Controllable Load for a Microgrid Testbed

Microgrids are a building block of the smart grid facilitating the renewable energy sources penetration and customer involvement in demand side man- agement. As the transition from the conventional to the smart grid progresses, the need for appropriate tools for development and testing increases as well. In this work we propose a design for a controllable load to be used with a microgrid testbed used to study stability, sizing and power quality aspects of microgrids. The smart load consists of commonly used loads controlled by a programmable logic controller to emulate actual load curves of a university building. It has been tested for a period of over a year using an existing au- tonomous microgrid that consists of photovoltaic panels and batteries. The results demonstrate its capability to emulate successfully actual load curves and its potential in microgrid testing.