Extracting data from the RSCAD electromagnetic simulation platform to perform eigenvalue analysis

RSCAD^® is an Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) simulation software of the RTDS real-time digital simulator. Currently, the software is able to carry out detailed nonlinear time-domain simulations only. Small signal stability analysis (eigenvalue analysis) of a power system cannot be performed on the software itself. Exporting data of a simulation case from RSCAD^®, in order to perform eigenvalue analysis on a separate commercially available software, is also not trivial. The demonstration of extracting data of an RSCAD^® simulation case, to perform eigenvalue analysis, is presented. The data is extracted from the files, generated by RSCAD, which the user has access to. Therefore the data extraction and eigenvalue analysis can be done by an external software module as presented. Incorporating the software module to RSCAD^® as an internal function is proposed. The software module can perform eigenvalue analysis if all the power system models in the case are generic models, as is the case with commercially available software like SSAT^®. Additionally, the proposed module can extract data of user-written linear controller models, and successfully incorporate them to the state space eigenvalue analysis. For full functionality of the module, all generic models should be linearized and included in the database. A common protocol is proposed for future expansion of the module. The extracted data is written into widely accepted file formats in the industry so that RSCAD^® data can be exported for interoperability between different software.