A stand-alone photovoltaic microgrid simulation environment using FPGA hardware acceleration

Microgrids represent a growing paradigm shift from centralised energy generation to a distributed model. However, given the relative novelty compared to traditional grids, there are still many unknown factors regarding the optimal design of this kind of system. Given this, the study of microgrids can benefit from developing tools designed specifically for such purposes. This paper presents the results of the hardware acceleration of a previously developed stand-alone microgrid simulation environment through an FPGA. The accuracy of the system was validated through a comparison with benchmark software. Execution time performance is measured against the non-hardware accelerated simulation program for microgrid configurations with varying sizes. Real-time simulations are achieved with a reduction of accuracy during transients. Finally, hardware resource usage and further improvements are discussed.