The Navy has proposed to use a shipboard power system operating at medium voltage direct current to distribute power for their all-electric ship. The power is generated by electric machines as alternating current and requires power electronic rectifiers to output direct current. Power electronics converters are needed to convert the direct current to alternating current for ship propulsion and service loads. An increase in the use of fast switching power electronics is expected in future ships. The increased voltage rise time on switches is known to produce unwanted high frequencies with corresponding wavelengths of the same order of magnitude as the length of the ship hull. These high frequency transients can cause the ship system to couple with the surrounding ship hull causing adverse effects. The amount of high frequency content and the impact it has on the ship system performance is difficult to calculate with current models. Increased voltage and performance requirements for power electronics has led to advancements in switching frequencies into the 10s to 100s of kilohertz and increased voltage edge rates. The faster switching corresponds to higher frequency responses from the shipboard power system. Research has shown that high frequency content in electrical power systems is responsible for parasitic coupling and ultimately damage to the equipment. Electric machines, for instance, have increased winding and iron losses, overvoltages at the terminals, and even bearing currents via shaft voltages. The Navy is interested in simulating ship systems to test their electromagnetic compatibility before implementing or committing to a specific design. There are numerous techniques used to acquire machine parameters that have been proven to be useful in modeling electric machine behavior. The approaches were considered by the amount of proprietary information needed to acquire accurate results, the complexity of the modeling methods, and the overall time it takes for implementation. A majority of system simulations gravitate towards simple solutions for machine behavior which require assumptions to be made that deviate from the actual machine behavior. Exact inner dimensions, winding layouts, end winding dimensions, insulation thickness, and other information are proprietary and often not accurate representations of the physical machine once built. It is time consuming to obtain an accurate working model when assumptions are made or when detailed computer aided design models are needed to calculate machine response quantities. The research modeling approach put forth in this paper is not aimed at capturing the steady-state behavior of the machine. It is shown that a detailed understanding of the motor may not be necessary to accurately model the high frequency effects. It is the transient behavior at non-operating frequencies that need to be modeled correctly to develop new models of shipboard power systems for grounding research. The frequency dependent information is most useful to determine frequencies of interest that other modeling techniques are less likely to capture and point out. Previously suggested measurement techniques have been considered useful in determining parameters of machines but are not always accurately implemented without in-depth knowledge of the motor that may be proprietary. Lumped-parameter models are based on extracting information at transitional frequencies or looking at the slope of a variable over a frequency range. These models tend to be over simplified representations of the component by averaging the parameters for given ranges. In reality a machine's impedance varies with all frequencies. Lumped parameter based models typically over simplify the grounding behavior of the machine by not varying the impedance as a function of frequency. The technique used in this research is based on scattering parameters, a way of determining the terminal behavior of the machine without the knowledge of the actual inner workings of the machine. The inverse scattering technique uses steady-state stimuli to calculate reflection and transmission coefficients of system components allowing the device to be considered as a black box. This can be understood as electrical snapshots of how the machine would respond when subjected to a range of spectral content. The approach could have a significant impact on the modeling of ground interactions with machines. The machine can now be measured and characterized with no prior knowledge of the machine. The measurements are placed in simulation software in the typical measurement configurations used in other approaches to extract parametric data. It was discovered that these different configuration setups could now be measured in software without the need to physically reconfigure the machine's wiring for each measurement. This modeling approach was coined 'virtual measurement modeling.' To the best of the author's knowledge there are not any known techniques for fast model prototyping of electric machines which cover a broad range of frequencies with high accuracy. This thesis will present a possible solution for consideration in future models developed for grounding studies. This approach outlines a promising technique that can be easily implemented with high accuracy and reproducibility. The technique was derived from inverse scattering theory and was implemented on electric machines for characterizing high frequency behaviors. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2015. / August 3, 2015. / Electric Machines, Electromagnetic Interference, High Frequency, Scattering Parameters, Shipboard Power System, Transient / Includes bibliographical references. / Chris S. Edrington, Professor Directing Thesis; Lukas Graber, Committee Member; Mischa Steurer, Committee Member.

Lithium batteries have played an important role since early 1980’s to provide us with energy for small portable devices. Due to the increasing demand and limited availability of fossil fuels there is a need to shift to renewable energy. In this thesis, the fabrication procedure for the lithium ion coin cell is extensively analyzed. A brief introduction into the lithium ion battery is discussed, the physics and chemistry of the materials is explained. Emphasis is made on the importance of calendaring an electrode. LiFePO4 was mixed with the Super P, PVDF and NMP at appropriate stoichiometric amounts and half coin cells were produced with the reference electrode as lithium foil. The effects of calendaring in terms of discharge capacity, density profile and ac impedance was analyzed. The resulting material sample were analyzed in two parts, Sample A was left as is and Sample B was calendared. The calendared electrode exhibited a lower impedance when observed with the impedance test. The calendared electrode exhibited a higher discharge capacity of about 162 mAh/g at C/10 rate when compared to the uncalendared electrode with a discharge capacity of about 152 mAh/g at C/10. The experimental results were than compared to the simulated model constructed in Comsol Multiphysics. The coin cell model in COMSOL was started with use of the existing model for cylindrical cells. The parameters and equations required for the setup were analyzed and discussed. The comparison of the experimental vs simulated results yielded some preliminary information. However, this work is still in progress, for building further models with different materials for the coin cells. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 17, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Pedro L. Moss, Professor Directing Thesis; Mark H. Weatherspoon, Committee Member; Petru Andrei, Committee Member.

Medium Voltage DC (MVDC) system is becoming a captivating alternative for designing All Electric Ship (AES) for the US Navy. Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is considered as an essential component of MVDC systems for its scalability and efficacy. Designing such a power electronic converter for an electric ship is a challenging task in terms of volume constraints in an electric ship.Preliminary naval ship design used point based spiral design techniques, but the complexity and some disadvantages of such design techniques don’t necessarily produce the most feasible cost effective design. To overcome the issue, the US Navy is exploring the application of Set Based Design(SBD) for designing naval architecture through Smart Ship System Design (S3D) to aid the early stage ship design.This thesis explores the areas of SBD to have a better understanding and knowledge of the design techniques. This is accomplished by design exercise employing SBD to design an essential component of the MVDC breaker-less architecture which is Modular Multilevel Converter. The effort begins with investigating the scaling factors for MMC and apply them to estimate the power density of the converter through exploration of SBD.The outcome of this work is expected to aid early stage ship design exercises using S3D which will enable a guideline for applying SBD concepts to integrate into ship system design. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 14, 2017. / MMC, MVDC system, Quality function deployment, Scaling factors, Set Based Design, Taguchi method / Includes bibliographical references. / Md Omar Faruque, Professor Directing Thesis; Simon Y. Foo, Committee Member; Shonda Bernadin, Committee Member; Ruturaj Soman, Committee Member.

Grid codes impose immunity requirements to the generation systems that are connected to the transmission lines. Immunity refers to the generator’s capability to overcome grid abnormal conditions. One of the requirements is to remain connected during a certain time when a fault, like voltage sag, is presented. During the fault scenario, a generator unit should remain connected for a pre-determined amount of time, and also provide reactive power to support the grid voltage. This is called low-voltage ride through (LVRT). Initially, LVRT requirements were imposed for large generator units like wind farms connected to the transmission network; however, due to the increased penetration of distributed generation (DG) on the distribution system, new grid codes extend the mentioned capability to generator units connected to the distribution grid. Due to matured photovoltaic (PV) technology and the decreased price of PV panels, PV grid tied installations are proliferating in the utility grids; this is creating new challenges related to voltage control. In the past, DG such as PV were allowed to trip from the grid when a fault or unbalance occurred and reconnect within several seconds (sometimes minutes) once the fault had been cleared. Nevertheless, thanks to high PV penetration nowadays, the same method cannot be used because it will further deteriorate the power quality and potentially end in a power blackout. Different approaches have been considered to fulfill the LVRT requirement on PV systems. A large amount of literature focuses on the control of the grid side converter of the PV installation rather than the control of PV operation during the fault, and most control designs applied to the grid side follow classical control methods. Moreover, the effects of the grid fault on the generator side impose a challenge for controlling the PV systems since the quality of the synthesized converter voltages and currents depends on the dc link power/voltage control. This document proposes a Model based Predictive Control (MPC) for controlling a two stage PV system to fulfill LVRT requirements. MPC offers important advantages over traditional linear control strategies since the MPC cost function can include constraints that are difficult to achieve in classical control. Special attention is given to implementation of the proposed control algorithms. Simplified MPC algorithms that do not compromise the converter performance and immunity requirement are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 21, 2017. / LVRT, MPC, Photovoltaic, Renewable Energies, Voltage support / Includes bibliographical references. / Chris S. Edrington, Professor Directing Dissertation; Juan Ordonez, University Representative; Omar Faruque, Committee Member; Simon Y. Foo, Committee Member.

The consumption of electricity is seen by society as a certainty and not an uncertainty; however, there are several uncertainties about how the topology of the electrical grid will look in the future. For instance, it is expected that the demand for electricity is set to considerably increase, there will be a greater incorporation of renewable generation sources, and society will call for a decrease in the spatial footprint of the electrical power grid. To address these uncertainties, new technology has been proposed to replace the conventional copper devices currently utilized. One of the new technologies that has shown great promise over the last decade are superconducting power devices. The appeal of superconducting technology lies in its ability to operate at significantly higher current densities than equivalently sized copper or aluminum technologies. This increase in current density will potentially allow for the electrical power grid to operate at higher capacity and greater efficiency. In order to develop superconducting devices for high power applications, knowledge of the critical boundaries with regards to temperature, current and magnetic field need to be studied. High-voltage engineering principles also need to be studied in order to ensure that an optimal design is produced for the superconducting power device. These theoretical and practical challenges of designing superconducting power devices are discussed in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 focuses on the high-voltage engineering and dielectric design aspects of a specific superconducting power device: HTS power cables. In particular, this chapter discusses the different dielectric design topologies, cable layouts, and reviews successfully demonstrated HTS power cables. One of the current limitations of designing superconducting power devices is the lack of dielectric materials compatible with cryogenic temperatures, and this area has been the focus of my research. The main focus of my Ph.D. is the investigation of new cryogenic dielectric materials and designs, which can be separated into two main areas. The cryogenic studies on increasing the dielectric strength of gaseous helium (GHe) focused on the addition of a small mol% of various gases such as nitrogen (N2), hydrogen (H2) and neon (Ne) to GHe (Chapter 4). The studies to increase partial discharge inception voltage of GHe cooled high temperature superconducting (HTS) power cables focused on using a Polyethylene Terephthalate heat shrink to individually insulate HTS tapes (Chapter 6), as well as the development of a novel HTS cable design referred to as the Superconducting Gas-Insulated Transmission Line (S-GIL) (Chapter 7). While the research conducted can be split into different categories, the experimental techniques in preparing samples and performing measurements are consistent and are discussed in Chapter 3. From completing this research, several key findings were discovered that will help advance the development of GHe cooled superconducting devices. Here is a summary of these discoveries: • The addition of 4 mol% of hydrogen gas to GHe increases the dielectric strength by 80% of pure GHe for all pressures. This trend was seen with both AC and DC voltages and DC breakdown strengths were approximately 1.4 times higher than the AC, as expected. • By measuring the breakdown strength of 1, 2, and 4 mol% hydrogen gas mixed with GHe, a linear relationship exists between hydrogen mol% and breakdown strength. The saturation limit does not appear to have been reached, so there is potential for higher breakdown strengths with higher hydrogen mol%. However, there are potential safety concerns with regards to flammability that need to be considered for higher mol% hydrogen mixtures. • Tertiary mixtures containing 8 mol% nitrogen gas, and 4 mol% hydrogen gas mixed with GHe yielded approximately a 400% increase in the dielectric strength when compared to GHe. With the introduction of the nitrogen gas to the mixture the maximum operating pressure was limited to approximately 0.85 MPa before condensation occurred. • The partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) measurements for a cable measured in the 4 mol% hydrogen mixture and then in GHe showed a 25% higher value when the cable was measured in the 4 mol% hydrogen mixture than in GHe. This improvement in PDIV is not as great as the 80% improvement seen in the breakdown measurements. • The Polyethylene Terephthalate heat shrink selected to provide individual insulation to HTS tapes did not allow for a high operational voltage when used as the insulation method for a HTS cable as breakdown occurred between 1-2 kV. • The development of the S-GIL allows for the full benefits of increasing the dielectric strength of GHe to be exploited. • The S-GIL will allow for higher operating voltages and better thermal characteristics than currently available for GHe superconducting power cables. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / June 8, 2017. / Dielectric, Gaseous Helium, High Temperature Superconductor, High Voltage / Includes bibliographical references. / Sastry Pamidi, Professor Directing Dissertation; Juan Ordonez, University Representative; Chris Edringtion, Committee Member; Lukas Graber, Committee Member; Simon Foo, Committee Member.

In Power Hardware-In-The-Loop (PHIL) simulations, it is important to understand the impedance characteristics of the system being tested. These impedances are used in the assessment of both the stability and the accuracy of the PHIL simulation experiment, as well as for stability analyses for the integration of the device under test (DUT) into the eventual system of deployment. When testing medium voltage systems in the megawatt power range, sensor noise stemming from the switching amplifiers can become quite an issue. This thesis evaluates four different impedance measurement techniques to find a reliable, accurate, and quick assessment over a wide frequency range in the noisy environments of medium voltage systems. (1) a single tone consisting of one sine wave at a single frequency, (2) a multitoned signal which is the sum of multiple sine waves, each at a unique frequency, (3) a frequency-swept sine wave, also known as a “chirp”, and (4) a pseudorandom binary sequence. Each of these signals are injected into the system while energized in order to measure the response, which is then processed for the impedance characteristics. Various tests are conducted to simulated systems with simulated sensor noise to determine the viability of each of the techniques. Once the techniques are determined to be appropriate signals for system characterization in noisy medium voltage systems, they will be applied to a simulated Multilevel Modular Converter (MMC) model. The data from the simulated model will then be verified with a hardware experimental verification test with the viable signals chosen. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 12, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Hui Li, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Steurer, Committee Member; Ming Yu, Committee Member.

Recently, the smart grid technologies have been developed rapidly recently, which an important component is the so called demand response management (DRM). With the help of a DRM program, a utility company can adjust the power demand and electricity price to reduce the cost of power generation and consumption. However, there are many problems in DRM need to be solved. For example, to solve the problem of optimizing a generator's power (GP), the conventional methods such as economic dispatch (EDP) may reduce the profit of the utility company. To solve the problem of optimizing a consumer's power (CP), the existing smart pricing strategies may reduce the long-term benefits of the customers. This dissertation aims to develop a two-stage game model to increase the profit of the utility company and while increase the long-term benefit of the customers. For solving the GP. It is critical for the power generator and utility company to allocate the power demand properly, but the profit for the utility company may be reduced. To solve the CP, it is difficult for the customers to achieve a long-term beneficial power-usage-pattern with myopic pricing strategies. The stability of the smart grid and the benefit of the customers may also be reduced due to the myopic pricing strategies. It is difficult for the utility company to use the existing methods (e.g., EDP) to order an optimal power demand from the power generators to earn the maximum profit. There are two issues that are needed to be solved in the GP. First, the weight function for the utility company and power generators in the GP is not established properly in the existing methods. For example, the value of the weight function for the utility company and power generators are usually the same in an EDP method. However, in a smart grid, the utility company has the privilege to demand the power while the power generators must follow the demand. Hence the value of weight function for the utility company should be greater than the one for the power generators in a GP. Second, the optimal demand for the utility company is most likely not the optimal generation for the generators. The imbalanced power will increase the generation cost significantly. It is also difficult for a utility company to maintain an efficient DRM for a long-time period by using the existing smart pricing strategies. Applying incentive is the major solution for the utility company to influence the power demand of a customer. However, the traditional pricing strategies are shortsightedly designed, by which the long-time efficiency for the DRM is reduced. For example, the trigger punishment strategy applies a punishing price to a customer for a long period when a non-cooperation behavior is detected. During the punishment period, the customer chooses its power consumption freely since the punishment will be applied anyway. Such selfish behaviors reduce the long-term efficiency for the DRM and the stability of the smart grid. In this dissertation, we propose a two-stage game model to solve the GP and CP to increase the long-term efficiency for the DRM, maintain the stability of the smart grid, and also increase the profit of the utility company. In the first stage, a Stackelberg game model is applied to solve the GP, in which the utility company is the leading player while the generators are the following players. We prove that the GP for the following players is a convex problem mathematically. The following players achieve the Nash equilibrium (NE) state by choosing the unique optimal generation. The leading player reacts with this unique generation to achieve the optimal profit. Both the leading and following players reach an agreement in the NE state, in which they have no motivation to deviate the optimal actions. A genetic algorithm is developed to obtain the optimal demand for the leading and following players. In addition, we introduce a power balance constraint to the leading and following players to avoid the cost caused by the imbalanced power. By applying the constraint, the generated power is equal to the demand all the time. The smart grid will not need to store the excessive power in the energy storage unit or send the power back to the power generators to keep them idling. The cost is avoided and the efficiency of the DRM is increased. In the second stage, a repeated game model is applied to solve the CP, in which the customers are the players. The strategy for the players is to minimize the individual power consumption of each customer. The utility function for the players is the cost of the customers. The objective for the players is to minimize the cost. In this work, we prove that the NE state exists for the repeated game. However, it has been shown that in the NE state, the players' myopic behaviors may reduce the benefits for the entire group of players. To avoid the loss, we use a genetic algorithm to find the Pareto-efficient solution for the players, in which no player can increase its benefit by reducing other players' benefit. We apply a Tit-for-Tat (TFT) smart pricing strategy to increase the punishment strength from the utility company. Once an irrational behavior from a player is detected, a punishment will be applied to the player for a short period of time. The player can choose to cooperate or not during the punishment period. Compared to the existing smart pricing strategies, the long-term benefit for the smart grid is increased by applying the TFT strategy to the customers. The numerical simulations in different scenarios are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed two-stage game framework by using MATLAB. All the parameters and constraints of the related components are from the Department of Energy's report and the Oasisui online database. Five power generators, one utility company, and one hundred customers have been used in the simulations. Compared with the existing solutions (e.g., EDP and gaming optimization), the cost in power consumption is reduced by 6% percent while the profit for power generation is increased by 8% percent in our test scenarios. With the help of the proposed model, we enhance the efficiency for the DRM. The peak-to-average ratio (PAR) of the power demand of our work is compared with the EDP method. The effect of the PAR is studied. The numerical results show that the proposed model has a similar PAR to that of the EDP method, which implies that the proposed model has no negative influence on the stability of the smart grid. The punishing effort of the TFT strategy is compared with the trigger strategy (TP) to study the punishment influence on the customers. The numerical results show that the customers who are applied with the TFT strategy are more willing to cooperate with the utility company. The impact of the power loss ratio and different types of customers is also simulated and analyzed. The simulation results show that the players with a greater transmission loss ratio are more willing to cooperate. The customers that are associated with a greater linear dissatisfaction coefficient are more concerned about the dissatisfaction cost. The customers with greater price-sensitive coefficients are more concerned about the consumption cost. In summary, compared to the existing solutions, the proposed two-stage game model improves the performance of the DRM while maintain the stability of the smart grid. We also discuss the future research issues in the related areas. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / May 8, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Ming Yu, Professor Directing Dissertation; Xiuwen Liu, University Representative; Leonard Tung, Committee Member; Petru Andrei, Committee Member.

Weather and Air quality monitoring are very important aspects of smart city management. As population increase in the cities, the emission of pollutants includes Carbone Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ozone and the Particulate matter will increase which will cause health and environmental issue. This paper is about developing a low-cost Urban sensors box based on Internet of Things. The Urban box is equipped with 4G/3G wireless communication which allows the wide range of mobility around the city. The Urban Sensor box is a collaborative work to monitor real-time data of the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activities. All these data will be provided to understand the interconnected behavior of different tangible networks of the urban environment. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 19, 2018. / Internet of things, sensors, smart city, wireless network / Includes bibliographical references. / Reza Arghandeh, Professor Directing Thesis; Sastry Pamidi, Committee Member; Simon Y. Foo, Committee Member.

Future Naval vessels are looking to incorporate a new variety of electrical loads. These loads include rail guns, high power radars, electric propulsion drives, and lasers. These loads, especially the rail gun, can be classified as high-power ramp rate loads. Before now, these types of loads were not prevalent on naval vessels; therefore, generators were used throughout the ship to power a multitude of devices that did not require high-power ramp rates. Many of the generators had a specific purpose; there were no interconnections between generators. With these new types of loads, a power system that can accommodate these devices is needed. Integrated Power Systems (IPS) look to solve the high-power ramp rate issue as well as provide a multitude of benefits such as efficiency, resiliency, and reconfigurability. The generators, loads, energy storages, protections, etc. will all be located and connected within the IPS. The IPS can provide the foundation to achieve a multitude of benefits; however, the control system must be intelligent in order to realize the IPS’ full potential. Part of the control problem is how to manage sources and loads to ensure load demand is met. In terrestrial systems, the near infinite bus takes care of changes in load demand. In a microgrid, such as those found on ships, a large change in load demand, such as those seen by high-power ramp rate loads, can have adverse effects on the power system and devices connected to the power system. The control must coordinate the sources and/or loads to ensure load demand is met with minimal impact to the system. In this dissertation, the beginnings of a distributed Energy Management control layer are shown. The control layer looks to assist in realizing the IPS’ full potential. This is done by providing a distributed type of control to fortify the resiliency and reliability, ensuring load demand is met, and certifying the energy storages state of charge is maintained to ensure an ever-ready presence. This control layer aims to meet load demand, ensure device constraints (power ratings, ramp rate limitations, etc.) are not exceeded, and maintain the energy storages desired state of charge. The control objective is met through a combined approach of a distributed spinning reserve algorithm and distributed MPC. The distributed MPC utilizes the distributed optimization technique called the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 20, 2018. / Distributed Control, Energy Management, Energy Storage, Model Predictive Control, Naval / Includes bibliographical references. / Jonathan Clark, University Representative; Omar Faruque, Committee Member; Sastry Pamidi, Committee Member.

The current trend for naval destroyer-class ships is the move toward DC distribution systems as the next generation of ships is developed. The main motivation for using DC is to increase the power density of the ships to accommodate advanced weaponry such as the electromagnetic railgun. The distribution systems are also expected to be modular and plug-n-play in nature, leading toward a distributed control scheme to integrate the distributed sources and loads that could be online at any given time. One of the main performance requirements for the future power distribution systems is the ability to accurately share power among the distributed resources on the ship, while also maintaining the voltage stability of the distribution system, often referred to as power management. The primary candidate to accomplish the power management of the ship systems is droop control. Droop control has been extensively studied for terrestrial applications for sharing power between paralleled sources. Specifically, its application to DC microgrids is of interest since islanded microgrids have similar properties to ship systems. In these studies, it has been shown that conventional droop control is limited in its power sharing capabilities due to a tradeoff between the accuracy of the power sharing between devices and the regulation of the bus voltage. Secondary controllers have been proposed to modify the droop control scheme to alleviate these issues based on linear controllers or heuristic methods. However, accurate models for DC microgrids are difficult to derive for linear control design, and heuristic methods do not present an autonomous way to adjust the parameters of the controller. Therefore, adaptive control is proposed to adjust the droop controller’s parameters in an online fashion to find the optimal values based on the system conditions. Model reference adaptive control is chosen in this research for its ability to deal with system uncertainties and ensure stability. Specifically, combined model reference adaptive control is chosen for its improvements in transient response and robustness over the direct and indirect versions. The method is developed and simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to determine the performance of the algorithm. Additionally, a notional MVDC ship power system is developed in the same environment to provide a test system with various distributed sources and loads. A load profile is developed for the main system components such as propulsion, service loads, and the advanced weaponry to reflect a notional battle scenario. The algorithm is first tested in simulation, and then deployed to external distributed controllers to validate the performance of the power management scheme under hardware constraints and communication latency. The algorithm is also demonstrated in conjunction with a management layer for distributed energy storage modules throughout the ship system to further illustrate the real-world viability of the method. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 19, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Chris S. Edrington, Professor Directing Dissertation; Juan Ordonez, University Representative; Simon Foo, Committee Member; Pedro Moss, Committee Member.