Load Frequency Control in Isolated Micro-Grids with Electrical Vehicles Based on Multivariable Generalized Predictive Theory

In power systems, although the inertia energy in power sources can partly cover power unbalances caused by load disturbance or renewable energy fluctuation, it is still hard to maintain the frequency deviation within acceptable ranges. However, with the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technique, electric vehicles (EVs) can act as mobile energy storage units, which could be a solution for load frequency control (LFC) in an isolated grid. In this paper, a LFC model of an isolated micro-grid with EVs, distributed generations and their constraints is developed. In addition, a controller based on multivariable generalized predictive control (MGPC) theory is proposed for LFC in the isolated micro-grid, where EVs and diesel generator (DG) are coordinated to achieve a satisfied performance on load frequency. A benchmark isolated micro-grid with EVs, DG, and wind farm is modeled in the Matlab/Simulink environment to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrate that with MGPC, the energy stored in EVs can be managed intelligently according to LFC requirement. This improves the system frequency stability with complex operation situations including the random renewable energy resource and the continuous load disturbances. OPEN ACCESS Energies 2015, 8 2146