Development of the Hardware Interface between Real-Time Simulator and Advanced Automation Devices to Electricity Distribution Networks

• Grant number: 25/10161-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Power Systems
• Principal Investigator: Jonatas Boas Leite
• Grantee: Gabriel Barbosa Campos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of sensing, embedded processing and digital communication should make modern power grids observable, controllable, automated and fully integrated. Small computational units, at strategic points on distribution feeders and active loads, should provide technological resources for automation of distribution in cooperation with conventional protection technologies in substations, such as intelligent electronic devices (IED). The development of these computational units with data models and communication protocols based on international standards ensures support for system safety and interoperability, but it represents a challenge to be overcome due to its technological innovation. Therefore, behavior analysis of these computational units should use hardware-in-the-loop simulation as a study mechanism for normal and critical operational conditions. Thus, it is proposed to develop a hardware interface between the real time simulator and the advanced automation devices of electricity distribution networks. The interface to be developed must convert digital quantities, representing the instantaneous values sampled at the simulator output, into continuous wave shapes, representing the analog signals in the electronic devices. The developed interface should be valid using a commercial IED, particularly SEL-451®.