In this study, a microgrid with two voltage source inverters (VSIs), operating in islanded or grid-connected mode is analysed. The active power control by droop coefficients and reference frequencies is demonstrated. In addition, the inductive and resistive droop strategies are compared by considering the complex line impedance. By measuring the line impedance in the prototype, it was found that, even for the low-voltage microgrid, the line impedance was not predominantly resistive, but complex. For this line impedance condition, an investigation to determine the best droop control law considering the partial derivatives. Observing the partial derivatives and the experimental results obtained it is demonstrated that inductive droop control is better to control the active power for complex line impedance. For a scenario with resistive unbalanced loads and different power sharing between the inverters, the proposed control, implemented in the a-b-c reference frame, was validated. A novel absolute damping factor is developed to improve the transient response and reduce the reactive power flow. The VSIs are connected to the grid without transformers to reduce the connection costs. Simulation and experimental results are presented to confirm the improvements achieved using the implemented control method.

It was hypothesized that Stylosanthes cv. Campo Grande (ES) silage could be used as the single source of dietary forage for beef cattle and that performance on ES would be similar to corn silage (CS) at a 50:50 forage:concentrate. The objectives of this study were to evaluate intake, total and partial digestibility of nutrients, ruminal pH, ruminal ammonia, and productive performance in growing beef cattle fed diets with varying proportions of ES silage replacing CS. Treatments consisted of diets with ratios of 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, and 100:0% ES:CS. Two experiments were conducted simultaneously. In the first experiment, 10 crossbred Holstein-Zebu bulls with an average initial weight of 272 ± 86 kg were used. The bulls were rumen and abomasums fistulated. An experimental design of two 5 × 5 Latin squares (Exp. 1) was used. The second experiment used 40 Nellore bulls with an average BW of 386 ± 30 kg in a completely randomized design (Exp. 2). Results showed a linear increase in CP intake (P < 0.05) in response to increased dietary ES. An increase in the proportion of ES in the diet had a negative linear effect on TDN. Apparent ruminal digestibility of CP increased linearly, and apparent intestinal digestibility of nonfibrous carbohydrates increased with the addition of ES to the diet (P < 0.05). Intestinal digestibility of DM exhibited a quadratic response (P < 0.05). Nitrogen balance, excretion of urinary urea, and plasma urea nitrogen did not respond to the inclusion of ES in the diet (P > 0.05). There was also no effect (P > 0.05) of ES inclusion on animal performance. Ruminal pH was not affected by an increased proportion of ES in the diet (P > 0.05), but ruminal pH was affected (P < 0.05) by the time of collection, for which a cubic model fit the data. There was an interaction (P < 0.05) between treatment and collection time for ruminal ammonia nitrogen concentration. It can be concluded that ES silage can be used as a source of roughage in the diet of beef cattle during the growing and finishing phases at a proportion of 50% of DM in the total diet. Therefore, ES silage is a promising alternative dietary ingredient and the use of this alternative source of silage will depend on availability and economic factors.

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This paper describes a test facility for the design and validation of advanced microgrids (MGs) to integrate high penetration of renewable energy and electric vehicles. The UFMG MG laboratory is a joint effort of UFMG, industry, and government. The UFMG MG laboratory is a physical simulation tool for the design, development, testing, and didactic purposes of advanced MG projects under islanded and grid-connected operating modes. Using commercial inverters, and flexible digital control cards, the testbed is modular and flexible in terms of control of inverters, communication technology, and MG architectures. The capabilities of such a testbed in the development of MG management systems are illustrated by means of experimental results considering an advanced MG performing grid-connected ancillary services, such as self-consumption and power factor regulation. The example also highlights the flexibility of the setup incorporating user-adjustable communication latency and user-defined communication failure.