In this project, 2-3 junior or senior undergraduate or Master's students in electrical engineering and 1-2 students in computer science will work under Professor Luciano Castillo's supervision. The students will have high interest in either or a combination of these topics: renewable energy, power systems, microgrids, optimization, mathematical modeling, control, big data analytics and artificial intelligence. We expect to have a quality teamwork dynamics and motivation with strong research spirit. I encourage the interested students to send their resumes to lcastillo@purdue.edu and sabedi@purdue.edu.

Project Summary

Microgrids are small-scale power grids that integrate local renewable sources (such as solar and wind) and energy storage to increase efficiency, and that can operate autonomously when the main grid is down, increasing resilience and reliability. In this project, we will design and deploy 4 portable interconnected microgrids, including solar panels, wind energy, battery storage, converters and water desalination systems, and implement it on a trailer to build a portable microgrid laboratory. Students will work on different stages, including engineering, procurement and implementation of this portable lab.  They will also assist in building software simulations and experiments. This project will include research on developing an optimal planning framework (i.e., capacity and operational strategy of resources) of renewable energy-based microgrids towards a scalable power grid.  We will also develop and experiment a systematic framework on the testbed of a microgrid cluster to measure and process a big dataset on various weather scenarios (including normal, tropical, extreme, etc.) as the input to the microgrids cluster, and store and assess the cluster’s output response to these input. This dataset will then be used in planning for any specific location, with the objective to provision a robust microgrid operation with P2P self-organizing capability under extreme events for power systems robustness and resilience.