Software-Defined Microgrid Control via Virtual Controllers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional microgrid control systems are hardware-dependent, making them difficult and costly to evolve and update, with limited redundancy, and lack a universal tool for efficient design and deployment, leading to challenges in responding to hardware anomalies and failures.
Innovation Solution
A software-defined control (SDC) system that decouples hardware infrastructure from microgrid control functions, using virtual controllers and a control plane to manage distributed energy resources, enabling easier modifications, high redundancy, and robust operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hardware-dependent control architecture is used, then control functions are stable and reliable, but the system is difficult and costly to evolve and update when configuration changes
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into a control plane (virtualization layer) and data plane (hardware layer). The control plane contains the virtual controller that manages microgrid operations, while the hardware layer provides stable execution. This segmentation allows the control logic to be updated independently without changing the underlying hardware infrastructure, resolving the contradiction between stability and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
A virtual controller is created as a software copy of the traditional hardware controller. This virtual controller runs on general-purpose hardware and can be easily updated, migrated, or replicated without physical hardware changes. The virtual controller maintains the same control functions while enabling flexible evolution, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability.
2Reliability
If hardware controllers are used for each DER, then control functions are dedicated and reliable, but capital expenditures and operating expenditures multiply with the number of DERs
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual controller is designed as a universal platform that can control multiple distributed energy resources simultaneously. Instead of having dedicated hardware controllers for each DER, a single virtual controller instance can manage multiple DERs, reducing the total number of controllers needed while maintaining reliable control functions across all resources.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple control functions for different DERs are merged into a single virtual controller platform. The virtual controller consolidates control tasks that would traditionally require separate hardware controllers, reducing both the quantity of controllers and associated costs while maintaining the reliability needed for each individual DER control.
3Ease of manufacture
If hardware controllers are used, then control functions are dedicated, but redundancy and backup are prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
Virtual controller instances can be easily copied and replicated as backup controllers. Unlike hardware controllers where redundancy requires additional physical devices, virtual controllers can be instantiated as software copies on the same or different hardware platforms, providing redundancy at minimal cost while maintaining the ability to failover to backup instances.
4Measurement precision
If simulation-based performance analysis is used, then control algorithm performance can be evaluated, but response to hardware anomalies such as failures or sabotage cannot be improved
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual controller acts as an intermediary layer between the control algorithms and the physical hardware. This intermediary enables the system to detect and respond to hardware anomalies by monitoring the interface between virtual and physical layers. The virtual controller can identify when hardware behavior deviates from expected patterns and implement corrective actions, thereby improving anomaly response while maintaining the simulation-based performance analysis capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A software-defined control (SDC)-enabled microgrid system includes a physical plane having multiple distributed energy resources (DERs), the DERs being operatively coupled together via a bus, and a control plane. The control plane includes at least one virtual controller running on a hardware server in the control plane, a system analysis module in communication with the physical plane, and an SDC manager coupled with the virtual controller and the system analysis module. The virtual controller includes multiple software-defined functional modules configured to control prescribed parameters of the microgrid. The system analysis module is configured to generate system analytics information as a function of operational information associated with one or more DERs in the physical plane. The SDC manager is configured to generate one or more virtual controllers for controlling an operation of at least a subset of the DERs in the physical plane as a function of the system analytics information.