Integrated simulation of communication, protection, and power in MVDC systems

We present an integrated approach to design and simulation of the protection management system for a medium voltage DC distribution system. A new model-based approach to the design process integrates representations of the communication, control and power systems. A co-simulation approach is used, incorporating three best-in-class tools - the Virtual Test Bed for representation of the dynamic system, Simulink for representation of the controls, and Opnet for representation of the communication network. Using this new framework, we explored the performance of a new two-level alarm system including consideration of the communication constraints.