In this paper, we detail the real-time simulation results of a medium-sized network composed of 8... more In this paper, we detail the real-time simulation results of a medium-sized network composed of 8 synchronous machines and an HVDC link. The model is composed of two Kundur-like 4 machines networks connected together with a 12pulse HVDC link. The complete network is modeled with SimPowerSystems with ARTEMIS real-time plug-in and is simulated in real-time on a RT-LAB InfiniBand PC-cluster composed of 3 dual-CPU dual-core Opteron PCs. The network model includes the HVDC control and protection systems as well as the synchronous machine regulators and power stabilizers. It also includes typical fault simulation capability like HVDC DC faults, thyristor misfires and AC faults. This model is excellent to study the complex interactions between an HVDC link and AC network under normal and transient conditions. The real-time simulation is controlled and monitored with a TestDrive interface from Opal-RT. This interface, based on LabView, permits easy monitoring and control of the complete system and enables Python-based scripting for automated tests. The proposed simulator can be interfaced with external equipments and controllers by direct reconfiguration of a FPGA I/O card with Xilinx System Generator blockset.
2015 17th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'15 ECCE-Europe), 2015
The modular multilevel converter (MMC) STATCOM removes the need for AC filter and transformer, ha... more The modular multilevel converter (MMC) STATCOM removes the need for AC filter and transformer, has no DC bus fault hazard, and thus becomes a better option than a 2-level voltage source converter (VSC) STATCOM. An MMC can have hundreds of submodules (SM). The switches in the SM are controlled individually and the capacitor voltages have to be balanced. Therefore, the control and protection system is sophisticated and has to be validated for different scenarios preferably by hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests. Modeling MMC in detail and simulating it in real time has two main challenges: solving the large circuit containing numerous switches and handling numerous inputs and outputs (IO) in very small time steps. This paper presents a real time test bench, which implements the detailed MMC valve models in field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards and enables connecting to external controllers through high speed protocols used by MMC manufacturers. It can simulate very large systems, e.g. multiple MMC STATCOM and high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems with up to 1000 SM per valve, at multiple sampling rates in real time: the MMC valve is simulated in FPGA with a time step of 250 ns and the rest of the power system is simulated in central processing unit (CPU) cores with a time step of tens of microseconds. The detailed MMC model in the test bench is able to accurately reproduce system behaviors in steady state, transients and faults, which facilitate HIL tests of actual MMC controller for all scenarios in a close-to-reality environment.
his article presents the problem of inaccuracy involved in the conventional simulations, at fixed... more his article presents the problem of inaccuracy involved in the conventional simulations, at fixed time steps, of event-based systems and then proposes the use of a new Simulink toolbox, known as the RT-Events Blockset, to significantly reduce the error between simulated and actual event-based systems. We will present the conventional techniques used in the fixed step-size simulations of the basic integrator block with reset performed in between the iteration steps. Among the issues discussed is the adverse phenomenon known as reset walk. We also propose a new set of tools in the form of the RT-Events Blockset. The important blocks of the RT-Events Blockset are succinctly explained, and three numerical examples illustrating the effectiveness of the new simulation tools are given, including a closed-loop V-6 engine system.
This paper presents a set of novel tools that allow the efficient simulation, at fixed time steps... more This paper presents a set of novel tools that allow the efficient simulation, at fixed time steps, of event-based dynamic systems. The so-called RT-Events library is an innovative toolbox that can be used with the Simulink TM graphical software and that solves the following two problems encountered in the simulations of event-based systems: (1) time consuming variable-step algorithms; and (2) inaccurate real-time simulations with fixed-step algorithms. One important application of the new RT-Events toolbox is its capability to effectively simulate automotive systems as real-time, hardware-in-the-loop systems. It is shown that the simulations performed with the new tools are more efficient than the conventional algorithms. In particular, the important problem of reset walk, which is inherent to the classical fixed-step simulation of event-based systems, is explained and its solution obtained with the use of the blocks of the new toolbox is demonstrated. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the new simulation tools.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The paper presents state-of-the-art technologies and platform for real-time simulation and contro... more The paper presents state-of-the-art technologies and platform for real-time simulation and control of motor drives, power converters and power systems. Through its support for Model-Based Design method with Simulink®, its powerful hardware (multi-core processors and FPGAs), and its specialized model libraries and solvers, this real-time simulator (RT-LAB™) enables the engineer and researcher to efficiently implement advanced control strategies on embedded hardware, or to conduct extensive testing of complex power electronics and real-time transient simulation of large power systems. 1.
2019 IEEE Conference on Power Electronics and Renewable Energy (CPERE)
This paper presents a Multi FPGA based solution for large power systems and Microgrids realtime s... more This paper presents a Multi FPGA based solution for large power systems and Microgrids realtime simulation. The proposed platform allows control and protection devices to be designed and tested in virtual power system, before they can be implemented in a physical system. This solution promotes flexibility of operation with no risk of components failure under any contingency analysis. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the OPAL-RT platform, a large distribution network (DN) of 210 bus bars and a Microgrid (MG) are considered. The MG includes a solar panel and a battery energy storage system (BESS). The complete power system including the DN and MG is simulated using only two Kintex-7 FPGA boards. The controllers of the MG distributed energy resources (DER) are compiled and real time simulated using a 3.5 GHz Intel processor. The performance of this overall Processor-In-The-Loop application (PIL) is validated based on two criteria: 1) Evaluation of the results accuracy compared to the reference offline simulation under steady state and transient conditions. 2) Evaluation of the numerical stability of the power interface used to split the DN into two FPGA boards.
2019 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM)
Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has demonstrated significant advantage in harmonic elimination... more Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has demonstrated significant advantage in harmonic elimination and improved converter efficiency due to the use of large number of submodules and low switching frequency of the submodules. However, the massive switching events of the Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) in the MMC have also introduced high computational burden when modelling the MMC in electromagnetic transient tools. Various research efforts have dedicated to developing the numerically efficient average value models (AVMs) for the MMC. This paper gives an overview of the existing control signal based AVMs of the MMC and proposes an enhanced average value model with arm current initialization method to compensate for the initial condition issue in the previously developed AVMs. The proposed approach is evaluated in a point-to-point MMC HVDC system under Simulink/eMEGAsim environment.
2017 IEEE 12th International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS)
This paper presents an asymmetrical phase-domain synchronous machine model using sub-microsecond ... more This paper presents an asymmetrical phase-domain synchronous machine model using sub-microsecond sampling time on FPGA. Previous literature has presented synchronous machine simulated on FPGA where all three phases are symmetrical, allowing a representation in the dq-domain, and reducing the complexity of the equations to be solved. When a fault occurs within the machine winding, the machine's parameters become asymmetrical, in which case, classical dq-domain representation is inaccurate. There are two innovations in the proposed method. First, a finer representation of the machine is used, and second, the FPGA implementation does not require to invert a matrix during discretizations. Results from the proposed model are validated by comparing the ones obtained using an offline simulation with a variable-step solver.
2020 IEEE Electric Power and Energy Conference (EPEC), 2020
Real-time simulation of electric circuit is most often used to test real components connected to ... more Real-time simulation of electric circuit is most often used to test real components connected to a real-time simulator. The increasing size and complexity of the simulation as well as the demand for better accuracy, lower time step, have pushed these simulations onto new hardware. For already more than a decade FPGA simulation is used by real-time simulation companies around the world to effectively simulate circuits under the µs. With the computation requirement growth, multi-FPGA simulation needs to be considered as a valuable asset but attention must be given to the latency between the simulations for accuracy and stability. In order to minimize the communication latency, a custom interface and communication architecture for co-FPGA simulation is proposed. This paper presents detailed work on this architecture and shows promising results.
2015 IEEE 13th Brazilian Power Electronics Conference and 1st Southern Power Electronics Conference (COBEP/SPEC), 2015
This paper analyzes the possible range of the DC currents developed by a pole-to-pole DC fault in... more This paper analyzes the possible range of the DC currents developed by a pole-to-pole DC fault in a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) -based high voltage direct current (HVDC) system, using half-bridge submodules (SM), when the actual control and protection (C&P) scheme for the system recently installed in China is applied. The results derived from differential equations are validated by hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation with the complete C&P equipment. Unlike an AC fault at the grid side, which may be tested on a physical test bench or even on the actual system, a pole-to-pole DC fault is so severe that it can be only studied with a real-time digital simulator (RTS), if the dynamic response of the actual C&P system is involved.
2020 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2020
In this paper, a parameter estimation approach is developed for speed governor and nonlinear hydr... more In this paper, a parameter estimation approach is developed for speed governor and nonlinear hydraulic turbine. Performance of the method is compared in several aspects, including terms of convergence rate, time calculation, robustness to various perturbations and inputs/outputs. Nine different types of perturbations are investigated in this study to evaluate the behavior of the identification problem. Also, precise models are utilized for the PID controller, servomotor and hydraulic turbine. Quasi steady state (QSS) method is also used to increase computational efficiency. The perturbations analysis is carried out in detail and applied to virtual and real tests which are obtained from a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bench. The results show a comparison between estimation errors after various perturbation concurrences to obtain the best and the worst perturbations for the estimation process. It also compares between several estimation methods.
International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 2021
Abstract Machine Emulation (ME) is one of the main applications of Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop (PH... more Abstract Machine Emulation (ME) is one of the main applications of Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) simulations. The performance and cost of an ME system depends heavily on the type of Power Amplifier (PA) it employs. Linear Power Amplifiers (LPAs) produce ripple free outputs and offer high bandwidths but are costly. Switch-Mode Power Amplifiers (SMPAs) are more affordable, with higher power density, but produce switching harmonics that yield distorted waveforms and reduce the closed loop bandwidths. In order to get a compromise between these technologies for ME, this paper proposes an ME based on a Hybrid Power Amplifier (HPA), with parallel LPA and SMPA. A new current control scheme for the HPA, suitable for voltage-in current-out machine models, is proposed to reduce the required current rating, and thus the cost, of the LPA. A design procedure for the control scheme of the HPA is presented and illustrated for the emulation of a direct-online start-up of an Induction Machine (IM). Simulation results evaluate and compare systems built exclusively with SMPA or LPA for ME. Experimental results are shown to validate the proposed control scheme for the parallel HPA in ME systems. Besides, the impact of the bandwidths of the control loops of the LPA and SMPA and the switching frequency of the SMPA, on the accuracy of the ME system and on the current requirement of the LPA are highlighted.
IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 2021
Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations, in the form of machine emulation, are gaining popu... more Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations, in the form of machine emulation, are gaining popularity for electric drive system testing in transportation applications. Since there is a reduced chance of equipment damage with PHIL simulations, they are particularly suited for the testing of electric drive systems, for drive inverter faults. This article investigates PHIL simulations to emulate machine behavior in the event of drive inverter faults resulting due to a gate-drive failure of one or more switches. Modifications are proposed to the closed-loop current control of the machine emulator system. These modifications ensure that various lower order harmonics in the emulated machine currents, resulting due to the drive inverter faults, are accurately emulated. Drive inverter damages resulting due to machine behavior emulation in fault conditions are avoided by proposing appropriate emulator control structure modifications. Experimental results are obtained for the emulation of machine behavior for various drive inverter gate-drive faults. These experimental results are compared with that obtained from a faulty drive inverter feeding a prototype machine. A close match between the two results is shown to prove the sufficiency and utility of the proposed controller modifications in the developed PHIL-based machine emulation system.
Management of transmission and distribution of electrical power has become an increasingly comple... more Management of transmission and distribution of electrical power has become an increasingly complex task with the large-scale induction of renewable sources with unsteady production levels, FACTS and HVDC networks, as well as active network control for grid stability and transmission efficiency. Complex power electronic systems are the basis for achieving optimal management of the grid, but deploying, tuning and monitoring these systems is a task that can only be achieved in a secure and efficient manner through the use of simulation. This paper aims to provide an overview of commercially available solutions that allow Real Time Simulation of the complex modern-day power grids.
This paper deals with the current state-of-the-art in interfacing issues related to real-time dig... more This paper deals with the current state-of-the-art in interfacing issues related to real-time digital simulators employed in the simulation of power systems and power-electronic systems. This paper provides an overview of technical challenges encountered and their solutions as the real-time digital simulators evolved. Hardware-in-the-loop interfacing for controller hardware and power apparatus hardware are also presented.
In this paper, we detail the real-time simulation results of a medium-sized network composed of 8... more In this paper, we detail the real-time simulation results of a medium-sized network composed of 8 synchronous machines and an HVDC link. The model is composed of two Kundur-like 4 machines networks connected together with a 12pulse HVDC link. The complete network is modeled with SimPowerSystems with ARTEMIS real-time plug-in and is simulated in real-time on a RT-LAB InfiniBand PC-cluster composed of 3 dual-CPU dual-core Opteron PCs. The network model includes the HVDC control and protection systems as well as the synchronous machine regulators and power stabilizers. It also includes typical fault simulation capability like HVDC DC faults, thyristor misfires and AC faults. This model is excellent to study the complex interactions between an HVDC link and AC network under normal and transient conditions. The real-time simulation is controlled and monitored with a TestDrive interface from Opal-RT. This interface, based on LabView, permits easy monitoring and control of the complete system and enables Python-based scripting for automated tests. The proposed simulator can be interfaced with external equipments and controllers by direct reconfiguration of a FPGA I/O card with Xilinx System Generator blockset.
2015 17th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'15 ECCE-Europe), 2015
The modular multilevel converter (MMC) STATCOM removes the need for AC filter and transformer, ha... more The modular multilevel converter (MMC) STATCOM removes the need for AC filter and transformer, has no DC bus fault hazard, and thus becomes a better option than a 2-level voltage source converter (VSC) STATCOM. An MMC can have hundreds of submodules (SM). The switches in the SM are controlled individually and the capacitor voltages have to be balanced. Therefore, the control and protection system is sophisticated and has to be validated for different scenarios preferably by hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests. Modeling MMC in detail and simulating it in real time has two main challenges: solving the large circuit containing numerous switches and handling numerous inputs and outputs (IO) in very small time steps. This paper presents a real time test bench, which implements the detailed MMC valve models in field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards and enables connecting to external controllers through high speed protocols used by MMC manufacturers. It can simulate very large systems, e.g. multiple MMC STATCOM and high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems with up to 1000 SM per valve, at multiple sampling rates in real time: the MMC valve is simulated in FPGA with a time step of 250 ns and the rest of the power system is simulated in central processing unit (CPU) cores with a time step of tens of microseconds. The detailed MMC model in the test bench is able to accurately reproduce system behaviors in steady state, transients and faults, which facilitate HIL tests of actual MMC controller for all scenarios in a close-to-reality environment.
his article presents the problem of inaccuracy involved in the conventional simulations, at fixed... more his article presents the problem of inaccuracy involved in the conventional simulations, at fixed time steps, of event-based systems and then proposes the use of a new Simulink toolbox, known as the RT-Events Blockset, to significantly reduce the error between simulated and actual event-based systems. We will present the conventional techniques used in the fixed step-size simulations of the basic integrator block with reset performed in between the iteration steps. Among the issues discussed is the adverse phenomenon known as reset walk. We also propose a new set of tools in the form of the RT-Events Blockset. The important blocks of the RT-Events Blockset are succinctly explained, and three numerical examples illustrating the effectiveness of the new simulation tools are given, including a closed-loop V-6 engine system.
This paper presents a set of novel tools that allow the efficient simulation, at fixed time steps... more This paper presents a set of novel tools that allow the efficient simulation, at fixed time steps, of event-based dynamic systems. The so-called RT-Events library is an innovative toolbox that can be used with the Simulink TM graphical software and that solves the following two problems encountered in the simulations of event-based systems: (1) time consuming variable-step algorithms; and (2) inaccurate real-time simulations with fixed-step algorithms. One important application of the new RT-Events toolbox is its capability to effectively simulate automotive systems as real-time, hardware-in-the-loop systems. It is shown that the simulations performed with the new tools are more efficient than the conventional algorithms. In particular, the important problem of reset walk, which is inherent to the classical fixed-step simulation of event-based systems, is explained and its solution obtained with the use of the blocks of the new toolbox is demonstrated. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the new simulation tools.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and Hi... more The increase in Inverter-Based Renewables (IBRs), Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems, coupled with the retirement of synchronous generating plants, is significantly reducing inertia in large-scale power systems. Fast controllers of IBRs should stabilize these systems, but they are highly sensitive to fast transients, harmonics, and system imbalances. Research findings indicate that relying solely on simplified positive-sequence simulations is inadequate for evaluating the transient stability of extensive power grids equipped with a substantial number of IBR controllers. In this context, detailed Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulations are becoming essential for the seamless integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The capability to perform fast simulations in Software-In-The-Loop (SIL) mode with generic or real-code controllers is indeed useful to determine the worst contingencies in the shortest time to develop the equivalent circuit required for real-time Hardware-In-The-Loop (HIL) simulation to test and optimize control performance. Naturally, fast EMT simulation of large-scale power systems will also become essential for online transient stability assessment to aid system operators, planning, and IBR integration analysis. However, EMT simulation of large-scale power systems with complex power electronic systems is computationally intensive. Moreover, it involves managing a significant amount of data and interfacing HVDC, FACTS, and IBR plant controller models, which are often delivered as black box codes without any interoperability standard, with grid simulation tools. This paper describes solutions to achieve real-time or near-real-time EMT simulation of largescale power systems with high IBR penetration. The proposed techniques implement fast parallel simulation either based on in-house clusters of high-performance computers or cloud servers.
The paper presents state-of-the-art technologies and platform for real-time simulation and contro... more The paper presents state-of-the-art technologies and platform for real-time simulation and control of motor drives, power converters and power systems. Through its support for Model-Based Design method with Simulink®, its powerful hardware (multi-core processors and FPGAs), and its specialized model libraries and solvers, this real-time simulator (RT-LAB™) enables the engineer and researcher to efficiently implement advanced control strategies on embedded hardware, or to conduct extensive testing of complex power electronics and real-time transient simulation of large power systems. 1.
2019 IEEE Conference on Power Electronics and Renewable Energy (CPERE)
This paper presents a Multi FPGA based solution for large power systems and Microgrids realtime s... more This paper presents a Multi FPGA based solution for large power systems and Microgrids realtime simulation. The proposed platform allows control and protection devices to be designed and tested in virtual power system, before they can be implemented in a physical system. This solution promotes flexibility of operation with no risk of components failure under any contingency analysis. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the OPAL-RT platform, a large distribution network (DN) of 210 bus bars and a Microgrid (MG) are considered. The MG includes a solar panel and a battery energy storage system (BESS). The complete power system including the DN and MG is simulated using only two Kintex-7 FPGA boards. The controllers of the MG distributed energy resources (DER) are compiled and real time simulated using a 3.5 GHz Intel processor. The performance of this overall Processor-In-The-Loop application (PIL) is validated based on two criteria: 1) Evaluation of the results accuracy compared to the reference offline simulation under steady state and transient conditions. 2) Evaluation of the numerical stability of the power interface used to split the DN into two FPGA boards.
2019 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM)
Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has demonstrated significant advantage in harmonic elimination... more Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has demonstrated significant advantage in harmonic elimination and improved converter efficiency due to the use of large number of submodules and low switching frequency of the submodules. However, the massive switching events of the Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) in the MMC have also introduced high computational burden when modelling the MMC in electromagnetic transient tools. Various research efforts have dedicated to developing the numerically efficient average value models (AVMs) for the MMC. This paper gives an overview of the existing control signal based AVMs of the MMC and proposes an enhanced average value model with arm current initialization method to compensate for the initial condition issue in the previously developed AVMs. The proposed approach is evaluated in a point-to-point MMC HVDC system under Simulink/eMEGAsim environment.
2017 IEEE 12th International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS)
This paper presents an asymmetrical phase-domain synchronous machine model using sub-microsecond ... more This paper presents an asymmetrical phase-domain synchronous machine model using sub-microsecond sampling time on FPGA. Previous literature has presented synchronous machine simulated on FPGA where all three phases are symmetrical, allowing a representation in the dq-domain, and reducing the complexity of the equations to be solved. When a fault occurs within the machine winding, the machine's parameters become asymmetrical, in which case, classical dq-domain representation is inaccurate. There are two innovations in the proposed method. First, a finer representation of the machine is used, and second, the FPGA implementation does not require to invert a matrix during discretizations. Results from the proposed model are validated by comparing the ones obtained using an offline simulation with a variable-step solver.
2020 IEEE Electric Power and Energy Conference (EPEC), 2020
Real-time simulation of electric circuit is most often used to test real components connected to ... more Real-time simulation of electric circuit is most often used to test real components connected to a real-time simulator. The increasing size and complexity of the simulation as well as the demand for better accuracy, lower time step, have pushed these simulations onto new hardware. For already more than a decade FPGA simulation is used by real-time simulation companies around the world to effectively simulate circuits under the µs. With the computation requirement growth, multi-FPGA simulation needs to be considered as a valuable asset but attention must be given to the latency between the simulations for accuracy and stability. In order to minimize the communication latency, a custom interface and communication architecture for co-FPGA simulation is proposed. This paper presents detailed work on this architecture and shows promising results.
2015 IEEE 13th Brazilian Power Electronics Conference and 1st Southern Power Electronics Conference (COBEP/SPEC), 2015
This paper analyzes the possible range of the DC currents developed by a pole-to-pole DC fault in... more This paper analyzes the possible range of the DC currents developed by a pole-to-pole DC fault in a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) -based high voltage direct current (HVDC) system, using half-bridge submodules (SM), when the actual control and protection (C&P) scheme for the system recently installed in China is applied. The results derived from differential equations are validated by hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation with the complete C&P equipment. Unlike an AC fault at the grid side, which may be tested on a physical test bench or even on the actual system, a pole-to-pole DC fault is so severe that it can be only studied with a real-time digital simulator (RTS), if the dynamic response of the actual C&P system is involved.
2020 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2020
In this paper, a parameter estimation approach is developed for speed governor and nonlinear hydr... more In this paper, a parameter estimation approach is developed for speed governor and nonlinear hydraulic turbine. Performance of the method is compared in several aspects, including terms of convergence rate, time calculation, robustness to various perturbations and inputs/outputs. Nine different types of perturbations are investigated in this study to evaluate the behavior of the identification problem. Also, precise models are utilized for the PID controller, servomotor and hydraulic turbine. Quasi steady state (QSS) method is also used to increase computational efficiency. The perturbations analysis is carried out in detail and applied to virtual and real tests which are obtained from a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bench. The results show a comparison between estimation errors after various perturbation concurrences to obtain the best and the worst perturbations for the estimation process. It also compares between several estimation methods.
International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 2021
Abstract Machine Emulation (ME) is one of the main applications of Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop (PH... more Abstract Machine Emulation (ME) is one of the main applications of Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) simulations. The performance and cost of an ME system depends heavily on the type of Power Amplifier (PA) it employs. Linear Power Amplifiers (LPAs) produce ripple free outputs and offer high bandwidths but are costly. Switch-Mode Power Amplifiers (SMPAs) are more affordable, with higher power density, but produce switching harmonics that yield distorted waveforms and reduce the closed loop bandwidths. In order to get a compromise between these technologies for ME, this paper proposes an ME based on a Hybrid Power Amplifier (HPA), with parallel LPA and SMPA. A new current control scheme for the HPA, suitable for voltage-in current-out machine models, is proposed to reduce the required current rating, and thus the cost, of the LPA. A design procedure for the control scheme of the HPA is presented and illustrated for the emulation of a direct-online start-up of an Induction Machine (IM). Simulation results evaluate and compare systems built exclusively with SMPA or LPA for ME. Experimental results are shown to validate the proposed control scheme for the parallel HPA in ME systems. Besides, the impact of the bandwidths of the control loops of the LPA and SMPA and the switching frequency of the SMPA, on the accuracy of the ME system and on the current requirement of the LPA are highlighted.
IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 2021
Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations, in the form of machine emulation, are gaining popu... more Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations, in the form of machine emulation, are gaining popularity for electric drive system testing in transportation applications. Since there is a reduced chance of equipment damage with PHIL simulations, they are particularly suited for the testing of electric drive systems, for drive inverter faults. This article investigates PHIL simulations to emulate machine behavior in the event of drive inverter faults resulting due to a gate-drive failure of one or more switches. Modifications are proposed to the closed-loop current control of the machine emulator system. These modifications ensure that various lower order harmonics in the emulated machine currents, resulting due to the drive inverter faults, are accurately emulated. Drive inverter damages resulting due to machine behavior emulation in fault conditions are avoided by proposing appropriate emulator control structure modifications. Experimental results are obtained for the emulation of machine behavior for various drive inverter gate-drive faults. These experimental results are compared with that obtained from a faulty drive inverter feeding a prototype machine. A close match between the two results is shown to prove the sufficiency and utility of the proposed controller modifications in the developed PHIL-based machine emulation system.
Management of transmission and distribution of electrical power has become an increasingly comple... more Management of transmission and distribution of electrical power has become an increasingly complex task with the large-scale induction of renewable sources with unsteady production levels, FACTS and HVDC networks, as well as active network control for grid stability and transmission efficiency. Complex power electronic systems are the basis for achieving optimal management of the grid, but deploying, tuning and monitoring these systems is a task that can only be achieved in a secure and efficient manner through the use of simulation. This paper aims to provide an overview of commercially available solutions that allow Real Time Simulation of the complex modern-day power grids.
This paper deals with the current state-of-the-art in interfacing issues related to real-time dig... more This paper deals with the current state-of-the-art in interfacing issues related to real-time digital simulators employed in the simulation of power systems and power-electronic systems. This paper provides an overview of technical challenges encountered and their solutions as the real-time digital simulators evolved. Hardware-in-the-loop interfacing for controller hardware and power apparatus hardware are also presented.
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Papers by Jean Belanger