Unit- 4

CO-4 Analyse microgrids and Distributed energy resources (DER) with integration of different
sources.

A microgrid is a network of interconnected energy resources and loads that can operate
independently of the main electricity grid or be connected to it. Microgrids can be used to power
individual buildings, neighborhoods, or entire cities. They can also improve the reliability of the
power supply and the resilience of the grid to disturbances.
Here are some concepts related to microgrids:
 Types of microgrids
Microgrids can be classified into three topologies: AC, DC, and hybrid. AC microgrids
use alternating current (AC) and are often designed for larger-scale applications. DC
microgrids distribute direct current (DC) power within a small geographic area.
 Modes of operation
Microgrids can operate in grid-connected or island mode. In island mode, the microgrid
is not connected to the central power source. These are also known as remote
microgrids and are often used in areas that lack access to an affordable power source.
 Community microgrids
Designed to serve a specific community, such as a neighborhood, town, or
campus. Community microgrids often use renewable energy sources and energy storage
to enhance sustainability and resilience.
 Benefits
Microgrids can enhance grid resilience to more extreme weather or cyber attacks. They can
also continuously power individual buildings, neighborhoods, or entire cities, even if the
surrounding macrogrid suffers an outage
Microgrid is a generic term that can correspond to a lot of systems, but here is our
definition:

A microgrid is a localised and self-contained energy system that can operate independently from
the main power grid (we call this off-grid mode) or as a controllable entity with respect to the
main power grid (on-grid mode). It consists of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as solar
PV plant, wind turbines, storage systems such as batteries and conventional generators, all
integrated and controlled by advanced software tools and communication technologies.
Microgrids can serve a small energy community, a building complex or even a single home, and
can operate in islanded mode or in parallel with the main power grid. They are often designed to
improve , increase resilience and reduce carbon emissions.
What is a microgrid controller?
A microgrid controller is defined as a device capable of monitoring and managing the energy
resources and loads connected to the microgrid, related to the assets into a controllable entity. It
will maintain local grid stability while reducing operating costs through least-cost dispatch of
assets. It should have a real-time power management system to adapt to all circumstances and
can receive a predictive approach from an energy management system. In addition, a microgrid
system should be able to analyse and make quick decisions in the event of an emergency, helping
to balance energy production with load consumption and providing power even in the event of a
blackout.

How to manage a microgrid system?

In the context of a microgrid, where the operation of the local electrical network cannot depend
on the external transmission network, a real-time control system is required. A PMS (Power
Management System) has the ability to calculate and apply an optimal power dispatch for assets
in order to ensure the grid stability, also to manage the black start (repowering the global system
in case of a blackout system) and bring grid services as frequency and voltage support. The PMS
can use input forecasts, such as weather, to take into account the upcoming operating hours. For
more efficient optimisation, the local controller receives operational planning from an energy
management system (EMS), which has the ability to collect multiple forecasts and simulate
future asset behaviour for the following days.

The microgrid can also refer to a permanent or intermittent local grid connected to the main grid.
When the microgrid is connected, control consists mainly of respecting the constraints and
characteristics of the connection point and transformer while maximise financial incoming, but
also to support the main grid in case of frequency or voltage deviation with ancillary services.
How microgrids work and what are the benefits?
Whoever says grid says electricity. Being connected to the main grid ensures a stable connection
in most countries. However, there are some places where interconnection is not possible, either
due to a lack of infrastructure or in the case of remote areas such as islands, far from the main
grid. In this case, an isolated microgrid is a solution. It can operate while connected to the grid,
but it can also disconnect and use its own local energy sources, especially in case of emergencies
(storms, maintenance, breakdown of an asset…). Energy communities, for example, tend to be
independent and use the energy produced locally, as it is increasingly common to install solar
panels on the rooftop and a battery energy storage system to increase self-consumption and self-
production ratio.

Reasons to building a microgrid:

Power reliability: A microgrid can provide a reliable source of electricity in areas with frequent
power outages or unreliable grid infrastructure. With its own generation capacity and energy
storage, a microgrid can ensure that critical loads are always powered.
Energy cost savings: A microgrid can help you to optimise energy costs by using a combination
of renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, fuel cells and energy storage systems.
By reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuel sources, a microgrid can help lower energy costs
and improve your bottom line.
Environmental sustainability: A microgrid can reduce your carbon footprint by generating and
storing renewable energy on-site. This can help you meet your sustainability goals and reduce
your impact on the environment.
Energy independence: A microgrid can provide energy independence by allowing you to
generate and store your own power. This can be particularly useful in remote or off-grid
locations where access to grid power may be limited or non-existent.
Resilience: A microgrid can provide resilience in the face of natural disasters, extreme weather
events or other grid disruptions. By having its own generation and storage capabilities, a
microgrid can continue to provide power to critical loads even when the larger grid is down.
Electrification of isolated areas: currently 10% of the worldwide population do not have access
to electricity, hence, an isolated microgrid system could bring a solution.

What are the differences between on-grid microgrid and off-grid microgrid (islanded)?
Off-grid microgrids (in island mode) are often used in remote areas or in situations where it is
not technically feasible or cost-prohibitive to connect to the main electrical grid. They are also
becoming increasingly popular as a way to provide power resilience and independence for
communities especially in remote areas.

Unlike off-grid microgrids, which are designed to operate in island mode, on-grid microgrids are
integrated with the grid and can be used to supplement or replace power from the grid. In some
cases, they may also be used to generate excess power that can be sold back to the grid,
providing a source of revenue for the microgrid owners.
One of the challenges of on-grid microgrids is ensuring that they are properly integrated with the
existing grid infrastructure. This requires careful planning of the project and coordination with
the local utility company to ensure that the microgrid does not cause disruptions to the larger grid
system.

A perfect example of a microgrid connected to the grid, would be the case of our client in
Morbihan – Aim of the project? To monitor, optimise the grid for maximum flexibility and to
decarbonise the region.

What is a microgrid in simple words?

In a nutshell, a microgrid is a small self-sufficient system able to operate autonomously if
needed, the aim is to provide with energy at the local level. Microgrid are more and more
designed to provide with green energy from distributed resources and all kinds of assets like
solar, wind farms, hydrogen, fuel cells and batteries.

Is my home energy network system equivalent to a microgrid?

Your in-house power solution can be considered a type of microgrid, but it is not equivalent to a
community microgrid in terms of scale, generation sources, management and resilience. A home
power system is a smaller-scale, single-building energy solution, while a community microgrid is
a larger scale, multi-building energy solution.

While both home and community microgrids are part of the broader microgrid network, their
differences in scale, coverage and complexity make them distinct. Your in-house power solution
is designed for a single building or small group of buildings, uses a limited set of energy sources,
and primarily serves the building in which it is installed. On the other hand, a community
microgrid serves a larger area with multiple buildings, integrates diverse generation sources, and
requires more complex management and coordination.

In summary, while your in-house energy network project can be considered a type of microgrid,
it is not equivalent to a community microgrid due to differences in scale, generation sources,
network topology, management and resilience.

What is an example of a microgrid?

One of the examples of a microgrid project operating in island mode in a remote area is our New
Caledonian customer responsible for the power supply in several islands of New Caledonia.
Energy Pool provides Energy Management System to manage and decarbonise the islands. Read
the story here!

A few words about Energy Pool’s microgrid technology

Our solution includes a Power Management System (PMS) embedded in an Energy Management
System (EMS) that enables local monitoring of customer assets and combines setpoints from the
cloud with local data to optimise asset-level performance and make real-time dispatch decisions.
The PMS also communicates operational and other critical information back to the EMS cloud.
Its primary function is to coordinate asset behaviour to closely follow the forecast-based
optimised operating schedules provided by the EMS, while making the necessary adjustments to
adapt to real-time deviations. In addition, the PMS can manage the voltage/frequency stability of
local systems or networks, particularly in microgrids or stand-alone power systems.

In the case of an on-grid microgrid, our EMS can provide ancillary services, which are additional
services beyond energy delivery that help maintain grid reliability and stability. These services
can include frequency regulation, voltage control and reactive power support. By participating in
these services, our EMS can generate additional revenue for the microgrid community while
helping to stabilise the grid. It will consequently help to lower energy bill – the system will
decide (thanks to intelligent models developed by our specialists) what the best strategy in order
to use cheaper energy.

The link between the predictive EMS and real-time PMS optimisation is a continuous cycle,
thus, it provides constant control to minimise operating costs and CO2 emissions.

Issues, Control and Protection of Microgrid

Conventional power system is facing the problems of depletion of fossil fuel resources, poor energy
efficiency and environmental pollution. These problems have led to a new trend of generating power
locally at distribution voltage level by using renewable energy sources such as natural gas, biogas,
windpower,solarphotovoltaiccells,fuelcells,combinedheat and power (CHP) systems, microturbines and
their integration into the utility distribution network. This type of power generation is termed as
distributed generation (DG) and the energy sources are termed as distributed energy resources (DERs).
Microgrid is essentially an active distribution network because it is the combination of DG systems and
different types of loads at distribution voltage level. The generators or micro sources employed in a
Microgrid are usually renewable DERs integrated together for generating power at distribution voltage
[1]. Microgrids have increasing the attention as a means of integrating distributed generation into the
electricity grid. Usually it is described as confined clusters of loads, storage devices and small generators,
these autonomous networks connected as a single entity to the public distribution grid, means through
a point of common coupling (PCC).

Microgrids comprise a variety of technologies: renewable sources, such as solar photovoltaic and wind
generators are operated also with the traditional high inertia synchronous generators, batteries and fuel
cells. Thus, the energy is generated near the loads, enabling the utilization of small scale generators that
for increase the reliability and reduces the power line losses. Microgrid network that enables for an
improved management of energy. Generators (and possibly loads) can be controlled by an energy
management system (EMS) to optimize power flow within the network. The objectives of energy
management system depends on the mode of operation such as Islanded or grid connected. A microgrid
is defined as a type of the grid consisting of prime energy movers, power electronics converters,
distributed energy storage systems and local loads [2]. In islanded mode, the main goal of power
management is to stabilize the system, by stabilizing the frequency and voltage. In grid connected mode,
typical objectives are to minimize the price of energy import at the point of common coupling, to
improve power factor at the point of common coupling and also to optimize the voltage profile within
the microgrid.

II. IIssues Protection issues of microgrid, when it is grid connected mode and islanded mode of
opearation are as follws: A. Events or Faults During Grid Connected Mode : For a fault within microgrid,
the response of line or feeder protection must be to disconnect the faulty portion from the rest of the
system as quick as possible and how it is done depends on the features and complexity of microgrid and
protection strategy is used. There may be some non fault cases which are resulting in low voltages at
PCC like voltage unbalance and non fault open phases which are difficult to be detected and it may
create hazards for sensitive loads, microsources etc. Therefore, some protection mechanisms must be
developed to avoid such situations [8]. B. Events or Faults During Islanded Mode : The nature of
problems are different in islanded mode than grid connected mode. In grid connected mode, the fault
currents of higher magnitude (10-50 times the full load current) which are available from the utility grid
for activate conventional OC protection devices. For islanded mode of microgrid, fault current is five
times the full load current. When a large number of converter based DERs are connected in microgrid,
the fault currents are 2-3 times the full load current or even less depending on the control method of
converter.

The conventional OC protection devices are usually setat2-

[Link],duetothisdrastic reduction in fault level, the time current coordination
of OC protective devices is disturbed, the high set instantaneous OC devices and extremely inverse
characteristics OC devices like fuses are most likely to be affected [8]. Issues, Control and Protection of
Microgrid National Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering & Technology 61 | Page (NCETET17)
The other major issues in microgrid protection and control include : • Bidirectional power flows: The
power flow in a conventional distribution system is unidirectional, i.e. from the substation to the loads.
Reverse power flows when integration of DGs on the distribution side of the grid . As a result, the
conventional protection coordination schemes are no longer valid; • Stability issues: As a result of the
interaction of the control system of microgenerators local oscillations may arise. Hence, small signal
stability analysis and transientstability analysis are required to ensure proper operation in a microgrid; •
For maintaining power quality, active and reactive power balance must be maintained within the
Microgrid on a short-term basis ; • Intermittent Output: Renewable energy resources (photovoltaic, or
wind) in microgrid as distributed generation are intermittent in their power output because of the
availability of sources. Hence, coordination between DGs and storage devices is essential [7].
 III. Control The microgrid control center (MGCC) is the core of the microgrid control system. It centrally
manages DGs, ESs and loads and monitors and controls the entire microgrid. It has the control strategy
based on the operating conditions to ensure smooth transfer between grid connection, islanding and
shutdown. In grid connected operation, the layer regulates the microgrid for best operational
performance; in islanded operation, the layer adjusts the DG output and load consumption to ensure
stable and safe operation of the microgrid. In grid-connected operation, the central control layer
dispatches the microgrid for best economic performance and coordinates various DGs and ESs for load
shifting to smooth the load curve, During transfer between gridconnected mode and islanded mode, the
local controller to realize quick transfer, In islanded operation, the layer coordinates various DGs, ESs
and loads to maintain supply to important loads and also it coordinates for safe operation of the
microgrid, When the microgrid stops operation, the layer initiates black-start to rapidly resume
operation. The CC performs the overall control, operation, protection of Microgrid. Also it maintains the
specified voltage and frequency at the load end through power−frequency (P−f) and
[Link]-ordination and provides the power dispatch and voltage
set points. When necessary the CC is designed to operate in automatic mode with provision for manual
intervention. In centralized monitoring system, the central monitoring
unitcommunicateswithvariousswitches,givesordersandalso sets the switch action range. The monitoring
mode is easy and cheap, but it has the disadvantage that operation of all switches relies on the central
monitoring unit, the failure of which will cause collapse of the entire protection system. A decentralized
monitoring system is composed of multiple central monitoring units which are fulfilling the different
functions. When one unit fails, the others will automatically take over, thus avoiding system collapse.
This mode offers high reliability but calls for more investment [10]. An interesting approach to designing
and developing decentralized systems is based on multi-agent system (MAS) theory[6].

Plastic and organic solar cells

Plastic and organic solar cells are the same thing and are a type of photovoltaic cell that uses
organic electronics to convert sunlight into electricity:

 What they are

 Organic solar cells use organic electronics and carbon-based materials to absorb light and
create electricity. They are also known as "plastic" or "polymer" solar cells.
 How they work
Organic solar cells have layers that include an electrode, electron transport layer, photoactive
layer, hole transport layer, and another electrode. The cells absorb light, separate the electrons
and holes, and then deliver electrical power.
 Benefits
Organic solar cells are flexible, cheaper to produce, and can be printed onto thin plastics. They
can be used in more places than crystalline solar cells, such as in solar power windows.
 Challenges
Organic solar cells are less efficient than silicon-based solar cells. They are also unstable to
photochemical degradation and have a shorter lifetime than silicon solar panels.