Plug-and-play Low Voltage DC Microgrid for Cheap and Clean Energy

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr Z Lin
Sch of Engineering and Applied Science
Aston University

Standard

EPSRC

01 August 2019

30 April 2022

33 months

£414,346

Energy

West Midlands

ISCF - Skills

Dr Z Lin, Sch of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University

Project Contact, Grid Edge Limited
Project Contact, Hoymiles Converter Technology Co., Ltd, China
Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd
Project Contact, Dummy Organisation
Project Contact, Nidec Control Techniques Ltd

Microgrids are small-scale power subsystems that include distributed energy generations, energy storages, and local loads. Microgrid technology will allow the power grid to accept more clean distributed renewable generations. It has great potential to increase the energy efficiency and security, and contribute to one of the UK industrial strategy priority areas "Cheap and Clean Energy".Compared to alternating current (AC) power systems, direct current (DC) power systems has the advantages of simpler control, higher reliability and efficiency, and has gained a continually increasing interest in the last several years. This Fellowship will work together with UK industries to address the challenge of achieving plug-and-play low voltage DC microgrids, provide ease of use for the technology, and explore new business cases in both building and industrial applications.The plug-and-play concept means the DC microgrid stable operation should not be affected by the connection/disconnection of power converters to the system, and the system control algorithm can be updated after a power converter is connected or disconnected. Also, users should have a group of compatible DC microgrid devices to choose from different manufacturers.In this Fellowship, the fundamental mechanism of DC microgrid stability will be studied, and a novel passive interface filter based solution will be implemented, so that off-the-shelf power converters can be used without changing its design. Design guidelines and software tool will be provided for DC microgrid industrial engineers. A novel simultaneous power and information transfer technology will be developed for DC microgrid control, so that high performance plug-and-play control can be implemented without external communication links. Together with industrial project partners, a reconfigurable DC microgrid research and demonstration platform will be developed to evaluate and demonstrate the developed technology, and support industry to explore potential new business cases in building and industrial applications.

18/08/21