Real Time Simulation and Experimentation of Smart Grid Control using an FPGI-based Controller

Smart Grids consist of multiple controls, computers, and new technologies and equipment that operate distributed renewable energy resources and energy storage devices, monitoring systems, and smart meters. Advanced control is utilized to manage real-time pricing, flexible loads, solar, wind, and many forms of energy storage, and microgrid management. Distributed and fast control routines are essential for an optimal system operation to manage the smart grids efficiently. The control design and development require adequate experimentation and validation due to the significant rule that plays the smart grids’ control in energy management, grid security, and economic benefits. Therefore, it is essential to develop real-time simulation via control hardware in the loop (CHIL)-based strategies. This research focuses on developing a CHIL testbed to test power management and monitoring strategies. CHIL is a powerful technique for validating and demonstrating systems rigorously and dynamically that is not achievable with traditional simulation and testing methods

Experimental Study of a Centralized Control Strategy of a DC Microgrid Working in Grid Connected Mode

[EN] The results concerning the integration of a set of power management strategies and serial communications for the efficient coordination of the power converters composing an experimental DC microgrid is presented. The DC microgrid operates in grid connected mode by means of an interlinking converter. The overall control is carried out by means of a centralized microgrid controller implemented on a Texas Instruments TMS320F28335 DSP. The main objectives of the applied control strategies are to ensure the extract/inject power limits established by the grid operator as well as the renewable generation limits if it is required; to devise a realistic charging procedure of the energy storage batteries as a function of the microgrid status; to manage sudden changes of the available power from the photovoltaic energy sources, of the load power demand and of the power references established by the central controller; and to implement a load shedding functionality. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed power management methodology allows the control of the power dispatch inside the DC microgrid properly.This work has been cofinanced by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Grant ENE2015-64087-C2-2.Salas-Puente, RA.; Marzal-Romeu, S.; González-Medina, R.; Figueres Amorós, E.; Garcerá, G. (2017). Experimental Study of a Centralized Control Strategy of a DC Microgrid Working in Grid Connected Mode. Energies. 10(10):1-25. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10101627S1251010Baek, J., Choi, W., & Chae, S. (2017). Distributed Control Strategy for Autonomous Operation of Hybrid AC/DC Microgrid. Energies, 10(3), 373. doi:10.3390/en10030373Patrao, I., Figueres, E., Garcerá, G., & González-Medina, R. (2015). Microgrid architectures for low voltage distributed generation. 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(2011). Control and Operation of a DC Microgrid With Variable Generation and Energy Storage. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 26(4), 2513-2522. doi:10.1109/tpwrd.2011.2158456Nejabatkhah, F., & Li, Y. W. (2015). Overview of Power Management Strategies of Hybrid AC/DC Microgrid. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 30(12), 7072-7089. doi:10.1109/tpel.2014.2384999Lu, X., Guerrero, J. M., Sun, K., & Vasquez, J. C. (2014). An Improved Droop Control Method for DC Microgrids Based on Low Bandwidth Communication With DC Bus Voltage Restoration and Enhanced Current Sharing Accuracy. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29(4), 1800-1812. doi:10.1109/tpel.2013.2266419Chen, D., & Xu, L. (2012). Autonomous DC Voltage Control of a DC Microgrid With Multiple Slack Terminals. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 27(4), 1897-1905. doi:10.1109/tpwrs.2012.2189441Guerrero, J. M., Vasquez, J. C., Matas, J., de Vicuna, L. G., & Castilla, M. (2011). Hierarchical Control of Droop-Controlled AC and DC Microgrids—A General Approach Toward Standardization. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 58(1), 158-172. doi:10.1109/tie.2010.2066534Vasquez, J., Guerrero, J., Miret, J., Castilla, M., & Garcia de Vicuna, L. (2010). Hierarchical Control of Intelligent Microgrids. IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, 4(4), 23-29. doi:10.1109/mie.2010.938720Unamuno, E., & Barrena, J. A. (2015). Hybrid ac/dc microgrids—Part II: Review and classification of control strategies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 52, 1123-1134. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.186Feng, X., Shekhar, A., Yang, F., E. Hebner, R., & Bauer, P. (2017). Comparison of Hierarchical Control and Distributed Control for Microgrid. Electric Power Components and Systems, 45(10), 1043-1056. doi:10.1080/15325008.2017.1318982Kaur, A., Kaushal, J., & Basak, P. (2016). A review on microgrid central controller. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55, 338-345. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.141Wu, D., Tang, F., Dragicevic, T., Guerrero, J. M., & Vasquez, J. C. (2015). Coordinated Control Based on Bus-Signaling and Virtual Inertia for Islanded DC Microgrids. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 6(6), 2627-2638. doi:10.1109/tsg.2014.2387357Shi, D., Chen, X., Wang, Z., Zhang, X., Yu, Z., Wang, X., & Bian, D. (2018). A Distributed Cooperative Control Framework for Synchronized Reconnection of a Multi-Bus Microgrid. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 9(6), 6646-6655. doi:10.1109/tsg.2017.2717806Dou, C., Zhang, Z., Yue, D., & Zheng, Y. (2017). MAS-Based Hierarchical Distributed Coordinate Control Strategy of Virtual Power Source Voltage in Low-Voltage Microgrid. IEEE Access, 5, 11381-11390. doi:10.1109/access.2017.2717493Bracale, A., Caramia, P., Carpinelli, G., Mancini, E., & Mottola, F. (2015). Optimal control strategy of a DC micro grid. International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 67, 25-38. doi:10.1016/j.ijepes.2014.11.003Yue, J., Hu, Z., Li, C., Vasquez, J. C., & Guerrero, J. M. (2017). Economic Power Schedule and Transactive Energy through an Intelligent Centralized Energy Management System for a DC Residential Distribution System. Energies, 10(7), 916. doi:10.3390/en10070916Gao, L., Liu, Y., Ren, H., & Guerrero, J. (2017). A DC Microgrid Coordinated Control Strategy Based on Integrator Current-Sharing. Energies, 10(8), 1116. doi:10.3390/en10081116Operating Instructions Valve Regulated Stationary Lead-Acid Batterieshttp://www.hoppecke-us.com/tl_files/hoppecke/Documents/HO-US/Operating_Instructions_sealed_stationary_lead_acid_batteries_en1111.pdfTAB Batterieshttp://www.tabspain.com/wp-content/uploads/informacion-tecnica/renovables/curvas-y-tablas/din-41773-y-din-41774-para-baterias-pzs.pdfZhao, J., & Dörfler, F. (2015). Distributed control and optimization in DC microgrids. 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Distributed MPC for coordinated energy efficiency utilization in microgrid systems

To improve the renewable energy utilization of distributed microgrid systems, this paper presents an optimal distributed model predictive control strategy to coordinate energy management among microgrid systems. In particular, through information exchange among systems, each microgrid in the network, which includes renewable generation, storage systems, and some controllable loads, can maintain its own systemwide supply and demand balance. With our mechanism, the closed-loop stability of the distributed microgrid systems can be guaranteed. In addition, we provide evaluation criteria of renewable energy utilization to validate our proposed method. Simulations show that the supply demand balance in each microgrid is achieved while, at the same time, the system operation cost is reduced, which demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed policy.Accepted manuscrip

A review of microgrid development in the United States – A decade of progress on policies, demonstrations, controls, and software tools

Microgrids have become increasingly popular in the United States. Supported by favorable federal and local policies, microgrid projects can provide greater energy stability and resilience within a project site or community. This paper reviews major federal, state, and utility-level policies driving microgrid development in the United States. Representative U.S. demonstration projects are selected and their technical characteristics and non-technical features are introduced. The paper discusses trends in the technology development of microgrid systems as well as microgrid control methods and interactions within the electricity market. Software tools for microgrid design, planning, and performance analysis are illustrated with each tool's core capability. Finally, the paper summarizes the successes and lessons learned during the recent expansion of the U.S. microgrid industry that may serve as a reference for other countries developing their own microgrid industries