Research at Loughborough University — Hierarchical Control for DC Microgrids

Keywords: Research Associate, Loughborough University, DC microgrid, Hierarchical Control, EPSRC.

After completing my PhD, I joined Loughborough University as a Research Associate, continuing my research on DC microgrids under an EPSRC-funded project. The work here builds directly on my doctoral research, with a stronger focus on control strategies for low-voltage DC microgrid systems.

Hierarchical Control Strategy

The core of my research at Loughborough revolves around a hierarchical control framework for DC microgrids, which is structured into three layers:

• Layer 1 — Converter-Level Control: The lowest layer deals with the direct control of individual power converters, ensuring stable voltage and current regulation at the device level.
• Layer 2 — Multi-Converter Coordination: The middle layer addresses the coordination and control of multiple converters operating in cascade or in parallel, managing their interactions and ensuring seamless cooperation.
• Layer 3 — System-Level Power Flow Management: The highest layer focuses on power flow control and optimisation across the entire microgrid, balancing generation modules and loads to achieve efficient and reliable operation.

Building a Low-Voltage DC Microgrid Testbed

A significant part of my work at Loughborough involves designing and building a low-voltage DC microgrid experimental platform. This testbed serves as a physical environment for validating the proposed hierarchical control strategies and exploring practical challenges that arise in real hardware.

About Loughborough

Loughborough is located in the heart of England. It is a small, friendly town with a close-knit community — a great place to focus on research. I am grateful for the opportunity to work on this EPSRC project and look forward to what the coming years will bring.

Wish me luck!