Grid-Tie and Off-Grid Operations for an Innovative Microgrid Realized in Leonardo Campus of Politecnico di Milano

In the paper, a novel Microgrid deployed in Leonardo Campus of Politecnico di Milano is described. The Microgrid hosts a Combined Cooling, Heating and Power plant (2 MWel) and two backup generators (1.6 MWel), plus some smaller PV plants. The advanced load management solution implemented is based on Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) components. It provides new capacity for facing network requirements in case of emergency and allows maintaining a high level of quality of service for the local network. Moreover, it enables the participation of the Campus to the Italian Ancillary Services Market as a virtual unit. The focus of the paper is on the protection scheme in place and on the energy management procedure that has been developed in order to allow both a grid-tie and an off-grid operation of the Microgrid.