An Event Driven Synchronization Framework for Physical Controller Co-Simulation of Megawatt-Level Power Electronic Systems

Abstract

Model-based design (MBD) technology has substantially enhanced safety, reliability, and efficiency in power electronic system (PES) controller development. However, conventional MBD technologies face real-time constraints when collaborated with physical controllers, posing challenges for applying them to megawatt-level (MW-level) PESs with numerous switches. Therefore, this article presents a physical controller co-simulation (PCCO) approach to alleviate real-time constraints and satisfy controller testing requirements for MW-level PESs. Besides, an event-driven synchronization (EDS) framework is proposed to maintain consistent controller behavior in both the PCCO simulation and real-world systems, while using switch-event information to accelerate the simulation. Moreover, a hybrid CPU-FPGA hardware platform is designed for the PCCO simulation, and a 2 MW power electronic transformer with 576 switches is implemented as the case study with the EDS framework. The results show that the EDS framework provides a high-accuracy numerical controller testing environment for MW-level PESs without altering the controller behavior. Comparative analysis with commercial HIL simulators, and prototypes indicates that the proposed framework supports safe and efficient testing of physical controllers in large-scale MW-level PESs, thereby promoting the use of MW-level converters in modern power grids.

Jialin Zheng

Postdoctoral Fellow of Electrical Engineering

My research interests include edge computing, machine learning, and power energy systems.