InfiniBand-Based Real-Time Simulation of HVDC, STATCOM, and SVC Devices with Commercial-Off-The-Shelf PCs and FPGAs

This paper presents a real-time simulator for large power networks based on commercial-off-the-shelf products and the RT-LAB platform developed by Opal-RT Technologies Inc. This platform uses Pentium-, Xeon-, or Opteron-based PCs (multi-CPUs and/or dual-core configurations) or even Xilinx FPGA cards for computational engines, and infiniband communication fabric for fast inter-PC communication. The real-time PCs run under well-known operating systems QNX or RedHawk Linux, while the main control interface is either Simulink software from MathWorks or Lab VIEW software from National Instruments. The paper demonstrates the real-time simulation of a complete, single-pole, 12-pulse, HVDC system on a 2.2 GHz, dual-CPU, dual-core, Opteron PC with an under 15-microsecond time step. Also demonstrated are real-time simulations of complex power system devices like SVCs, STATCOMs, and more general power systems like the Kundur network. The paper also discusses the latest advances in hardware-in-the-loop simulation, including directly programming devices like a PMSM drive in an FPGA card. This feature is enabled in RT-LAB with the Xilinx System Generator, a Simulink blockset. Such FPGA targeting diminishes further the leap between prototype and production-type controller systems because an FPGA card can implement rapid control functions along with fast protection systems, like IGBT-current protection, of a real controller