Distributed Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Agents System [Akronym: dPHILAS]

• Subject Area: Electrical Energy Systems, Power Management, Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533456402

At the Hochschule München (HM), a distributed Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Agent System (dPHILAS) will be set up. The dPHILAS will consist of a distributed real-time power grid (network) simulator (RNS), Network Emulators (NE) or Network Emulator Interfaces (NEI) and Devices-under-Test (DUT). The dPHILAS will be arbitrarily expandable and will interconnect research laboratories worldwide. It enables the emulation, analysis, and optimization of the future electrical energy system (DC, AC, and hybrid systems) and its prosumers through the interaction and coupling of several Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Agents (PHILA). To do so, one or more existing laboratory test setups (=DUT, e.g., emulators for wind power, PV and HVDC systems) are connected to NE or NEI to form one PHILA. For this project, at HM, several PHILA are available. One RNS and two NEs will be bought. The NEI will be developed and built. It is a specially designed software and hardware interface which will allow to virtually link laboratories worldwide via the internet (TCP/IP). The RNS simulates the power grid under test (GUT) with multiple network nodes (GUT nodes). Some network nodes are simulated others are emulated by scaled PHILA, which are either connected to the GUT via NE or via the internet by the to be developed NEI. The simulated GUT node voltages in the RNS are emulated by the corresponding NE or NEI. These emulated voltages represent the voltages at the point of common coupling (PCC) of the respective GUT node for one or more DUT. To these PCC voltages, the scaled PHILA respond to physically by real currents. This creates a real power flow in the PHILA between the DUT and NE/NEI but not among other PHILA. The PCC voltages and currents are measured and fed back to the RNS to simulate and then emulate the GUT node voltages for the next time step. The overall closed-loop system of one (or more) RNS and several PHILA represents the dPHILAS which (i) allows to interconnect multiple laboratories within HM, as well as worldwide, and (ii) enables a scaled but realistic emulation, analysis, and optimization of an electrical energy system (e.g., three-phase four-wire AC system or two-potential three-wire DC system) of (almost) arbitrary size. The dPHILAS will be developed and run by the Research Institute for Sustainable Energy Systems (ISES) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (FK04) at HM. The ISES combines the necessary core expertises for this project, such as battery storage, power electronics, electrical machines, power engineering, optimization, and systems & control. In addition, 14 national and international research partners will participate in the development, implementation, and testing of the dPHILAS.

• DFG Programme: Major Instrumentation Initiatives
• Major Instrumentation: 2 x Netzemulatoren ; Realzeit-Netz-Simulator
• Applicant Institution: Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph Hackl