CIRED 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution Frankfurt, 6-9 June 2011

Paper 0607 -

NEW HARDWARE IN THE LOOP TESTS FOR EARTHFAULT CONTROL AND

PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Gernot DRUML Roberto CALONE Prof. Lothar FICKERT

A.Eberle GmbH&CoKG-Germany ENEL Distribuzione – Italy Technical University Graz - Austria
g.druml@ieee.org calone.roberto@enel.it Lothar.fickert@tugraz.at

The use of the RTDS will be explained based on the

ABSTRACT requirements of ENEL Distribuzione, who asked for a real
time digital simulator to perform the type tests on a batch of
This paper presents the experience using a Real Time advanced Petersen-Coil control systems installed in the
Digital Simulator (RTDS) for developing and testing of new ENEL MV network.
control and protection algorithms for compensated
networks. CONFIGURATION
For the following standard substation according to Fig. 1
Due to the rapid change of power distribution networks in
with two bus-bars, two tuneable Petersen Coils 60 A …
recent years, it is no longer enough, only to observe the
375 A, two fixed coils 80A … 200 A and a combined
reaction of a protection relay to a recorded event. In most
wattmetric increase (serial and parallel impedances) a
cases, the supply from the secondary side, for example from
combined Earthfault Detection and Control System
a large distributed generating facility, is no more neglect-
(EDCSys) was developed.
able. In today’s very symmetrical networks, also the
behavior of controllers for Petersen-Coils is complete
different. S5 S6 S7

In this paper the experience of designing a RTDS and using 15 / 20 kV S1 S2 S3 S4 15 / 20 kV

it for development, type test and repetition-tests of a system L1 F1 L2 F2

with two Petersen-Coil-Controllers, an earthfault-

protection-system for 32 feeders, two bus-bars each with CB_TrR CB_TrV

10 feeders, two continuously tuneable Petersen-Coils and

two thyristor-controlled zero-sequence current injections K

will be presented. R V

Io Io Io Io Io Io Io Io Io Io Io Io

Especially the benefits during the development and the Une Une
U1E
improvements of the quality of the type-tests will be U2E
U3E
U1E
U2E
U3E
presented in detail.

INTRODUCTION 10 feeders 10 feeders

In the past, analogue models were used for the testing of Fig. 1: One line circuit diagram of a standard substation
control and protection systems during the development and
even for the final type tests. To receive reproducible results, The EDCSys [2] shown in Fig. 2 is designed to
it is necessary to realize real parameters of the network. In  control up to four Petersen Coils
today´s meshed networks, this mostly requires additional  tune the Petersen coil either by changing the coil-
investment. In analogue models, also the change between position respectively by using the Current Injection
different network configurations involves a lot of cost- with two Frequencies (CIF)
intensive work.  control the Peterson Coils in case of very symmetrical
networks with neglectable natural asymmetry.
 supervise up to 32 feeders on earth faults using the
In contrast, with a RTDS it is very easy to model the
admittance method, the wattmetric method and an
network very near to its real behavior in real time.
intermittent earth fault detection algorithm.
Therefore it is possible to test the control and protection
system and also the reaction of the network. The simulated
The two bus bars can be coupled in the substation or in the
network can be meshed, including large distributed
field. The automatic detection of the external coupling
generating facilities or other protection systems. Using a
needs extra handling, as the zero-sequence voltage is very
RTDS, the whole control or protection system is checked,
small.
not only the algorithm.

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CIRED 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution Frankfurt, 6-9 June 2011

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usual for tests of short circuit protection relays, is not

DAN-R

Status F1
DAN-V

Status F1
possible for the test of protection systems which are using
Error
F2

F3
Error
F2

F3
the admittance method.
CI alive F4 CI alive F4
CI on CI on
Rs2 on F5 Rs2 on F5

AUTO
local
remote
ESC MENU
COM1
AUTO
local
remote
ESC MENU
COM1
For the test of the control function as well as for the test of
MCI the admittance method, it is necessary to inject a current in
Power
Status CPU
Status DSP
R_line 01
R_line 02
R_line 03
R_line 09
R_line 10
V_line 01
V_line 02
V_line 03
Error
Com R
Error
Com L the zero-sequence system and to measure the reaction of the
R_line 04 V_line 04 PIL R PIL V

Reset
R_line 05
R_line 06
R_line 07 V_line 10
V_line 05
V_line 06
V_line 07
PIG R

K_ext.
PIG V

K
network for the further calculation. Therefore the following
R_line 08 V_line 09 V_line 08 CI_R CI_V

COM1
components must be simulated:
 Substation according to Fig. 1
 Current injection according to Fig. 3 without the
Fig. 2: Earthfault Detection and Control System EDCSys Current Injection Controller, which is connected via
RS485. The group of digital signals for the firing of the
An injection with two frequencies and variable injected thyristors is one of the interfaces between real
current amplitude, as shown in Fig. 3, is used for the hardware and simulation.
calculation of the actual tuning of the Petersen Coil [1]. For
small networks a reduced current injection as depicted in From the perspective of the model, the following signals are
Fig. 4 is necessary, in order not to generate earth fault necessary to communicate with the Device Under Test
signalization. All components of the current injection (DUT):
controller are placed in the motor-drive of the Petersen Coil  5 Voltages 100 V
and are connected to the EDCSys only via a RS485  12 Currents 1A
communication.  2 small DC-voltages for the actual coil-position
 up to 48 relays for the switch replication
EDCSys RS485
 48 opto-coupled binary inputs for the thyristor firing
and the commands to the Petersen Coils
Controller for Current Injection
Hardware

U1 Further requirement for the tests is, that a large number of

U2
L1 I CI situations and reactions of the network must be tested
U3 Une LP [3][4], for example:

 Simulation of an isolated and compensated network

Current Injection 22 kOhm
 Simulation of different types of earth faults
- single line earth fault
Fig. 3: Current Injection with a thyristor-switch with - double earth faults
variable ignition - intermittent earth faults ( isolated networks )
- restriking earth faults
1 - high impedance earth faults up to 20 kOhm
0.8 - low impedance earth faults
0.6


0.4

0.2
Simulation of different network situations as for
example:
I/A

-0.2 - switching of wattmetric increases

-0.4 - switching of fixed coils
-0.6
- switching of decentralized coils
-0.8

-1
- coupling of the bus bars in the substation
- external coupling of the bus bars
0 50 100 150 200 250
t / ms - switching of loops in the network
Fig. 4: Reduced injected current for small networks - autorecloser function of a feeder
- disconnections of one faulty part of the line
For the high impedance earth fault detection using the - switch on of a healthy line
admittance method, it is necessary to get reference-values of - switch on of a faulty line
the admittance of each feeder. For the calculation of the - switching of a loop with a healthy feeder
admittances it is necessary to inject the two frequencies for - switching of a loop with a faulty feeder
a short time and to measure at that time the corresponding - cross-country fault in the same feeder
zero-sequence values of voltages and currents. Due to this - cross-country fault in different feeders
requirement a simple replay of a transient record, as it is -…

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CIRED 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution Frankfurt, 6-9 June 2011

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For testing these large number of use-cases, it is possible to

use either an analogue model or to simulate the network and
the current injection with a RTDS.

ANALOGUE SIMULATOR
The advantages of an analogue net-model are:
 Possibility to build up very large networks
 Frequency response of the network is continuously
 Accuracy depends on the quality of the models
Fig. 5: Part of the simulated network with the Petersen
But there are some disadvantages using an analogue Coil and the current injection
simulator, for example:
 A lot of work must be done to ensure, that the
parameters of the model at lower voltages and currents
correspond to the real network components, especially
for nonlinear components like thyristors
 Some components can be build up only with a large
investment - for example: the Petersen Coil with
moving core
 It is not easy to change some parameters of a model,
for example the losses or the maximal current of a
Petersen Coil
 Switching between different configurations of the Fig. 6: Submodel of the current injection from Fig. 3
network needs a lot of time
 It is not so easy to ensure that the ignition time of the The workflow for a test is as follows:
arc occurs at reproducible phase angles
 Thermal drift and aging of the components 1) Configuration of the network, definition of the initial
values and the definition of the changeable parameters
RTDS are done in SimPowerSystems
Using an RTDS eliminates a lot of disadvantages of the 2) This model is then compiled to an executable program
analogue simulator. 3) The executable program is downloaded to the Target-
PC via Ethernet. On the Target-PC a real time
To enable an adequate simulation for the transients of a real operating system (RTOS) is running. The RTOS is part
network, the cycle time of the RTDS should be less than of the xPC-Target software from MathWorks
50 µs, which corresponds to a sample rate of 20 kHz. The 4) The simulation on the Target-PC is started
resolution of the digital analogue converter should be in the 5) Parameters of the simulation on the Target-PC can be
range of 16bit. These requirements for the RTDS were modified remotely via Ethernet with Matlab commands
provided by ENEL Distribuzione. 6) Required test-sequence can be started via Matlab
The solution for these requirements was to use a fast PC commands or Matlab scripts
off-the shelf as "Target PC" equipped with a fast 16 channel 7) The reaction of the EDCSys can be supervised with
DA-converter with 16 bit resolution and a digital-IO different methods:
interface with 48 relays and 48 fast optocoupled binary o Display of the EDCSys
inputs. For the simulation the software xPC-Target in o Via the binary inputs of the Target-PC, using the
combination with Simulink and the toolbox RTDS as recorder
SimPowerSystems from MathWorks were selected. o Via RS232 connected to the EDCSys and reading
Accurate analogue power amplifiers from OMICRON were the measurements and states of the EDCSys
used for the conversion from the DA output with ±10V to 8) The closed loop version via RS232 enables to generate
the secondary level of 100 V respectively to 1 A.
very easy automatic supervised test sequences
The network and the current injection was built up with the 9) If the reaction is ok, the next test can be started
standard blocks available in the SimPowerSystems. Two
examples are depicted in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. During the simulation the on/off switching of feeders can be
done very easy via Matlab-commands. As these commands
For some special components, as for example the tuneable change only the "tuneable" parameters of the model, a
Petersen Coil, Simulink was used. The problem for the recompilation and download of the new model is not
realization of this model is the short word: "tuneable". The necessary during the simulation.
inductivity of the Petersen Coil must be changeable
especially during the whole simulation time. Using the RTDS it is also possible to write selected
channels in realtime to a file on the harddisk. This enables

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CIRED 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution Frankfurt, 6-9 June 2011

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additional accurate evaluations after the simulation. The switching operation, the setting of the fault conditions
and the start of the fault in the network can be done via
In Fig. 7 the complete EDCSys with the two current Matlab-commands from the PC connected to the RTDS via
injection controllers and the RTDS with the three power Ethernet. In parallel, the measurements and the state of the
amplifiers, the 48 binary inputs and the 48 relay outputs is
depicted. binary IOs of the EDCSys can be also read out directly from
EDCSys. Therefore it is very simple to write scripts in
Matlab defining the network switching sequences and to
supervise the reaction of the EDCSys. This enables to
generate a complete and fast automatic type test for the
EDCSys. This test-sequence can be started after any
modification in the firmware and enables to detect side
effects in case of changing software-modules. Comparing to
the long lists of different use-cases, this possibility increases
the speed and quality of the development.

Test-scripts for one use-case can be written parallel to the

development of a software-module. Therefore the
development is changing to a test-driven software
development, which increases the quality. Additional this
hardware in the loop testing also promotes the model-based
software development, which increases the software quality
once more.

Fig. 7: Complete system: EDCSys with 2 Current Another advantage of the RTDS is, that it is possible to
injection controllers and the RTDS with power generate ignition of an earth fault or switching of a feeder
amplifiers
with reproducible phase angles. Especially for the
evaluation of transient relays this behavior is very
EXPERIENCES important. With an analogue simulator this is not possible or
The overhead of the RTOS is about 5 µs. The calculation of needs high investment.
the network takes about 5 to 15 µs, depending on the size of
the selected network. Also the output of the 16 DA channels CONCLUSION
poses no timing problems. Only in case of the binary input This paper shows, that the use of an RTDS reduces the
and output, the necessary time for one transferred bit must development time and improves the quality of the software
be taken into account very carefully. In our case the dramatically.
numbers of digital IOs should be reduced as much as
possible. With the RTDS it is easy to change configurations of the
network and this change of configuration is equivalent to a
The selected discrete fixed-step solver of Simulink download of a file via Ethernet. Parameter changes of
influences the required simulation time, too. The choice of components can be done also very easy during the
the solver also has influence on the accuracy and the simulation and can be automated. Therefore more use-cases
can be checked already during the development of modules,
numerical stability of the RTDS. In our case we had no which increases the quality of the firmware.
problems with the standard selected ode3 solver ( Bogacki-
Shampine). Due to the possibility to automate the testing, it is easier to
detect side effects during the development cycle. Finally,
With the RTDS it is now possible to set up the parameters even the type test can be improved and could be faster.
of the models very easy, according to the requirements, for The option of changing parameters of the models makes it
example the quality of the coil or maximal current through possible to test configurations, which cannot be realized
the Petersen Coil. This was not possible with the previous with analogue simulators. Therefore it is possible to cover
used analogue network model. much more use-cases with the RTDS, than with the
analogue simulator.
With the RTDS, to change a network-configuration only Using an RTDS enables to test complex algorithms in a
means to download a new file. This takes only few seconds. closed loop configuration. This is needed for algorithms,
Compared with a reconfiguration of the analogue model, which evaluate reactions of the system on artificial injected
which could take hours, this is neglectable and reduces also test signals.
dramatically the possibilities to make errors due to
reconfiguration.

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CIRED 21st International Conference on Electricity Distribution Frankfurt, 6-9 June 2011

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REFERENCES

[1] Druml G., Kugi A., Seifert O., 2005, "New Method to
Control Petersen oils by Injection of Two
frequencies”, CIRED, paper 399
[2] Druml G., 2007,"Operating Manual EDCSys, Earth
fault Detection and Control System", A.Eberle,
Nuremberg
[3] ENEL, 2008, "DV1127A2, Pannello Dispositivo
Analizzatore di Neutro", Rom
[4] ENEL, 2008, "DV1129A2, Funzione Monitoraggio
Condizioi di Isolamento", Rom

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