Unleashing the Potential of Digital Twin Technology in Microgrid – A Case Study of a Tropical Microgrid

Digital twinning concept is applied in various industry areas in the wave of information and communication technology advancement. A digital replica of a microgrid is referred to as microgrid digital twin which can provide massive enhancement to microgrid design, planning, optimization, forecasting, system reliability analysis, etc. a microgrid digital twin models the physical dynamics of real assets and with a real-time simulation and feed-through of data from real world sensors and meters. Microgrid digital twin can fulfill the purpose of creating a digital test bed with high fidelity that can be used in both academic and industry parties with lower cost, faster product development cycles and minimum electrical hazards. In this paper, an experimental microgrid in Singapore is selected as the real twin and a digital twin is created. The digital twin is built using a hardware-controller-in-the-loop real-time simulation (HCILRTS) design. The development and validation process of the digital twin is shared in this paper. More importantly, a conceptual exploration of different potential applications of microgrid digital twin is shared considering the up-to-date technology.