Experimental Multi-site Testbed for Advanced Control and Optimization of Hybrid Energy Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-site hybrid energy system testbed that combines real hardware and simulations to validate advanced control strategies for optimizing renewable energy integration.

Contribution

It develops a novel multi-site testbed integrating hardware-in-the-loop and real assets for testing hybrid energy system controls and optimization.

Findings

Successful demonstration of battery participation in solar PV smoothing.

Real-time data acquisition and control validation achieved.

Platform supports prototyping of advanced HES control strategies.

Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid energy system (HES) experimental testbed developed at the University of Vermont, featuring a dual-site architecture that integrates on-campus laboratory facility with an off-campus solar and meteorological station. This supports the prototyping and validation of advanced HES control and optimization strategies. The platform integrates hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations with a reconfigurable set of kVA-scale assets.A unified monitoring and communication architecture supports real-time data acquisition, model validation, and control implementation. The capabilities of the testbed are demonstrated through an HIL experiment in which a battery systems participate in solar PV smoothing.