Synchronized real-time simulation of distributed networked controls for a power system case study
Date
2013
Authors
Jain, Abhishek, author
Young, Peter, advisor
Zimmerle, Daniel, committee member
Suryanarayanan, Siddharth, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a distributed networked control framework for a power system simulation. The study addresses and improves upon speed and accuracy of simulation for computationally intensive power system dynamic simulations and distributed control utilizing Hardware-In-Loop (HIL) simulations. A dynamic four bus test-case microgrid simulation is constructed using SimPowerSystems™ toolbox of Matlab™ with renewable energy penetration. Parallel processing is achieved using a discrete real-time simulator Opal-RT by distributing the computation among its various processors and thus achieving real-time performance. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controls for various photo-voltaic (PV) systems are distributed among external simulation platforms with the use of a client-server communication architecture and application layer messaging network protocols. The various networked platforms implementing control algorithms include general purpose and data-flow graphical programming languages. The solar irradiance profile for various PV systems is generated from an external spreadsheet data source as another networked module. Also included in the communication network is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) controller - a substation automation platform OrionLX which is used for supervisory control of the various relays in the microgrid feeder simulation. Finally, a case study is presented which involves all of the above mentioned components - MPPT control and irradiance profile generation for PV systems as well as fault isolation in a microgrid using HIL supervisory relay control - as distributed elements of a communication network with the real-time server. Modbus TCP/IP is used as the networking protocol while the networked control platforms are developed in C# and Simulink™ programming languages. Performance and bandwidth of the interdisciplinary system are analyzed. From the results of this study, it is concluded that the combination of a parallel processing and distributed control approach can be an effective strategy for improving dynamic power system simulations.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
distributed networked controls
real-time simulation
power systems