Low voltage microgrid under islanded operation: Control strategies and experimental tests

The paper aims at describing the experimental setup of a low voltage microgrid equipped with distributed energy resources, both renewable and conventional, storage systems and loads. The experimentation involves the validation of control strategies also in islanding operation. The control algorithms are implemented in the Matlab-Simulink environment and run on a laptop connected to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) of the test facility. The objective is to safely and stably operate the system using a Vanadium Redox Battery (VRB) as the only regulating unit in the microgrid, thus using this storage system as the provider of both frequency and voltage control. Different control strategies are tested and their performances evaluated and reported.