Real-Time Simulation of Power Electronics in Power Systems using an FPGA

Accurate simulation of power electronic converters requires time steps which are too small to be implemented in real-time with conventional processors. This paper describes the use of FPGA hardware for the real-time simulation of power electronic converters. An FPGA computation core implements nodal algorithms to simulate in real time a multiple switch system with a small time step. A dual time step simulation method is also presented and illustrated with a sample three-phase test network. The FPGA computation core simulates a PWM inverter with a 5 mus time step while the non switching part of the system is simulated on a conventional processor operating at 50 mus. The simulated system's dynamic is acceptable and this method yields high precision of the power electronics switching and the modulation scheme