The development of flexible electric power and energy systems that are secure, resilient to attack, sustainable and affordable in an environmentally friendly manner has become a national priority. Industries, government, National Laboratories, and various agencies, such as the military (for its bases), are looking for a testbed to test the design of a flexible micro grid for independent and reliable power supply to meet the increasing local demands which cannot be guaranteed by conventional, central generation based electricity networks, especially during disastrous situations. This MRI project will develop a new state-of-the-art platform for incorporating the micro grid and smart grid technologies, which are urgently needed for deployment of new concepts, methods and tools for smart micro grids. The Howard University (HU), in collaboration with University of Denver (DU), will design, build, and construct real-time, highly flexible testbed and tools that will facilitate advancing the design and implementation of micro grid and smart grid. The testbed will benefit multi-users including students and faculty at HU and other partner universities and local electric power utility companies. In addition, the testbed will also be available as a national asset for standards organization like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and policy makers in the Washington, DC area to try out their ideas and learn about tools being developed in support of smart- and micro-grid. This will also serve as a research and educational tool to attract, recruit, and retain students in STEM disciplines. The research infrastructure will provide a real time platform that external broad users can utilize for hands-on experience. Minority and underrepresented students and researchers will be attracted to the testbed for advanced studies of important power and energy systems.
This MRI Development Project aims at the following objectives: (1) Design and develop a highly reconfigurable micro-grid testbed for testing micro grid designs; (2) Deploy distributed Phasor Measurement Units (PMU), Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) and a smart grid testbed with Real-Time Digital Simulators (RTDS); (3) Develop tools to study the impact and usage of renewable energy resources in the smart grid and micro grid through real time modeling and hardware-in-the-loop simulation; (4) Develop platforms for various standards development, real time visualization, and application development for smart and micro grids. The flexible research and education testbed will facilitate advancing current work in the design and implementation of smart grid that will create opportunities for the study of large interconnected micro grids and smart-grid networks. This will be achieved by having multi-university collaboration with experts who are actively engaged in the design and implementation of micro and smart grid technology. This open-access testbed will be used for decision support, performance study, protocol evaluation, standards developments and testing of security requirements and automation functions with interoperability of new technological devices needed for development of future smart- and micro-grid technologies. This platform will also readily equip students and professionals with state-of-the-art knowledge. The benefit of this collaboration will open doors for many players including the research centers at Howard University, the utility companies, collaborating universities, military bases, and government agencies to use the University micro-grid as a testbed for validating new design, prototypes and research while building new transformational educational courses. The principal investigators and senior personnel of this project will pursue a holistic range of activities to promote the usage of the MRI testbed for research-integrated education and outreach, for training at all levels: from pre-college students through postdoctoral fellow and young faculty to engage creative and innovative ideas. This will promote growth among participants and attract more underrepresented minority to major in power and energy systems.
