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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Under existing grid operations, generation is dominantly in the purview of large fossil-fuel-driven generators and their collective rotational inertia forms a stiff backbone for the bulk power system. With increased integration of distributed energy resources, the energy infrastructure is expected to become increasingly distributed in both form and function. Advances in power semiconductors and their myriad applications in renewable energy imply that next-generation energy conversion interfaces will be predominantly power electronic rather than mechanical. To enable scalable solutions, a bottom-up approach to system design is promoted which relies on adaptive, modular, and self-organizing power electronics. Along these lines, we introduce a method called virtual oscillator control (VOC) which is based on digitally programming power electronic inverters to emulate nonlinear oscillators. Drawing inspiration from diverse research areas such as systems biology, physics, and chemistry, VOC is used to construct a self-synchronizing ac power systems whose stable operation emerges innately by design. In one portion of the talk, we apply notions of input-output stability to demonstrate that the intrinsic electrical coupling between inverters spontaneously leads to system-wide synchronization with no additional communication. In addition, we utilize averaging and perturbation methods to analyze the quasi-steady-state behavior of VOC and we show that the ubiquitous droop relations observed in power systems are naturally embedded within its dynamics. Lastly, we outline a systematic design procedure, delineate aspects of practical implementation, and demonstrate several experimental results.
Host: Misha Chertkov