The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program awarded a $135,956 project grant to South Dakota State University (SDSU) to develop a highly efficient, modular, and scalable power system that integrates photovoltaic, energy storage, and smart micro-inverter technologies. The goal is to create a novel power conversion system architecture and control capabilities to enable greater penetration of solar energy into the electric grid and support grid stability and resilience.
The key products and services to be delivered through this project grant include:
Design and development of a three-port single-stage power conversion circuit that integrates photovoltaic, battery, and grid systems
Implementation of a decentralized model predictive control approach to manage energy storage, photovoltaic smoothing, maximum power point tracking, and energy arbitrage
Formulation of an optimization problem and distributed solving algorithm to coordinate multiple three-port inverters for voltage regulation and reactive power sharing
Educational outreach activities to integrate the research into university courses and make the hardware testbed accessible to undergraduate and K-12 students
This NSF Engineering program award runs from October 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 and aims to advance power conversion and control solutions that can enable greater adoption of solar energy and support the modernization of the electric grid.