Remote Site Real-Time Co-Simulation of a Shipboard Microgrid

In this paper, we present details on a co-simulation of a shipboard microgrid system, performed across geographically distributed laboratories connected via the Internet. The three laboratories are located in Tallahassee, Florida, Columbia, South Carolina, and Arlington, Texas. The developed platform for the co-simulation supports the testing of control approaches with high communication bandwidth requirement and includes real-time simulation and emulation of both power and communication grids. Co-simulation on the platform is demonstrated using a notional, one-zone Medium Voltage DC (MVDC) shipboard power system with a distributed voltage control implemented using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based control platform. Data communications within presented co-simulation is enabled via open-source networked software tools.