H∞ control of microgrids involving gas turbine engines and batteries

This paper proposes a new power management control method for microgrids based on H∞ control theory. Microgrid systems consist of distributed power sources such as cogeneration systems and photovoltaic systems with batteries. In general, power generation by photovoltaic systems and power consumption of various loads cause large fluctuations depending on weather conditions and varied lifestyles. Moreover, efficient management of battery capacity is a critical issue to prolong the battery life. Therefore, in power management control of microgrids, it is necessary to take account of a number of aspects such as power balancing performance, maintaining battery capacity, and robustness against power fluctuations. For such multiobjective control problems, we apply H∞ control theory which offers a unified robust control method with desirable power balancing performance and efficient battery management. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.