An Empirical Quality of Service Analysis of Networked MicroGrids

Quality of Service (QoS) degradation of Networked MicroGrids (NMG) control data impacts system performance. Modern communication networks are essential for control data transmission for NMGs. The dynamic nature of these communication networks, driven by variable traffic loads such as neighbourhood area network video traffic, presents challenges to satisfying QoS targets. This makes achieving acceptable convergence times for effective NMG performance difficult. Prior research on NMG control data was conducted primarily through Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulations or with constant background traffic. We assess the impact of Video-Streaming (VS) traffic on the QoS of NMG control data using a real hardware NMG testbed which is constructed using 500 W Direct Current (DC) power sources and a Layer-3 network consisting of Cisco 4331 Integrated Services Routers (ISR), which is representative of a neighbourhood area NMG deployment. We evaluate the output power convergence times of the NMGs against the 10-second open loop signal response time requirement in IEEE 1547-2018. The experiments show that when real communication and power network equipment is used the mean convergence times for the output power signal are 2.7 times longer than the established requirement, and that instantaneous power losses exceed 50%. These results underscore the need to better manage neighbourhood area communication networks to ensure acceptable QoS of NMG control packets.