Development of smart microgrid research and educational testbed

This paper presents a smart Microgrid educational testbed developed by authors at the California State University, Northridge. A small scale low voltage (208V) distribution grid demonstration system was built and tested for training and educational purposes. This three phase testbed is made of three feeder radial lines. Loads are located at the end of each feeder. The Microgrid system can be reconfigured by relays allocated on each line which enables each load to be fed from another route if needed. All line relays can be manually or remotely controlled by wireless xbees installed on the panel. In case of a fault or a line interruption event occurs, the critical loads can stay on using an automatic reconfiguring algorithm that is written and implemented to this prototype.