| KEYWORD |
Area Engineering
Design and development of a digital real-time co-simulation infrastructure for scalable power system transition scenarios
keywords CO-SIMULATION TECHNIQUES, DIGITAL REAL-TIME SIMULATION, FPGA, POWER SYSTEMS
Reference persons LUCA BARBIERATO, EDOARDO PATTI
External reference persons ABOUZAR ESTEBSARI (Docente Esterno)
Research Groups EDA Group, Energy Center Lab
Thesis type EXPERIMENTAL
Description The objective of the thesis is to study the Digital Real-Time Co-simulation Infrastructure of the Energy Center interdisciplinary center [1][2]. This infrastructure integrates various Digital Real-Time Simulators (DRTS), such as RTDS Technologies NovaCor2 and Opal-RT Technologies OP5707, which provide real-time simulation for fast, reliable, accurate, and cost-effective study of power networks, to qualitatively and quantitatively solve scalable energy transition scenarios. The co-simulation infrastructure connects different commercial DRTS using an optical fiber link that employs the Xilinx Aurora 8B/10B communication protocol [3].
During the thesis, the candidate will integrate VILLASfpga [4] into the co-simulation infrastructure to monitor the data exchanged between two DRTS through the optical fiber link during the co-simulation execution. Specifically, VILLASfpga will decode the Aurora stream coming from the sending DRTS, extract the exchanged measurements, and send them via PCIe to a server to feed an external database. Subsequently, the measurements will be re-encoded and sent to the receiving DRTS. In summary, the objectives of the thesis are as follows:
- Study the Digital Real-Time Co-simulation Infrastructure of the Energy Center interdisciplinary center
- Study the VILLASframework co-simulation package, particularly VILLASfpga
- Familiarize with the Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA family and the VC709 connectivity kit [5]
- Implement a bitstream for the VC709 connectivity kit that supports VILLASfpga
- Install the VC709 connectivity kit on a server with VILLASframework [6]
- Test the overall infrastructure with a Smart Grid model, feeding an external database with the data retrieved through VILLASfpga
[1] 2023 L. Barbierato et al. "Exploring Stability and Accuracy Limits of Distributed Real-Time Power System Simulations via System-of-Systems Cosimulation" https://iris.polito.it/handle/11583/2974687
[2] 2023 L. Barbierato et al. "Digital Real-Time Power System Co-simulation via Distributed Transmission Line Model" https://iris.polito.it/item/preview.htm?uuid=c121d29d-9cbf-4699-8b88-914485337526
[3] Aurora Protocol https://docs.xilinx.com/v/u/en-US/aurora_8b10b_protocol_spec_sp002
[4] VILLASfpga https://www.fein-aachen.org/en/projects/villas-fpga/
[5] Xilinx Virtex VC709 Connectivity Kit https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/dk-v7-vc709-g.html
[6] VILLASframework https://www.fein-aachen.org/en/projects/villas-framework/
See also https://www.fein-aachen.org/en/projects/villas-fpga/
Required skills - Basic concepts of FPGA design and development
- Basic experience with Verilog and VHDL programming languages
- Basic experience with time-stepped simulation (e.g., MATLAB Simulink)
- Problem-solving and proactivity soft-skill
Deadline 15/02/2025
PROPONI LA TUA CANDIDATURA