Redesigning microgrid energy management system for enhanced program efficiency

Abstract

The original MG-EMS program was designed by past researchers in 2009 to supervise and control the microgrid in the LaCER. Since then, some equipment and devices have been changed in the laboratory. Because of the lack of maintenance, the original program is inefficient and has many shortcomings. The objectives of this project is to redesign the original program to enhance its performance, fix existing problems, modify its GUIs and add more functions. This project has redesigned the main part of the original MG-EMS program including: 1) I/O Server libraries , 2) Main Frame, 3) Meter Panels, 4) 13.5kVA Sync Generator Control Panel, 5) 7.5kW Wind Simulator Control Panel, 6) 6kVar Capacitor Bank and 7) State Estimator and Optimal Power Flow. Many advanced functions in LabVIEW have been used to enhance the program efficiency and stability, such as the Event structure, state machine, application address, invoke node and data binding function. The new naming convention is based on the grid structure such that users do not need to change the relative measurement names if certain equipment has been replaced. The way of retrieving data in the program has been improved by the data binding function. Besides, this project also modifies the user interfaces, adds annotation in the VIs and adds new functions to the original program. It has been proved experimentally that the new MG-EMS program has better performance and easy to maintain or modify