Real-time Smart Microgrid Simulation: The integration of communication layer in electrical simulation

Microgrids are smart electrical grid composed of the communication network among its power devices for better operation and control. The information sharing is done locally through measurement but globally by adopting a protocol over the communication network for fast and reliable information exchange for microgrid protection and coordination among the devices present in the power network. In this article, a real-time simulation of a smart microgrid with the emulation of the intelligent electronic devices present in the grid that takes action over the events is proposed using the hardware-in-the-loop methodology. The information exchange between the simulated microgrid and the emulated intelligent trip unit of the circuit breaker is adopted using a physical communication network and User datagram protocol over Ethernet. The unique aspect is to approach the problem of co-simulating the power system simulator with the communication network without platform dependencies to obtain more realistic results. The mathematical models are created using model-based design approach with which a C code can be generated and can be simulated in real-time with any of the digital twins available. The proposed framework is used to test a protection scenario in the microgrid that exchanges the information over Ethernet for measurement and action coordination with the emulated trip unit for stable operation of the microgrid.