A Method for Plug-and-Play Control of Reconfigurable Electric Power Microgrids

Microgrid systems are a localized group of electricity sources and loads that operate both connected to and isolated from the traditional wide-area synchronous grid (WASG). The complexity involved in controlling these systems during abnormal states like faults and disconnections from the primary supply has been a long-standing challenge. There is a subsequent need for smarter, adaptable, and agile controllers capable of handling such situations. The prevalent approaches deployed for managing these systems do not fully exploit the potential of controllable components plugged into an existing grid system. Current control strategies often struggle to script a model sufficiently robust to handle swift and unexpected system faults and could fail to effectively incorporate and manage new components into the existing ecosystem in a plug-and-play manner.

Technology Description

The technology encapsulates concepts, systems, and methods for operating microgrid systems reliably during regular operation conditions and abruptly occurring faults that result in a source disconnecting from a primary supply. It deploys advanced control systems and methodologies based on multilayered modeling of system-controllable components and the ways they interact with each other. This unique approach facilitates controllable components to operate in a "plug-and-play" manner. This technology stands differentiated largely because of its implementation of multilayered modeling. This scheme not only heightens system reliability by efficiently managing normal operations but also adeptly handling sudden faults. The plug-and-play characteristic adds an effortless integration of new controllable components into the existing system grid, thereby ensuring enhanced system modularity and scalability.