Research Projects

Future smartgrids are expected to become interconnected networks of small-scale and self-contained microgrids, which would be an integral add-on to the centralized primary electric power backbone. Since microgrids will mainly focus on supplying electrical and heat loads in a small geographical area with specific climatic conditions (e.g., wind speeds or solar radiation), geographical terrain / water sources, consumer behavior patterns etc., a plethora of design alternatives seem possible depending on the variations in these parameters. The project aims at the development of a design space exploration tool for microgrid design which can probably guarantee a performance measure in terms of say, QoS in electricity, operator revenues, etc in the face of design perturbations like addition/removal of components (say, generation unit, feeder line or operations control algorithm). New electricity scheduling and operations control algorithms and hardware testbed for a prototype microgrid will also be developed as part of the project.