Pulsed power load effect mitigation in DC shipboard microgrids: a constrained model predictive approach

This paper proposes a novel model predictive controller to minimise the effect of unknown pulsed loads on the DC microgrid (MG) side of shipboards. It is assumed that the level of the pulsed power loads (PPLs) is not determined in prior for which the authors propose a novel non-linear power observer. By employing the so-called freezing technique, a novel model predictive scheme is utilised to optimally stabilise the overall DC shipboard MG. Furthermore, different constraints on the current of the DC source and the energy storage system (ESS) are considered in the predictive controller to make it more realistic and practical. Compared to the exiting results, the proposed approach can optimally design the injecting current of the ESS so that the practical and physical constraints of the DC MG are also satisfied, which improves the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller. To show the merits of the proposed approach, it is tested on a DC MG that feeds one PPL. Real-time model-in-the-loop (MiL) results show the performance improvements in the transient and steady-state obtained by the proposed control method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.