Learn about the Enhanced End-to-End Real-Time Software in the Loop and Hardware in the Loop workflows with ETAP and OPAL-RT ePHASORSIM

You can design your power plant or any other type of power system in ETAP and export this network to an Excel file, which can be used with our ePHASORSIM solver. That's a toolbox for phasor domain simulation embedded in the RT-LAB software, which allows you to simulate in real-time on an OPAL-RT simulator platform to test your controller in the loop, specifically the power plant controller.
Mr. Etienne Leduc, Director of Product Strategy & Investments at OPAL-RT Technologies

The ETAP/ePHASORSIM hybrid power system solution is ideally suited for simulating and testing extensive electrical networks with complicated topologies. Users can simulate SIL and HIL scenarios in real-time, significantly reducing the time-to-market. This solution offers time savings and value by exporting an ETAP model to ePHASORsim and controlling it in closed loop with ETAP’s controller hardware. To fine-tune the response, we will modify the ETAP model, re-export it, and restart the simulation—a cycle commonly observed in testing environments.

 

OPAL-RT Technologies is a leading developer of real-time digital simulators and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing equipment for electrical, electro-mechanical, and power electronic systems. Founded in 1997 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the company provides simulation solutions to engineers and researchers at leading manufacturers, utilities, universities, and research centers worldwide. They boast over 1,000 customers worldwide, with 50% being academic and research centers, and the other 50% being industrial customers. Their core software, RT-LAB, enables rapid development of real-time simulation models. They cooperate with ETAP on topics related to the behavior of power grid simulation.

Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Year: 2021

Real-time phasors simulation using the ETAP model and ePHASORSIM for power systems

Challenges

  • Modeling the transmission and distribution power system of the chosen network in the ETAP software and converting it into an Excel sheet.
  • Using Excel controllers' logic inside the simulation environment to be compliant with the OPAL-RT ePHASORSIM tool. This simulator is a large-scale real-time simulator, and enables the analysis, testing, and validation of the large-scale electrical systems with complicated topology (over 100000 nodes). The pains of using phasor simulations in ETAP are that the user cannot validate a large-scale network.
  • Enabling a direct import of the electrical ETAP model network into an RT-LAB ePHASORSIM solver and stable embedding of electrical parameters.
  • Testing the ETAP model in the OPAL-RT environment with declared set points and real-time processing.
  • Managing Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests between ETAP software and OPAL software, and the ETAP Power Plant Controller (ePPC) hardware box and the RT-LAB ePHASORSIM hardware box.
  • Enabling large-scale electrical system validation by real-time simulation with various available solvers in the phasor domain. It is crucial to analyze electrical grid reliability under different conditions.
  • Visualizing electrical real-time processes and analytics in the extensive grid network, with extraction possibilities.
  • Improving and shortening electrical analytics efficiency by using recommended solutions.

Export to OPAL-RT ePHASORsim

Used applications

ETAP Digital Twin is the leading solution. In the DataX menu of the Base package, a user can find an option to Export to OPAL-RT ePHASORsim.  

The exported data include information needed by OPAL-RT simulation software.

Why do they use ETAP?

Main Customer Benefits

  • The function of exporting was added to the DataX menu of the Base package of the ETAP software. It's easy to find that function. The Excel file includes all electrical devices, such as buses, lines, transformers, and machines, along with their respective technical parameters.
  • The file with the ETAP model can be easily imported into ePHASORSIM simulation software and can be immediately visualized, interpreted, and tested.
  • The possibility of managing different types of simulations, introducing disturbances manually to test power system reliability, is easy and productive. The ETAP model works very well in the OPAL-RT environment. Users can automate thousands of "what-if" scenarios for off-hour testing, focusing on data analysis during work hours, and leave the automated testing work for you to complete overnight.
  • A series of tests confirmed the quality of the solution. For example, they manage a test of tripping one of the motors inside the network. The controller compensated the tie-line flow back to the set points. This proves that the controller logic is working as expected in the controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation.
  • OPAL-RT effectively integrates electrical data, enabling other types of solvers, not just ePHASORSIM.
  • For visualization, a Grafana dashboards are included, in which users can verify and plot the data during runtime and after the simulation, too. ePHASORSIM allows users to visualize data using MATLAB or Simulink scopes as well.
  • The user can reproduce power grid conditions and anomalies to validate grid reliability and all its complexity and detail. He can connect to any controllers, whether they are in Distributed Generation, Wide-area Monitoring, Protection and Control, Power System Controls, or Protection Systems. All these different types of controllers can be tested in real-time with OPAL-RT simulators.

What do they think about ETAP?

Opinions

You design your model in ETAP, you connect your I/Os communication protocols with C37.118 Modbus, and so on. It also helps you reproduce power grid conditions and anomalies to validate grid reliability and all its complexity and detail. So, you can connect this to any controller, whether it be in Distributed Generation, Wide-area Monitoring, Protection and Control, Power System Controls, or Protection System. All these different types of controllers
can be tested in real-time with our simulators.

Mr. Etienne Leduc, Director of Product Strategy & Investments at OPAL-RT Technologies 

Once the user is satisfied with the results, he can directly deploy the hardware to the real-time controller, also known as the ETAP Power Plant Controller. The exported Excel sheet can be directly imported into the RT-LAB ePHASORSIM solver. Now, we'll be doing the controller hardware in a loop simulation between the ETAP Power Plant Controller hardware box and the RT-LAB ePHASORSIM hardware box.
Mr. Neetin Choudary, MSEE, P.E., Senior Electrical Engineer at ETAP


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Enhanced End-to-End Real-Time SILHIL Workflows with ETAP and ePHASORSIM

The ETAP/ePHASORSIM hybrid power system solution is ideally suited for installing and certifying any new device on the grid for protection, monitoring and control, thus reducing risk and costly commissioning time—as well as validation of reliability and security of any transmission, distribution and generation grid before implementation. Users can simulate SIL and HIL scenarios in real time, greatly reducing time-to-market. We will demonstrate the time-savings and value of this solution by exporting an ETAP model to ePHASORsim and controlling it in closed-loop with ETAP’s controller hardware.  To fine-tune the response, we will change the ETAP model, export again, the re-start the simulation—a cycle commonly observed in testing environments. 


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