Integrated Power Hardware-in-the-Loop and Lab Testing for Microgrid Controller

As the number of distributed energy resources (DERs) increase, power systems become harder to control. To harmonize the traditional system and such novel technologies, the holistic comprehension of the integrated system is necessary. Microgrid, which can be used to electrify isolated communities in sub-Saharan Africa or small islands in the Pacific Ocean, is one of the application destinations of the novel technologies. The renewable-energy based DERs are suitable for the microgrid operation because they can be set up with a small capital and utilized at a small scale. However, renewable energy is intermittent and time-dependent. To achieve reliable and continuous supply of energy, a generation portfolio including different generators needs to be created so that they can balance each other. This requires the use of a sophisticated control system in the microgrid. Operation of these control need to be validated before actual deployment. In this paper, a commercial microgrid controller is tested in an integrated test environment. Test environment in the lab is utilized to set up a microgrid and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test is added to simulate additional conditions. Testing with real hardware equipment increases the fidelity of the test results while real-time simulation adds to the diversity. Such validation is crucial to the project's success before on-site deployment.