2016 IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT-Asia)
Melbourne, Australia, Nov 28 - Dec 1, 2016
Smart Hybrid Nanogrids Using Modular Multiport
Power Electronic Interface
Mehrdad Tarafdar Hagh
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Tabriz, Iran
tarafdar@tabrizu.ac.ir
Abstract
Arrival of the concept of smart grids and
electricity market introduces the demand-side management
(DMS) which leads to controllable loads. Furthermore, by the
rapid penetration of renewable energy sources, such as
photovoltaic (PV) and wind generation systems, operating as
distributed generation systems (DGs), many issues about
utilization of these units have emerged. Smart homes, with the
presence of these units and issues about DMS, have gathered so
much attention to managing the energy from multiple sources,
loads, and the utility grid. This paper introduces a multiport
converter to be used in smart homes and hybrid ac/dc nano-
grids. Beside energy management among generation units and
energy storage devices, this converter is capable of power
management of appliances of the home using various
communication networks. Furthermore a comparison between
optimally tuned proportional integral derivative (PID) and
fractional order proportional integral derivative (FOPID)
controllers has been done. Genetic algorithm (GA) is used for
optimizing the parameters of the controllers. Finally, simulations
of this system are presented.
Keywords
Smart Grid, Demand Side Management (DMS),
Smart Home, Distributed Generation (DG), Multiport Converter,
Energy Management, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID)
Controller, Fractional Order Proportional Integral Derivative
(FOPID) Controller, Genetic Algorithm (GA).
I. INTRODUCTION
Due to environmental pollution concerns and a limited
amount of fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources, generation
units powered by renewable energy sources have gathered so
much attention as a replacement to conventional power [1],
[2].
Penetration of DGs obliges intense changes to the current
grid systems [3]. The conventional grid hampers the expansion
of the DGs which have some problems in conventional utility
grids such as protection problems and voltage ascension [4].
Furthermore, the arrival of electric vehicles (EVs) adds a large
stochastic load onto the system causing extra problems to the
grid. Besides, large energy storage elements (ESEs) would be
required to overcome the issue of the momentary mismatch
between consumption and generation. Microgrids are bright
future for solving the problems of integrating DGs into the
grid. DGs and loads are clustered together, structures known
as microgrids are formed, which merge advantages of various
978-1-5090-4303-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Farid Hamzeh Aghdam
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Tabriz, Iran
f.hamzeh93@ms.tabrizu.ac.ir
nonconventional sources. Nanogrids are smaller and simpler
microgrids, supporting a single building or a single load. Due
to less technical obstacles of nanogrids than microgrids, the
extension of them is in the process [5].
Most of the generation units powered by renewables, such
as PV generation systems and fuel cells, generate dc voltage
and the energy storage devices, such as batteries and
supercapacitors, supply dc power. Besides, most of the
consumer loads such as LEDs and personal computers (PCs),
use dc voltage [6]. Accordingly, dc interface seems necessary
beside ac bus to avoid conversion losses in dc/ac or ac/dc
stages [7].
To increase the reliability and improve the dynamic
response of the system a unified modular topology would be
the best. These converters have the advantages of low cost,
higher power density, and simpler power management [8]. So
a modular multiport structure would have the best results.
Optimal price based energy management and higher
efficiency have caused prevalence by the usage of smart
appliances in home defining the concept of the smart home.
Besides, smart homes are equipped with sensors,
communication tools, and actuators to perform energy
management by turning the smart appliances on and off. Smart
appliances can fulfill the commands of the central controller,
and the controller could manage the usage of the energy based
on market price. Fig. 2 illustrates a smart home with smart
appliances working as a nanogrid using a multiport converter.
Furthermore, the controller has a duty of fulfilling
technical objectives such as regulating the dc bus voltage or
maximum power point tracking. Recently, fractional order
PID (FOPID) controllers, has gotten so much attention in
studies [9, 10]. It is because, with fractional order controllers,
there are more flexibilities in adjusting the gain and phase
characteristics of the system [11].
Home automation systems need communication systems to
transmit control commands to the appliances. A low cost and
flexible Home Area Network (HAN) could be provided by
some protocols such as ZigBee protocol [12].
Smart appliances in a smart home communicate with the
central controller, and appropriate commands are produced.
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For example, by using intelligent light control strategies, user
interactions with light switches are reduced [13]. Also, these
strategies can cause economical operation of the lights.
One of the common methods used for energy management
is load shedding [13]. This method could cause problems
when there are no sheddable loads. Hence, other methods
should be used to have a better response with reliable power.
Fig. 1. Hybrid ac/dc nanogrid with multiple sources, loads, converters, ac
subgrid, dc subgrid and utility grid
Fig. 2. Smart home using a grid connected modular multiport converter and
smart appliances with the presence of PV and energy storage device.
In this work, energy management in a smart home based on
a multiport converter is introduced. Due to the presence of
renewable and energy storage devices this home could be
considered as a nanogrid. This converter would be responsible
for energy management among utility grid, energy storage
elements, and renewable energy sources such as PV as well as
smart home appliances. The purpose of energy management
system is to manage power consumption and storing extra
energy in energy storage elements to be used later. ZigBee
enabled sensor network is used to collect the data from various
appliances and sources. In the case of access to electricity
price, the system should lead the energy usage to the hours
with low price to minimize the cost.
The multi-port converter is introduced in section II. The
home energy management system is presented in section III.
In section IV the FOPID controllers for the converter is
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presented. Also, it contains comparison results of GA
optimized FOPID and PID controllers. Finally, simulations of
energy management are presented in section V the
effectiveness of the converter is shown.
II. PROPOSED MULTI-PORT CONVERTER
The topology of the multi-port converter circuit is
introduced in this section. The circuit has the duty of
dispatching the input renewable or conventional power either
to energy storage elements, dc loads or to the ac bus, ac loads,
and the utility grid. A bidirectional topology would be
necessitated to share the power among multiple dc sources.
Also, the proposed topology should have the capability of
stepping up and stepping down the voltage for multiple
purposes such as controlling the dc link voltage in low voltage
systems. Non-isolated bidirectional buck-boost converter can
fulfill the purpose of both stepping up and stepping down the
voltage level and also have the ability to processing power in
two directions. Fig. 3 illustrates the circuit topology in details
with the presence of multiple energy sources, various loads,
ESEs, a bi-directional inverter and the utility grid. This
topology could be best called a multi-input power electronic
interface because it is interfacing multiple energy sources, dc,
and ac subgrids and also there is an H-bridge bi-directional
inverter interfacing the ac subgrid. This structure can step
up/down the voltage in both directions. Furthermore, it can
provide discontinues current for battery pulse
charging/discharging which has many advantages over the
traditional constant current/constant voltage protocol, i.e.
enhancement of the charging rate capability, preventing the
increment of the internal impedance of the battery and
reducing the total charging time [14, 15]. Although, it needs a
big capacitor in PV input to have a continuous current for
maximum power point tracking purposes.
In this paper, this multiport converter is used in a smart
home energy management system. The energy management
system commands each interface to process its input power.
The energy management system should fulfill technical
requirements such as r
Battery
S21 S22
L2
+ -
S11 S12 Bidirectional
DC/AC
PV Panel L1
DC Bus Inverter
+ AC Grid
-
DC Loads
AC Appliances
S31 S32
L3
Fig. 3. Circuit topology of the proposed multiport structure in the presence of
PV panel, battery, dc loads, ac loads and the utility grid.
 III. HOME ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Home energy management system (HEMS) allows
connection of smart home appliances to the network with the
purpose of remote energy management. The main purpose of
HEMS is to decrease electricity payment and provide the
needs of the customer. The best strategy for HEMS adjusts the
control settings of each load on the variation of the electricity
price and the preferred comfort level etc. [16]. Besides, due to
the presence of renewable and battery, the control strategy
should address the technical requirements as well, such as
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of the renewable
based sources, charging strategy of the battery, etc.
Communication protocols are used for communication
between the appliances and the central controller. These
protocols could be free to use for all or open to all licensed or
owner types. Fig. 4 demonstrates the main protocols used in
the end consumers. The following contains explanations of
some of these protocols.
ZigBee protocol is a wireless networking standard with a
low transfer rate, which is designed for automation and
control. It uses IEEE 802.15.4 standard as radio layer [17].
X10 is another communication protocol, which enables
control of the home appliances through the wiring [18].
BACnet is a data communication protocol that could be used
for building automation and control networks. It is the national
standard in more than thirty countries, including the United
States and European countries, and an ISO global standard
Fig. 4. Protocols used in the customer electric system.
[19].
The main goals of the HEMS are to manage and save
For instance, using the data of passive infrared (PIR) sensors,
energy and to supply the loads with minimum cost. A sensor
human motion in a room can be detected. By sensing the
network could be used for saving power and reduction of
absence of residents in a room commands to dimming or
unnecessary power consumption [13]. Minimizing user
turning off the lights or reducing the air conditioning power
interaction by estimating the desired command can lead to
could be generated. Also, if a movement in the room is
flexibility and user satisfaction.
detected, the lights should be turned back on, and air
The multiport converter collects data from smart
conditioning system starts to operate at the desired level of
appliances and estimates the current consumption status. A
satisfaction.
track on average energy consumption of the smart home is
If the operation of the smart appliances can be delayed, the
kept using a dedicated memory. Using this information, the
energy management controller would decide about the time of
energy needed for similar periods of time could be predicted
activation of those appliances based on real time price of
and in this way, the converter executes energy management
energy. This procedure would result in a decrement of the
commands. The controller tries to sell the electricity to the
costs of electricity. For example, Dish Washer machines can
grid when the price is high and buys electricity when it is
operate at the time of low price of energy.
cheap. This energy management would improve the load
Despite all these commands which provide the comfort of
factor and does peak shaving that is important to utility
the occupants, there are some unsheddable loads such as a
companies.
fridge that should always have access to the electricity and the
The communication protocol, i.e. ZigBee, enables the
converter should supply them.
converter to communicate with smart appliances and collect
In energy management system, there should be a means of
data from various regions of the smart home and respectively
interface with the user. Personal computers could provide this
execute commands. Sensors notify the converter about the
interface. A PC can either directly connect to the controller
status of home regions and the presence of residents. By
using serial communication (UART) or other communication
processing the data, controlling the actuators or smart
protocols. Also by using HTTP protocols, the converter is
appliances is done to supply some necessary services or cut
capable of communicating with smartphones and laptops as an
off unnecessary appliances. This will lead to energy saving
interface. Using this interface the user can decide on energy
regardless of the price.
management method which can be either economical or non-
economical. Also, the user can select manual or automatic
operation of the appliances.

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 IV. FOPID CONTROLLERS TABLE III
SIMULATION RESULTS
The fractional order PID (FOPID) controller is an
expansion of PID controller based on fractional calculations ITSE MP (%) Tr
which are represented by fractional order    with transfer
function brought in presented in equation (1) [11]. FOPID 1.121 1.04 0.16
 
    
 

(1)
TID 1.094 0 0.13
Fig. 5 shows the block diagram of the FOPID controller. E(s)
is the error and U(s) is the controlling signal.
Due to using non-integer values, this controller has more
freedom in tuning its parameters and more flexibility
comparing with the classical PID controllers.
The system has been modeled in Simulink environment,
and the response of the system for the input voltage variations
has been observed. The purpose is to regulate the output
voltage of one of the stages on 120V, by controlling the duty
cycle of the switch.
Genetic algorithm (GA) has been used to optimize the
parameters of the controllers. In this study, the integral of the
time-weighted squared error (ITSE), is used as a fitness
Fig. 5. The input voltage of one of the stages which are supposed to be
function. The purpose of the GA is to find the parameters of controlled.
PID and FOPID controllers that minimize the ITSE criteria.
Mathematical description of the ITSE is given below where e
is the error signal.



     
(2)

GA programming results of the PID and FOPID controllers
are given in Tables I and II, respectively.
The variations in the input voltage of the stage are shown in
fig. 6. Regarding the variations, the controller has tried to
regulate the output voltage of the stage at 120 V. Fig. 7
demonstrates the output voltage of the converter using both
controllers.
The ITSE, maximum percentage overshoot (Mp) and rising
time (Tr) for both controllers are brought in Table III. Fig. 6. The input voltage of one of the stages which are supposed to be
controlled.
It is obvious that FOPID controller has less overshoot, less,
less rise time and so little steady state error (less than 0.1%)
and the response of the system for has been improved
compared to a system controlled by a PID controller.
TABLE I
GA RESULTS FOR PID

Parameter(PID) Value
 0.0617
 9.5332e-4
 0.22686

TABLE II
GA RESULTS FOR FOPID

Parameter(FOPID) Value
Fig. 7. The input voltage of one of stages which are controlled.
 0.0271
 0.2214 V. SIMULATIONS AND CASE STUDY
 0.0016
 0.7075 In this section, simulations in MATLAB software for the
 0.9998 proposed converter would be presented. A load shedding
signal is sent through the communication protocol to

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disconnect an ac sheddable load. Fig. 8 shows the ac current
change of the ac nanogrid as a result of the command.
This load shedding could be as a result of either an
increment in electricity price or turning off appliances due to
the sensors detection of the absence of occupants such as
turning off the air conditioning system in an empty room.
The converter should perform MPPT for the PV panel
during different times of the day. Also, the converter should
charge the battery at times with low cost of electricity. Fig. 9
shows charging current of the battery. The energy

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management system commands to stop charging the battery as


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a result of the increment in the price of electricity and then
because there is extra energy it commands to discharge the
battery and sell it to the utility grid.
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Fig. 8. Load shedding command and reduction of load current.
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has shown better overshoot and rising time. Finally, the
proposed converter has been simulated for energy
management and fulfilling both economic and technical goals.
The FOPID controller has been used as the central controller.
The energy management system should control the appliances
as well as tracking the MPP. All simulations have been done
on Simulink/MATLAB.
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Fig. 9. Battery charging and discharging current followed by commands of
energy management system.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a smart home energy management system
based on a multi-port converter has been addressed. First, the
topology of the converter has been explained. Then home
energy management system (HEMS) has been explained.
Various communication protocols have been introduced, and
strategies of energy management among home appliances,
renewable energy sources, energy storage elements and utility
grid have been discussed. Using GA, the parameters of an
FOPID and PID controllers have been optimized for the
proposed converter. The comparison between the responses of
the system for both controllers is discussed. FOPID controller
622
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