Typhoon HIL Blog

Dusan Majstorovic is the Chief Technology Officer at Typhoon HIL, and it is his role to oversee all technology and product development activities. He was involved in the development of Typhoon HIL’s solutions from the very beginning, mainly in the area of real-time devices and the programmable FPGA software approach that was pioneered in the early days of the company. In this blog, he will introduce to us the new HIL606 real-time device, the first 4th Generation HIL in the 6-series hardware device line.

The provision of secure, reliable, and resilient energy and water is critical to ensuring mission execution at our military installations. Over the last 8 years, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) – DoD's environmental technology demonstration and validation program – has deployed innovative technologies designed to improve energy security, increase backup power reliability, and support critical loads during extended electrical grid outages. One of the most promising technologies in this sector is microgrids. These systems can reduce operating costs behind the meter and generate revenue by providing services to utilities and/or participating in energy markets.

OpenDSS software integration brings power flow with a seamless transition to real-time, deterministic analysis.

In response to the DoD Digital Engineering Strategy (2018), the US Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) funded Typhoon HIL to demonstrate the Integrated Model-Based Design Process (IMBDP) for affordable, scalable, and resilient DoD installation microgrids.

Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
Power Electronics System Energy Business Headquarters
Power Supply Equipment Development Department
Mr. Kazuyoshi Umezawa, Mr. Motohiro Tsukuta, Mr. Takuya Kimizu (from left to right)

Blog Highlights

• Application: Fuji Electric’s Kobe site uses the Typhoon HIL platform for their Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) development.
• Challenge: To overcome the typical limitations of open-loop and offline simulations in the early product testing stage, as well as the limitations of the high-power tests in the late product testing stage.
• Solution: The adoption of controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (C-HIL) made it easy to develop and debug new control software functionality, as well as verify the operation in cases that are difficult to reproduce in a high-power lab.
• Result: Typhoon HIL reduced the time and cost of UPS control development and increased test coverage.
• HIL Tested means quick reliable results with lower costs and higher flexibility.

Blog Highlights

• Application: The e-mesh Control is designed for the seamless integration of renewables with traditional energy assets.
• Challenge: Ensuring that multiple e-mesh controls communicate in a coordinated way.
• Solution: Typhoon controller Hardware-in-the-Loop used to design and test e-mesh controls
• Result: Typhoon HIL accelerated e-mesh control development time and increased test coverage.
• HIL Tested means flexibility, reliability, optimized, and great performance.

Blog Highlights

• Hitachi Energy need to integrate various DERs and control multiple loads in a complex system environment.

• Before HIL, Software in the Loop was used to develop control algorithms but a system using real controllers was needed to ensure the system works.
• Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (C-HIL) gives grid flexibility and adaptability to cover many test cases at an appropriate fidelity.
• C-HIL can be used from the early design phase all the way into operational performance and customer demonstration with factory acceptance testing.
• For microgrids with BESS and solar PV, the seamless transition from grid-connected to islanded mode was demonstrated using C-HIL.
• “HIL Tested” for Hitachi Energy means great performance.
  
  

Highlights

• Typhoon HIL solutions enable Hitachi Energy to push the limits of testing product functionality to cover customer needs throughout the entire product lifecycle.

• Software in the Loop (SIL) supports the development of individual algorithms but a higher fidelity testing environment is needed to ensure the system works as a whole.

• Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (C-HIL) is a combination of real hardware controllers interfaced with a real-time simulation of the power system.

• Standard models in the Typhoon HIL microgrid library helped save 4-5 months in controller development and testing.

• C-HIL technology increased test coverage in a low-cost environment which ensures great product performance and cost-savings for Hitachi Energy customers.

Highlights

• Decentralization, Decarbonization, and Digitalization are driving emerging technologies for distributed control of microgrid assets.
• Hitachi Energy e-mesh is a vertically integrated system that manages and optimizes distributed energy resources from the device level to the systems control and IoT domain.
• Microgrid control systems optimize the flow of different assets to ensure the supply of electricity is stable and reliable.
• A football arena in Norway uses Hitachi Energy e-mesh solutions to integrate renewables in the urban community with microgrids and energy storage capabilities.
• Communication plays a key role in a distributed controls approach in which a high number of signals are transmitted and received between devices.