Experimental Validation of Energy Resources Integration in Microgrids via Distributed Predictive Control

This paper presents an innovative control scheme for the management of energy consumption in commercial buildings with local energy production, such as photovoltaic panels or wind turbine and an energy storage unit. The presented scheme is based on distributed model predictive controllers, which manage the storage system and the building space heating and cooling. The proposed approach is implemented and tested in SYSLAB, the experimental facility for distributed energy systems at the Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus. The experimental setup consists of wind and solar renewable sources, a vanadium redox battery system, resistive load, and a point of common coupling to the national grid. Several experiments are carried to assess the performance of the control scheme in managing local energy production and consumption.