Electric Vehicle-based Virtual Inertia and Damping for Enhanced Frequency Response in Low-Inertia Microgrids

This paper proposes an innovative control solution for the integration of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in low-inertia Microgrids (MGs) with high Renewable Energies (REs) penetration levels. The aim of the control approach is to enhance stability by combining Virtual Inertia Control (VIC) (to provide the needed inertia) with a Fractional Order Proportional Integral Derivative (FOPID) technique (to alleviate the adverse effects of Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) measurement delay on the frequency response). Extensive simulations, conducted within the MATLAB/Simulink environment, demonstrate the critical role of the EVs integration in enhancing the MG stability. The presented results show that the deployment of the VIC improves significantly the frequency response, while the inclusion of the FOPID controller yields substantial reductions in frequency deviations. The proposed control strategy exhibits notable resilience even under severe load variations and RE fluctuations. The optimized performance of the FOPID controller, achieved through the Zebra Optimization Algorithm (ZOA), demonstrates its effectiveness in improving the MG stability.