Architecture and laboratory implementation of a testing platform for Wide Area Monitoring Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a platform for testing wide area monitoring system (WAMS) applications in real time with a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) approach. The power grid dynamics are emulated by performing real-time phasor simulations. Voltage and current phasors can be streamed to external systems based on the standard IEEE C37.118-2011, recreating synthetic synchrophasors. Moreover, phasors can be transformed into timedomain quasi-sinusoidal signals and transferred via a low-latency fiber optic connection to a 200 kW high-bandwidth grid emulator. The grid emulator can amplify the voltage and current signals, allowing Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (P-HIL) testing of physical hardware components. A graphical user interface has been developed to facilitate the interactions with the real time simulation and for better visualizing the power system dynamics. Two WAMS applications for assessing voltage stability margins and for detection of power oscillation are implemented and tested as examples. These examples demonstrate that the framework is a suitable platform to test WAMS applications in power systems

P-HiL Evaluation of Virtual Inertia Support to the Nordic Power System by an HVDC Terminal

“…The phasor-based electrical model can be directly simulated in real-time, but to interact with hardware of the P-HiL setup, the voltages at the interface with the hardware must be converted into instantaneous three-phase signals. An example of the applied approach is presented in [21], and the practical implementation of the P-HiL testing will be further described in the following.…”

“…1 where the HVDC terminal represented by the laboratory scale MMC is assumed to be connected to the grid. This phasor is transformed to a three-phase voltage in the stationary frame and these waveforms are applied as references for the control of the grid emulator [21]. Since the converter is modelled as an active power injection in the simulated grid, the power measured from the converter is fed back in the simulation to obtain the intended PHiL behavior.…”