Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC 2014, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 28 September 1 October 2014

Cooperative Control of DC Microgrid Storage for

Energy Balancing and Equal Power Sharing
Thomas Morstyn, Branislav Hredzak
and Vassilios G. Agelidis

Georgios Demetriades

Australian Energy Research Institute

School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia
t.morstyn@student.unsw.edu.au, b.hredzak@unsw.edu.au
and vassilios.agelidis@unsw.edu.au

AbstractThis paper proposes a distributed multi-agent cooperative control system for dynamic energy balancing between
storage devices in droop controlled DC microgrids. With the
traditional droop control strategy, line resistances between DC
microgrid energy storage devices and loads will cause unequal
power sharing. The proposed control system modifies the output
power of the droop controlled storage devices so that they reach
a balanced energy level. Once a balanced energy level has been
reached, the cooperative control system maintains equal power
sharing between the storage devices. This ensures that the storage
devices will not prematurely run out of energy, so their full output
power capacity is available to regulate the microgrid voltage.
Simulations have been completed showing that the cooperative
control system is able to maintain voltage regulation in situations
for which the traditional droop control fails.
Index TermsBatteries, DC microgrids, distributed cooperative control, droop control, multi-agent systems.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Distributed renewable generation sources can provide increased network reliability, pollution reduction and facilitate
electrification in remote areas. However, the intermittent nature
of renewable generation sources can reduce network power
quality, stability and availability. Microgrids have gained popularity as a means for increasing the penetration of intermittent
distributed renewable generation sources while maintaining
network power quality [1]. A microgrid is a group of loads,
generation sources and energy storage (ES) devices which can
operate while connected to the main grid, or autonomously in
an islanded mode when disconnected [2].
DC microgrids present a range of benefits over AC microgrids for low voltage distribution systems. Many renewable
generation sources including photovoltaic cells and fuel cells,
as well as ES technologies such as batteries and flywheels, produce DC power and require inverters in an AC microgrid [3].
Also, DC loads such as computers, LED lighting and variable
speed drives are becoming more prevalent. With fewer power
converters network efficiency and reliability are improved [4].
DC networks do not suffer from the skin effect [5] and since
the voltage level of a DC system is stable, a higher RMS voltage level can be used than in an AC system for a given level of

ABB AB Corporate Research

Forskargrand 721 78, Vasteras, Sweden
georgios.demetriades@se.abb.com

insulation [6]. DC microgrids have been proposed for a range

of applications, including electrification of villages in remote
areas and developing nations [7], high power quality distribution for hospitals, banks and semiconductor factories [8]
and increased renewable energy integration [9]. Challenges
associated with DC microgrid protection are addressed in [10].
When operating in islanded mode, ES devices can be used
to balance the microgrid power demand, allowing intermittent
renewable generation sources to operate at their maximum
point point while maintaining network stability [5]. Utilising
distributed ES devices rather than a single centralised ES
device improves microgrid reliability since it removes a single
point of failure and allows loads to be fed by nearby ES
devices. V P droop control can be used to facilitate power
sharing between distributed ES devices in DC microgrids [11].
The ES devices reduce their output power when the microgrid
voltage rises. Since the steady state voltage of a DC network
varies with the power injected into it, voltage regulation is
maintained and the microgrid demand is shared between the
ES devices without requiring time critical communication
links.
However, droop control has several limitations when used to
facilitate power sharing between ES devices in DC microgrids.
Since the output power set by the droop control is based on
the locally measured voltage, the voltage drop across the lines
between the ES devices will lead to unequal power between
them [12]. This means that even if the ES devices begin at the
same energy level some will prematurely run out of energy.
Once a storage device has run out of energy it can no longer
use its power capacity to maintain voltage regulation in the
microgrid. This is a particular problem in the case of battery
storage, which suffers from significant lifetime deterioration
if certain energy level limits are violated [13]. Unequal power
sharing will also lead to increased temperature in battery
storage devices and power converters, reducing component
lifetimes and efficiency [14].
A control strategy for energy balancing between droop
controlled DC microgrid storage devices is proposed in [15].
Energy balancing is achieved by modifying the V P droop

Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC 2014, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 28 September 1 October 2014

V A

Battery

+
-

PI Voltage
Controller

PWM

Cooperative
Controller

Local State

Neighbour
States

Fig. 1. BESS block diagram.

control of each storage device based on the average energy

level of the other storage devices. In [16] a strategy for equal
power sharing between ES in DC microgrids is proposed based
on the same principle, with each ES device adjusting its output
power based on the average output power of the other ES
devices. Although these control strategies do not require a
central controller they are not fully distributed, in the sense that
each ES device requires information from all other devices in
the microgrid, and therefore a fully connected communication
network is required [17]. Distributed control systems based
on neighbour to neighbour communication require only a
sparse communication network and have advantages in terms
of robustness, extensibility and flexibility [18].
In this paper a distributed cooperative control system is
proposed which provides energy balancing and equal power
sharing between distributed storage devices in DC microgrids.
The droop controlled ES devices modify their output power
based on neighbour to neighbour communication so that they
reach a balanced energy state, and maintain equal power
sharing once it has been achieved. By balancing the energy
level between the ES devices, the cooperative control system
ensures that none of the ES devices will prematurely run
out of energy so the full power capacity of the ES devices
is available to regulate the microgrid voltage. Equal power
sharing between the ES devices in steady state will also
increase the lifetime of battery storage devices and power
converter components in the DC microgrid. Simulations have
been completed demonstrating that the cooperative control system provides improved voltage regulation over the traditional
droop control strategy.
II. BATTERY E NERGY S TORAGE S YSTEM
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) can be used to
provide DC microgrid storage. A block diagram of a BESS is
shown in Fig. 1. The BESS includes a battery, bidirectional
DC-DC converter and control system.

A bidirectional DC-DC converter is required to incorporate

battery storage into the DC microgrid, and is controlled to
inject or absorb power as required to balance power generation
and demand. In [19] a high power bidirectional pulse width
modulated (PWM) DC-DC converter topology is proposed
with a smooth transition between the charging and discharging
modes, allowing the same controller to be used for both.
The BESS includes a V P droop controller which sets
the DC-DC converter output voltage reference based on a
measurement of the DC-DC converter output power, which has
been passed through a low pass filter to remove fast transient
disturbances. A PI voltage controller sets the duty cycle of
the DC-DC converter to achieve the desired output voltage.
The droop controller is modified by a power reference set by
the cooperative control system to achieve energy balancing
between the BESS based on the local BESS state and the
state of its neighbours in the communication network. For the
traditional droop control strategy the power reference is set to
zero.
A. BESS Small-Signal Model
The cooperative control system was designed based on a
six state small-signal state-space model of the BESS. Smallsignal models were derived for the droop controller (5), voltage
controller (9) and battery (12). These were combined with the
DC-DC converter small-signal model (13) from [19] to obtain
the overall small-signal state-space model.
Let x be the BESS state vector,
T

x = E P iL v1 v2 .
E is the BESS energy level, P is the filtered output power,
is an internal state variable of the voltage controller, iL is
the inductor current, v1 is the DC-DC converter output voltage
and v2 is the input voltage. The overall small-signal state-space
model for the BESS is given by
x = Ax + Bu.

(1)

0
0
0
Be

0
A
0
B
p
p

A=

0
B1
0
B2
0 Bdc Cd1 Cv1 Bdc Cd3 Adc + Bdc Cd2

T
B = 0 0 B3 Bdc Cd1 Cv2 .
B. Droop Control
The BESS droop control is based on a filtered measurement
of the DC-DC converter output power P ,
c
p, where p = v1 i1 .
(2)
P =
s + c
The V P droop control equation is given by
v = VM G m(P P ).

(3)

In this equation VM G is the microgrid voltage reference, m

is the droop coefficient and P is the droop control power
reference, which is achieved when the output voltage matches

Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC 2014, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 28 September 1 October 2014

the microgrid voltage reference. The droop coefficient is set

so that
Vmax
.
(4)
m=
Pmax
Vmax is the maximum voltage deviation allowed in the
microgrid and Pmax is the maximum output power of the
DC-DC converter [11]. The droop controller small-signal statespace model is given by

iL


 
P = Ap P + Bp v1
(5)
v2


= Cv1 P + Cv2 P

Ap = c , Bp = 0

c VH
R1

(6)

0 , Cv1 = m, Cv2 = m.

C. Voltage Controller
A PI voltage controller is used to set the duty cycle of
the PWM DC-DC converter to achieve the voltage reference
set by the droop control. The state equations for the voltage
controller are given by
= v v1

(7)

d = Do + kpv (v v1 ) + kiv .

(8)

The voltage controller small-signal state-space model is given

by

iL




 
= B1 P + B2 v1 + B3 P
(9)
v2


d = Cd1 v

iL
 
+ Cd2 v1 + Cd3
v2


B1 = m, B2 = 0


Cd1 = kpv , Cd2 = 0 kpv

(10)

E. DC-DC Converter
The DC-DC converter model parameters include the inductance L, inductor parasitic resistance RL , MOSFET onresistance Rdson , low voltage side capacitance CL , high
voltage side capacitance CH , bus connection resistance R1
and battery internal resistance R2 . A small-signal state-space
model for the DC-DC converter is provided in [19],

iL
iL
 
v1 = Adc v1 + Bdc d .
(13)
v2
v2
III. C OOPERATIVE C ONTROL
In a distributed multi-agent cooperative control system autonomous agents pursue a common goal through communication with their neighbours in a sparse communication network.
In this paper the goal of the cooperative control system is for
the BESS agents to reach a balanced energy state and once it
has been achieved to maintain it through equal power sharing.
The communication network can be described by a directed
graph G = {V, E}, where V = {1, ..., N } is the set of N
nodes, each associated with a BESS, and E is the set of edges
of the graph. An edge (i, j) E if there is a link allowing
information to flow from node i to node j. Let the neighbours
of node i be Ni , where j Ni if (j, i) E. Assume the graph
is strongly connected, so there is a set of edges providing a
path between every pair of nodes. Let the graph adjacency
matrix be
(14)
A = [aij ] RN N ,

1, (j, i) E
aij =
0, otherwise.
The graph degree matrix is given by
D = diag(di ), where di =

aij .

(15)

j=1


0 , B3 = m,

0 , Cd3 = kiv .

D. Battery
The first order lithium ion battery energy model from [20]
is used. To prevent significant deterioration of the batterys
life, the energy level should be kept between 20% and 80% of
the full capacity. Within these bounds the battery is modelled
as an ideal 48V source. The battery energy state equation is
given by
2
vbatt v2 vbatt
.
(11)
E =
R2
The battery small-signal state-space model is given by

iL


 
batt
E = Be v1 , Be = 0 0 vR
.
2
v2

(12)

The graph Laplacian matrix is given by L = D A.

Energy balancing can be achieved with a local voting
cooperative control protocol, where the local droop control
power reference is set based on the difference between the
local BESS state and the state of the neighbouring BESS. If
each BESS has the same number of incoming communication
links as it has outgoing links the consensus reached will be
equal to the average of their initial states [17]. With the local
voting protocol the droop control power reference for BESS i
is given by

aij (xj xi )
(16)
Pi = cK
jNi

where K is the state variable feedback control matrix and c is

a scalar coupling gain chosen to ensure stability of the closed
loop graph dynamics [17]. The closed loop dynamics of BESS
i are described by

aij (xj xi ).
(17)
xi = Axi + cBK
jNi

Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC 2014, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 28 September 1 October 2014

Islanded

Main Grid

Bus 1

Bus 2

Bus 3

Bus 4

380VDC/
48VDC

Fig. 2. 4 bus DC microgrid. The BESS are connected by bidirectional

communication links.
TABLE I
S IMULATION PARAMETERS
Battery
48 V
25 kWh
20 kWh
5 kWh

Transmission Line
Rline
Lline

0.5
30 H

Droop Controller
Pmax
m
VM G
c

20 kW
1.0103
380 V
10 rad/s

A presents the traditional droop control simulation. Case B

presents the cooperative control simulation and demonstrates
the improvement in terms of voltage regulation which the
cooperative control system provides.
A. Case A: Traditional Droop Control

Transmission Line
Communication Link

vbatt
Etotal
Emax
Emin

Voltage Controller
kpv
kiv

-1.0106
-1.0105

DC-DC Converter
L
RL
Rdson
R1
R2
CH
CL

6.25
9.00
8.75
50.0
1.00
72.0
7.20

H
m
m
m
m
mF
mF

IV. C ASE S TUDIES

Simulations were carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed dynamic energy balancing cooperative
control system and the improvement it can provide in terms
of voltage regulation over traditional droop control.
The simulations were carried out for a four bus islanded
DC microgrid shown in Fig 2. The BESS are connected
to their neighbours in the DC microgrid via bidirectional
communication links. A microgrid voltage range of 380V 5%
(360V to 400V) has been selected based on the standards
proposed for DC low voltage distribution by the ETSI and
EMerge Alliance [6]. Each bus has a 2kW constant power
load. A BESS consisting of a 20kW rated bidirectional DCDC converter and 25kWh lithium ion battery is connected to
each bus. The buses are connected by 100m of 5.5mm2 CU
cable. As in [3] the cables have been modelled as series RL
circuits. The simulations have been carried out using the nonlinear averaged model for the BESS DC-DC converters which
was validated in [19]. The simulation parameters are provided
in Table I.
Consider the case where the microgrid is islanded for four
hours and the BESS begin with energy levels between their
maximum 80% energy level of 20kWh and minimum 20%
energy level of 5 kWh. Since the DC microgrid is islanded the
2kW load at each bus must be supplied by the BESS. Case

Initially the loads are evenly distributed in the DC microgrid, and are each fed by their local BESS so the traditional
droop control strategy provides equal power sharing. The
BESS energy levels fall at an equal rate as shown in Fig. 3(a).
The bus 4 BESS reaches the 20% minimum acceptable energy
level of 5kWh after 80 minutes. To prevent deterioration of
the lithium ion battery lifetime a PI controller is used to
reduce the BESS output power to zero. As shown in Fig. 3(b)
in accordance with the droop control strategy the microgrid
bus voltages fall in response to the change in supply power
until power is once again balanced in the microgrid. However,
since the loads are no longer evenly distributed with respect
to the remaining BESS in the microgrid, the load is not
shared equally between them, as shown in Fig. 3(c). After 200
minutes the bus 2 and 3 BESS have also run out energy, and
the bus 3 and 4 voltages fall below the minimum acceptable
limit of 360V.
B. Case B: Cooperative Control
Linear quadratic regulator design was used to design the
cooperative control system state variable feedback control
matrix K. With the cooperative control system the energy
levels of the BESS converge so that none of the BESS reach
the minimum energy level over the four hours of islanded
operation, as shown in Fig. 4(a). Fig. 4(b) shows that the
microgrid bus voltages stay within the limits of 360V to 400V.
As the energy levels of the BESS converge the microgrid load
is equally shared between the BESS, as shown in Fig. 4(c).
The dynamic energy balancing cooperative control system
successfully regulates the microgrid voltage and provides
equal power sharing between the BESS in steady state.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper a distributed multi-agent cooperative control
system has been proposed which provides dynamic energy
balancing between storage devices in droop controlled DC
microgrids. By balancing the energy levels of the storage
devices the cooperative control system ensures that none will
prematurely run out of energy, so their full output power
capacity is available to regulate the microgrid voltage. Simulations have been completed demonstrating the improvement
the cooperative control system can provide in terms of voltage
regulation over traditional droop control. Once the storage
devices reach a balanced energy level the proposed control
system maintains equal power sharing between them, which
is not provided by traditional droop control. The cooperative
control system only requires a sparse communication network
providing neighbour to neighbour communication, offering
advantages in terms of robustness, extensibility and flexibility

Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference, AUPEC 2014, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 28 September 1 October 2014

20
Bus
Bus
Bus
Bus

15

1
2
3
4

Energy Level (kWh)

Energy Level (kWh)

20

10

60

120
Time (min)

180

15

60

120
Time (min)

180

240

(a) Case B. Cooperative control BESS energy levels.

400

400

390

390

380

380

Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)

1
2
3
4

10

240

Bus
Bus
Bus
Bus

(a) Case A. Traditional droop control BESS energy levels.

370
360
350
340

370
360
350

60

120
Time (min)

180

340

240

(b) Case A. Traditional droop control BESS bus voltages.

60

120
Time (min)

180

240

(b) Case B. Cooperative control BESS bus voltages.

12
10
Output Power (kW)

Output Power (kW)

10
8
6
4
2
0

-5
0

60

120
Time (min)

180

240

(c) Case A. Traditional droop control BESS output powers.

Fig. 3. Case A. Traditional droop control simulation. Initially power is equally
shared between the BESS since the loads are equally distributed in the DC
microgrid. After 80 minutes the bus 4 BESS reaches the minimum energy
level and its output power is driven to zero. Following this, power is not
equally shared between the remaining BESS. After 200 minutes the bus 2
and 3 BESS have reached the minimum energy level and the bus 3 and 4
voltages fall below the minimum voltage level of 360V.

over centralised control strategies. The cooperative control system design procedure guarantees system stability and allows
the speed of energy convergence to be traded-off against the
power used for energy balancing.
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