Power Hardware-in-the-Loop: Response of Power Components in Real-Time Grid Simulation Environment

Moiz Muhammad,Carsten Agert,Karsten von Maydell,Holger Behrends,Stefan Geißendörfer

doi:10.3390/en14030593

Abstract

With increasing changes in the contemporary energy system, it becomes essential to test the autonomous control strategies for distributed energy resources in a controlled environment to investigate power grid stability. Power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) concept is an efficient approach for such evaluations in which a virtually simulated power grid is interfaced to a real hardware device. This strongly coupled software-hardware system introduces obstacles that need attention for smooth operation of the laboratory setup to validate robust control algorithms for decentralized grids. This paper presents a novel methodology and its implementation to develop a test-bench for a real-time PHIL simulation of a typical power distribution grid to study the dynamic behavior of the real power components in connection with the simulated grid. The application of hybrid simulation in a single software environment is realized to model the power grid which obviates the need to simulate the complete grid with a lower discretized sample-time. As an outcome, an environment is established interconnecting the virtual model to the real-world devices. The inaccuracies linked to the power components are examined at length and consequently a suitable compensation strategy is devised to improve the performance of the hardware under test (HUT). Finally, the compensation strategy is also validated through a simulation scenario.

Highlights

The past few years have experienced an unprecedented growth of distributed energy resources (DER) globally
Motivated by the increasing importance of Power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulation for DER integration studies, this paper presents the development of a PHIL test-bench to simulate a low voltage distribution grid (LVDG) in connection with a real power component with the ability to operate dynamically as load and source
The second sub-plot in Figure 10b is presented which is a zoomed-in version at one of the peaks and the sub-plot in Figure 10c further illustrates the zoomed-in version at the zero-crossing to visualize the time delay

Summary

Introduction

The past few years have experienced an unprecedented growth of distributed energy resources (DER) globally. The fast moving energy transition towards decentralized energy systems leads towards several technical challenges for the grid operations, especially at low voltage distribution levels highlighted in a detailed report by CIGRE [1]. Performing simulation studies in a virtual environment is one of the ways to analyze these challenges and observe the “what-if” scenarios for power system operations. The DER units interfacing grids can be modelled in detail to study the dynamics and as a power (P–Q) source [2]. The latter is convenient while performing simulation studies to analyze voltage stability and power flow analysis. The simulation approach using a simplified DER unit model have its limitation and may sometimes be inaccurate owing to the complications in modelling the power electronic interfaces [3]

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Conclusion