Integrated Cloud and Hardware-in-the-Loop Framework for IoT-Based Control and Monitoring

Diuary Gonçalves; Ives de O. Furtado; Allan F. Cupertino; Heverton Augusto Pereira; Remus Teodorescu

doi:10.18618/REP.e202616

Authors

Diuary Gonçalves Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca
Ives de O. Furtado Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais
Allan F. Cupertino Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora
Heverton Augusto Pereira Universidade Federal de Viçosa
Remus Teodorescu Aalborg University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18618/REP.e202616

Keywords:

Cloud-Based Platform, Hardware-in-the-Loop, Isolated Power Energy System, Battery Energy Storage Systems, State of Charge Management

Abstract

This work introduces a Cloud-in-the-Loop approach that combines Internet of Things (IoT) devices with Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation for testing control and monitoring applications. The proposed architecture employs a three-level hierarchical structure: the first level simulates the Battery Energy Storage System and local power flow control on a Digital Sampling Processor microcontroller, the second level uses an ESP32 microcontroller for Controller Area Network (CAN) communication and data transmission to the cloud, and the third level, implemented with an online broker, enables data storage, analysis and commands. A simplified power flow model and a battery model representation are considered to evaluate long-term operation with one year of climate and load data. Two load management strategies were compared: (i) total load shedding at 0% State of Charge, and (ii) hierarchical load disconnection at predefined SOC thresholds. Results showed that the hierarchical strategy increased the average State of Charge by 25.2% (54.66% vs. 43.64%), prevented interruptions to critical loads. The results show that the proposed framework serves as a flexible step before real deployment, since its cloud-based functions remain unaltered while only the physical hardware is replaced. This approach reduces implementation problems and allows the methodology to be extended to various case studies.

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Author Biographies

Diuary Gonçalves, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca

received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil, in 2022, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 2023. Currently doing his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He is currently a Federal Institute Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca - Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His main research interests include battery energy storage systems, battery state of health and charge estimation, and photovoltaic inverter control and modelling

Ives de O. Furtado, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais

is a Master’s candidate in Electrical Engineering at the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG). His research focuses on photovoltaic module characterization and performance monitoring systems. He is a member of the research group GESEP (Gerência de Especialistas em Sistemas Elétricos de Potência) at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa. His main research interests include photovoltaic systems, embedded systems, IoT applications for renewable energy, and signal processing for power electronics.

Allan F. Cupertino, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

received the Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Viçosa in 2013, and the Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Was a visiting Ph.D. student at the Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University from 2018 to 2019. From 2014 to 2022, was an Assistant Professor at the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais. Since 2023, has been with the Department of Electrical Energy at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. His main research interests include renewable energy conversion systems, smart battery energy storage systems, cascaded multilevel converters, and reliability. Prof. Cupertino was awarded the President Bernardes Silver Medal in 2013, the SOBRAEP Doctoral Thesis Award in 2020, and the IAS CMD Doctoral Thesis Contest in 2021. He is a member of the Brazilian Power Electronics Society and the Brazilian Society of Automatics.

Heverton Augusto Pereira, Universidade Federal de Viçosa

obtained the Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, in 2007, the Master’s degree from the State University of Campinas in 2009, and the Doctoral degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2015, all in the field of Electrical Engineering. Was a visiting researcher at the Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark, in 2014. Has been working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UFV since 2009. His main research interests include grid-connected converters for solar energy systems and energy storage systems.

Remus Teodorescu, Aalborg University

received a Dipl. Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnical University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, in 1989, and a Ph.D. degree in Power Electronics from the University of Galati, Galati, Romania, in 1994. Since 1998, he has been working with the Power Electronics Section, Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, where he is currently a Professor. He is the Founder and Coordinator of the Green Power Laboratory, Aalborg University, focusing on the development and testing of grid converters for renewable energy systems. He is the Coordinator of the Vestas Power Program involving ten Ph.D. students, two postdoctoral researchers, and Guest Professors in the areas of Power Electronics, Power Systems, and Energy Storage. His areas of interest are the design and control of power converters used in photovoltaics and wind-power systems, grid integration with wind power, medium-voltage converters, and high-voltage direct current/flexible ac transmission system energy storage. He is a Past Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and Chair of the IEEE Danish joint IES/PELS/IAS chapter.

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