Real-Time T&D Co-Simulation for Testing Grid Impact of High DER Participation

TL;DR

This paper develops a real-time co-simulation testbed integrating bulk power, distribution, and DER models to analyze grid impacts of high DER participation, enabling validation of DER management algorithms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel co-simulation framework with a synchronized timestep sequence and MQTT communication for large-scale grid testing.

Findings

Successfully simulated a 5,000-bus system and a 9,500-node distribution feeder.

Demonstrated event propagation between transmission and distribution models.

Quantified the impact of timestep size on dynamic propagation.

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a real-time T&D co-simulation testbed for simulating large grids under high DER penetration. By integrating bulk power system, distribution feeders, and distributed energy resources (DER) models into one simulation environment, the testbed enables the performance analysis and validation of DER management systems (DERMS) algorithms. This work proposes a co-simulation timestep sequence for the cross-platform data exchange and time synchronization, with a communication framework based on MQTT communication protocol. The proposed strategy is tested with a 5,000 buses model of part of the North American bulk power system (BPS) and a 9,500 nodes distribution feeder model obtained from a local utility. Simulations are carried out to demonstrate the capability of the proposed framework to propagate events between the transmission and distribution models. Results are used to quantify how the co-simulation timestep size can affect the propagation of dynamics between the models.