HIL Simulation of Power Grid with DER for Internet based control

With the introduction of smart grid, the conventional power grid is envisioned to undergo an evolution by incorporating advance functionalities to the power grid through the addition of digital technologies like Advance Metering Infrastructure, communication infrastructure and novel control strategies and algorithms. However due to the high level of reliability required in power grid, any such equipment or algorithms should undergo higher levels of testings before they are interfaced with the real power grid. Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation is one of the prominent techniques, that is used in development and testing of complex real time embedded systems. In an HIL simulation the plant is modelled using mathematical representation of its dynamics and the equipment that is under test is interfaced with the plant via suitable interfaces. Therefore to test the equipment and algorithms that are expected to facilitate the implementation of Smart Grids, it is essential to have a tools and techniques to simulate power grid where these real equipment and control algorithms could be tested before interfacing them with the real power grid. In this paper, we propose a method to simulate the power grid using Matlab® in real-time which could also be interfaced with digital equipment and actual communication interfaces. Results obtained from simulation studies carried out using the proposed method to study the performance of a coordinated control algorithm are also presented.