Siddhartha Nigam

The unexpected weather events and increased electricity needs have raised several questions about the reliability of the grid. A practical solution is the widely spread implementation of the microgrid concept. The various different implementations of microgrids, such as residential microgrids, isolated community microgrids, military base microgrids and campus microgrids have taken advantages of the recent advances in technology. This project focusses on the application of the microgrid concept to the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) campus electric utility system. The UIUC system meets all the required characteristics of a microgrid as it has generation resources, critical and non-critical loads, defined geographic boundary and its own distribution network. Within the scope of activities, we will investigate the specific structural changes needed to transform the UIUC grid into a microgrid and will assess the various benefits that the microgrid concept will bring about. The analysis will take full advantage of the added operational degrees of freedom in the microgrid so as to maximise benefits for the microgrid loads.