DC Microgrid for Power Sharing Model: Control Techniques Analysis

In recent years, because of the energy crisis and fossil fuels depletion, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are more and more deployed to meet the energy demand and their strategic importance is rising more than ever. Most of them are natively sources in DC, moreover many loads, such as electric vehicles and most electronic devices, are natively loads in DC too. The latest European directives introduced the concepts of Renewable Energy Communities (REC) and collective self consumption. These communities are increasingly attractive and, considering that the collective self consumption (as power sharing) can be easily applied when the community is based on a DC microgrid, this network topology is more and more developed and studied. In this paper, the authors want to investigate the possible control approaches suitable for the management of a DC microgrid designed to realize collective self-consumption through a power sharing model. A possible architecture for the DC microgrid is presented, highlighting the main elements which can be actively included in control algorithms and the main tasks to be pursued. Different control approaches are analysed and compared, highlighting the main benefits and limits of specific applications and configurations.