Design and Deployment of a Web SCADA for an Experimental Microgrid

Abstract

Microgrids are a group of loads and distributed power generation sources acting as a single entity to provide power to the user or the grid. Since a Microgrid is a system of systems, this leads to an operability problem for local management and an interoperability problem for remote management. Operability and interoperability problems are solved by Data Acquisition and Control Systems (SCADA). There are several commercial platforms for the development of SCADA systems, being most of the time very expensive for the average user and even many universities. Therefore, this paper presents the design and implementation of a SCADA Web based on open-source software for experimental microgrids to allow the management of Microgrids remotely through the web. The Web-based SCADA system was developed for the Renewable Energy Laboratory (LabDER) of the Universitat Politècnica de València. An OMRON CPU CJ2M PLC was linked to a remote MYSQL database. A user interface was programmed using JAVA, and PHP languages perform operations and take data for the web-based SCADA system. The implemented SCADA system allowed monitoring and limited control of the LabdDER microgrid remotely, showing it to be an effective solution for Microgrids remote management.