DC Microgrids with Nested Nonlinear Distributed Control: Scalable Large-Signal Stability and Voltage Containment

Abstract: This paper investigates a cyber-physical DC microgrid employing a nonlinear distributed consensus-based control scheme for coordinated integration and management of distributed generating units within an expandable framework. Relying on nested primary andsecondary control loops; a (distributed) outer-loop and a (decentralized) inner-loop, the controller achieves proportional current sharing among all distributed generation units, while dynamically operating within predefined voltage limits. A rigorous Lyapunov-based stability analysis establishes a scalable global exponential stability certificate under some tuning conditions and sufficient time-scale separation between the control loops, based on singular perturbation theory. An optimization-based tuning strategy is then formulated to identify and subsequently diminish unstable operating conditions. In turn, various practical tuning strategies are introduced to provide stable operations while facilitating near-optimal proportional current sharing. The effectiveness of the proposed control framework and tuning approaches are finally supported through time-domain simulations of a case-specific low-voltage DC microgrid.