Considerations for Digital Real‐Time Simulation, Control‐HIL, and Power‐HIL in Microgrids/DER Studies

Abstract

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Microgrids are well known to be a complex system with many different disciplines involved: communications, power electronics, data management, control systems, power systems, etc. Validating a complete microgrid system in the design stages considering all of these disciplines might become a complex problem given the need of integrating different computational and hardware platforms. Real-time simulation represents a feasible, accurate, and affordable way of performing such validations. With it, some or all the parts of the microgrid system can be simulated in real-time such that the particular device under test believes it is connected to the real microgrid components. Different strategies for performing real-time simulation are used: Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), Control HIL, Software HIL, and Power HIL. Depending on the nature of the device under test, one or many of these strategies can be used during the validation stage. This chapter explains each of the testing strategies involved in real-time simulation. Also, important information regarding modeling and solving circuit devices for microgrid applications is presented. Finally, some practical application examples are presented to help the readers conceptualize their validation/experimental methods.