Smart Load for a Hybrid Microgrid Testbed

Microgrids are a building block of the smart grid facilitating the renewable energy sources penetration and customer involvement in demand side management. As the transition from the conventional to the smart grid progresses, the need for appropriate tools for development and testing increases as well. In this work we propose a design for a controllable load to be used with a microgrid testbed used to study stability, sizing and power quality aspects of microgrids. The smart load consists of commonly used loads controlled by a programmable logic controller to emulate actual load curves of a university building. It has been tested for a period of over a year using an existing autonomous microgrid that consists of photovoltaic panels and batteries. The results demonstrate its capability to emulate successfully actual load curves and its potential in microgrid testing.