Energy Mobile Hub (EMH) for Optimizing Distribution Grid and Disaster Recovery in Emergency

The recent emergency situations that daily afflict the world, whether they are caused by deliberate actions such as wars or terrorist attacks, or by natural events like earthquakes, floods, etc. or for the energy poverty and weak power grids of some area, highlight the need to plan strategic emergency solutions capable of supporting the public grid in providing electricity in the short and medium term. The aim of this paper is to present a possible solution to mitigate the impact on power grids of natural or man-made events. The suggested solution consists in a mobile microgrid with PV and storage integration named Energy Mobile Hub (EMH) which can be easily transported able to provide electricity wherever needed in emergency conditions. This mobile and modular MEH represents an innovative solution for local support of parts of public grid both for distribution grid optimization and for disaster recovery. EMH is designed with a modular and wheeled structure, so it can be easily transported in case of emergency in the zone with the problem, and easily interconnected to the public grid to restore the electric service creating a local islanded grid. EMH can also support the distribution system in cases where the load demand is significant, such as a parking lot for charging electric vehicles. The paper presents the architecture and the control of the suggested microgrid and shows a case study of application.