Resilience-oriented Microgrid Control and Protection (resiMG)

The lab-access user project “Resilience-oriented Microgrid Control and Protection” (resiMG) was conducted at the host lab of National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in the time period 21/09/2021 to 01/10/2021.

The resiMG project investigated the potential for increasing the resilience of electricity distri bution grids by implementing small energy cells in the form of microgrids, which can be dis connected from the main grid in the event of a severe upstream fault, sustain island opera tion for the duration of the fault, and be resynchronized and reconnected after the fault is cleared. Aspects related to the design of a microgrid for stability, the requirements for protec tion as well as practical questions for the design of a low-voltage laboratory-scale microgrid were investigated during the lab access. Tests included:

1. Solar inverter in PHIL
2. Controller integration into SCADA of the lab microgrid 
3. Island detection in CHIL
4. Protection blinding in CHIL

The user group from Hochschule Darmstadt is currently building up a low-voltage smart grid laboratory for the “Smart Grid Lab Hessen” project (SGL Hessen). SGL Hessen is a project funded by EU structural funds with the primary objective to investigate practical issues com monly perceived by distribution system operators as hurdles to the successful establishment of smart grid technologies. General learnings from the resiMG project have been very useful for our upcoming research in SGL Hessen. We could gain investigate most of the envisaged research questions, reproduce cases reported by other researchers in the lab, gain hands-on experience with the laboratory equipment and identify best practices for the design and op eration of a lab-scale low-voltage microgrid. In summary, we can confirm that our main objec tives could be reached, not at least due to the excellent support we received by the scientific and technical personnel of the host lab at NTUA.