Research on microgrids at the University of Malta

Abstract

This article presents some of the work done in recent years by the microgrids research team at the Department of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion (IEPC). Research activities are dedicated towards enabling secure, reliable, and carbon free electricity systems. To date, the main contributions by the department were made to the operation, control and management of microgrids in low voltage (LV) distribution networks, ship electrification (shipboard microgrids) and low voltage DC microgrids. The paper also presents a few of the significant results achieved by the department to date including a hierarchical control architecture for single phase microgrids, control algorithms of power electronic converters for AC and DC microgrids, energy and power management strategies, power quality improvement algorithms and technologies, demand response strategies and devices, and the effective integration of renewables and energy storage systems.