Decentralised Consensus Control of Hybrid Synchronous Condenser and Grid-Forming Inverter Systems in Renewable-Dominated Low-Inertia Grids

Hamid Soleimani, Asma Aziz (), S M Muslem Uddin, Mehrdad Ghahramani and Daryoush Habibi
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Hamid Soleimani: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
Asma Aziz: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
S M Muslem Uddin: CSIRO | Energy Systems 2, Newcastle, NSW 2304, Australia
Mehrdad Ghahramani: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
Daryoush Habibi: School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-23

Abstract: The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) has significantly altered the operational characteristics of modern power systems, resulting in reduced system inertia and fault current capacity. These developments introduce new challenges for maintaining frequency and voltage stability, particularly in low-inertia grids that are dominated by inverter-based resources (IBRs). This paper presents a hierarchical control framework that integrates synchronous condensers (SCs) and grid-forming (GFM) inverters through a leader–follower consensus control architecture to address these issues. In this approach, selected GFMs act as leaders to restore nominal voltage and frequency, while follower GFMs and SCs collaboratively share active and reactive power. The primary control employs droop-based regulation, and a distributed secondary layer enables proportional power sharing via peer-to-peer communication. A modified IEEE 14-bus test system is implemented in PSCAD to validate the proposed strategy under scenarios including load disturbances, reactive demand variations, and plug-and-play operations. Compared to conventional droop-based control, the proposed framework reduces frequency nadir by up to 0.3 Hz and voltage deviation by 1.1%, achieving optimised sharing indices. Results demonstrate that consensus-based coordination enhances dynamic stability and power-sharing fairness and supports the flexible integration of heterogeneous assets without requiring centralised control.

Keywords: grid-forming inverter; synchronous condenser; consensus control; leader–follower method; BESS; hybrid SC-GFM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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