Universal Hybrid Inverter Driver Interface

Lead Performer: Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Oak Ridge, TN
DOE Total Funding: $806,000
Project Term:  March 1, 2016 – September 30, 2020
Funding Type: Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium Lab Call

Project Objective

Integration of distributed energy sources (DERs) into sustainable buildings entails self-adaptive and real-time control of power electronics inverters for increased power density, higher efficiency, and higher reliability. A driver interface between various power electronics inverters and near real-time control systems (such as VOLTTRON), which control the renewable energy assets, needs to be developed to meet these requirements. The objective of this project is to enable near real-time control of power electronics in building-located DERs by integrating with a universal driver interface and agent-based control platform.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will develop a universal driver interface using an agent-based platform to enable optimization of power electronics devices in a building for various applications and operating conditions, which will reduce integration cost and increase device utilization.

The project team will focus in three areas: develop an open-source hybrid inverter driver interface, develop an open-source energy storage driver interface using a hybrid inverter driver interface, and investigate the potential for open-source controllers to inverters to provide virtual inertia to the grid. 

ORNL has demonstrated a single phase, agent-based inverter in the previous years. The team will expand on the current development and will design a portfolio of inverters (e.g. no more than three) for a single building and provide the interfaces to resources (including sources and loads) to demonstrate the coordinated control between them for system optimization and efficiency improvements.

This project will provide a system-level feasibility study on the DER integration using agent-based controlled power electronic inverters. This will result in a reference design for the future optimization and exploration of agent-based functionality in power electronics application. It will also provide design guidelines for industry to manufacture their inverters with proper interfaces for agent-based platform.

Project Impact

In this proposed project, ORNL will develop methods for portfolio control of inverters, will demonstrate how portfolio control of inverters (located in building equipment) better allows matching output to load and will identify where these new inverter characteristics can be applied to coordinate the sources and loads within a building.

Contacts

DOE Technology Manager: Erika Gupta
Lead Performer: Teja Kuruganti, Oak Ridge National Laboratory