Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing of IEC 61850 GOOSE-Based Logically Selective Adaptive Protection of AC Microgrid

The real-time (RT) hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation-based testing is getting popular for power systems and power electronics applications. The HIL testing provides the interactive environment between the actual power system components like control and protection devices and simulated power system networks including different communication protocols. Therefore, the results of the RT simulation and HIL testing before the actual implementation in the field are generally more acceptable than offline simulations. This paper reviews the HIL testing methods and applications in the recent literature and presents a step-by-step documentation of a new HIL testing setup for a specific case study. The case study evaluates real-time implementation of previously proposed communication-dependent logically selective adaptive protection algorithm of AC microgrids using HIL testing of IEC 61850 generic object-oriented substation event (GOOSE) protocol. The RT model of AC microgrid including the converter-based distributed energy resources and battery storage along with IEC 61850 GOOSE protocol implementation is created in MATLAB/Simulink and RT-LAB software using OPAL-RT simulator platform. Local area network (LAN) at the laboratory acts as IEC 61850 station bus for exchanging GOOSE Boolean signals between the RT target and the actual digital relay. The evaluation of the round-trip delay using the RT simulation has been performed. It is found that the whole process of fault detection, isolation and adaptive setting using Ethernet communication is possible within the standard low voltage ride through curve maintaining the seamless transition to the islanded mode. The signal monitoring inside the relay is suggested to avoid false tripping of the relay.