noted that since DG1 is assumed as the leading node that has
direct access to the reference value, the reference weighting
matrices in the objective function (26) are selected as W1 =
diag{10, 10, . . . , 10} for DG1, while W2 = W3 = W4 = 0
for other DGs of which the voltage magnitudes converge
to the reference through the communication coupling with
pinned DG in a distributed manner.
Fig. 6(a)-(e) shows the simulation results of the secondary
voltage and frequency control based on IOFL-DMPC and
distributed proportional integral, respectively. As depicted
in Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 6(b), at the first stage the terminal
voltage magnitudes and frequencies of DGs derivate from
their references because of droop characteristics. When the
secondary control is activated at t = 0.5s, the inconsistent
voltages gather together and synchronize to the same objec-
tive value 311V in 22 steps (i.e., 0.23s) with the secondary
voltage control input ui1 during the transient process shown
in Fig. 6(c). Meanwhile, the frequency derivation is quickly FIGURE 6. Performance of the proposed control scheme for Case 1.
(a) Voltage magnitude. (b) Frequency. (c) Active power. (d) Secondary
eliminated by the secondary frequency controller, and the voltage control input. (e) Secondary frequency control input.
associated control input ui2 is described in Fig. 6(e). Then,
the performance of islanded microgrid with respect to the
inclusion or exclusion of additional loads is investigated.
An RL load S1 = 10kW +5 kVar is attached to bus 2 at t = 1.5 B. CASE 2: TIME-VARYING COMMUNICATION NETWORK
s and detached at t = 2.5 s. During the operation procedure, AND PARAMETER PERTURBATION EFFECT
both of the voltage and frequency control exhibit good robust The microgrid is islanded from the main grid at the beginning
performance against the load disturbances, causing slight and the secondary control is started at t = 0.5 s. In this
transients. As for the output active power shown in Fig. 6(c), case, the robustness of proposed control scheme against
it is indicated that irrespective of whether the secondary con- time-varying communication network as well as parameter
trol is implemented or the power demand varies, the accurate perturbation is investigated. Hence, the line parameters are
real power sharing is satisfied throughout the entire runtime increased intentionally by 50% based on the values in Table I;
according to the rated capacity of heterogeneous DGs, i.e., moreover, as opposed to Case 1, the secondary control is oper-
P1 : P2 : P3 : P4 = 2: 1: 2: 1. Such then, the effectiveness ated through a time-varying communication network 0 =
of the proposed secondary control to retain the voltage and {G(a), G(b), G(c), G(d)} as described in Fig. 7. It is assumed
frequency to the references while maintaining accurate active that the communication topology initials from G(a), and is
power sharing is verified. transformed every four sampling intervals (0.04s) according

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 G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs
FIGURE 7. The time-varying communication topology in Case 2.
FIGURE 8. Performance of the proposed control scheme under parameter
perturbation and time-varying communication topology for Case 2.
(a) Voltage magnitude. (b) Frequency. (c) Active power.
to the following sequence G(a)→G(b)→G(c)→G(d) →
G(a). At t = 1.5 s, an additional load S2 = 20kW + 10
kVar is attached to bus 2, and disconnected at t = 2.5 s.
As shown in Fig. 8, the secondary control returns all terminal
voltages and frequencies to the reference values within 0.4 s
while maintaining accurate active power sharing, during the
entire operation process. Therefore, it can be concluded that
the proposed secondary control scheme arrives at desirable
performance despite of the perturbation in communication
networks, system parameters and loads.
C. CASE 3: COMMUNICATION DELAYS EFFECT
The future extensive usage of open communication mech-
anisms for secondary control in islanded MGs inher-
ently causes time delays, of which the effect on system
50176
FIGURE 9. Effect of time delays on voltage responses of DGs with the
proposed control scheme based on IOFL-DMPC. (a) τ = 350 ms.
(b) τ = 420 ms.
FIGURE 10. Effect of time delays on voltage responses of DGs with
conventional cooperative control method. (a) τ = 120 ms. (b) τ = 150 ms.
performance is illustrated. Fig. 9 depicts the voltage
responses of the proposed secondary control scheme when
it is launched at t=0.5s for time delays τ = 350ms and
τ = 420ms, which reveals the delay margin is within
[350ms, 420ms] due to the corresponding delaying and grow-
ing oscillations. Comparatively, the simulation results of the
conventional consensus-based cooperative control are shown
in Fig. 10, from which the stable and unstable operation are
exhibited for τ = 120ms and τ = 150ms, respectively.
Therefore, DMPC is supposed to mitigate the oscillations
produced by the delays, due to the optimization of the future
behaviors with respect to the control effect.
D. CASE 4: COMPARISON WITH THE COOPERATIVE
VOLTAGE CONTROL METHOD IN [15]
As stated in the introduction section, a few literatures cope
with the voltage and frequency restoration problems in a
distributed manner [15]–[17]. Since our proposed secondary
control mainly addresses the voltage aspect, we compare it
with the method presented in [15] in voltage regulation by
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G. Lou et al.: Distributed Model Predictive Secondary Voltage Control of Islanded MGs
FIGURE 11. Comparison between the proposed secondary voltage control
and the method in [15].
implementing it to the same test MG system. Fig. 11 shows
the initial activation of secondary control for the duration
[0.3s 1s], from which it is observed that the voltage magni-
tudes in our proposed method converge to the reference value
within 0.23 s, exhibiting faster dynamics than the approach
in [15] with a settling time of about 0.35s. The reason lies
in that the comparative method is just inspired by the global
asymptotic stability of the MG system, whereas our proposed
method is implemented by incorporating the predictive mech-
anisms, which would speed up the convergence performance.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a fully distributed secondary control scheme
for voltage and frequency regulation as well as precise active
power sharing is proposed. Based on IOFL, the nonlinear
dynamics of inverter-based DG can be transformed into the
linear form. Then, the secondary voltage control is imple-
mented based on linear DMPC, taking advantage of the
predictive intelligence of local and neighboring DGs. By a
distributed proportional integral algorithm, the frequency
restoration and accurate active power sharing are realized.
Simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the
proposed secondary control under different operation condi-
tions, including the load disturbances, uncertainties of com-
munication links, system parameters and time delays.
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WEI GU (M’06–SM’16) received the B.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Southeast University, China, in 2001 and 2006,
respectively.
From 2009 to 2010, he was a Visiting Scholar
with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. He is
currently a Professor with the School of Electri-
cal Engineering, Southeast University. He is the
Director of the Institute of Distributed Generations
and Active Distribution Networks. His research interests include distributed
generations and microgrids, and active distribution networks.
WANXING SHENG is currently a Professor and Senior Engineer with the
China Electric Power Research Institute.
His research interests include power system planning, distribution
automation, distributed generations, and power system informatization.

GUANNAN LOU (S’17) received the B.S. and

M.S. degrees in control science and engineer- XIAOHUI SONG is currently a Senior Engineer with the China Electric
ing from North China Electric Power Univer- Power Research Institute.
sity, China, in 2008 and 2011, respectively. His research interests include the planning and design of power system.
From 2011 to 2015, she joined Guodian Nanjing
Automation Co., Ltd, Nanjing.
She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with
the School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast
University, China. Her research interests include FEI GAO is currently an Engineer with the China Electric Power Research
distributed generations integration, microgrid Institute.
modeling, control, and optimization.

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