Multi-objective voltage and frequency regulation in autonomous microgrids using Pareto-based Big Bang-Big Crunch algorithm

Abstract Voltage and frequency regulation is one of the most vital issues in autonomous microgrids to ensure an acceptable electric power quality supply to customers. In this paper, a real-time control structure including power, voltage, and current control loops is proposed for microgrid inverters to restore voltage and frequency of the system after the initiation and load changes. The Proportional-Integral (PI) gains of the voltage controller are optimized in a real-time basis after a perturbation in the microgrid to have a fast and smooth response and a more stable system. The current controller produces Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation command signals to be fed into the three-leg inverter. The multi-objective optimization problem has objective functions of voltage overshoot/undershoot, rise time, settling time, and Integral Time Absolute Error (ITAE). The modified Multi-Objective Hybrid Big Bang-Bing Crunch (MOHBB-BC) algorithm is employed as one of efficient evolutionary algorithms in order to solve the optimization problem. The MOHBB-BC method obtains a set of Pareto optimal solutions; a fuzzy decision maker is used to pick up the most preferred Pareto solution as the final solution of the problem. Results from testing the control strategy on a case study are discussed and compared with previous works; according to them, the proposed method is able to obtain dynamic PI regulator gains to have a more appropriate response.