Flexible and Cost-Effective HiL System for Module-Based VSC Simulation - Part I: Fundamental System Architecture and Operation

Abstract:
This paper describes a comprehensive approach for a real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation of voltage-sourced multilevel converters in a NI PXI ecosystem. First, requirements are discussed for a HVDC test field application, leading to a second section describing the hard- and software part of the system architecture where the converter submodule level including the original communication interface is implemented on FPGAs and the MATLAB Simulink-designed circuit simulation is embedded on a real-time controller. Finally, measurements show the quality of the real application’s representation by its digital twin.