Opal-RT Celebrates a Decade of Design Engineering Excellence

Company that pioneered the development of high fidelity Real-Time Simulation on PC platforms now a leading developer of Real-Time Simulators for Power Grids, Wind Farms, and related Power Electronic Systems

Opal-RT Technologies (www.opal-rt.com), the leading developer of open Real-Time Simulators and hardware-in-the-loop testing systems for electrical, power electronic, and mechanical systems is celebrating the launch of the company’s groundbreaking Real-Time Simulation technologies this week at CIGRE 2008, being held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France.

Delegates attending CIGRE 2008 are invited to join the Opal-RT team for a cocktail and to learn more about their innovative approach to Real-Time Simulation of very large power grids at the company’s booth (Booth#40) on Wednesday August 27th at 6:00pm.

The Montreal-based company, founded by Hydro Quebec veteran engineers Jean Belanger and Lise Laforce, was the first to introduce a Real-Time Simulation platform that was designed to take advantage of high-powered, commercially available PC-type computer hardware and software, enabling engineers to conduct high-fidelity simulation and test of electrical, mechanical and power electronic systems at the lowest possible cost.

Today, hundreds of Opal-RT Real-Time Simulators, built on the RT-LAB Real-Time Simulation platform, are in use by companies in the power generation, transportation, aerospace, and manufacturing industries, as well as by research facilities and universities around the world. Large organisations and universities rely on Opal-RT Simulators to conduct research, study, and test of electrical, power electronic and mechanical systems found in a wide array of products - from power steering to the power grid.

“Opal-RT was founded with the objective of putting high powered, affordable, Real-Time Simulators on the desk of every engineering professional, student and researcher,” said Jean Belanger, Opal-RT President and Co-Founder. “Through the use of fast evolving, commercially available multi-core processor computer hardware and the ongoing development of a Real-Time Simulation platform that emphasizes openness, we are well on our way to achieving this goal.”

“When Opal-RT first launched RT-LAB in 1998, the idea of conducting Distributed-Parallel Real-Time Simulation on a PC platform for critical projects was unheard of. Indeed, the proprietary nature of traditional Real-Time Simulators limited their availability to organizations with very specific design needs, and deep pockets,” said Lise Laforce, Co-Founder of Opal-RT. “Since that time, companies and universities large and small have embraced the Opal-RT approach to Real-Time Simulation. The end result is that now the only barrier the engineer faces in what they can design and simulate is their own imagination.”

Throughout the week at CIGRE 2008, Opal-RT is demonstrating how the RT-LAB 8-CPU eMEGAsim Real-Time Simulator can perform Real-Time Simulations of large power grids, wind farms and related power electronics. The company is conducting demonstrations in cooperation with B2i Engineering (www.b2i.fr), the exclusive distributor of Opal-RT products in France and Spain.

RT-LAB, fully integrated with MATLAB/Simulink®, is the open real-time simulation software environment that has revolutionized the way model-based design is performed. RT-LAB’s flexibility and scalability allow it to be used in virtually any simulation or control system application, and to add computing-power to simulations, where and when it is needed.