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An overall study of a real-time simulator and application of RT-LAB using

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Conference Paper · November 2017

DOI: 10.1109/IGESC.2017.8283453

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 2017 IEEE Green Energy and Smart Systems Conference (IGESSC)

An Overall Study of a Real-Time Simulator and

Application of RT-LAB using MATLAB
SimPowerSystems.
Subrina Sultana Noureen Vishwajit Roy Dr. Stephen B Bayne
Graduate Student Graduate Student Professor
Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Engineering
Texas Tech University Texas Tech University Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas-79409 Lubbock, Texas-79409 Lubbock, Texas-79409
Email:[email protected] Email: [email protected] Email:[email protected]

Abstract—This paper summarizes the features and advantages RTE Event software [2]. The RT-LAB software is based on
of the renowned Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) called SimPowerSystems of MATLAB/SIMULINK, which has the
OPAL-RT Simulator. Alongside with its applications in the feature of modernizing model-based design in electric power
electric power system for the system design, analysis and testing.
This comprehensive study also includes a brief description of its systems [2]. The main feature of this software is to meet the
software, hardware, I/O system, modeling, Hardware-in-the-Loop transient simulation requirements of electromechanical drives
and other prospects. Tremendous advancement in the storage and electric systems [3]. Wide accessibility, greater ease of
capacity and computational speed of the modern computer use and more compatibility with commercial products are
system has done for the last few decades. Assimilating this the vital leverages of this simulator. Additionally, Real-time
advancement, this simulation tool has designed with unique
features like real-time model-in-the-loop, Hardware-in-the-loop. software-in-the-loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
Also for moderate operational and maintenance cost, OPAL-RT applications are gradually accepted as important tools for
Simulator has become more prevalent to the researcher. There engineering design mainly in the power system field [5-8]. All
are immense scopes of experimental research in power systems these features are offered by this simulator are more intriguing
analysis. This is the prime reasoning for describing the necessity for both academic and industrial applications. This features
and significance of OPAL-RT simulator in this work. In addition,
a semi-simulation experiment of a PV system is presented using will improve the accuracy of prediction of current and future
RT-LAB software. Two of the most salient tools of OPAL-RT needs of power.
are 1) RT-LAB and 2) ARTEMIS, which were applied in power The present work is based on the development of real-
electronics are also summarized. time simulator, RT-Lab Simulator Architecture, and the details
of RT-LAB Works. Additionally, a short summary of the
Keywords—Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS), PV system,
Power electronics, Model based design, Software-in-the-loop (SIL), OP5700 real-time simulator (currently used at Texas Tech
Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) University) will be described in short. Detailing of every steps
for the implementation of a Photovoltaic system model from
I. I NTRODUCTION MATLAB/SIMULINK interface to RT-LAB software been
defined as well.
Simulators have been widely used for the design and
development of electrical power system for several years for
II. EVALUATION OF REAL-TIME SIMULATORS
designing of transmission lines in power generation systems
to the optimization of motor efficiency in the transportation Simulation technology has emerged from physical/analog
industry [1]. It has been proven that simulation is an efficient simulators to High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) simulators,
tool for engineers and scientists for the successful applica- transient network analyzer (TNA) electromagnetic analyzer
tion development as it supports fast, reliable, precise and (EMT). These include the protection and control studies.
economical study of power systems. Currently, there are few However, the hybrid TNA/Analogue/Digital simulators can
simulators available. Among them, OPAL-RT is technically study the EMT behavior as well. Real time digital simulators
more viable for its fast reliable operation and performance. are the excellent examples of reliable, accurate simulation
OPAL-RT simulator accommodates eMEGAsim, HYPERSIM, technology, which are used to perform complex simulations
eFPGAsim, ePHASORsim which are hardware integrated in real time environment for power system network analysis.
software. Among these software programs, eMEGAsim is a Besides, the digital real-time simulators include all the features
more user-friendly, flexible and scalable digital-analog hybrid to its system shows in Fig. 1 [3] Although, physical simulators
real-time simulator which includes RT-LAB, ARTEMIS, and have served their roles in power systems industry very well;

978-1-5386-2027-4/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 IEEE Green Energy and Smart Systems Conference (IGESSC)

still, they are inconvenient to use as they have the difficulty of

immobility and high cost of maintenance. In addition, these
physical simulators are required to power up all the network
and system setup concurrently. Nonetheless, with the progress
of microprocessor and floating-point Digital signal processing
(DSP) technologies, physical simulators are being gradually
replaced with fully digital real-time simulators. DSP-based
real-time simulators, HYPERSIM, has been developed by the
collaboration of Hydro-Quebec and OPAL-RT Technology.
This commercial supercomputer-based simulator, HYPERSIM
[8], is now commercially available for industrial and academic Fig. 2. Opal-RT System
use. Such advancement is very righteous for the current power
system network.
Systems platform in real-time, on PC Cluster [13]. RT-LAB
is based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) non- proprietary
PC modules. It is not only an integrated real-time simulation
platform to build but also, it is the implementation of the
automatic system-level along with block diagram models on
normal PCs. It also includes the MATLAB/Simulink software
as its front-end platform for editing and showing graphic
models in block diagram format.

B. Simulator Outline

The configuration of the RT-LAB simulator is described as

follows:
• There could be more than one target PCs in the overall
Fig. 1. Evaluation of RT-LAB Simulator [3] system; the master PC executes all the communications with
both the target and the host along with all additional target
This commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) based real-time sim-
PCs. The target PCs being operated by the REDHAT operating
ulators was developed with multi-core processors which, have
system which is applied by the target to operate in real-time.
been applied in power electronic system design and testing
• Like target PCs, there also could be more than one host PC.
aerospace, automotive and robotics for last few decades [12].
Each PC host gives the access to several end-users to ping the
Further, OPAL-RT simulator is compatible to work with under
targets; where, the master host has the complete control of that
LINUX, Windows and standard real-time operating systems.
simulator. While other hosts are kept in read-only mode which
It is proficient to apply a numerous number power system
can only receive and show signals from the simulator. I/Os can
analysis software tools, like SIMULINK SimPowerSystems
be governed by fixed processors distributed over several nodes.
PSS/E, EMTP-RV [12].
III. NECESSITY OF REAL-TIME SIMULATOR
The necessity of the real-time simulator are
• Design errors can be detected beforehand.
• System design period can be scaled down by implementing
parallelization in the workflow.
• As, Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test setup takes a long time
plus each testing requires new setup; thus, HIL research and
development expenditures can be cut off in long-term. On
the other hand, real-time environment can be employed for
numerous applications and projects [2].
IV. OPAL-RT DIGITAL SIMULATOR
A. Block Diagram and Schematic Interface
The RTDS is developed by OPAL-RT technology with real-
time and distributed simulation application. It is fully compat- Fig. 3. C37.118 Opal-RT Communication Protocol [16]
ible to work with fixed-step solvers in Simulink SimPower-
 2017 IEEE Green Energy and Smart Systems Conference (IGESSC)

C. Communication Protocol system using the SC-Console subsystem. Each subsystem runs
RT-LAB digital simulator supports both C37.118 IEEE in each different core of the simulator. • All input signals to
Standards and IEC 61850 standards to communicate between
hosts and the targets PCs. It supports SPECTRACOM stan-
dards too. To achieve fast transmission and reception, the
Ethernet communication is built between target and the hosts
PCs. In addition, it has excellent unique feature of parallel
computation of system models that can abate the step size
from millisecond to microsecond duration [16].
V. OP5700 REAL-TIME SIMULATOR OVERVIEW Fig. 6. Opcomm Block with two I/O ports
The configuration of the OP5700 simulator is given in a
tabular form below: the subsystem must first go through Opcomm block which
saves the execution time.
• Microgrid Model need to be run in a fixed step time so
that it can run the model in real time by choosing fixed step
size according to model requirement and hardware capability.
• Then RT-Lab software is used to convert the Simulink
model into C-code and to load each subsystem in to each
core of the simulator. Finally, Microgrid model should be
executed in RT-lab to analyze the real time behavior of the
system.

While simulation model is running in real time, the tran-

sients can be analyzed using the user interface window. All the
outputs can be visualized in real time to estimate the behavior
of system under different conditions.
Fig. 4. Overview of OP5700 REAL-TIME Simulator [16]
VII. CASE STUDY

VI. IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODEL FROM A. Grid-tied Photovoltaic System

MATLAB/SIMULINK TO RT-LAB The PV module indicates the essential power conversion
There are multiple steps required to execute before running unit of a PV generation system. Solar irradiation and cell
the Matlab/Simulink models into real-time RT-LAB platform temperature are the key variable parameters for the output of
using OPAL-RT simulator. The steps are described as follows: the solar system. A PV cell has a non-linear voltage-current
• At first, an accurate model needs to be designed using characteristic which can be modeled using current source,
Matlab/Simulink software. Before running in ONLINE (in diode and resistors. A two-diode model has been used in the
the simulator), each model needs to be run perfectly in system.
Simulink environment. After that, the model requires to be
grouped in to three types of subsystems. a. SM Master sub-
system b. SS Slave subsystem and c. SC Console subsystem.
SM Master subsystem and SS Slave subsystem have the

Fig. 7. Two Diode PV model [17]

The output current of PV cell is given by

V + IRs
Fig. 5. Basic Communication link between different Subsystems I = Ipv − Id1 − Id2 − (1)
Rp
computational elements of the model whereas, SC-Console Id1 = I01 [(exp V + IRs /a1 VT 1 ) − 1] (2)
subsystem has the user interface blocks likes scopes and output
displays etc. User can analyze the real-time behavior of the Id2 = I02 [(exp V + IRs /a2 VT 2 ) − 1] (3)
 2017 IEEE Green Energy and Smart Systems Conference (IGESSC)

Here, I01 , I02 represent Reverse saturation current of diodes

1 and 2 respectively and VT1 , VT2 represent Thermal voltage of
diodes 1 and 2 respectively. a1 , a2 represent Ideality constant
of diodes 1 and 2 respectively.
This model can be used for greater computational accuracy
even though it requires computation of many parameters.
Parameters a1 and a2 can be assumed to be 1 and 2 respectively
for simplicity. Even though there are many attempts made
to decrease the computational time of the model, we havent
achieved success.
Fig. 9. RT-LAB model for PV system with PMU connection.
B. Design of a PV system
A PV array of 100-kW is coupled to a 30-kV grid through
a boost converter and a three-phase three-level inverter. The
detailed model description is given below:
• PV array only can deliver the maximum power of 100 kW
at 1000 W m−2 sun irradiance and 250 C temperature.
• DC-DC boost converter shift the voltage from the PV
natural voltage 500V DC to 800V DC.
• Harmonics from VSC are filtered out by a 10-kvar capacitor
bank.
• Utility grid is designed as a 30-kV distribution feeder along
with 120 kV equivalent transmission system.

The manufacturer specifications for one module are [18]:

• Number of series-connected cells : 96. Fig. 10. Simulink model consists of SM and SC sub-systems
• Open-circuit voltage: Voc= 64.2 V.
• Short-circuit current: Isc = 5.96. A.
• Voltage and current at maximum power : Vmp =54.7 V,
Imp= 5.58 A

C. Simulation Results
The model was tested in RT-LAB environment and the
results shows the effectiveness of this simulator. The simu-
lation was done is steady-state condition. Fig 8. shows the
block diagram of the overall setup. Here the PV system is
connected with the grid alongside with the virtual PMU with
communication protocol C37.118 protocol. In the Fig 9. The
overall RT-LAB model with three subsystem has shown. Fig
Fig. 11. Simulink SC Block
9-10 are the internal blocks of the SM subssystem and the
SC subsystem. In fig 11 the output of the PV system is shown
varing with the Irradiance and the temepature. Lastly, in fig
13-14 the grid Current, voltage and the phase angles are shown
as well.

Fig. 12. Active and reactive power of the system

Fig. 8. Block Diagram of the overall PV system with PMU connection.

 2017 IEEE Green Energy and Smart Systems Conference (IGESSC)

Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, and Academic & Re-

search. The Real-Time simulators are the future of many
engineering field.
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IX. CONCLUSION 2012
[18] www.mathworks.com/help/physmod/sps/examplee
Advanced researches are going on to enable the real-time
simulator faster, flexible and scalable prediction of current and
future power demands. Likewise, in this paper, effort has been
made to introduce a specific class of digital simulator known
as OPAL-RT, a real-time simulator in order to analyze the
strength of this specific simulator. All-in-one, the connection
between eMEGAsim (RT-LAB) and MATLAB/Simulink are
the main advantageous features of this simulator. Furthermore,
this paper also demonstrated a Photovoltaic system connected
to grid using eMEGAsim, which is a great reference point for
the field of new energy including microgrid. The applications
of eMEGAsim properties like RT-LAB, ARTIMIS, and RTE-
LAB are the new promising tools for analyzing, designing
and testing power electronics & power Systems. Using these
aspects of this simulator. Test beds are also employed for

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