Applied Cosimulation of Intelligent Power Systems: Implementing Hybrid Simulators for Complex Power Systems

Smart grids link various types of energy technologies, such as power electronics, machines, grids, and markets, via communication technology, which leads to transdisciplinary, multidomain systems. Simulation packages for assessing the system integration of components typically cover only one subdomain, while greatly simplifying the others. Cosimulation overcomes this by coupling subdomain models that are described and solved within their native environments, using specialized solvers and validated libraries. This article discusses the state of the art and conceptually describes the main challenges for simulating intelligent power systems. The article "Cosimulation of Intelligent Power Systems: Fundamentals, Software Architecture, Numerics, and Coupling," published in the March 2017 issue of this magazine [88], covered the fundamental concepts of this topic, and this follow-up article covers the applied aspects of the subject.