Microgrid laboratory prototype

Around the world, conventional power systems are facing gradual depletion of fossil fuel resources, poor energy efficiency and environmental pollution. These problems have led to a new trend of generating power locally at distribution voltage level by using renewable/nonconventional energy sources like natural gas, biogas, wind power, solar photovoltaic cells, fuel cells, combined heat and power systems, micro-turbines and Stirling engines and their integration into the utility distribution network. Microgrid is essentially an active distribution network, which connects different renewable/nonconventional energy sources and various loads at distribution voltage level. From operational point of view, the micro-sources must be equipped with power electronic interfaces and control schemes to provide the required flexibility for ensuring their operation as a single aggregated system and to maintain power quality and energy output. Based on the above, the integration of a microgrid prototype for research of new control algorithms is necessary. In this work, a microgrid laboratory prototype is presented, which is composed by multiple items. This prototype allows tests for verifying energy quality in order to fulfil security requirements and integration restrictions.