Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges

The surging growth of the global energy demand, rapid depletion of fuel reserves, and, most importantly, increasing global warming trends have been the major concerns for decision-makers for the last couple of decades. The current prevalent renewable and clean power sources such as wind, hydro, and...

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Main Authors: Ghali Ahmad, Abdulbasit Hassan, Asif Islam, Md Shafiullah, Mohammad A. Abido, Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10933995/
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author Ghali Ahmad
Abdulbasit Hassan
Asif Islam
Md Shafiullah
Mohammad A. Abido
Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah
author_facet Ghali Ahmad
Abdulbasit Hassan
Asif Islam
Md Shafiullah
Mohammad A. Abido
Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah
author_sort Ghali Ahmad
collection DOAJ
description The surging growth of the global energy demand, rapid depletion of fuel reserves, and, most importantly, increasing global warming trends have been the major concerns for decision-makers for the last couple of decades. The current prevalent renewable and clean power sources such as wind, hydro, and solar energy provide workable solutions to the foregoing problems via (DGs). Microgrids (MGs) are essential for interfacing the major portion of renewable energy sources and decision-making regarding the control and operation modes. Recent MG research trends focused on integrating those affordable and cost-effective resources into the energy mix at a consumer level. Still, due to the complexity of DG integration into the MG, many research efforts have been made to examine and develop distributed control (DCT) systems for alternating current, direct current, and hybrid MGs, and adherents of this approach, the distributed controllers have numerous advantages compared with centralized and decentralized control methods, such as increased reliability, flexibility, controllability, possibility to initiate operations independently, and robustness to communication failures. This research critically reviews the DCT strategies developed for MGs, presents various MG control strategies, and delves into different approaches to designing distributed controllers. Besides, this article highlights existing challenges and possible ways of mitigation, most especially by using artificial intelligence approaches. It also reviews the multi-microgrid concept to shed light on modern technologies and their potential applications in MGs. It is expected that the decision-makers and the researchers will find the critical analysis of this article useful while delving into various control strategies for MG.
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spelling doaj-art-dba8e2d97063458c95d9f3b11631ac2e2025-08-20T03:06:14ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113607026071910.1109/ACCESS.2025.355294010933995Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and ChallengesGhali Ahmad0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7677-6907Abdulbasit Hassan1https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6399-4590Asif Islam2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8235-7182Md Shafiullah3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2282-5663Mohammad A. Abido4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5292-6938Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8441-2146Control and Instrumentation Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaControl and Instrumentation Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaElectrical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaControl and Instrumentation Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaElectrical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaControl and Instrumentation Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaThe surging growth of the global energy demand, rapid depletion of fuel reserves, and, most importantly, increasing global warming trends have been the major concerns for decision-makers for the last couple of decades. The current prevalent renewable and clean power sources such as wind, hydro, and solar energy provide workable solutions to the foregoing problems via (DGs). Microgrids (MGs) are essential for interfacing the major portion of renewable energy sources and decision-making regarding the control and operation modes. Recent MG research trends focused on integrating those affordable and cost-effective resources into the energy mix at a consumer level. Still, due to the complexity of DG integration into the MG, many research efforts have been made to examine and develop distributed control (DCT) systems for alternating current, direct current, and hybrid MGs, and adherents of this approach, the distributed controllers have numerous advantages compared with centralized and decentralized control methods, such as increased reliability, flexibility, controllability, possibility to initiate operations independently, and robustness to communication failures. This research critically reviews the DCT strategies developed for MGs, presents various MG control strategies, and delves into different approaches to designing distributed controllers. Besides, this article highlights existing challenges and possible ways of mitigation, most especially by using artificial intelligence approaches. It also reviews the multi-microgrid concept to shed light on modern technologies and their potential applications in MGs. It is expected that the decision-makers and the researchers will find the critical analysis of this article useful while delving into various control strategies for MG.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10933995/Energy sustainabilitycentralized and decentralized controldistributed generatorshybrid microgridsolar PVwind
spellingShingle Ghali Ahmad
Abdulbasit Hassan
Asif Islam
Md Shafiullah
Mohammad A. Abido
Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah
Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
IEEE Access
Energy sustainability
centralized and decentralized control
distributed generators
hybrid microgrid
solar PV
wind
title Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
title_full Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
title_fullStr Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
title_full_unstemmed Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
title_short Distributed Control Strategies for Microgrids: A Critical Review of Technologies and Challenges
title_sort distributed control strategies for microgrids a critical review of technologies and challenges
topic Energy sustainability
centralized and decentralized control
distributed generators
hybrid microgrid
solar PV
wind
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10933995/
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AT abdulbasithassan distributedcontrolstrategiesformicrogridsacriticalreviewoftechnologiesandchallenges
AT asifislam distributedcontrolstrategiesformicrogridsacriticalreviewoftechnologiesandchallenges
AT mdshafiullah distributedcontrolstrategiesformicrogridsacriticalreviewoftechnologiesandchallenges
AT mohammadaabido distributedcontrolstrategiesformicrogridsacriticalreviewoftechnologiesandchallenges
AT mujahedaldhaifallah distributedcontrolstrategiesformicrogridsacriticalreviewoftechnologiesandchallenges