A Small Scale Real World like Model of a Smart Grid

Abstract

The objective of our project was to improve upon a smart grid model developed by a previous group. When originally built, the smart grid design did not feature a substation, which is a key component of a smart grid. In the smart grid model that was already designed, the transformers were present for the voltage drops required at the different structures. When dealing with higher voltages, it is common to see more complicated bus configurations, which is why we have chosen to use the breaker and half configuration for the high side. By choosing this configuration it will provide power to the customer more efficiently and reliably. As for the low side of the substation we have chosen the main bus and transfer bus configuration to ensure reliability while also saving some money. Due to our budget constraints and space within the smart grid we elected to use relays instead of circuit breakers. The other objective of our project was to fix small errors that were present within the smart grid due to budgetary and time constraints of the previous groups work. The main problem was rewiring the negative output of the transformers so that they run to the negative input of the loads instead of ground.