RT Box card for studying the control communication impacts on microgrid performance and stability

• Published in: HardwareX 2022-10, Vol.12, p.e00322-e00322, Article e00322
• Main Authors: Aguilar, Maximiliano, Riffo, Sebastián, Veliz, Antonio, González-Castaño, Catalina, Restrepo, Carlos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Communication control card interface; Microgrid; Open-source; RT Box
• ISSN: 2468-0672; 2468-0672
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00322

This work presents the design process of an RT Box interface for control systems in microgrid applications. The control card allows implementing different controls and communication systems for microgrids in a physical environment, facilitating the development of robust control systems facing inherent adverse scenarios such as delays, loss of information packets, failures of partial or permanent communication and noise in signal overflows, among others. In addition, it permits the generation of programming resources and behavioral antecedents, helpful information for future users of the control card interface. The Plecs RT Box is a device that will enable a real-time simulation of different power electronics applications as can be a microgrid system. The built-in control card in this project is suitable as a complementary element of the RT Box, extending the capacity of this device to emulate a microgrid but testing real communication protocol between the microcontrollers that compose each of the distributed generation units (DGU). Tests were conducted to probe the communication protocols working correctly in a microgrid context, recreating real application scenarios.