Development and implementation of a virtual laboratory for fundamentals on power systems

In almost any engineering department, a laboratory is an integral part of the educational process. The laboratory is a key component in the field of engineering in general, and electrical power engineering in particular. The virtual laboratory (VL) is a simulated experiment run by students on a computer station program; it can transform the conventional laboratory experiments into an interactive virtual environment, allowing simple and complex phenomena to be investigated by students just by changing the parameters and conditions of the experiments. This paper describes the development and the implementation of a VL, named VLABPOWER, for fundamentals on power systems. Mainly, electrical power engineering students will using to increase their understanding and to bridge the gap that exists between the theoretical part in the class and the practical at the traditional (real) laboratory and to better prepare before going to the traditional laboratory. The purpose of this work is to develop and implement a VL in order to enable students to have a better understanding of the experiments done in the traditional laboratory and to familiarize themselves with the different components used for those experiments. It presents a virtual interactive experiment environment that simulates the physical conditions on the transmission line. Moreover, it discusses and explains different types of short circuit faults such as symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults, modeling of different type of lines, and load condition analysis.