A Power-HIL microgrid testbed: Smart energy integration lab (SEIL)

Grid integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) is gaining importance in the field of power electronics research. Experimental evaluation of control strategies and detailed evaluation of power interfaces usually require significant allocation of time and resources. This is where the power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) techniques help accelerate control design and evaluation processes. The paper presents a PHIL based microgrid testbed: Smart Energy Integration Lab (SEIL); that has been specifically constructed for studying grid integration aspects of DERs with a focus on system dynamic performance and power dispatch scenarios. The SEIL is equipped with a remotely controlled network configuration, power electronics converters, passive loadbanks, a battery storage system and real time control and acquisition systems that allow emulation of several microgrids and connection of several DERs at the same time. To demonstrate the functionality of the SEIL, the experimental results for two typical scenarios were used: a power dispatch scenario in a microgrid and a wind turbine operation in grid connection.