%0 Journal Article 
%A Carrasco González, David
%A Sarrias Mena, Raúl
%A Horrillo Quintero, Pablo
%A Llorens Iborra, Francisco
%A Fernández Ramírez, Luis Miguel
%T Development and experimental validation of a low-cost, real-time energy management system for microgrid clusters, based on electricity price and state of charge of hybrid energy storage systems
%D 2026
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10498/38326
%X Microgrid clusters (MGCs) are gaining popularity for enhancing energy efficiency, resilience, and reliability by integrating power generation, consumption, and storage elements, including DC/AC technologies. However, their expanding use requires the development of new validation techniques to ensure real-world operation. This article contributes to this effort by presenting, implementing and experimentally validating via a hardware-inthe-loop (HIL) setup, a novel control system for an MGC, deployed on a Raspberry Pi board, which is more economical compared to industrial controllers. The HIL setup comprises an OPAL-RT emulator and the Raspberry Pi board, enabling real-time testing under various operating regimes. This MGC comprises two MGs interconnected to a main grid: a DC MG incorporating DC loads, a wind turbine, fuel cell, an electrolyzer, and an ultracapacitor; and an AC MG comprising AC loads, battery bank, and a photovoltaic generator. The control system uses individual device controllers and a centralized energy management system (EMS) that dynamically controls MGC components, considering the electricity grid price and the state of charge (SOC) of the ESSs. The experimental results demonstrate a robust performance of the MGC and the control system while ensuring a safe SOC in the ESSs. Additionally, the control system demonstrates significant reductions in the electricity costs and in CO2 emissions compared to a fuzzy-logic EMS across a 24-hour test under realistic scenarios, and a short 20-second test. Therefore, the results demonstrate that the proposed solution provides a cost-effective, responsive, adaptable, scalable and practical solution for real-time energy coordination in MGCs.
%K Energy management system
%K Energy storage system
%K Microgrid cluster
%K Raspberry Pi microcontroller
%K Real-time simulation
%K Renewable energy
%~ Universidad de Cádiz