Interfacing solutions for power hardware-inthe- loop simulations of distribution feeders for testing monitoring and control applications

The need for advanced monitoring and control applications (MCAs) in future distribution networks calls for highly accurate and fully integrated simulation solutions for the purpose of performance assessment of these MCAs. Offline simulation using models of the power system, measurement equipment, local controllers and the information and communication infrastructure do not always resemble reality accurate enough. Therefore, power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulations are considered a cost-effective approach to overcome these challenges. This study presents the design of a PHIL-interface that allows to integrate a physical low-voltage feeder within a larger real-time simulated distribution network. Using the combination of the physical network and the larger simulated network, MCAs can be tested for scalability as well as accuracy. A data acquisition and processing system is presented that acquires all the true system states of both the physical feeder and the real-time simulated network, such that the MCAs can be verified in real-time. The functioning of the PHIL-interface is validated using practical results and illustrated using a test case for the performance assessment of a branch current state estimation algorithm.