COntrol and Management of Isolable NanoGrids (COMING)

About the Project

Within the coming concept of Smart Grids in distribution power grids, a modular structure based on nanogrids coordinated to constitute microgrids or directly the distribution network, suppose one of the trends under study from the grid configuration point of view. Those nanogrids (that cover a single building or a small community of consumers), must work properly both isolated and grid-connected, providing adequate security and quality supply.

The scope of this project is the integrated management of a nanogrid (in a building or a small residential or rural area), with its own photovoltaic production system, hybrid energy storage of batteries and supercapacitors and manageable loads. It is organized in three coordinated sobprojects: CSING (University of Extremadura) deals with the design of a control strategy, shared among generation and storage systems, which allows the nanogrid to work properly both in isolated and in grid-tied mode, including a synchronization method for reconnection. Load control is tackled in SAM (University of Córdoba), which starts from consumption models in residential areas, defines communication technologies and protocols to control loads and develops solutions for direct demand management by means of smart appliances and load managers. Finally, SISEM provides the whole project with the required methods of monitoring, power quality analysis and very short-term forecasting of photovoltaic energy production. The three subprojects will be integrated into a common demostrator that emulates the isolable controlled nanogrid and allows to test its performance.

This project objectives are directly related to Challenge number 3 “Secure, sustainable and clean energy”, included in the Spanish Strategy of Science, Technology and Innovation 2013-2020 and to objectives of Horizon 2020. They are also related to the research lines of the participant research groups and constitute a continuation of previous joint works.

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