Assessment and Commissioning of Electrical Substation Grid Testbed with a Real-Time Simulator and Protective Relays/Power Meters in the Loop

Emilio C. Piesciorovsky (), Raymond Borges Hink, Aaron Werth, Gary Hahn, Annabelle Lee and Yarom Polsky
Additional contact information
Emilio C. Piesciorovsky: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Raymond Borges Hink: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Aaron Werth: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cyber Resilience and Intelligence Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Gary Hahn: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
Annabelle Lee: Nevermore Security LLC, 31256 Stone Canyon Rd, Evergreen, CO 80439, USA
Yarom Polsky: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Manufacturing Science Division, One Bethel Valley Rd, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-26

Abstract: Electrical utility substations are wired with intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), such as protective relays, power meters, and communication switches. Substation engineers commission these IEDs to assess the appropriate measurements for monitoring, control, power system protection, and communication applications. Like real electrical utility substations, complex electrical substation grid testbeds (ESGTs) need to be assessed for measuring current and voltage signals in monitoring, power system protection, control (synchro check), and communication applications that are limited by small-measurement percentage errors. In the process of setting an ESGT with real-time simulators and IEDs in the loop, protective relays, power meters, and communication devices must be commissioned before running experiments. In this study, an ESGT with IEDs and distributed ledger technology was developed. The ESGT with a real-time simulator and IEDs in the loop was satisfactorily assessed and commissioned. The commissioning and problem-solving tasks of the testbed are described to define a method with flowcharts to assess possible troubleshooting in ESGTs. This method was based on comparing the simulations versus IED measurements for the phase current and voltage magnitudes, three-phase phasor diagrams, breaker states, protective relay times with selectivity coordination at electrical faults, communication data points, and time-stamp sources.

Keywords: real-time simulators; testbeds; hardware in the loop; power system; protective relays (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: 2023
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