Cyber-Resilient Distributed Microgrid Control

To offer flexible plug-and-play architecture guaranteeing frequency and voltage regulation while maintaining precise active and reactive power sharing among nonidentical distributed energy resources (DERs), communication between DERs has been identified as an essential ingredient for achieving these goals while avoiding a centralized control architecture. Hence, distributed control of multi-inverter microgrids has attracted considerable attention. However, distributed control schemes for microgrids are prone to random link failures, resulting in unbalance communications, and cyberattacks on communication links, which are serious concerns that jeopardize microgrids stability. This research is devoted to mitigating the abovementioned communication issues in distributed control of microgrids by developing novel scalable classical and quantum synchronization protocols. To tackle the unbalance scenarios, a continuous-time push-sum-based synchronization mechanism is devised to enable resilient distributed control. In order to mitigate cybersecurity challenges, inspired by recent revolutionary breakthroughs in quantum communication, novel quantum synchronization schemes are developed. Derivations, backed with case studies on AC and DC microgrids verify the efficacy and unprecedented resilience/security of the novel scalable classical and quantum synchronization mechanisms.