Smart Energy Hub - Modularized Hybrid AC/DC Microgrid: System Design and Deployment

Hybrid AC/DC microgrid exhibits better compatibility with renewable energy sources, energy storages and various loads. The conventional smart grid system are building based and require customized system design, which is costly and time-consuming. In this paper, smart energy hub, which is the modularized microgrid system design, is proposed to simplify system deployment. In order to realize the three-level hierarchical control to ensure both speed of response and system control accuracy, different sub-systems have been designed and developed. Multi-mode operation of the power electronic converters is enabled to cater for system operation in different scenarios. Resource manager serves as a super smart meter + relay controller to simplify the SCADA system design and enhance the speed of response. Microgrid operating system is designed to coordinate all the function blocks to realize hierarchical control in robust manner. Prototype of the proposed energy hub has been designed and developed to integrate all the sub-systems (both hardware and software).