The Siemens Princeton Microgrid is one of the first to combine renewable energy solutions with both building management and energy management solutions. The result is an innovative, resilient and cost-effective solution that serves as a live test bed for Siemens customers and partners. Learn how a phased approach results in an energy-efficient grid.
Princeton Resilient Campus
Do you have a microgrid on your campus? Integrating advanced technologies such as grid software, battery storage, PV solar, EV charging, building automation, and electrical switchgear can reduce carbon emissions and operating costs while increasing resiliency and revenue sources.
Modern microgrids: flexible, innovative, affordable
A new approach to microgrid resiliency
From patent to award-winning idea
In the event of a natural disaster or cyber-attack, how can power system operators maintain microgrid operations? Two Siemens Technology researchers had such an effective answer to that question that it led to a patent — and an award.
Siemens Technology research scientist Xiaofan Wu, project manager of the Princeton Island Grid, and Ulrich Muenz, research group head of Siemens Autonomous Systems and Control, working with Joachim Bamberger of Siemens Smart Infrastructure, won a 2021 Edison Patent Award for their approach to remote management of DERs. Called the Communication-Free Decentralized Control Framework for Unit Commitment in Microgrids, it allows operators to integrate DERs such as wind, battery storage, and solar into the system while operating in a decentralized fashion.
Defining the future of energy with a microgrid campus
“The microgrid market has been growing quickly and there hasn’t been an opportunity to test how each component of these systems work together until now,” says Xiaofan Wu, project manager, Princeton Island Grid, Siemens Corporate Technology. “The beauty of our R&D work in Princeton is that we have the power investigate and validate highly innovative technologies in a real environment and the ability to try again so the result will be a clear blueprint for a more efficient and flexible microgrid system that can be replicated all over the world.”
Watch the video to learn how this “Living Laboratory” was built and how our approach may inform your organization's plans to achieve your business and environmental goals.
Testing “black start” solutions with microgrids
Siemens has always been on the cutting edge of distribution systems and DER technologies. Now, we’re creating the next level — an autonomous black start-capable microgrid, which turns the lights back on in severe conditions after hurricanes, snowstorms, or wildfires.
At Siemens Technology in Princeton, NJ, a multi-microgrid test bed, built over two years by researchers around Abhishek Banerjee, can demonstrate smart, autonomous black start. Because the testbed deploys a Siemens microgrid controller and 100-percent renewable DERs, a set-up that matches the attributes of the Princeton Island Grid, it can emulate its operation and run through any potential scenario, including the need to go into island mode and the Princeton Island Grid’s black start capabilities.
The beauty of our R&D work in Princeton is that we have the power investigate and validate highly innovative technologies in a real environment. The result will be a clear blueprint for a more efficient and flexible microgrid system that can be replicated all over the world.
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