Hardware and Software Integration as a Realist SCADA Environment to Test Protective Relaying Control

As the need for analyzing complex power systems increases, simulation tools make possible adding coupling strategies to interface simulations with real-time (RT) and hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) techniques. This paper introduces a novel hardware and software integration to reproduce an RT performance environment of power system simulations, especially focused on protective relaying control adjustments and training tools. The IEEE-9 bus system and a real validated model of a Colombian transmission system's section are presented; both cases are implemented in the platform and reproduced with the aim of evaluating its performance. Then, two protective relaying control applications are tested on the platform using the Colombian reduced power system (protection coordination of distance relays with infeed effect and RT emulation of end-to-end testing). The results show good performance and accurately reproduce the electrical signals of the system. The proposed interface is a novel solution, which integrates commercial power systems simulation software and robust hardware to reach RT environment with HiL.