Cosimulation Environment for Event-Driven Distributed Controls of Smart Grid

This paper proposes a cosimulation environment for “hardware in the loop” or “software in the loop” validation of distributed controls in a Smart Grid. The controls are designed using model-driven engineering with the IEC 61499 Function Block architecture. These are connected with plant models, for example, in Matlab/Simulink, through communication channels such as UDP or TCP sockets. This solution enables multi-closed-loop plant-controller simulation. The communication between plant and controller is event-driven. In order to perform a realistic simulation, the proposed solution takes into account computation and communication delays on the controller side in Function Blocks and compensates model time on the plant side in Matlab model accordingly. Causality and accuracy of the method have been formally addressed. This approach has been tested and demonstrated with several Smart Grid-related examples.