Smart Grid

A smart grid is an electricity network that uses digital and other advanced technologies to monitor and to manage the transport of electricity from all generation sources to meet the varying electricity demands of end users.

De Lorenzo has designed a modular trainer that includes electricity networks (generation, transmission and distribution systems) and interfaces with customers (residential and/or commercial). It has the function of sharing the electricity generated from various sources, both public and private, traditional and renewable and ensuring that electrical devices use electricity as efficiently as possible.

The system is organized in four different energy sources subsystems; three are simulations such as a coal plant simulated by the main three-phase power supply from the grid, a wind plant simulated by a three-phase induction asynchronous machine, a hydroelectric plant simulated by a three-phase synchronous machine with an automatic synchronizing relay, and a real solar energy system which is connected to a grid-tie inverter allowing the generated energy to be transferred to the grid.

The power is transmitted from the power sources to the end user, represented by an RLC load, through simulated transmission lines 360 km and 100 km long to create a bidirectional power distribution network. Additional devices are included for power monitoring, power factor compensation and protection using a feeder manager relay.

To monitor the electric flow of the system and to manage and to optimize the requirements of power consumption, an industrial control system, as the SCADA software, is provided for the acquisition and control of the data coming from the measurement instruments and protection relays, using the standard Modbus RTU protocol, for an “intelligent” management of the whole electrical system. It is an open SCADA-WEB license allowing the teachers to fully customize the experiments and it can be used to monitor the system remotely from a local or remote workstation using an internet connection.

The smart grid system is aimed to undergraduate and graduate courses in the engineering school and can be used by mechanical and electrical engineering students as a long time project as it comprises enough elements to cover most of the topics such as electric circuits, electric machinery, hydroelectricity, renewable energies, power transmission, and power distribution.

To expand the capabilities of the trainer, optional sections can be added on the end-user side of the system such as a domestic micro-grid wind turbine (DL WIND-A1G) or a solar PV based system with batteries in grid-tie operation to study energy storage strategies.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

HYDROELECTRICAL SYSTEM

• Brushless
• Generator no load characteristic
• Generator load characteristic
• Regulation performances characteristics
• Automatic synchronization
• Overcurrent protection
• Over-voltage or under-voltage protection
• Over-frequency or under-frequency protection

WIND SYSTEM

• Relation between a pitch control system and wind
• Analysis of the mechanical parameters within an induction generator
• Analysis of electrical parameters within an induction generator

PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM

• Characterization of a photovoltaic panel without a load
• Characterization of a photovoltaic panel with a load
• Connecting a photovoltaic system to the real network by using an inverter grid system mono phase.

TRANSFORMER

• Vector group
• No load performance
• Load performance
• Asymmetrical performance
• Regulation performance

TRANSMISSION

• No-load performances
• Matched-load performances
• Ohmic-inductive load
• Ohmic-capacitive load
• Automatic compensator
• Transmission line radial network
• Transmission line meshed network
• Transmission line: fault-to-earth and protection
• Transmission line earth fault protection
• Transmission line under voltage protection
• Transmission line over voltage protection

SMART GRID

• SMART GRID system: Contribution of solar energy
• SMART GRID system: Contribution of hydropower
• SMART GRID system: Contribution of wind plant