DC Microgrid Testbed System Employing Quadruple-Active-Bridge (QAB) Converter and Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulation

Abstract

DC microgrids have recently gained attention as being a promising candidate for incorporating renewable energy resources. To further reduce the number of converters and conversion stages in DC microgrids, multiport converters are incorporated into DC microgrid systems to improve power density and system efficiency. In this paper, a quadruple-activebridge (QAB) converter is proposed to be used together with a power hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation to implement a DC microgrid testbed. A utility grid and a photovoltaic (PV) system are modeled in the power HIL simulation and interconnected with the QAB converter via a realtime simulator and programmable power supplies. The feasibility of the proposed DC microgrid testbed and power-sharing capability among selected energy resources, storage system, and load at the converter’s ports are verified by using a 3 kW QAB prototype converter.