Project Team
Students
Elisa Tarbell
Chemical Engineering
Penn State Hazleton
Faculty Mentors
William Yourey
Penn State Hazleton
Engineering
Fernando Soto
Penn State Greater Allegheny
Engineering
Project
https://sites.psu.edu/mcreu/files/formidable/2/mcreu-poster.pptx
Project Video
Project Abstract
A microgrid is a small/local power grid that has the capability to be connected to a much larger grid or can function as an independent system. These grids serve as a source of energy and power delivery, being comprised of both power delivery/transmission components and energy storage. They use various methods of energy production with the more common ones being solar, wind, or water. Micro grids allow communities to be energy independent, more environmentally cautious, and give a greater stability for community power systems. There are some current barriers in micro grids that stop them from being easily accessible and wanted from customers. These technical issues are grid connection, control, protection, operation, and stability. Also, some current gaps are that although micro grids are widely researched, they are only being researched in small, isolated groups. Which means that the controller is not facing many difficulties compared to making it in a large scale.
For the current project, a solar panel and 12V lead-acid battery act as the power production and energy storage system, which, in the future, will be expanded to include wind and pumped hydro systems. The solar panel is connected through the charge controller to the battery and functions as a simple microgrid. The system load is also connected through the controller, which maintains safer operating conditions for the energy storage system. The next steps in the project were/are to replace the “off the shelf” charge controller with a programmable controller, such as a raspberry pi plus components. Once the raspberry pi is set up it will be able to extract data about the voltage.
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