Currently, economical harvesting of electrical energy on a large scale considering the environmental issues is undoubtedly one of the main challenges. As a solution, microgrids (MGs) promise to facilitate the wide penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) and energy storage devices into the power systems, reduce system losses, and greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the reliability of the electricity supply to the customers. Due to their potential benefits to provide secure, reliable, efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly electricity from RESs, the interest on MGs is growing. Although the concept of MG is already established, the control strategies and energy management systems for MGs which cover power interchange, system stability, frequency and voltage regulation, active and reactive power control, islanding detection, grid synchronization, and system recovery are still under development. In this research, a comprehensive review on various MG control loops and the relevant standards are given with a discussion on challenges of MG controls.
