Validation of a Real-Time Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Distribution Circuit Simulation with Renewable Energy Sources

Real-time (RT) Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) simulations can incorporate power electronics equipment, yielding computationally fast and accurate results. The advantage of integrated PHIL simulations is that the dynamic power behavior of physical devices is realistically represented in power simulations. One scenario of interest is voltage regulation of distribution circuits using distributed energy resources (DER), e.g., photovoltaic (PV) inverters and energy storage devices. This case is difficult to analyze solely using power hardware experiments or power simulations because of the complex behavior of PV inverter technologies while employing advanced grid-support functions. Herein, a 7-bus power distribution feeder circuit is created in MATLAB/Simulink to test RT PHIL capabilities using the Opal-RT 5600 with a 3.0 kW PV inverter with fixed power factor settings. The results are compared to an OpenDSS power flow simulation to validate the PHIL simulation platform.