This Major Research Instrumentation project will acquire a microgrid cyber-physical testbed to enable the simulation, emulation, and testing of novel technologies being developed by South Dakota State University (SDSU) and its collaborators to enable microgrid development and deployment. The proposed microgrid cyber-physical testbed will be a resource available to all SDSU faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as other researchers across South Dakota and North Dakota. This cyber-physical testbed will enable the interdisciplinary development and collaboration among researchers in power electronics, power systems, controls, and energy markets, and laying the groundwork for collaborative research with industry as well as national and international partners. This project will not only advance energy sustainability, but also promote economic development and employment opportunities. Through the training of professionals in the use of this new system, this project will contribute to building a skilled workforce. The investigators will add new materials and lab curricula to current courses, and provide research and educational experiences to both graduate and undergraduate students. A workshop will be organized to train other students, faculty, and power professionals in the region, and help recruit underrepresented students to STEM programs.
Specifically, this equipment will enhance the research infrastructure of SDSU Microgrid Laboratory in three research areas: a) energy management and integration of renewable energy sources, b) cyber-physical system security, and c) energy resource design, simulation modeling, and power management. The research capacity will be further enhanced through collaborations with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) by remotely connecting their Power-Hardware-In-The- Loop (PHIL) capabilities with the proposed cyber-physical testbed. This interconnection will leverage the SDSU Microgrid Laboratory's research capabilities and the extensive grid testing and high performance computing capabilities at NREL Energy Systems Integration Facility. The data collected during testing will provide new evidence of the interaction of new control architectures with the grid that includes different distributed energy resources. The installation of this unique equipment in the Dakotas will enable the design and testing of novel advanced energy management systems by analyzing the impact of integrating different energy resources in microgrids. The results are expected to advance energy infrastructure in remote areas, urban areas, and large buildings, with a focus on data centers. Furthermore, this equipment will enable real-time analysis on the impact of power management systems in storage device dynamics and lifetime, and enable the design of novel algorithms to dispatch batteries and ultra-capacitors, extending their lifetime and ensuring economical operation.
