Development of a Converter-Based Data Center Power Emulator

Abstract

Data centers have become a widespread power electronics (PE) load, with significant impact on the power grid. In order to investigate data centers’ load characteristic and help evaluate the grid dynamic performance, this work develops a data center power emulator based on a reconfigurable PE converter-based hardware testbed (HTB). A complete dynamic power model is proposed which can precisely predict the data center dynamic performance. Based on the model, the data center power emulator is implemented in two voltage source inverters (VSIs) as an all-in-one load in the HTB. The proposed emulator has been verified experimentally in a regional network. Dynamic performances during voltage sag events are emulated and discussed. The emulator provides an effective, easy-to-use tool to better design the data center and study the power system.