OPAL-RT Accelerates the Development of New Generation of Modular UPS for Schneider Electric

The company

Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy management and automation. Its Shanghai-based UPS team develops the Galaxy PX, a 3-phase modular uninterruptible power supply delivering robust power protection for small and medium data centers and business-critical applications. Featuring a modular, Live Swap design in a compact single-cabinet footprint, Galaxy PX offers N+1 internal redundancy, pay-as-you-grow scalability, and EcoStruxure™ connectivity for remote monitoring and management.

The Challenges

• Costly Physical Prototypes: Traditional UPS testing relies on numerous real prototypes that risk burning or cracking under extreme conditions—incurring high replacement costs and schedule delays.
• Low Test Efficiency: Conventional testing covers only about 50% of automated test cases, requiring 3–4 rounds with limited fault simulation capability.
• Difficult Fault Reproduction: Internal faults (short circuits, open circuits, component damage) and complex scenarios (harmonic injection, sudden grid changes) are difficult or impossible to reproduce safely with physical hardware.
• Slow Hardware Adaptation: Frequent hardware modifications to the test platform are complex and laborious, slowing the response to design changes during rapid development cycles

The OPAL-RT Solution

Schneider Electric built multiple digital and automated HIL test benches using OPAL-RT’s platform:

• FPGA-Based Simulation: The eHS FPGA-based Power Electronics Toolbox enables highly customized power topology models with nanosecond-range time steps, handling switching frequencies up to 200 kHz and above—ideal for accurately simulating UPS PFC and inverter stages.
• Scalable Hardware: An OP4510 simulator paired with an OP4520 IO expansion unit, each equipped with Kintex™ 7 410T FPGAs, simulates the PFC and inverter separately with DC bus coupling via Aurora optical fiber communication.
• Automated Testing: Open LabVIEW and Python API interfaces in RT-LAB allow Schneider’s team to build custom automated test panels—enabling non-stop, unsupervised testing for an entire week.
• Premium Support: OPAL-RT China‘s local team provides customized firmware development and professional technical support through the Premium Maintenance Plan, minimizing learning curves for testers.

The results

The transition from traditional testing to OPAL-RT’s HIL platform delivered transformative improvements:

• 700+ Test Cases with 10–15 rounds, up from 600+ cases with only 3–4 rounds using traditional methods.
• 80% Automated Test Coverage, a significant leap from the previous 50%.
• Safe Destructive Testing: Bus short circuits, sampling errors, and inductance damage scenarios are now tested digitally without risk to personnel or equipment.
• Extreme Condition Simulation: Complex scenes—harmonic injection, sudden grid changes, external short circuits—are easily configured and reproduced with full internal data visibility.
• Immediate Hardware Sync: The digital test bench synchronizes with hardware design changes instantly, keeping testing on pace with the project schedule.
• Energy-Efficient R&D: The digital platform eliminates the high energy consumption of physical prototype testing, enabling a greener development process

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