Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C00177X/1
Title:	UK-MicroGrids
Principal Investigator:	Barnes, Professor M
Other Investigators:	Renfrew, Dr AC Jenkins, Professor N Milanovic, Professor JV
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Intelligent Power Systems ltd Urenco
Department:	Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Organisation:	University of Manchester, The
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 July 2005	Ends:	31 December 2008	Value (£):	221,359
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Power Sys Man, Prot & Control Sustainable Energy Networks
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Energy
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Low-carbon energy will have to contribute more of our electrical power generation in future. Many of the opportunities for using renewable and combined-heat-and-power generation are at a much lower power than conventional central generation, and are distributed over a wider geographical area. Central control of this would be very difficult and prohibitively expensive to achieve, yet if significant amounts of low-carbon generation is to be integrated into the grid, some means must be found to make it 'well behaved'.Research funded by the US government has suggested one solution: loads and microsources are bundled into 'smart' aggregate units or Microgrids. The main network only sees the net performance of the whole Microgrid. If the microgenerators are connected through fast-acting power electronic interfaces, the aggregate Microgrid performance can in theory be made to behave as a 'model citizen', a small ideal generator or load. At present Microgrids are assumed to disconnect from the main network during system disturbances. Clearly this is unacceptable for systems like the UK, where 'model citizens' must remain connected to the network and contribute to the reliable recovery of the network from such disturbances.This proposal aims to solve this key problem: how the Microgrid hardware and software can be modified to contribute as 'model citizens' during network disturbances so that they may be used in the UK. Research will involve theoretical studies and will be supported by extensive experimental tests on a model laboratory Microgrid.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.man.ac.uk