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

This paper presents a real-time simulator for large power network based on custom-of-the-shelf technologies, all embedded in the RT-LAB real-time simulation platform. This platform uses Pentium, Xeon, 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-PCs communications. The real-time PCs runs under well-known operating systems QNX or RedHawk Linux while the main user control interface is either Simulink or LabView. The paper demonstrates the real-time simulation of complete single-pole 12-pulse HVDC system on dual-CPU, dual-core 2.2 GHz Opteron PC under 15 microseconds time step. It also demonstrates the real-time simulation of complex power system devices like SVC, STATCOM and more general power systems like the Kundur network. The paper also discusses the latest advances in hardware-in-the-loop simulation like the possibility to program from within Simulink some controllers or devices, like a PMSM drive, directly in an FPGA card. This feature is enabled in RT-LAB by the use of Xilinx System Generator, a Simulink blockset. This FPGA targeting diminishes further the leap between prototype and production-type controller systems because the FPGA can implement rapidcontrol functions along with fast protection systems, like IGBT-current protection, of real controller