A power-hardware-in-the-loop testbed for intelligent operation and control of low-inertia power systems

Abstract Low-inertia power systems, i.e., power-electronics-dominated power systems, possess significantly different dynamics to conventional power systems, both on a component and a system-wide level. A direct implication of these substantial changes is that a pure simulation-based assessment of novel control and operational schemes for such systems is insufficient. Instead, flexible and easily reconfigurable experimental testing facilities are required. A prominent concept to enable such capabilities is power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHiL) testing. We present a PHiL testbed facility (230/400 VAC, 750 VDC, 100 kW) specifically designed for experimentally testing and validating control and operational schemes for low-inertia power systems. The main features of the testbed are its flexibility to rapidly implement and test advanced control algorithms, ranging from low-level controls of individual components to distributed and system-wide controls, its ability to be configured with different network topologies, and the efficient emulation of commonly observed parameter uncertainties as well as disturbances. The detailed description of the PHiL testbed is complemented by a performance demonstration via a case study.