DOI: 10.3390/electronics15132810 ISSN: 2079-9292

Cooperative Control of Dynamic Power Decoupling and Adaptive Damping–Inertia for Grid-Forming Converters

Chang Peng, Zhi Li, Zhou Dong, Mengwei Lou, Ruocong Yang, Yaxin Du, Jianhui Meng

Aiming at the problems of the severe active–reactive power coupling, insufficient adaptive inertia–damping regulation, and degraded dynamic performance of virtual synchronous generators (VSGs) under the operating conditions of a weak grid, high resistance-to-reactance ratio, and large power angle, this paper proposes a cooperative control strategy that combines reactive power feedforward decoupling with adaptive damping–inertia regulation. First, a small-signal power model of the VSG is established, and a dynamic relative gain array is employed to quantitatively analyze the effects of the resistance-to-reactance ratio and power angle on power coupling characteristics, revealing that large power angles and high resistance-to-reactance ratios significantly aggravate active–reactive power coupling. Based on this analysis, a reactive-power-oriented feedforward decoupling strategy is designed to suppress the cross-coupling between reactive power and power angle while preserving the intrinsic inertia support characteristics of the active power loop. Eigenvalue migration analysis further demonstrates that the proposed reactive-power-oriented decoupling provides higher damping ratios and larger stability margins than conventional full active–reactive power decoupling. Furthermore, a deep deterministic policy gradient-based adaptive damping–inertia control method is developed by incorporating frequency deviation, power fluctuation, voltage deviation, and coupling degree into the state space, enabling the online coordinated optimization of virtual inertia and damping coefficients. The hardware-in-the-loop experimental results verify that the proposed strategy effectively suppresses active–reactive power coupling, reduces power overshoot and oscillation, enhances frequency support capability and dynamic response speed, and maintains superior stability under weak grid conditions. Sensitivity analysis under grid impedance estimation errors further confirms its strong robustness against parameter uncertainty, while tests under composite disturbance scenarios demonstrate excellent transient performance. The proposed strategy provides an effective solution for improving the grid-connected operation performance and adaptability of VSGs in low-inertia power systems.

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