Smart Inverter Systems for Cyber-Physical Microgrids: A Spotlight on the Evolution, Control Strategies, and Future Directions

Abstract

Across the globe, the energy landscape is fast changing due to advancements in semiconductor materials, widespread application of artificial intelligence, wireless communication systems, and cybersecurity protocols. These infrastructures have provided leverage for the transition of present microgrid systems to emerging cyber-physical microgrids. It is on these premises that this present work examines AI-driven inverter systems enhanced with a wireless communication system and advanced control strategies. Also, following a careful assessment of the evolutionary trends and inverter topologies, an architecture for an AI-driven inverter system was proposed, which provided a platform for establishing a linkage between cybersecurity concepts and AI-driven inverter systems. Furthermore, premium emphasis was equally placed on the possible mitigating strategies for cyber threats that could result from adopting wireless communication techniques for data transmission in AI-driven inverters to the distributed energy resources in the microgrid systems. Also, the potential impacts and future outlooks towards the development of AI-assisted inverter systems and cyber-physical microgrid systems for sustainable power supply were comprehensively discussed. The potential impacts of emerging cyber-physical microgrid systems and AI-driven inverter systems on sustainable power supply have been extensively discussed, which is one of the key contributions of this work.