Lite Emulator of Grid Operations

Hardware

The printed circuit boards (PCB) used in LEGOS platform for implementing the building blocks of the Distribution layer and the entities of the Application layer were designed using the open-source electronic design automation suite KiCad (version 5.6.1 release build).

Repository structure

The PCB design files for each LEGOS entity are arranged in separate project folders:

• entities
  • antenna: base transceiver station (BTS), provides cellular network connectivity and edge-cloud services
  • common: sub-circuit templates that can be imported as hierarchical sheets
  • data_center: power critical infrastructure, essential in a cloud architecture; access to stored sensitive data triggers a data breach alert; uses a UPS in case of power sag/outage
  • ec_station: electric-car charging station; absorbs power from the grid according to custom charging profiles stored in the vehicle
  • factory: common electrical load due to manufacturing activities; absorb power to operate industrial machinery like robotic arms
  • hospital: power critical infrastructure, essential for healthcare services; the alert status is activated by the presence of service vehicles; uses a UPS in case of power sag/outage
  • house: common residential electrical load, uses heating and air conditioning for indoor temperature regulation and integrates photovoltaic cells power generation from sunlight
  • power_plant: traditional fossil-fuel power plant, provides up to 60% of the total power and controls the voltage of the grid
  • skyscraper: aggregated residential and commercial building; integrates a HVAC system for providing thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality; hosts a SCADA center for grid monitoring and for cyber-security
  • solar_farm: renewable energy power plant; injects current in the grid proportionally to the intensity of the incident light, optimized via 1-axis solar tracker
  • stadium: power hungry entity occasionally hosts football matches; significant power absorbed in case of recreational events
  • substation: essential element for the automation of an electrical grid, provides monitoring and protection functions; trips the reclosers in case of fault
  • supermarket: common electrical load due to commercial activities, integrates a CHP system for combined electrical and thermal energy generation from gas
  • wind_farm: renewable energy power plant; injects current in the grid proportionally to the wind intensity
• grid
  • branch: interconnects multiple branches in a triangular mesh network
  • node: interconnects multiple branches in a triangular mesh network
  • supply: provides power supply to the entire demonstrator
• libs
  • 3D: STP and WRL models associated to the components footprints
  • LEGOS.pretty: components footprints
  • LEGOS.dcm: components doc library
  • LEGOS.lib: components library

Copyright

2021, Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, EONERC

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Funding

This work was supported by FIWARE for Smart Energy Platform (FISMEP), a German project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems Programme under Grant 0350018A.

Contact

• Dr. Carlo Guarnieri Calò Carducci

Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems (ACS)
E.ON Energy Research Center (EONERC)
RWTH University Aachen, Germany