As renewable energy deployment expands across Africa, microgrids are increasingly being explored as a means of integrating distributed generation, energy storage and renewable energy resources into local electricity systems.
But generating renewable electricity is only one part of building a reliable microgrid. As the number of distributed energy resources increases, microgrid networks can experience complex and changing operating conditions. Voltage fluctuations, frequency deviations, harmonic distortion, voltage imbalance and flicker can affect power quality and system stability, particularly when renewable generation, electricity demand and network operations change rapidly.
These challenges form part of CEPREC's wider Work Package 4 on Microgrid Network Modelling and Control, which explores how advanced modelling, control and predictive approaches can improve the scalability, interconnection and reliable operation of microgrids. Within this wider programme, Engr. Abiola Aina's research focuses specifically on power quality, network stability and intelligent control under changing operating conditions.
From Network Modelling to Intelligent Control
The research is developing an intelligent distributed-generation controller framework for dynamic power quality improvement and microgrid stability. The work involves modelling the microgrid network and its distributed energy resources using MATLAB/Simulink. It examines conventional and intelligent control approaches, beginning with properly tuned and optimised PID control before progressing towards techniques including fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks and ANFIS.
The research is not focused solely on applying increasingly complex control techniques. An important part of the approach is understanding how the microgrid actually behaves under different operating conditions and using that understanding to inform the development and evaluation of the control framework.
Bringing Real Operating Conditions into the Research
What distinguishes the work is its attempt to connect simulation with operating conditions observed in Nigerian electrical networks.
Measurements obtained at the Point of Common Coupling of Landcraft Steel, Ikorodu, and the University of Lagos electrical network are being used to examine how disturbances occur under actual operating conditions.
Rather than relying only on idealised disturbance scenarios, the research uses measured power-quality data to understand how voltage and other network disturbances behave under real conditions. This connection between modelling, control and real-world data is particularly relevant to the development of microgrid solutions that reflect the conditions in which they are expected to operate.
Why Modelling and Control Matter
A microgrid is not simply a collection of solar panels, batteries and loads. Each component affects the others. Changes in demand, renewable generation or network configuration can influence voltage, frequency and power flow.
Modelling allows researchers to investigate these interactions before control strategies are deployed physically. Control then provides the mechanisms for responding to disturbances and maintaining acceptable operating conditions.
Relevance to African Energy Systems
The research is particularly relevant to African power-system contexts where reliability constraints, voltage variability, growing demand and increasing deployment of distributed renewables create complex operating conditions.
Microgrids offer an opportunity to integrate renewable energy resources and storage while strengthening the resilience of local electricity supply. However, renewable generation alone does not guarantee reliable electricity. The variability of renewable resources and changes in electricity demand can introduce additional power quality and stability challenges if the network is not appropriately modelled, coordinated and controlled.
This makes the development of control strategies that respond to actual operating conditions an important area of research for African microgrid development. The use of Nigerian power quality data within this research provides a way of grounding the investigation in conditions observed within local power networks, rather than relying exclusively on assumptions based on more stable conventional electricity systems.
Towards More Sustainable Use of Energy Resources
Engr. Abiola Aina's research also connects with CEPREC's wider circular microgrid architecture. Work Packages 1 and 2 are investigating second-life power electronics, machines and batteries, while WP4 considers how different energy resources and components can be modelled and controlled within the wider microgrid system.
This matters because repurposing a component is only part of the circularity challenge. Second-life assets must also be integrated safely and reliably into systems whose loads, generation and operating conditions are continually changing.
Building Control Strategies Around Real Conditions
Engr Abiola's research highlights an important point for Africa's clean energy transition: installing renewable generation is only the beginning. Reliable microgrids also depend on understanding how distributed resources interact and developing control approaches that can respond to changing real-world conditions.
By connecting network modelling, measured power-quality data and intelligent control, the research contributes to CEPREC's wider ambition to develop circular microgrids that are not only renewable, but reliable, adaptable and capable of integrating a wider range of energy resources over time.
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