Application of EtherCAT in Microgrid Communication Network: A Case Study

Microgrids can operate either connected to the utility grid or disconnected, respectively called grid-connected and islanding mode. If an emergency occurs, a rapid transition to islanding mode is executed to evaluate the cause of problem and to prevent further damage. However, seamless transition control is not realizable because of speed constraints introduced by the communication protocols being used today. This paper reviews the current technologies applied in a microgrid communication system and presents a new study to solve this problem using EtherCAT, a real-time Ethernet protocol. The advantages of this solution with respect to the state-of-the-art are summarized. We also conducted a performance analysis using minimum cycle time as the performance index to verify the feasibility of EtherCAT in a microgrid application. Potential future work is suggested related to integration of EtherCAT in an actual microgrid system for practical field experiments.