Microgrid Research Lab for higher research launched in SOA

A Microgrid Research Laboratory, designed to facilitate higher research in the realm of microgrid applications, was inaugurated in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of SOA, on Monday.

The Laboratory has been equipped with OPAL-RT 4510 simulation systems for real time simulations of micro-grid both in grid connected and islanded modes, Prof. Renu Sharma, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, said.

Ms. Saswati Das, Vice-President of SOA, inaugurated the lab in the presence of Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, university’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kulamani Parida, Director of SOA’s Centre for Nano Sciences and Nano Technology, Prof. Manjula Das, Controller of Examinations and Prof. Debahuti Mishra, Head of the Department of Computer Science.

Fully integrated with MATLAB/Simulink, OPAL RT-LAB can enable Simulink models to interact with the real world in real-time which makes RT-LAB ideal for engineers to rapidly develop and validate their applications in real-time regardless of their complexity, Prof. Sharma said.

As a multi-domain software platform, RT-LAB provided flexible and scalable solutions for the power systems, power electronics, aerospace and automotive industries, she said adding the new lab was also equipped with three different emulators known as DFIG wind emulator, PV emulator and Grid simulator which in combination with OPAL-RT 4510 could form a Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation platform for hardware validations.

All the separate emulators could be separately controlled as different systems or could be integrated together to form a hybrid micro-grid, she said.