Hybrid AC/DC microgrid architecture with comprehensive control strategy for energy management of smart building

Abstract The permeability of distributed generations (DGs) is affected because of their uncertainty and randomness, and the traditional architecture of microgrid with conventional power transformer is unsuitable for smart building due to its uncontrollability and vulnerability to interference. In this article, a hybrid ac/dc microgrid architecture for smart building is proposed to increase the penetration of DGs and to isolate the interference to the grid. Thus, the system safety and stability can be ensured in a changeable and complicated grid environment. The advantages of this architecture include (1) the full use of the controllability of the modular multilevel converter based solid state transformer (MMC-SST), (2) the complementary characteristic of time and space of DGs, (3) and the peak shaving capacity of energy storage systems (ESSs). The characteristics of typical operating modes, i.e. grid-connected mode and off-grid mode are analyzed, and the comprehensive control strategy combining with the characteristic of each mode is designed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and the comprehensive control strategy is validated by a simulation platform.