Driving solar energy innovation: how Sungrow is leveraging OPAL-RT's real-time simulators
Energy
03 / 21 / 2025
The company
Sungrow, a global leader in renewable energy, has been driving innovation in power electronics for over 28 years. With more than 740GW of power electronic converters installed worldwide and operations in over 180 countries, Sungrow is ranked as the world’s No. 1 PV inverter supplier by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Their dedication to clean energy spans solar, storage, wind, and EV technologie.
We rely heavily on OPAL-RT’s OP5700 series simulators in our HIL labs, and thanks to their superior FPGA simulation performance, our engineers are able to realize converter simulations with switching frequencies as high as 40 ~ 60KHz.
Yuanze Zhang
Deputy Director, Power Electronics Research Center of Sungrow
The challenges
With rapid growth in energy storage, EV integration, and grid modernization, Sungrow needed to accelerate the development, validation, and deployment of advanced power converter and controller solutions. The key challenges included:
- Verifying controller performance in complex real-world scenarios.
- Reducing R&D cycle time and physical testing limitations.
- Ensuring compliance with evolving grid codes like IEEE Std 1547.1-2020.
- Supporting massive HIL simulations for BESS, PCS, PPC, EMS, and BMS systems at scale.
The OPAL-RT solution
Sungrow partnered with OPAL-RT to equip their HIL simulation lab with over 20 real-time digital simulators, including the OP5700 Series, powered by RT-LAB. Together, they created a cutting-edge HIL testing platform capable of:
- Simulating full-scale power plants, microgrids, and energy storage systems.
- Performing controller HIL testing with switching frequencies up to 60KHz.
- Automating hundreds of test cases overnight using RT-LAB’s Python API.
- Connecting real hardware controllers (PPC, BMS, PCS) via standard industrial protocols (IEC104, Modbus-TCP, GOOSE, CAN).
- Running black-start simulations and validating functionality before on-site deployment.
Pressing the start button at the end of the day, and when you come to the office the next day, the system has already completed hundreds of tests, even the test reports are ready. This is very helpful to increase our testing efficiency and coverage.
Zhang
Deputy Director, Power Electronics Research Center of Sungrow
The results
- 50% testing time saved through automation and remote execution.
- Reliable validation of controller performance before deployment.
- Smooth commissioning of complex systems in just a few days.
- Enhanced model validation and compliance with industry standards
- Accelerated R&D for BMS, PCS, and EMS in high-fidelity scenarios.
- Competitive edge in the fast-moving energy storage market.
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