Universal Hybrid Inverter Driver Interface for VOLTTRON Enabled DER Power Electronics Applications

Green buildings with distributed alternative energy are promising to reduce the impact on the environment and human health. From power electronics point of view, renewable energy (RE) sources, energy storage (ES), and electric vehicle (EV) have created new demands on power electronics inverters, e.g. higher current and voltage rating, increased power density, higher efficiency, and high reliability. From power system point of view, matching load to generation is the biggest challenge for renewable energy source based loads since renewable energy sources are intermittent and uncertain. There is a need for an automated integrated energy management system in residential and commercial buildings to increase energy efficiency and consumer reliability.

The objective of this project is to enable near real-time control and management of power electronics in buildings with distributed energy resources (DER) by developing a universal driver interface using VOLTTRON platform. The interface enables optimization of power electronics devices in a building for various applications and operating conditions reducing integration cost and increasing device utilization.