Optical Isolation for Wide Bandgap Power Electronic Systems (GR-13-08)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Enrico Santi

This project includes the design and construction of a hybrid microgrid prototype. The proposed microgrid includes: (1) one point of common coupling (PCC) with an area ac electric power system (EPS), (2) one point with a dc sub-transmission line, (3) distributed resources (DR) and loads. Four modes of microgrid operation will be analyzed: normal ac grid parallel connected mode, transition-to-island mode, island mode, and ac grid reconnection mode. Control algorithms of all modes follow the requirements of IEEE Std. 1547.4TM-2011. The DRs, dc grid, local ac generators (gas, combined heat and power (CHP), etc.), and various loads will be emulated by two-level voltage source converters (VSC) in hardware. The initial small-scale prototype will be designed at a 200 W power level per VSC. Future work will include porting these designs to high-power converters (in MWs range) available at NCREPT.