i-Sare. The Future Grid.

Abstract

This paper presents a real implementation of hierarchical control scheme for a smart grid equipped with voltage source converters, attached to renewable and conventional energy generators and storage systems based on ultracapacitors, flywheel and batteries, which is able to assume the demand of domestic, commercial, industrial and electric vehicle demanding current loads up to 400 kw in islanded mode or connected to the main grid. The hierarchical control used is implemented in the central control system and in each of the converters connected to the intelligent grid, in order to distribute the control over all the elements involved in the generation of energy. For this purpose it is used a distributed communication architecture based on EPICS to manage all the information generated. This micro grid, called i-Sare, was developed during the 2012 and beginning of 2013, and will be operational in Donostia (Gipuzkoa) at the end of 2013. In this paper real test results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control and the communication architecture used in iSare.