RT23 | Framework For Assessment of Geographically Distributed Simulations of Electrical Systems

In the context of energy transition and net-zero carbon emissions goals, there are increasingly more inverter-based resources (IBR) in the electrical power systems in recent years. The integration of these clean sources of energy with the estabilished grid requires simulations with higher level of detailment to carry out studies to guarantee the reliability of electrical systems. On this scenario, one way to overcome the challenge is to share resources with another facility, utilizing other real-time simulators that are not necessarily geographically close, by using the concept of geographically distributed simulation (GDS). Therefore, to perform such GDS, studies are needed to assess the viability and limitations within the simulation itself, regarding stability and accuracy to the real plant. This work presents the development of a setup capable of emulating geographically distributed simulations (GDS) using two OPAL-RT's OP5707 real-time simulators focussing on electrical studies of hybrid systems. The setup developed to emulate a GDS was done by using a Network Emulator connected between the simulators in order to emulate the communication delay between the two simulators, as occurs when the simulators are geographically distant. This network emulation is mandatory to ensure that the local study is able to properly represent a interconnected communication channel as the data packets traffic is nondeterministic. The electrical stability is investigated through the Interface Algorithms (IA) used to interface the electrical quantities between the simulators, with the use of dynamic phasors to exchange electrical signals and the impact of latency and lost of information packet in the simulations were analyzed. The results obtained point to the possibility of carrying out studies with the developed setup, although it also show that are some limits for the usage of GDS in electrical studies. It was observed that the use of dynamic phasors for sending and receiving electrical signals is less impacted by communication latency than signals sent in the time domain and that latency does not impact the stability of the Interface Algorithms. In conclusion, this setup guarantees the possibility of studies to evaluate the feasibility of GDS and then increase the capacity to carry out electrical studies for the integration of IBR in the electrical power systems.