Validation of Real-Time Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Distribution Circuit Simulations with Renewable Energy Sources

Validation of Real-Time Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Distribution Circuit Simulations with Renewable Energy Sources

Rachid Darbali-Zamora, Jimmy E. Quiroz, Javier Hernandez-Alvidrez and Jay Johnson

Real-time (RT) Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) simulations incorporate power electronics equipment with computationally fast power systems simulations. The advantage of integrated PHIL power simulations is that the dynamic power behavior of physical devices is represented in large power simulations.  One scenario of particular interest is voltage regulation of distribution circuits using distributed energy resources (DER), e.g., photovoltaic inverters and energy storage systems.  This case is difficult to analyze solely using power hardware experiments or power simulations because of the complex behavior of inverter technologies while employing advanced grid-support functions. Herein, a seven-bus distribution circuit is created in MATLAB/Simulink and run in real-time using the Opal-RT 5600 with a 3.0 kW PV inverter with multiple power factor settings.  The results are compared to OpenDSS simulations to validate the PHIL simulation environment.