Power hardware-in-the-loop validation of post-primary voltage control scheme

The concept and experimental validation process of the Web-of-Cells (WoC) based Post-Primary Voltage Control (PPVC) developed in EU FP7 project ELECTRA IRP is presented in this paper. The main objective of PPVC is to provide an optimal and local voltage control replacing the conventional secondary and tertiary voltage control. The Power Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) setup and the experimental results comparing the PPVC approach to traditional voltage control techniques are presented and discussed. The PPVC has demonstrated lower number of tap-changes and faster response to topology changes. To avoid simulation overrun in real-time environment, a slower simulation step is adopted for the electrical network model than the converter and grid emulator controller models in the Simulink model. The PHIL test conducted gives insight to the potential obstacles that may arise with increased number of cells and increased number of nodes in the network.