Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Experiments of a Microgrid With a Grid-Forming Battery Inverter: Preprint
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
Microgrids continue to proliferate, and they are transitioning away from using conventional generating resources to increasingly relying on inverter-based resources (IBRs) as the voltage and frequency leaders. It is crucial to evaluate the capability of IBRs to provide microgrid stability and resilience. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments were conducted to de-risk the field deployment of the San Diego Gas & Electric Company Borrego Springs Microgrid, where a battery inverter was upgraded with grid-forming (GFM) capability to serve as the island leader. This paper presents the HIL experimental results from an HIL test bed that uses a power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) interface with a power inductor that was previously developed for PHIL simulations of microgrids where the inverters need to switch modes, i.e., between grid-following and GFM as the microgrid transitions between grid-connected and islanded operation. This paper presents more details on the interface and HIL simulation results of the planned islanding and load steps in islanded operation to show the effectiveness of the inverters in managing the voltage and frequency.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 3011839
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5D00-91813
- Resource Relation:
- Presented at the 2025 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, 27-31 July 2025, Austin, Texas
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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