Optimize performance and de-risk deployment of new protection schemes and algorithms
Digital simulation allows protection equipment to be subjected to virtually all possible faults and operating conditions in a controlled, flexible environment. Because the simulation runs in real time, protective devices can be physically interfaced to the simulated network in a closed loop.
Benefits of performing HIL testing
- Insight on both the performance of the relay scheme and the dynamic response of the power system
- Development and pre-commissioning of protection schemes for utilities
- Testing a combination of hardware relays and software relay models
- Testing interoperability of relays from multiple vendors
- Interface conventional relays, IEC 61850 and other smart grid protocols, and traveling wave relays
- Testing novel protection algorithms in real time, prior to target hardware availability
- Factory testing of protective relays
Inside a hardware-in-the-loop testbed for protection devices
Voltage and current signals signals from simulated instrument transformers are sent to the relay via analogue output via the GTAO card or IEC 61850-9-2 Sampled Values via the GTNETx2 card of the RTDS Simulator hardware.
Analogue outputs operate over a maximum range of +/- 10 Vpeak, so to provide secondary voltage and current to the protection equipment, the GTAO output is connected to power amplifiers (or, in some cases, is connected directly to the protection equipment for “low level” testing).
The protection should respond to faults by providing trip and possibly subsequent reclose signals. Since the network model is simulated in real time, the signals from the protection will be used to operate breakers modeled in the simulation via digital input or IEC 61850 GOOSE Messaging.
Unprecedented accuracy in Travelling Wave Relay Testing
The RTDS Simulator’s Travelling Wave Relay Testing (TWRT) facilities is the only tool with a Frequency Dependent Phase Domain transmission line model operating at the necessary small timestep for traveling wave testing. The tool and models involved have been specifically designed to accurately represent travelling wave attenuation and dispersion for proper performance analysis of travelling wave protection and fault locating. Learn more in the video below.
The only tool that has been successfully used to perform closed-loop testing of traveling wave protection devices with trip circuits live to the breakers.
