The Smart Grid Testbed

Energy Systems Research Laboratory, ECE Department

Florida International University

The Smart Grid Test-bed laboratory at the department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Florida International University (FIU), is a unique contemporary research
facility which was developed as an integrated hardware based AC/DC system. This
cutting-edge hardware/software/communication based system includes capabilities for
conceptualizing a holistic Cyber-Physical Smart Grid framework. In fact, our Energy
The FIU Smart Grid Testbed at
Systems team’s efforts interleave the interdisciplinary and interrelated research areas of
the Energy Systems Research
Power System Operation and Control, Communication Infrastructure in the Smart Grid,
Laboratory gives researchers
and Cyber Security of the Smart Grid. This reduced scale power system was created and
the ability to:
built to implement new technologies and products required for Smart grid development
according to established national and international standards. The new technologies
Achieve full potential for evaluated are related to power generation, renewable energy resource utilization,
automation, distributed control, energy management, and wide area protection. Also,
testing practical issues in
technologies related to increased electric vehicles penetration, micro grid
smart grid research implementations, advanced metering, communication and security and cyber physical
systems are featured on this testbed. One of the main focuses in building this testbed is
Investigate and validate the communications and distributed real-time control issues. This testbed features
capabilities for studying real-time smart control and operation issues related generation,
the performance in an
transmission and distribution as well as microgrid operations in islanded and grid-
isolated platform connected modes. One of the major features is the capability to connect this testbed to
other governmental, industrial or research facilities for the purpose of testing and verifying
Characterize the tools developed by others.

components,
equipment's and systems
in flexible architectures

Develop, integrate and

verify new ideas and
techniques

Capabilities to
practically use, test and
enhance modern
standards

1|4
 Testbed Features:

1. Generating Stations
The power for the main grid is delivered through 4 AC generation units (two
13.8KVA and two 10.4KVA generators) using 3 phase synchronous machines as
generators each equipped with 4 induction machines as prime movers. Each station
has an AVR to control the voltage amplitude or reactive power of the generating unit.
The FIU Smart Grid Testbed at
the Energy Systems Research 2. Synchronizers and Buses
AC generations are connected through synchronizers for proper connection to
Laboratory gives researchers
the main grid, and also for measuring electrical parameters at the point of connection.
the ability to:
Generated power is delivered and distributed through more than 14 transmission lines
to more than 24 feeders located on 8 buses. The developed transmission lines are 3
Provide an environment phase 5 wire, with Pi model structure, reflecting series and parallel characteristics of
and interface for related actual overhead lines or cables. Developed buses have 3 power terminals (feeders)
and each not only has the switching capability (breaker emulation through solid state
fields such as market relays) but also measures the voltage and current independently (through PTs and
analysis CTs)

3. Loads
Provide a platform for More than 10 programmable/controllable loads are built and located on the
multiple microgrids multiple locations on the grid. They include resistive, inductive, dynamic motor, and
connections, Electric pulse loads, and are capable of automated operation to follow a predefined scenario
based on a programmed load profile.
Vehicle penetration and
resiliency analysis 4. Measurement and Data Acquisition
This is done through the National Instruments Data Acquisition (DAQ) as the main
hardware (connected through PCI, PCI-express, USB, Ethernet or Wi-Fi) and
Provide a platform for
LabVIEW as the software, which are the junction for acquiring and interpreting the
testing and evaluating data from the test bed, as well as the junction to send control commands to the
cyber physical system testbed itself. So this combination is creating the backbone of the system operation
development through data acquisition and actuators, communication capabilities, processing and
calculation schemes, and human machine interface. More than 200 voltage and
current sensors are capturing the power signals and this information is published and
Provide a platform for archived to be used by real-time applications for control, operation or monitoring
testing distributed purposes.
control, optimization
5. Microgrids and Renewable Energy Integration
studies and multi agent- The testbed includes several micro grids, to incorporate the recent integration of
communication wind, solar, and energy storage systems. Renewable energy is a complimentary
source which is implemented on the test bed in the form of 3 DC microgrids which are
connected to the main AC grid through power electronic components. They utilize
Enable remote state of the art techniques in power electronics and control to investigate operational
operation (i.e. online or issues of futuristic power systems. These research topics include generator behavior
off campus accessibility) study, power sharing and control techniques, dc-bus voltage management, design
and improvement of bidirectional converters, demand side management, and secure
and stable operation of islanded microgrids.

a. PV Emulators
Nonlinear behavior of DC resources such as photo voltaic and solar panels
are deployed through 5 programmable power supplies with a maximum power of
6KW. PV solar panels are connected along with Maximum Power Point Tracking
 (MPPT) modules and boost converters to a DC bus. They are accompanied by
voltage regulators, energy storages, protection modules, and bidirectional grid
tied converters to transfer energy to/from AC grid.
The FIU Smart Grid Testbed
Provides the Following b. Wind Emulator
A wind generation unit is implemented through a wind emulator with a
Technical Abilities:
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) coupled to controllable DC
prime mover as the turbine. This system can be configured to create, control, and
Develop a follow a wind pattern through controllable wind speed emulator.
communication c. Battery Storage System
infrastructure The lead acid battery bank storage has a 10-110 Ah capacity and is equipped
with a unique battery management system (BMS) which individually manages,
balances, and conducts diagnostics on each battery module using hall-effect
Develop real time sensors of voltage and current. The BMS not only monitors the batteries, but also
monitoring of the hybrid extracts the defective battery and compensate its loss through the distribution of
system the load on other resources using power electronic converters (buck/boost).

d. Super Capacitor Bank

Implement a variety of An energy management system improves the performance and efficiency of
unpredictable renewable energy resources through integration of super capacitor
architectures and energy storage systems in the testbed with two 2.9F super capacitors in series or
connectivity to emulate parallel architecture with 1.45F-650V or 5.8F-320V. A super capacitor at the DC
different systems and bus will stabilize all the converters to work in current control mode, and one will
be used to stabilize the voltage and power quality indices on the DC bus,
microgrids
especially in the presence of pulse loads.

e. Flywheel Storage System

Involve trainees in the A large rotating mass coupled to a DC machine constitutes a Flywheel Energy
development and Storage System which works under 3 operating modes: charging mode, stand-by
building the various test mode, and discharging mode. This setup is used to perform several studies. To
name some: the power failures and outages, mitigation of pulse loads, power
bed components
quality improvements, and design and performance of flywheel systems.

Develop and evaluate 6. Cyber Physical Structure of the Testbed

Similar to actual power grids, the FIU testbed is a Cyber-Physical System (CPS).
hardware/software Along with the power system components, it involves a cyber-infrastructure consisting
solutions by hand and of communication networks, database structure, metering, intelligent agents, and
experiment with it data distribution service. Industrial protocols and media have been extensively
integrated within this testbed.

Study Cyber Physical a. Phasor Measurement Units

The setup utilizes 2 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) from Schweitzer
Systems by developing Engineering Laboratories (SEL) with inputs of 5 voltage and current
measures for data measurements which are time stamped by a real time GPS clock. PMU
handling energy flow measurements are published and are available in a Phasor Data Concentrator
(PDC) through c37.118 synchrophasor protocol. A real time automation controller
and real-time control
from SEL exchanges information in DNP3, Modbus, IEC 61850 GOOSE, IEC
60870-5-101/104, LG 8979, SES-92, IEEE C37.118 protocols. It also provides
control logic features on top of the physical layer of the testbed.

b. Intelligent Electronic Devices

Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) (5 ABB 615 Relion series protection
relays) with IEC61850 capability are integrated into the system to form a
 distribution or substation network. The setup also covers Modbus protocol to
provide industrial communication and control features. The above-mentioned
protocols are merged through an OPC server as a middleware and the gateway
for interconnection within the protocols in order to interface measured data and
The FIU Smart Grid Testbed issued commands with external organizations such as computational intelligence,
Provides the Following HMI, SCADA, etc.
Technical Abilities: c. Data Distribution Service (DDS) Remote Connection
DDS is a data-centric middleware having an API interface that provides the
Develop and implement test bed with a real-time monitoring, control, and remote connection scheme. This
interface is based on a real-time publisher and subscriber (RTPS) protocol with
wide area Protection different quality-of-service (QoS) profiles to meet the control requirements. One
System of the main advantages of this system is the capability of exchanging information
between different software packages such as MATLAB and LabVIEW, or any
integrated/embedded application using a C++ or a JAVA API. The unique
Develop monitoring and
features of DDS enables connectivity of remote operators and end users to the
operation strategies testbed to use, configure, operate, and control the system remotely. This feature
using Synchorophasors is merged with a cloud service to provide web-based attributes for the above-
mentioned purposes.

Conduct experiments on d. Multi Agent Control Platform

EMS for smart grids The testbed is using embedded Linux and JADE platforms in a multi agent
control firmware securely and privately for distributed control features. This
including alternate and provides operational experiments including faults, attacks, and scenarios for
sustainable sources investigation of vulnerabilities in modern power grids as a cyber and physical
systems.
Integrate embedded e. Advanced Metering Infrastructure
architecture and A combination of smart meters, a communication network, and head end
software is providing an advanced metering infrastructure. A variety of
distributed control communication methods in an embedded platform such as power line carrier, Wi-
through intelligent Fi, and ZigBee allows the implementation and testing energy management cases
agents in addition to security, privacy, and interoperability of components.

7. Integration of vehicular technologies: Hybrid AC-DC plug-in electric vehicle car

Perform market analysis, park emulator
In the smart grid testbed, Operation, implementation, control and energy
economic studies and management case studies on plug-in electric vehicles has been wisely taken into
social behavior. account through designing a PEVs smart charging station emulator. Smart energy
management algorithms by considering commercial sustainable energy resources,
efficiency and utilization limitations on charging system are controlling the operation
Link to other
of this microgrid and its connectivity to main grid. The combination of energy storage,
Infrastructures at other power electronics and power system emulator allows for the design and
Universities and National implementation of high efficient components for PEVs car parks, and the study of
Labs utility grid reaction in terms of voltage, loss, and loading. In addition, V2V and V2G
investigates voltage assessment, frequency regulations, spin reserve and load
shaping technically as well as economically for parking garages.