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Blog Highlights Testing in a simulated environment reduces the potential risk of damaging customer equipment. Closed-loop systems like HIL enable fine-tuning HIL models. HIL digital twins enable a testing ground for plug-and-play microgrids. With HIL, site testing and debugging of software can be completed ahead of deployment. Duke Energy, providers of microgrid solutions since 2013, decided to start u…

The growing adoption of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like photovoltaic systems, battery energy storage, and fuel cells has heightened the need for effective coordination within the power grid. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in collaboration with Typhoon HIL and Missouri S&T, are addressing this challenge by developing and testing a distributed control architec…

The case study featured here is a 3 MW doubly fed induction motor (DFIM) drive used for mining applications. The DFIM drive controls were designed, built, and tested by Indrivetec AG, at the request of CSE-Uniserve. Indrivetec AG is a Zurich-based power electronics, drives, and energy storage company and is an early adopter of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) technology with a research lab primarily based on HIL …

Frequency regulation is currently provided by large individual resources, such as coal plants and gas turbines. There is growing interest in utilizing the power flexibility of DERs in microgrids for providing frequency regulation. Researchers, funded by ARPA-E, from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have developed a control framework for a microgrid that coordinates DERs for frequency regulation…

Using a Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation platform, EPC Power was able to integrate their control software with new hardware in just two days. Based in San Diego, CA, EPC Power designs and manufactures grid-forming bi-directional inverters and DC-DC converters for solar, wind, energy storage, automotive, and microgrid applications. Ryan Smith, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Controls Architect, …

This blog article delves into the evolution from centralized to distributed microgrid control architectures, highlighting the innovative work by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Funded by ARPA-E, these researchers have developed a distributed controller architecture that uses multiple microcontrollers or nodes to communicate and achieve consensus, eliminating the need fo…

Sandia National Laboratories, the largest U.S. Department of Energy national lab, plays a pivotal role in supporting inverter development and testing protocols for standards organizations and distributed energy resource (DER) vendors. Jay Johnson, a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia, discusses his research on a SunSpec-Compliant Smart Grid Controller and the innovative use of Controller Har…

Future distribution grids will be significantly more dynamic due to the widespread adoption of decentralized generation, such as solar and wind, battery storage, and advanced power electronics converters and smart relays. The need for resilience against cyber-attacks and natural events necessitates a decentralized control architecture, enabling parts of the grid to operate independently while maintaining vo…

At the Microgrid & DER Controller Symposium 2017, the ultra-high fidelity controller Hardware in the Loop (HIL) stole the show, captivating all power engineers present. The workshop featured real industrial microgrid controllers from Eaton, GE, SEL, and Schneider, seamlessly interfaced with a Microgrid Controller-HIL Testbed that executed real-time simulations of a complex microgrid. This setup included fee…