Droop control method for parallel dc converters used in standalone pv wind power generating system

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 04 Issue: 10 |OCT-2015, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 297
DROOP CONTROL METHOD FOR PARALLEL DC CONVERTERS
USED IN STANDALONE PV-WIND POWER GENERATING SYSTEM
Reshma Mary Thomas1
, Deepu Jose2
1
M.Tech Student, Department Electrical Engineering-Power Systems, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala, India
2
Assistant Professor, Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala, India
Abstract
The rising rate of consumption and price of fossil fuel along with environmental pollution by conventional power generation draw
global attention to renewable energy sources and technology. Paper gives analysis study on current sharing issues of parallel DC
converters in standalone photovoltaic (PV) WIND system. Solar wind power generating system with maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) technique – incremental conductance method is used for the simulation analysis. The main drawbacks of
parallel converters used in system are poor power sharing and voltage drop. The paper describes about instantaneous droop
calculation considering effect of cable resistance using droop index to improve the power sharing performance. The control
technique is simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK in PV- wind power generating system with MPPT and case study has been
done on the control strategy and verifies the effectiveness of adaptive droop control on output converter voltage.
Key Words: Microgrid; droop method; incremental conductance (Incond); maximum power point tracking (MPPT).
--------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. INTRODUCTION
The demand on electrical energy is increasing day by day.
For our future demand the existing energy systems will not
be enough. Therefore the search for alternative energy
sources has become an important issue. Many researches has
been done in the area of unlimited energy resources such as
wind power generation and solar energy transformation.
Also expensive technologies and global environmental
damage techniques has led to a global scenario which point
towards generating clean and eco-friendly green energy. In
many ways, green energy is having a leading role in the
democratized energy production and consumption in the
country. Of all the renewable energy sources, solar energy
have the least impact on environmental. Electricity produced
from photovoltaic (PV) cells does not result in
environmental pollution, deplete natural resources, or
endanger living being [1].
For many years, the centralized power grid is one way of
electricity flow, generated by large, remote power plants and
distributed over large distance by transmission lines to
homes and industries. In recent years the system’s
shortcomings are increasing. The traditional grid is highly
depends on planet-warming fossil fuels. Due to the
upcoming of negative issues there is departing from the
traditional system and introduced a new model called
Microgrid. A microgrid is independent systems that produce
power for a specific entity. A microgrid is defined by the
ability to generate power using renewable energy sources
near or at the point of consumption independent of other
generators. Main applications are in areas having high
energy prices or remote areas (such as islands) or facilities,
such as military or experimental installations that cannot
risk losing power, etc. Microgrid, also named as minigrids,
can be operated in islanded or grid connected mode.
Compared to AC, DC microgrids are very reliable highly
efficient, economic and easy to control.
The main problem faced by the DC Microgrid is that when
converters are parallel connected the output voltage from
converter won’t be constant always. [2]- [8] Main reason for
this variation is due to change in load and input power and
also feedback voltage and current. Even a small mismatch of
output voltage will initiate circulating current and difference
in current sharing will cause an overload to the converters
and also variation in power sharing. The converter with
higher output voltage will give higher power. One of most
popular control technique for proper sharing is droop control
method. This paper mainly focus on the voltage control and
power sharing of the converters using droop index and also
maximum power point tracking for better performance.
The droop control method is a decentralized control
technique in which each converter is controlled based on the
output current [7]. This paper explains the importance of
cable resistance in load sharing. In existing methods the
droop used for voltage control is fixed which a major
drawback [5]. An instantaneous droop is calculated to
overcome this drawback which can improve the voltage
control to larger extend.
The droop control method is local control technique that
relies on externally or internally added resistance of the
parallel connected modules for maintaining relatively equal
current sharing. Generally, the droop method is easy to
implement, and it does not require any communication
system. However, fixed droop method also achieves the
equivalent current sharing accuracy but major drawback is
its poor voltage regulation whereas in case of
instantaneously produced droop, it can adaptively controls
the reference voltage of each module.[10]-[12] This will
improve the voltage regulation and the current sharing of the
traditional method.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
The solar cell and wind turbine efficiency depends on
factors such as temperature, insolation (radiation), dirt,
shadow, wind speed and so on. Due to fast changing climate
such as cloudy weather, storm or sunny day there will be
changes in irradiance, wind speed and rise in ambient
temperature can decrease the PV wind output power. PV –
wind system produces energy depending to its operational
and environmental conditions. Maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) is a concept put forward to improve the
efficiency of PV – wind system. All MPPT methods follow
goal of maximizing the output power by tracking the
maximum on all operating condition. Analysis study and
case study of the droop control method for voltage
regulation and MPPT method is explained.
2. SOLAR – WIND ENERGY CONVERSION
SYSTEM WITH MPPT
2.1. Solar Cell
A PV cell is basic unit of solar module. By photoelectric
phenomenon the solar cell converts light energy into
electricity. A single PV cell can produce only a small amount
of energy. To increase the output of the system, solar cells
are usually connected in parallel or series to form PV array.
Figure 1 shows the simplified circuit diagram of a PV cell.
The main equation of the output current of a module is
Fig -: 1 Circuit Diagram PV cell
I0 = npIpℎ − npIrs exp k0
V
ns
− 1 (1)
where Io is output PV current, V is the output PV voltage,
cell photocurrent, Irs , solar cell reverse saturation current
Iph which is proportional to solar irradiation, that mainly
depends on surrounding temperature, ko is constant, np
represents number of cell connected in parallel and ns
represent the number of series connected PV cells.
2.2. Wind energy subsystem
Wind energy conversion subsystem mainly consists of
different electrical and mechanical components which
include a wind turbine, a generator, power conversion
components, and controllers. Three blades turbines are the
most common wind turbines that can rotate and transmit the
rotation to an electrical generator through out a gear box
velocity conversion system. Generators have different types
such as synchronous generators, permanent magnet and
induction generators.
MPPT is an electronic system which controls the converters’
duty cycle circuit and enables the system to operate at
maximum power at all operating condition. The benefits of
MPPT regulators are greatest during cloudy or hazy days.
There are different types of MPPT methods developed are
(1) Incremental conductance method, (2) Perturb and
observe method, (3) Artificial neutral network method.
2.3 Incremental conductance method
The incremental conductance method of MPPT is based on
the incremental and instantaneous conductance.
Fig -: 1. Algorithm of InCond method
When MPPT has reached the maximum point by using the
InCond method then it will stop perturbing at the operating
point. If this condition is not satisfied, the direction in which
the MPPT operating point must be perturbed can be obtain
using the relationship between
𝛿𝐼
𝛿𝑉
and -
𝐼
𝑉
. Inc cond have
advantages over P&O method that is it can determine when
the MPPT has reached the maximum power. But in case of
P&O, it oscillates around the maximum power point. Also,
Incond method can track rapidly changing (increasing or
decreasing) climatic conditions with higher accuracy than P
& O method.
The maximum output power,
𝑃 𝑀𝑃𝑃 = 𝑉 𝑀𝑃𝑃 𝐼 𝑀𝑃𝑃 (2)
is calculated by differentiating output power with respect to
voltage and then setting the result to zero. At MPP, as
∂P/∂V=0. This equation can be written in terms of array
voltage V and current I as
𝛿𝐼
𝛿𝑉
= -
𝐼
𝑉
(3)
3. PARALLEL DC- DC BOOST CONVERTERS
The DC-DC boost converters are used where the output
voltage needed to be higher than the source voltage. The
control technique used is sliding mode control. Sliding mode
controller maintains stability and consistence performance
in the face of modeling imprecision. Control gains used are
0.149 and 1.35.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
TABLE -1:DC-DC BOOST CONVERTER PARAMETERS
Parameters Values
Output power 96
Output voltage 48
Filter inductor 710 µH
ESR of filter inductor 0.03Ω
Filter capacitor 2220µF
ESR of filter capacitor 0.05Ω
Nominal switching
frequency
100kHz
3.1. Mathematical Analysis Of Circulating Current
For Two Parallel Connected Converters
When converters are connected in parallel and if there is
change in power output, then this will cause mismatch in
converter output voltage which will in turn cause circulating
current. Circulating current will increase the flow current
through the switches which will increase the power
electronic switch ratings and loses and cause overload to
converters. This section explains load current sharing and
circulating current issues for parallel DC-DC converters
connected to a low-voltage dc microgrid. Fig. 3 shows
simplified diagram of two parallel connected DC – DC
converters. Output voltages, cable resistance and output
currents of converter- 1 and converter-2 are represented
using𝑉𝐷𝐶1,𝑉𝐷𝐶2 , 𝑅1 and 𝑅2, 𝐼1 and 𝐼2 respectively. 𝐼𝐶12 is
the circulating current component from converter-1 to
converter-2 and load current component from converter-1 is
𝐼1′.
By applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law, the expression for
output converter currents can be derived from equation and
circulating current can be calculated.
𝑉𝐷𝐶1− 𝐼1 𝑅1 − 𝐼𝐿 𝑅 𝐿 = 0 (4)
𝑉𝐷𝐶2 − 𝐼2 𝑅2 − 𝐼𝐿 𝑅 𝐿 = 0. (5)
Fig -: 2. Equivalent circuit for DC output side
The expression for output converter currents 𝐼1 and 𝐼2 can
be derived from equation (4) and (5) and circulating current
is given as:
𝐼1 =
𝑅2+𝑅 𝐿 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 1− 𝑅 𝐿 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2
𝑅1 𝑅2+𝑅1 𝑅 𝐿+𝑅2 𝑅 𝐿
(6)

𝐼2 =
𝑅1+𝑅 𝐿 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2− 𝑅 𝐿 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 1
𝑅1 𝑅2+𝑅1 𝑅 𝐿+𝑅2 𝑅 𝐿
(7)
𝐼𝐶12 =
𝑉 𝐷𝐶 1− 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2
𝑅1+𝑅2
=
𝐼1 𝑅1− 𝐼2 𝑅2
𝑅1+𝑅2
=
𝐼1−𝐼2
2
( 𝑅1 = 𝑅2) (8)
4. VOLTAGE REGULATION AND
CIRCULATING CURRENT CONTROL BY
FIXED DROOP METHOD
This section explains converter voltage regulation and
minimization of circulating current by adding a series
resistor, Rdroop to each converter output as shown in Fig.2.
Rdroop is implemented using virtual impedance method.
Fig4. By adding Rdroop1 and Rdroop2 the current sharing
can be controlled and thus circulating currents can be
minimized to some extent. This can be done by taking
output current from converters and multiplied with
corresponding Rdroop . Then the resultant signal is
subtracted from the reference voltage of each corresponding
converter give new voltage reference signal.
𝑉𝐷𝐶𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑉𝐷𝐶 – I 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 (9)
But this method has still got drawbacks as it’s a fixed value
and therefore the voltage regulation will be poor.
4.1. Adaptive Droop Control Method
Instantaneous method for droop calculation for voltage
regulation and circulating current minimization is explained
in this section.
As we have seen in above equation (8) in two parallel
converters, circulating current directly proportional to the
current sharing difference.
Fig -: 3. Equivalent circuit for DC output side with Rdroop
If the current sharing is equal then the resultant circulating
current becomes zero. There will constant output voltage
from converters. But simultaneous insertion of the series
resistor will cause additional power loss in the system and it
will lead to drop in the load voltage. Rdroop1 and Rdroop2
are corresponding droop value of each converter. The output
power loss can be expressed as,
𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝐼1
2
(𝑅1+ 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 ) + 𝐼2
2
(𝑅2+ 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 ) (10)

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Calculation of droop values based on the proposed figure-
of-merit called droop index. The droop index is considered
function of normalized current sharing difference and output
power losses based on the need of voltage regulation issues
and are given as
Droop Index = min [
1
2
|𝐼1 − 𝐼2| 𝑁+(𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ) 𝑁] (11)
The current sharing and power loss equation can be
modified in terms of parameters of second converter by
introducing new variables x, y and m and given as
𝑥 =
𝑉 𝐷𝐶 1
𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2
,
𝑦 =
𝑅1
𝑅2
,
𝑚 = 𝑅2 + 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2
|𝐼1 − 𝐼2|=|
𝑦 𝑅2+𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2+𝑅 𝐿 𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2−2(𝑥−1)𝑉 𝐷𝐶 2 𝑅 𝐿
𝑚2 𝑦+𝑚 𝑅 𝐿(𝑦+1)
| (12)
Using the modified equation of circulating current and
power loss the minimum droop index is calculated. 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝
value for corressponding converter is selected in such way
that 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 , it is varied from zero and corresponding droop
index value is noted and 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 value for minmum droop
index is selected for further procedure. For the calculation of
minimum droop index by varying𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 , the product of
converter output current and 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 should not increase the
maximum allowable voltage deviation (± 5% nominal
voltage).
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2 Value for minimum droop index value of converter-
2 is droop value. Now the droop value for converter 1 can be
calculated using
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1 =
𝑅1
𝑅2
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2 (13)
The calculated droop value is may not be enough for voltage
regulation. Therefore fine tuning of value is required to
make the output voltage same but since the value is positive
further increase will cause poor load voltage. To avoid this
problem 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 shifting is done. 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 Shifting is done
bases of the converter output value.
If the difference between converter output voltage is
positive then ie;
𝑉𝐷𝐶1 > 𝑉𝐷𝐶2 then,
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1 + (𝑘1 ∗ 𝐼𝐿)
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2 − (𝑘2 ∗ 𝐼𝐿) (14)
If the difference between converter output voltage is
negative then ie;
𝑉𝐷𝐶1 < 𝑉𝐷𝐶2 then ,
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1 − (𝑘2 ∗ 𝐼𝐿)
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2𝑛𝑒𝑤 = 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2 + (𝑘1 ∗ 𝐼𝐿) (15)
And if the converter output voltage values are equal then the
corresponding droop values same as before. The droop
correction factor 𝑘1and 𝑘2 (0.001 and 0.02 respectively)
should be selected such that 𝑘1 < 𝑘2 to maintain load
voltage within the limit.
5. SIMULATION
To check the performance of the droop control method in
different cases, two parallel DC –DC boost converters (24V-
48V) with solar energy as source has been simulated using
MATLAB/SIMULINK. The output cable resistance is
100mΩ for each converter. The control algorithm is verified
for the following cases, (i) Step change in output voltage of
any one converter with both converters with same cable
resistance (a) without droop control Fig.5. (b) With 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝
control method.Fig.7.
Initially up to 1.101s the simulation is done with nominal
value, 48V. During time 1.101-1.3s the converter2 voltage
value is increase by 1% of nominal value, 48.48V and at
time 1.301s the voltage is brought back to 48V.
Fig -: 4 Simulink Model of Parallel converters without
Droop
Then again during time 1.501-1.7s the value is decreased by
1 % of the nominal value, 47.52 V. Then for the rest of the
simulation time the voltage of converter is again brought
back to nominal voltage.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Fig -: 5. Simulation Result of without droop (a) converter
output voltages and load voltage (b) converter output current
and load current (c) circulating current.
From simulation result fig.6. of without droop, it can
observe that the sharing is not proper and has a current
sharing error of 25%.
TABLE -2: SIMULATION RESULTS WITHOUT DROOP
Time
Output values
Vdc1,Vdc2,Vl (V)
I1,I2,Il
(A)
|Ic12|
(A)
0 -1.101 48,48,47.5 2,2,4 0
1.101-1.3 48,48.48,47.4 0.1,3.9,4 1.9
1.501 -1.7 48,47.52,47.4 3.9,0.1,4 1.9
For simulation with novel droop control method, the
𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 1 and 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 2 values are calculated as 0.2Ω and still
there is mismatch output converter voltage.After fine tuning
of 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 voltage is not regulated completely. Then
instantaneous value of 𝑅 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑝 𝑛𝑒𝑤 is introduced with droop
shifting which can improve the current sharing and the
output converter voltage to a constant. Same simulation
pattern is followed for the simulation with droop case as
well.
Fig -: 6 Simulink Model PV wind System with Droop
Control
From the above simulation studies, fig.8. it can be seen that
droop control method gives proper load sharing with
minimum circulating current and improves load voltage.
TABLE I. SIMULATION RESULT WITH DROOP CONTROL.
Time
Output values
Vdc1,Vdc2,Vl
(V)
I1,I2,Il (A) |Ic12| (A)
0 -1.101 48,48,47.9 2,2,4 0
1.101-
1.3
48,48.48,48.1 1.9,2.01,4 0.1
1.501 -
1.7
48,47.52,48.1 2.01,1.9,4 0.1
Fig -: 7. Simulation Result of with droop (a) converter
output voltages (b) load voltage (c) converter output current
and load current (d) circulating current.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
From the above simulation studies, it can be seen that droop
control method gives proper load sharing with minimum
circulating current and improves load voltage. By improving
current sharing we can see that the power sharing has also
been improved. Here, from the graphs it is obsereved that
the circulating current has been reduced to 0.1 A from 1.9
A. Thus relatively equal current sharing accuracy is
achieved by the parallel converters.
CONCLUSION
The performance of droop control method for parallel DC-
DC converter used in standalone photovoltaic wind system
is studied in different cases. The entire energy conversion
system has been designed in MATLAB/SIMULINK
environment. Incremental conductance method of MPPT is
used to track maximum output. The parallel DC- DC boost
converter with sliding mode control technique is used. The
Rdroop values are calculated considering the effect cable
resistance and implemented using virtual impedance
method. For different irradiation of PV array and different
wind speed the droop control the system is tested and
verified. Based on the instantaneous condition the new
Rdroop value is introduced into the system, which will
minimize the circulating current and gives proper sharing.
This droop control technique can be used with any number
of parallel connected converters.
REFERENCES
[1]. S.. Bull, “Renewable energy today and tomorrow,”
Proc. IEEE, vol. 89, no. 8, pp. 1216–1226, Aug.
2001.
[2]. C. Hua and C. Shen, "Study of maximum power
tracking techniques and control of DC/DC converters
for photovoltaic power system," 29th Annual IEEE
Power Electronics Specialists Conference, pp. 86 -
93, 1998.
[3]. Y. Chuanan and Y. Yongchang, "An Improved Hill-
Climbing Method for the Maximum Power Point
Tracking in photovoltaic System," IEEE
International Conference on Machine Vision and
Human-Machine Interface, pp. 530 - 533 2010.
[4]. S. Augustine, M. K. Mishra, and N.
Lakshminarasamma, “Circulating current
minimization and current sharing control of parallel
boost converters based on droop index,” in Proc.
IEEE SDEMPED Conf., Aug. 2013, pp. 454–460.
[5]. S. Anand and B. Fernandes, “Modified droop
controller for paralleling of dc-dc converters in
standalone dc system,” Power Electronics, IET, vol.
5, no. 6, pp. 782 –789, July 2012.
[6]. J.-W. Kim, H.-S. Choi, and B. H. Cho, “A novel
droop method for converter parallel operation,” IEEE
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 25–32,
Jan. 2002.
[7]. S. Anand, B. G. Fernandes, and M. Guerrero,
“Distributed control to ensure proportional load
sharing and improve voltage regulation in low
voltage dc microgrids,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 28, no. 4,pp. 1900–1913, Apr. 2013.
[8]. H.-H. Huang, C.-Y. Hsieh, J.-Y. Liao, and K.-H.
Chen, “Adaptive droop resistance technique for
adaptive voltage positioning in boost dc–dc
converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26,
no. 7, pp. 1920–1932, Jul. 2011.
[9]. Kai Strunz, Ehsan Abbasi, And Duc Nguyen Huu,”
Dc Microgrid For Wind And Solar Power
Integration”, IEEE Journal Of Emerging And
Selected Topics In Power Electronics, Vol. 2, No. 1,
March 2014
[10]. V. Nasirian, A. Davoudi, and F. L. Lewis,
“Distributed adaptive droop control for dc
microgrids,” in Proc. IEEE 29th Annu. PEC, Mar.
2014, pp. 1147–1152.
[11]. M. J. Hossain, Hemanshu Roy Pota, M. Apel
Mahmud,” robust control for power sharing in
microgrids with low-inertia wind and pv generators”,
IEEE transactions on sustainable energy, 2013
[12]. Guerrero, J. Vasquez, J. Matas, L. de Vicua, and M.
Castilla,“Hierarchical control of droop-controlled ac
and dc microgrids: A general approach toward
standardization,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58,
no. 1, pp. 158–172, Jan. 2011.

Droop control method for parallel dc converters used in standalone pv wind power generating system

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to Droop control method for parallel dc converters used in standalone pv wind power generating system (20)

More from eSAT Journals (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Droop control method for parallel dc converters used in standalone pv wind power generating system