A laboratory environment for real-time testing of energy management scenarios: Smart Energy Integration Lab (SEIL)

Grid integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) has been a hot topic in the field of power electronics in recent years. Time and resources required in experimental verification of control algorithms and equipment can be significantly reduced by using power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) techniques. The paper presents the Smart Energy Integration Lab (SEIL), a PHIL based microgrid testbed specifically built for analyzing grid integration aspects of DERs with a focus on system dynamic performance and power dispatch scenarios. The SEIL consists of a remotely-controlled AC network configuration, power electronics converters, passive load banks, a battery storage system and real-time control and data acquisition systems. By using these resources, the laboratory allows configuration and simultaneous operation of several microgrids. To demonstrate the functionality of the SEIL, a power dispatch scenario applied to a microgrid was used.