Distributed Coordination of Grid-Forming and Grid-Following Inverters for Optimal Frequency Control in Power Systems
Open accessAbstract
The large-scale integration of inverter-interfaced renewable energy sources presents significant challenges to maintaining power balance and nominal frequency in modern power systems. This paper studies grid-level coordinated control of grid-forming (GFM) and grid-following (GFL) inverter-based resources (IBRs) for scalable and optimal frequency control. We propose a fully distributed optimal frequency control algorithm based on the projected primal-dual gradient method and by lever aging the structure of the underlying physical system dynamics. The proposed algorithm i) restores the nominal system frequency while minimizing total control cost and enforcing time-varying IBR power capacity limits and line thermal constraints, and ii) operates in a distributed manner that only needs local measurements and neighbor-to-neighbor communication. In particular, when the line thermal constraints are disregarded, the proposed algorithm admits a fully local implementation that requires no communication, while still ensuring optimality and satisfying IBR power capacity limits. We establish the global asymptotic stability of the algorithm using Lyapunov stability analysis. The effectiveness and optimality of the proposed algorithms are validated through high-fidelity, 100% inverter-based electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations on the IEEE 39-bus system. The simulations further demonstrate the effective coordination between synchronous generators and IBRs under the proposed control algorithms, as well as the robustness to measurement noise, communication delays, and parameter uncertainties.
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COORDINATED FREQUENCY SUPPORT OF GRID FORMING AND GRID FOLLOWING CONVERTER CLUSTERS
Tong, Z., Yue, S., Zhong, Z., Su, X., Liang, K., & Yang, L. (2026) · World Journal of Engineering Research · doi:10.61784/wjer3128
- Authors
- Wang, X., & Chen, X.
- Affiliations
- Texas A&M University (US)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Power Systems
- Published
- 2026-09
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 3831-3846
- ISSN
- 0885-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-0679
- OpenAlex
- W7154631809
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 45
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Licence
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Power Systems (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- NSF AMPS (2523934)
- NSF CAREER (2541998)
- Consortium on AI and Large Flexible Load at Texas A&M University (TPWRS-01308-2025)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Frequency Control in Power Systems
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Microgrid Control and Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Distributed Control Multi-Agent Systems
- Keywords
- grid-forming inverters, grid-following inverters, inverter-based resources, distributed coordination, Lyapunov stability, communication delay, measurement noise robustness
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