Abstract
This paper presents a high performance 4-layer communication architecture for a smart micro-grid testbed which consists of a 2 kVA Distributed Energy Resource (DER) inverter with PV and battery channels capable of advanced grid supportive and grid forming functions in the Process layer, a Raspberry Pi computer in the Interface layer, a customized Edge Intelligent Device (EID) in the Sub-station layer, and an end-to-end solar energy optimization platform (e-SEOP) in the Supervisory layer. The Raspberry Pi serves as a communication interface which communicates with the DER inverter using Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) communication and talks to the EID using Modbus TCP/IP protocol. This paper provides a convenient and comprehensive solution to SPI and Modbus TCP/IP communication implementation in a smart micro-grid. The challenges of coordination between communication and system control and between different communication protocols have been addressed, which leads to a boost in the communication efficiency and makes the system highly scalable, flexible and adaptive. The proposed communication architecture as well as the micro-grid test bench have been validated through hardware experiments. The results indicate a reliable and efficient communication among different layers, which facilitates large-scale status monitoring of edge devices and coordinated control of the entire system.
Highlights
The continuously rising demands for clean and economic sources of electricity generation promotes the use of distributed renewable energy resources which is a promising alternative to fossil fuel based resources [1]
Since most of the commercial Distributed Energy Resource (DER) inverters support Modbus communication, and since the Raspberry Pi supports both Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and Modbus protocols, it is flexible to add either customized or commercial inverters to the testbed by connecting the Edge Intelligent Device (EID) and DER inverter through an individual Raspberry Pi
A customized 2 kVA DER inverter and an EID have been constructed for hardware testing of the proposed system
Summary
The continuously rising demands for clean and economic sources of electricity generation promotes the use of distributed renewable energy resources which is a promising alternative to fossil fuel based resources [1]. 3) The Sub-station layer: The coding of the Modbus TCP/IP communication in the customized EID is based on structured text which is a high-level language supported by IEC 61131-3 standard and is designed for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). Since most of the commercial DER inverters support Modbus communication, and since the Raspberry Pi supports both SPI and Modbus protocols, it is flexible to add either customized or commercial inverters to the testbed by connecting the EID and DER inverter through an individual Raspberry Pi. In addition, the e-SEOP uses the wireless or cellular network which makes it possible to control multiple distant EIDs. In terms of software, the customized coding structure in the Communication DSP, the Raspberry Pi, and the EID makes it adaptive to different number of analog feedback signals, different number of DER inverters connected, data format, and switching frequencies. Both the Raspberry Pi and the EID are aware of the actual data format for each Modbus register
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