Carnegie Mellon University
May 10, 2020

ECE Professor Javad Mohammadi and visiting researcher Juye Kim work with ESTP students

Carolyn Goodman (ESTP-AS '20), Sreemohan (ESTP-AS '21), and Anand Yadav (ESTP-AS '21) worked with ECE Professor Javad Mohammadi and visiting researcher, Juye Kim, to create a campus-wide test-bed named CarnegiePLUG; Prosumer-in-the-Loop-simUlation-Grid. CarnegiePLUG is partially built off the existing CMU campus-wide sensing system and will integrate campus energy and operations data with other physical and virtual assets. This methodology is called hardware-in-the-loop as it is comprised of both real and simulated devices. The test-bed will facilitate plug-and-play integration of a wide range of virtual and physical sensors and controllers through a multi-layer architecture. The communication architecture is built off of DOE Pacific Northewst National Lab's (PNNL) VOLTTRON software.

This highly interdisciplinary project includes building energy modeling to represent physical buildings and systems, transactive energy markets, demand response methodologies, and controlling energy storage for renewable energy systems. Currently, Carolyn Goodman and Sreemohan are working to create an energy model in EnergyPLUS and Modelica of Porter Hall B-Level that will react to real-time data from the campus-wide sensing system. Anand Yadav is working to connect Modbus enabled devices to the test-bed as well as a Case Study from PNNL on a solar PV simulation. The work EST&P students are doing now are paving the way for future students and researchers to test a diverse set of energy applications on the platform.

Carolyn and Anand working with PLCs in the Porter Hall B-Level server room – home of Carnegie PLUG

Photo: Carolyn and Anand working with PLCs in the Porter Hall B-Level server room – home of Carnegie PLUG