Power System Rig
A suite of configurable power system components used for research and teaching.
The Power Systems Lab is mainly used by our undergraduate Engineering students across a range of courses, but it can also be used in research. The modular rigs that are installed in the lab emulate an electrical generator that supplies an electricity transmission line, then a set of electrical loads. The electrical machine can also be operated as a motor. The equipment installed are based on the Leybold “Generator-fed transmission system” (E3.2.3) rigs and contain:
- AC synchronous machines
- Electrical transmission line and transformer emulator modules
- Resistive, inductive and capacitive loads
- Electrical machine controls and data acquisition
- Synchronisation switches
- Busbar modules
- Circuit breakers
These rigs can be used for experiments to:
- Investigate the influence of transmission lines on the electricity passing through them.
- Understand the operation of AC generators under different load conditions.
- Examine the behaviour of AC motors under different mechanical loading and operating conditions.
In addition, they have the capability to be interconnected between them, as well as the microgrid / smart grid system in the adjacent space, for larger scale experiments.
Microgrid system, including a real-time network simulator
The Smart Grids Section of our labs contain a microgrid system and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) equipment. The capabilities of the lab include plug-and-play sources and loads, connectivity with the Power System Rigs, as well as control and data acquisition functionality. The main components of this system are as follows:
- SMA Sunny Island battery inverter (3kVA), with 4.8kWh of lead-crystal batteries
- SMA Sunny Boy solar inverter (3kVA), fed by a 4kW solar panel emulating power supply
- PodPoint Electric Vehicle charger
- Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) by SEL Inc., Siemens, Bachmann and Industrial Shields
- OPAL-RT real-time network simulator with ePHASORSIM and eMEGASIM functionality
- Davis Instruments Wireless Weather Station, for real-time weather data.
Experimental expertise
- Microgrid control: Developing and testing control algorithms for microgrid sources and loads. Control objectives include cost and emissions optimisation, or load balancing
- Real-time power network simulation: Development of electrical power system models in the MATLAB/Simulink environment, using the eMEGASIM and ePHASORSIM toolboxes, for deployment to OPAL-RT real-time target machines
- Hardware-in-the-Loop: Implementing real-time tests for Devices Under Test (DUT) with the real-time simulator. Examples include testing the response of real microgrid DUT (lab-based) during a wider network disturbance (simulated), or validating the control algorithms in real automation controllers/DUT with a simulated network
- Electrical machines: Interconnecting the three synchronous machines with the microgrid for testing the behaviour of machines under different load and generation conditions.