IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019 - 43

industrial customers. Based on estimations from the U.S.
DOE, the annual cost of weather-related power outages varies from billions to tens of billions of dollars, e.g., from
US$45 to US$75 billion in 2008, and from US$27 to US$52 billion in 2012 [15].
To demonstrate how to mitigate power outages caused
by extreme weather or disasters, enhance grid resiliency,
and accelerate disaster recovery, a pilot smart home was
developed at the Llano River Field Station, Texas Tech
University Center at Junction, with sustainable power and
water supplies, as shown in Figure 2. The home grid is built
based on the SYNDEM grid architecture with electricity
generated from renewable energy resources, i.e., wind and
solar. The storage of electricity is achieved through batteries. This project is expected to demonstrate a new lifestyle,
with natural sustainable resources for improved resiliency.

inertia responses, power flow control, fault-current limitation, and so on, while being equipped with the synchronization mechanism.

Description of the Home Grid
The Need for Home Grids to Enhance Resiliency
Utility grids, including generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, are vulnerable to disastrous events, i.e.,
extreme weather or natural disasters. The affected components in these facilities may trigger cascaded failures, which
can spread in a quick and wide manner with extensive damages and large power outages. Given the aging electric
power infrastructure in the United States, the situation may
deteriorate even more quickly on such occasions [11]. For
example, in 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused approximately
8 million people to be without access to electric power [12].
Hurricane Irma cut power to nearly two-thirds of Florida's
electricity customers [13], and more than a quarter-million
people were affected by Texas power outages caused by
Hurricane Harvey [14]. Without electricity, other utility infrastructures are affected as well, i.e., water systems, the Internet, and communications. The power outages also cause
huge losses to both residential customers and commercial/

Following the SYNDEM grid architecture, the home grid is
designed as illustrated in Figure 3, with its backbone depicted
in Figure 4. It consists of five DERs, including four solar units
and one wind unit, and one energy bridge. Each solar unit
consists of two 1.5-kW strings of solar panels, a built-in battery pack, and a SYNDEM photovoltaic (PV) inverter. The

Hydro Plants

VSM

VSM
ac Transmission
and
Distribution
Network

VSM
Lighting

VSM

Electronic Apparatus

VSM

Electric Vehicles

VSM

VSM
VSM

IMAGES LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING, MICROGRID IMAGE-©ISTOCKPHOTOCOM/9AMSTOCK, COMPUTER IMAGE-GRAPHIC STOCK

Nuclear Plants

Coal Plants

Motors

Configuration of the Home Grid

Solar Farms

VSM

HVdc
Wind Farms

Energy Storage System

dc Microgrid

FIG 1 The SYNDEM grid architecture [7], [9], [10]. HVdc: high-voltage dc.

December 2019

z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019