1. Design and Implementation of a Lab-Scale Microgrid System
- Author
-
Murray, Jordan Michael
- Subjects
- Electrical Engineering, power systems, smartgrid, software agents, VOLTTRON, dynamic programming, microgrid, testbed
- Abstract
A pair of lab-scale, low-voltage AC and DC hardware testbed systems have been constructed to assist in the development and demonstration of microgrid technologies and control strategies. The AC and DC testbed systems can be operated independently or together as a single hybrid microgrid system. The systems have been designed to be flexible and modular. Sources and loads can be quickly reconfigured to support different experiments. The "User" control system is divided into two components: a low-level reactive layer implemented with programmable logic controllers and grid-tie inverters that have been designed for use with the AC microgrid, and a higher-level layer with a more sophisticated set of objectives. The latter takes advantage of the VOLTTRON platform for the deployment of software agents. A parallel Scenario Generation system is used to create a simulated operational environment for the systems that determines, among other things, the intensity of PV panel illumination. Additionally, the Scenario Generation system can impose fault conditions on the hardware that the User control system must diagnose and mitigate. A set of software agents and a library of supporting modules have been developed to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the system. In this approach, a Utility Agent manages the distribution infrastructure and holds double auctions in which the Utility and Homeowner Agents may participate. A Weather Agent can provide estimates of the simulated environmental variables for the Scenario Generator. Data from two test scenarios are presented. In the first, the ability of the dynamic programming-based planning of the Homeowner Agents and the bid generation algorithm to manage the states of their simulated smart appliances in accordance with the time-varying preferences of the homeowners is demonstrated. In the second, line to ground faults are triggered by the Scenario Generation system that the Utility Agent detects, isolates, and remediates through corrective control actions.
- Published
- 2019