Test Measurements of Small Scale Household Microgrid Operation

Abstract

Recently, the issue of energy security has become particularly important. Although the grid connected supply does not have a competitor, households are also trying to prepare for a temporary emergency electricity supply. Many households have a few kW of household-sized Photo Voltaic (PV) power plants. They are not able to operate independently in island mode. We investigated whether a small-scale energy storage and an emergency gasoline engine aggregator could work with PV inverters. We built experimental measurement assemblies on a scale of a few kW and then tested their operation. It can be said that solar inverters cooperated well with the network forming inverter with electronic frequency control, while in case of the small generator with an gasoline engine because of the frequency instability was not always adequate. Overall, it can be stated that most of the PV inverters can be operated in microgrid island mode operation with the appropriate extension (e.g. frequency forming machine or electronics).