Design and development of a reconfigurable hybrid Microgrid testbed

A hybrid Microgrid testbed that combines Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) simulation of electric power network and System-in-the-Loop (SITL) simulation of communication network with real hardware is presented in this paper. The PHIL system can interface with other power hardware and emulate different systems connected to the testbed, such as renewable energy conversion systems, different topologies of utility grid, and other Microgrids, etc. It enables a flexible and reconfigurable electric power network in the testbed. The SITL system is part of the real-time Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. It is able to accept real-time traffic from physical network and simulate different communication networks and phenomena, which enables a flexible and reconfigurable communication network in the testbed. Meanwhile, multiple power electronics converters and programmable power sources/loads are integrated in the testbed to emulate different renewable energy conversion systems. Experimental results are presented in the paper to demonstrate the capability of proposed testbed.