Commercial Microgrid Orchestrator Development and Validation

Abstract

This report presents the commercialization and validation of the Microgrid Orchestrator, a supervisory control technology for networked microgrids developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in collaboration with New Sun Road (NSR). Networked microgrids, defined as electrically interconnected and independently operable microgrids, offer significant opportunities to improve both economic performance and resilience through coordinated control of distributed energy resources. In grid-connected operation, coordinated dispatch can reduce energy costs by optimizing power sharing, energy storage usage, and interactions with the utility grid. In islanded operation, particularly during extreme events, coordinated management of available generation and storage can reduce load shedding and extend the duration of autonomous service. To bring this technology toward commercial deployment, NSR integrated the Microgrid Orchestrator into its Stellar Microgrid Operating System (MOS) platform, a cloud-based microgrid control system with global field deployment experience. A representative test system consisting of three interconnected microgrids linked by distribution feeders was developed to evaluate performance. Two use cases were examined using both numerical simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing in the Typhoon HIL environment: (1) cost reduction during normal grid-connected operation and (2) resilience enhancement during islanded operation under grid outage conditions. Results from these studies validate the core control functions of the commercial software implementation and demonstrate the potential of the Microgrid Orchestrator to deliver economic and resilience benefits in networked microgrid applications. The project also provides insight into market readiness and commercial value of coordinated control technologies for advanced distributed energy systems.