Hardware-in-the-Loop Validation of Energy Management Systems for Microgrids: A Short Overview and a Case Study

Giovanni Mercurio Casolino, Mario Russo, Pietro Varilone and Daniele Pescosolido
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Giovanni Mercurio Casolino: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione ‘Maurizio Scarano’, Università degli Studi di Cassino e Lazio Meridionale, Via G. Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Mario Russo: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione ‘Maurizio Scarano’, Università degli Studi di Cassino e Lazio Meridionale, Via G. Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Pietro Varilone: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione ‘Maurizio Scarano’, Università degli Studi di Cassino e Lazio Meridionale, Via G. Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Daniele Pescosolido: Schneider Electric SpA, Automation Center, 24040 Stezzano, Italy

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: The energy management system (EMS) of a microgrid often presents a complex structure and a large number of control functions, which must be validated to ensure a reliable and optimal operation of the microgrid. Control system validation is typically performed by using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) architectures in which the microgrid is simulated in real time and interfaced with the actual system under test. The simulation must ensure both an accurate representation of the microgrid and a reliable replica of the field communication of the EMS with all the control devices. In this paper, an overview of the various HIL architectures proposed in the literature is firstly outlined. Then, an HIL validation facility is presented and used to validate the EMS of an industrial microgrid. Finally, some results of the validation tests are reported to give evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed facility. In the proposed architecture, the soft real-time digital simulator of the microgrid is interfaced with the actual EMS using the same communication system and protocol as on the field. The main advantages of the proposed testing facility are: (i) the use of commercial PCs and the absence of dedicated interface modules, resulting in inexpensive hardware components; (ii) the capability to validate both control and communication functions of the EMS; (iii) the applicability to microgrids of different types (industrial, commercial, residential), as well as of various dimensions, including large microgrids; (iv) the easiness in changing the microgrid and the EMS under validation by only software modifications of the simulator tasks and of the exchange interface. As drawbacks, the proposed testing facility presents the need to adapt the software interface between EMS and the field to the EMS under test and the possibility of testing only the EMS functions and not fast-acting local controllers of the microgrid such as the protection systems.

Keywords: energy management systems; hardware-in-the-loop; real-time simulation; microgrids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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