Grid-Tied Hybrid AC-DC Microgrid: Finding Optimal Number of Parallel-Connected AC-DC Bidirectional Interfacing Converters

Linking AC and DC microgrids via a bidirectional AC-DC interfacing converter has emerged the hybrid AC-DC microgrid. The DC bus is connected to the grid by a series converter to mitigate the grid voltage's power quality problems. To enhance the reliability and to increase transferring active and nonactive powers between DC and AC main buses, the AC-DC bidirectional interfacing converters are connected in parallel. In this paper, the optimal number (n) of parallel-connected bidirectional interfacing converters is obtained to minimize the annual cost of investment and the reliability cost. A two-step deciding algorithm is proposed to find n. First, active and nonactive powers between DC and AC buses are obtained with power quality and power flow considerations. Based on two types of powers, two reliability indices are calculated, including the expected energy shortage (EES) based on active power and the expected Volt-Amps shortage (EVAS) based on nonactive power. The sum of two reliability index costs is considered as the reliability cost. Next, a decision-making strategy is executed to determine the optimal n by making a trade-off between minimization of two objectives: the annual cost of investment and the reliability cost. The simulations of a grid-tied hybrid AC-DC microgrid are done with the experimental measurement data of DC and AC loads and distributed generations. Simulation results verify the performance of the represented approach.