Local Power Distribution—A Review of Nanogrid Architectures, Control Strategies, and Converters

Abstract

Environmental issues and the global need to extend sustainable access to electricity have fostered a huge amount of research in distributed generation by renewables. The challenges posed by the widespread deployment of distributed generation by renewables, such as intermittent power generation, low inertia, the need for energy storage, etc., call for the development of smart grids serving specific local areas or buildings, referred to as microgrids and nanogrids, respectively. This has led in the last decades to the proposal and actual implementation of a wide variety of system architectures and solutions, and along with that the issue of the power converters needed for interfacing the AC grid with DC micro- or nanogrids, and for DC regulation within the latter. This work offers an overview of the state of the art of research and application of nanogrid architectures, control strategies, and power converter topologies.