Modeling Using Colored Petri Net of Communication Networks Based on IEC 61850 in a Microgrid Context

Abstract

The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and local/small-scale power systems, named microgrids (MG), becomes a growing challenge for distribution system operators (DSOs). In general, the DER units and MG operation are based on a decentralized and time-critical decisions, which performs a complex behavior. To deal with this complex distributed system, the information and communication schemes are essential. Considering this, the IEC 61580 standard shows up as an appropriate solution, as it fulfills all related specifications of distributed systems. Since building a test bench becomes impractical due to the complexity and costs, the chosen solution is simulation. Therefore, this work presents a methodology that can aid the DSOs in the process of design and performance analysis of IEC 61850 networks applied to microgrid context. For this, the colored Petri net is proposed as the formal tool in order to have an easy and comprehensive modeling/simulation strategy. To validate the proposed methodology, a scenario considering the islanding detection control has been investigated with some numerical results.