Distributed load-side frequency regulation for power systems

Abstract

This paper studies frequency control of power systems by coordinating generation-side control and load-side control with nonlinear network-preserving models. A distributed consensus-based controller is designed for each bus in the transmission network. The total power imbalance of the system is discovered periodically by a distributed consensus mechanism, and then compensated by both generators and controllable loads accordingly. It is shown in simulation studies that the proposed method can achieve frequency regulation more effectively than the traditional automatic generation control (AGC) and reduce the needed system spinning reserve significantly. The impact of renewables on the system frequency under the designed control method is also discussed systematically in this paper.