Voltage control and optimization of energy consumption in a microgrid

Abstract

The PhD thesis deals with two issues concerning the integration of renewable energy sources in a microgrid: the voltage control and the optimization of the energy consumption. It is presented the development of mathematical models for a photovoltaic system, a battery and a thermodynamic model of a building, which are validated based on experimental measurements on the actual microgrid components. The models’ implementation is performed in specialized software like Matlab and PowerFactory. Algorithms for driving the heating system of the building and the battery in order avoid surges that occur due to the injection of power into the grid photovoltaic system, are being developed. Optimizing energy consumption is achieved by using model predictive control by defining two objectives: minimizing the cost of operating the building’s heating system when using only energy from the grid and the second, maximizing the consumption of locally produced energy from the photovoltaic system. The developed algorithms are validated by experiments and simulations in many operating conditions that allow comparison of the results obtained with other methods of control, which highlight the opportunity of using the proposed algorithm.