This paper presents the design and development of a hardware-based laboratory smart grid test-bed. This system is developed at the Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Florida International University. The hardware/software based system includes implementation of control strategies for generating stations, and power transfer to programmable loads in a laboratory scale of up to 35 kilowatts in ac power and 36 kW in renewable sources and energy storages. Appropriate software was developed to monitor all system parameters as well as operate and control the various interconnected components in varying connectivity architectures. The interconnection of alternate energy such as wind emulators, PV arrays, and fuel cell emulators are implemented, studied and integrated into this system. Educational experiences were drawn during the design and system development of this laboratory-based smart grid. The real-time operation and analysis capability provides a platform for investigation of many challenging aspects of a real smart power system. The design, development, and hardware setup of this laboratory is presented here in Part I of this paper. This includes component development, hardware implementation, and control and communication capabilities. Part II of the paper presents the implementation of the monitoring, control, and protection system of the whole setup with detailed experimental and simulation results.Index Terms-Hybrid ac/dc microgrid, power system communication, power system operation and control, real-time analysis, smart grid.

Wide area monitoring (WAM), wide area protection (WAP), and wide area control (WAC) systems will enhance the future of smart grid operation in terms of reliability and security. In part I of this paper, a proposed architecture for a hybrid ac/dc smart grid hardware test-bed system was presented. Design details of the various components and their connectivity in the overall system architecture were identified. In part II of the paper, the focus is on the design of monitoring, control, and protection systems and their integrated real-time operation. Various control scenarios for system startup and continuous operation are examined. We have developed a control system based on wide area measurements. The advanced measurement system based on synchrophasors was also implemented using DAQs real-time synchronous data. The developed system features a wide variety of capabilities such as online system parameters calculation and online voltage stability monitoring. These are implemented as an experimental case to enhance wide area monitoring systems. Moreover, the protection system was designed inside of the real-time software environment to monitor the real-time wide area data, and make a comprehensive and reliable coordination for the whole system. Ideas related to the interaction of a dc microgrid involving sustainable energy sources with the main ac grid have been also implemented and presented. The implemented system is explicit and achievable in any research laboratory and for real-time real-world smart grid applications.

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Measurement and calculations of actual power system parameters in real-time have been carried out by Synchronized Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). The applications of PMUs in power system are extended to protection, control and monitoring of wide area of power system. This research will present the real-time calculation of power system parameters using PMUs and their application in power system studies. The developed system has the capability of utilizing the designed PMU for analyzing the power system in real-time. A laboratory test setup was utilized to test real-time application of the developed PMU. This system uses different DAQs to gather voltage and current data, and measure power system parameters such as the voltage and current phasors, positive, negative and zero sequences, powers and frequency of each component. The results of PMUs were verified by measurement devices.The potential of the developed PMU system in calculating the power system stability index in real-time as well as the line parameters by the available phasors data was discussed.

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