This paper investigates the use of a virtual synchronous generator (VSG) to improve frequency stability in an autonomous photovoltaic-diesel microgrid with energy storage. VSG control is designed to emulate inertial response and damping power via power injection from/to the energy storage system. The effect of a VSG with constant parameters (CP-VSG) on the system frequency is analyzed. Based on the case study, self-tuning algorithms are used to search for optimal parameters during the operation of the VSG in order to minimize the amplitude and rate of change of the frequency variations. The performances of the proposed self-tuning (ST)-VSG, the frequency droop method, and the CP-VSG are evaluated by comparing their effects on attenuating frequency variations under load variations. For both simulated and experimental cases, the ST-VSG was found to be more efficient than the other two methods in improving frequency stability.