Application off Rapid Prototyping Tools

T for a
Hierarchical Miccrogrid Control Impllementation
George Messinis1, Fran Gonzalez-Espiin2, Virgilio Valdivia2, Judy Rea3, Darren Mollagghan3, Nikos Hatziargyriou1
1
School of Electrical and Compuuter Engineering, National Technical University of Athhens, Athens, Greece
[gmessinis, nh]@power.ece.ntua.gr
2
United Teechnologies Research Center-Ireland, Cork, Ireland
[email protected], [email protected]
3
Beaufort Research - HMRC, University College Cork, Cork, Irelannd
[J.Rea, d.mollaghan]@ucc.ie

Abstract— This paper presents the app plication of rapid microgrid includes electronically interfaced renewable sources.
prototyping tools for the implementation n of hierarchical In that regard, the algorithmss needed to control the power
microgrid automation and control algoorithms in Real- electronics converters to integraate renewables in the grid are of
Time/FPGA platforms based on a Triphase 3PExpress and a a paramount importance.
National Instruments CompactRIO platforms (NI cRIO). A three
layer hierarchical control structure has been n used, where the On the other hand, the automation
a and control of the
primary layer implements the power electroonics controls, the microgrid as an integrated sysstem needs the legacy SCADA
secondary layer implements the microgrrid controls and systems to move forward towards the smart grid concept. In
automation strategy, and the tertiary layeer implements the that regard, the Microgrid Centtral Controller (MGCC) [3] is of
energy management algorithms. The rapid prototyping tools a high relevance in microgridss control and operation since it
offer an environment that allows the implementation of concepts can act as the main controller (combining secondary and
related to the coordination, control and management
m of a tertiary controls) [4], [5] annd also as an aggregator and
Commercial and Industrial (C&I) building miicrogrid to provide microgrid interface to the griid in the case of decentralized
high quality power to both the local load ds (e.g. harmonic control.
distortion) and the grid (e.g. ancillary servicess). The microgrid is
composed of a three-phase diesel generator, a Li-ion battery, a The paper will focus on the application of rapid prototyping
motor-generator test rig for wind turbine emu ulation, a load bank tools in the microgrid and disstributed generation domain. A
with resistive, inductive and capacitive passiive load emulation real life microgrid that will be described later will be used as a
capabilities, a resistive load bank, a fault emullator and a back to test case. Communications, data d acquisition and microgrid
back converter to emulate loads or distributed resources. control algorithms will be implemented in the selected
platform. Using rapid prototyping tools with high level
Keywords—microgrid; rapid prototyping; FPGA;
F hierarchical programming languages (to freee the users from the burden of
control; Building Management System low level time consuming programming)
p will enable the
I. INTRODUCTION development and testing of com mplex applications in reasonable
times. These capabilities will improve the microgrid control
Microgrids [1], [2] are gaining more andd more importance both at the academic research level and also at the industrial
during the last years and pose a new paraadigm in electrical microgrid application level.
power systems. Microgrid control structures are
a of high interest
and have the potential of developing new power
p and energy The use of rapid prototypinng tools together with Real Time
management, both on the centralized and a decentralized Hardware in the Loop (RT-HIL) testing will reduce the gap
generation domains. Typical electrical generation in a between academia and industtry by effectively reducing the
time it takes for academic reseearch to be realized in industrial

Fig. 1. Electrical diagram of the microgrid

978-1-4799-5115-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

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products. This will lead to a further adoption of the microgrid • Lower installation costs: IEC 61850 devices utilize the
technology. station LAN, thus avoiding the installation of complex
communication networks that will require a lot of cabling
The paper is organized as follows. The microgrid and
and hardware engineering.
control strategy are described in section II. Section III focuses
on the MGCC architecture, describing its components and • Lower commissioning costs: IEC 61850 devices do not
communication requirements and its implementation in the NI require a lot of manual configurations. This is mainly a
cRIO. Section IV shows an example of a primary layer control result of the abstract definition of data and services that
strategy for one of the distributed resources. Section V shows results to "plug 'n play" capabilities of IEC 61850 devices.
experimental results involving the coordination of the several
control layers. Finally, section VI presents the main • Lower equipment migration costs: Interchangeability and
conclusions. interoperability are important features of IEC 61850
devices. Due to the high level description of data/services
II. MICROGRID DESCRIPTION AND CONTROL and their mapping to specific communication protocols, it is
easy to replace a specific brand device with another of
A. Microgrid Test Bed Description different brand with minimum engineering efforts.
A microgrid test bed has been designed and developed to
conduct research on advanced automation, management and • Lower extension costs: The minimization of configuration
control strategies for allowing the integration of dispersed efforts resulting from the "plug n' play", interoperability
generation and storage into the grid. and interchangeability characteristics makes it easy to
extend a system by adding devices with the lowest
The microgrid test bed is shown in Fig. 1 and consists of engineering effort.
two independent buses that allow the emulation of several grid
topologies (e.g. mesh and radial configurations, integration of Research on using the MGCC as an interface to enable
DC and AC microgrids) and is composed of a 30kVA Diesel communications between internal systems that use proprietary
Generator, a 15kVA bidirectional power electronics converter communication protocols and external systems is conducted.
used as battery inverter for a 5kWh/15kW peak Li-Ion battery, Standardized communications and data interoperability are
a fully configurable 15kVA electronic load emulator, a 22kW important since they enable transactions with external players
wind turbine emulator with a 7 Kg·m2 flywheel for emulating like the Distribution System Operator (DSO), markets and
inertia, a 50kVA passive load bank able to emulate resistive, consumers that might require specific services from the
inductive and capacitive loads, a 10kW passive resistive load microgrid. Thus, a device that will transform proprietary
and a passive fault emulator. communication and data representation protocols to
standardized ones like IEC 61850 is of high importance. Such
The microgrid will be used for several applications like work can be found in [10] where a controller is used to upgrade
Demand Response (DR) and Fast DR (e.g. distributed ancillary the communication capabilities of a PV inverter that uses
services) in C&I buildings [6]. Voltage support and frequency Modbus to an IEC 61850 standardized inverter.
support are important applications of interest as well [7].
Increased RES penetration in the distribution grid frequently B. Microgrid Control Architecture
results in reverse power flows that raise the voltage on the PCC The hierarchical control structure of the microgrid is shown
(Point of Common Coupling), thus disconnecting the DG and in Fig. 2 and has been designed in the following way. The
reducing revenue for the DG owner. Additionally, the tertiary control layer will be implemented in a PC that
frequency of the grid may be affected due to the increasing communicates with the MGCC by means of a middleware
percentage of renewable energy. The microgrid active/reactive layer. It will combine metering, communications and control
power can be controlled in order to regulate the voltage or to algorithms to optimize the energy consumption of the building
ensure power balance. Adaptive protection [8] is another [11], [12].
application of interest. In this application the settings of
protection devices must be re-calculated and sent to the devices The secondary control layer is implemented in the MGCC
each time the network layout changes. A typical case would be (emulated by the NI cRIO) and has been mainly used to detect
a microgrid changing its operation from grid connected to islanding, to synchronize back the microgrid with the grid [13]
islanded mode. Short-circuit currents are different in the grid and to supervise that the microgrid meets grid code
connected mode and must be re-calculated when the microgrid requirements for the connection to the low voltage distribution
operates autonomously. network [14]. Additionally automation and control features can
be implemented in this control layer that allows for the C&I
The microgrid test-bed can also be used to implement and building to provide the grid with advanced services (e.g.
test component interoperability, plug n' play functionalities and automated demand response).
standardized communications. The IEC 61850 standard and its
potential use in microgrids is of main interest. The main feature The primary control layer has been used to control locally
of the standard is the abstract definition of data and services, each of the generators, and an example of the modeling and
thus enabling the development of applications independently of control implemented for the storage system is shown in section
underlying protocols. Some important benefits of the standard IV. The microgrid can operate both in grid connected and
are [9]: islanded mode. When the microgrid operates in grid connected

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 MicroGrid
Grid PM
Modbus PM PM PM PM PM

Analog

Wind Load
AC Load
Controller Diesel Turbine
DC Emulator Bank
Emulator

CAN LiIon
Fig. 2. Hierarchical control structure of the microgrid Battery

mode the loads are served by both the grid and the DERs. In Digital
case of grid disturbances or power outage the microgrid can
FPGA RT
operate in island mode, supplying the loads from the diesel Analog
RS485 DIOs Algorithms Algorithms
PLC
Inputs
generator, batteries and available RES until the grid is restored.
CompactRIO
Furthermore, several control strategies have been implemented
to allow for seamless transition between modes of operation, Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the communications implemented in the
including reconfigurable control algorithms in the battery microgrid.
system for PQ control, grid forming and droop operation [13]. The NI cRIO system used in this project (NI cRIO-9081)
In the grid connected mode, both the diesel generator and the includes NI9225 modules for directly measuring 230V/50Hz
battery inverter work as current sources following the voltage waveforms, which allows for measuring all of the nodes
and frequency of the grid, while P and Q set points can be sent voltages in the microgrid. In order to measure the currents in
externally by the user or by secondary and tertiary control the nodes, LEM modules have been installed that convert the
algorithms. The diesel generator local controller may receive input signals to a ±10V signal which is then acquired by the
active power, power factor, voltage and frequency set points high resolution acquisition module NI9239. Even though the
using the Modbus protocol (via RS-485). The battery inverter main purpose of these modules is monitoring, the acquired
(a 15kVA bidirectional power electronics converter) receives signals can be used for control purposes if needed. The system
active and reactive power set points using CAN while it can also includes the digital input/output NI9375 module and the
also send information on the status of the device, state of analog output NI9264 module. Those modules are used for
charge of the battery, etc... that can be useful for secondary and interfacing other devices like PLCs, controllers or relays. In
tertiary control levels. In the islanded mode, both the diesel order to add industrial communications to the microgrid test
generator and the battery inverter can play the role of the grid rig, the modules NI9871 (for RS-485) and NI9862 (for CAN)
forming unit. Apart from one of them working as a voltage have been also installed. The communications schematic
source and the other as a current source, they can be operated diagram is shown in Fig. 3.
in parallel by means of voltage droop control. In that case the
two sources can share the microgrid load according to their The NI cRIO has been used to emulate a MGCC for
droop curves. Power sharing in this case may be optimized in hierarchical control of the Microgrid [13]. Secondary control
order to avoid generator overload and underload. An external layer and automation strategies have been programed in NI
PLC system (with Modbus and CAN communication cRIO by using the LabView environment.
capabilities) is used for data logging, protection and
Communications play an important role in the microgrid, as
interlocking and as an HMI.
well as in the secondary and tertiary control layers. The
III. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MGCC IN A RAPID communications infrastructure has been used for coordinating
PROTOTYPING TOOL and controlling the distributed resources. In that regard, a fast
and secure implementation is of a high importance. In the
In order to implement control strategies and prove concepts microgrid setup, CAN is used for communicating with the
for microgrid management, the trend is to use rapid prototyping Triphase Battery Inverter system. Moreover, Modbus via RS-
tools that allow easy hardware integration and software 485 is used for communicating with multi-meters and the
development [15], [16]. One powerful solution that allows Diesel Generator controller.
controlling the heterogeneous devices in a microgrid is the NI
cRIO reconfigurable control platform. NI cRIO is based on a IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRIMARY CONTROL LAYER ON
reconfigurable embedded system architecture that includes a A RAPID PROTOTYPING TOOL ENVIRONMENT
Real-Time Processor running a Real-Time Operating System The schematic of the battery storage system is shown in
(RTOS) and a FPGA interconnected internally by a PCI bus. Fig. 4.
LabView graphical environment is used to program both, the
Real-Time Processor and the FPGA. Complex procedures that The bidirectional DC/DC stage is composed of three
need a high computational effort are implemented on the converters as the one shown in Fig. 5. The three converters are
FPGA, while procedures that need to be deterministically connected in parallel, so the interleaved PWM technique can be
executed are implemented on the Real Time module. In used to reduce the switching ripple.
addition, the NI cRIO offers a reconfigurable chassis to The three phase inverter is based on the well-known VSI
connect I/O modules requested by the application (e.g. topology with an output LCL filter, as shown in Fig. 6 [17].
industrial communication modules or digital and analogue
input and outputs).

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 detailed zoom depicted in Fig. 10 shows the voltage seamless
transition managed by the secondary control layer.

Fig. 4. General schematic of the battery system

Fig. 5. Battery+ DC/DC electrical schematic

Fig. 7. The battery system reconfigurable AC/DC and DC/DC Control

In Fig. 11 the most significant waveforms of the battery

system are shown for a current step-up. It can be seen the grid
current and voltage, a detail of the grid current and the
reference and the DC-link voltage transient response.
Fig.6. Schematic of the VSI with LCL filter The same test is shown in Fig. 12 but in this case a grid
current step-down is presented. The grid current and voltage
The control strategy uses PI controllers for constant waveforms are shown as well as a detail of the grid current
references tracking (e.g. DC link voltage) and PI+ Resonant with the reference and the DC-bus voltage transient.
controllers in the synchronous reference frame for fundamental
harmonic reference tracking and harmonic distortion VI. CONCLUSIONS
improvement (e.g. grid current), and varies between the grid Rapid prototyping tools have been presented that allow to
connected and the islanded modes, as shown in Fig. 7. The easily deploy and test control and automation algorithms in the
battery system can thus work as a current source in the grid three layers of control proposed for hierarchical control of a
connected mode, and as a voltage source controlled by a
microgrid. The rapid prototyping tools are based on RTOS-
voltage droop strategy when disconnected from the main grid.
FPGA. A NI cRIO device has been used to implement a
The control of the power converter has been programmed in a
Triphase 3PExpress rapid prototyping tool and hardware in the MGCC. The MGCC is intended to control the microgrid by
loop platform, and is fully accessible by the user. The properly coordinating the several distributed resources, so
controller can be programmed by using MATLAB and services like seamless transition from the connected to the
Simulink coder toolboxes. The several electrical and control islanded modes, as well as voltage support can be provided to
signals in the power converter can be monitored in real time. the grid. Communications, which are an important part of the
microgrid test rig and of the control strategy, have been
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS successfully implemented.
In this section the experimental validation of the battery
system operation are shown. The results obtained with the
battery system, for a current step-up and step-down
(considering the positive current reference in the battery
discharge mode) and the transition between grid-connected to
islanded mode are shown. As it can be seen, the waveforms
present the correct operation of the battery system in the
different operation modes.
In Fig. 8 the current provided by the battery when the current
set point is changed from 13Arms to 25Arms is shown. In this
experiment, the microgrid is connected in parallel to the main
grid. In Fig. 9 the transition between the parallel or grid
connected mode to the islanded mode is depicted. As it is
shown, the transition is smooth, with the peak amplitude within Fig. 8. Battery current (yellow) and grid voltage (magenta), when a step in the
the limits defined by the national grid code. Finally, the battery current is introduced

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 300

200

100
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)
0

-100

-200

-300

113.5 114 114.5 115 115.5 116 116.5 117

Time (s)
Islanding
THD v = 2.3 % THD v = 2.6 %

Fig. 9. Experimental test showing an islanding transition while battery inverter Fig. 12. Experimental waveforms of the battery system: Step-down in the
is discharging at 8 kW rate at AC terminals. Diesel genset, battery inverter battery current (charging mode) (0A to -5A). From top to bottom and left to
and resistor bank are connected to the microgrid. right: Grid current, Grid voltage, Grid current and reference detail and DC-link
voltage.
300

200 REFERENCES
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Voltage (V)

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