Stabilization of DC Microgrids Using Frequency-Decomposed Fractional-Order Control and Hybrid Energy Storage

Abstract

In DC microgrids, the combination of pulsed loads and renewable energy sources significantly impairs system stability, especially in highly dynamic operating environments. The resilience and reaction time of conventional proportional–integral (PI) controllers are often inadequate when managing the nonlinear dynamics of hybrid energy storage systems. This research suggests a frequency-decomposed fractional-order control strategy for stabilizing DC microgrids with solar, batteries, and supercapacitors. The control architecture divides system disturbances into low- and high-frequency components, assigning high-frequency compensation to the ultracapacitor (UC) and low-frequency regulation to the battery, while a fractional-order controller (FOC) enhances dynamic responsiveness and stability margins. The proposed approach is implemented and assessed in MATLAB/Simulink (version R2023a) using comparison simulations against a conventional PI-based control scheme under scenarios like pulsed load disturbances and fluctuations in renewable generation. Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), a metaheuristic optimization procedure, has been used to tune the parameters of the FOPI controller. The obtained results using the same conditions were compared using an optimal fractional-order PI controller (FOPI) and a conventional PI controller. The microgrid with the best FOPI controller was found to perform better than the one with the PI controller. Consequently, the objective function is reduced by 80% with the proposed optimal FOPI controller. The findings demonstrate that the proposed method significantly enhances DC bus voltage management, reduces overshoot and settling time, and lessens battery stress by effectively coordinating power sharing with the supercapacitor. Also, the robustness of the proposed controller against parameters variations has been proven.