Dual Active Bridge as a High-Frequency Converter Link for Active Power Flow Control in Clustered DC Microgrids

Developing an electric grid which is sustainable and secure requires harvesting as much renewable energy as possible. As sources powered by DC, ESS (energy storage systems) and devices acting as load incorporated in electric power systems grow in popularity, Microgrids based on direct current are becoming increasingly popular. Even so, clustered DC Microgrids are being considered as a cost-effective solution to cope with widespread distributed generation, ESS and loads that can be controlled. The effective clustering of DC Microgrids has also been made possible by the use of Interconnecting Converters (ICs) which function as energy routers, connecting and managing interconnections between clustered DC Microgrids. Dual Active Bridge (DAB), a Bidirectional Isolated DC-DC Converter (BIDC) is considered as most often utilized topology as a High Frequency Converter Link (HFL) for regulating active power flow in the clustered DC Microgrids. DAB gives advantages of electrical isolation, bi-directional flow of power, high power density and straightforward soft-switching management. DAB based Power Flow Converter (PFC) regulates the power flow by incorporating and regulating voltage at the interface of the two clustered DC Microgrids. The PFC constitutes a cascaded connection of DAB and full-bridge DC-DC converter, which inserts in series a dynamic voltage within the power transmission line used in clustering DC Microgrids in order to attain the regulation of the flow of active power. The performance characteristics of a high frequency DAB DC-DC converter and its involvement as a core component (of PFC) for controlling the active power flowing in the DC MG cluster is presented in this paper. Simulation results showcased in this paper are obtained in Matlab