Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation Environment for Validating Distribution System Control Applications

Customer premises are becoming increasingly important for the power system as their flexibility potential is growing with the ongoing roll-out of electric vehicles, storage systems, photovoltaics, and heat pumps. However, the flexibility has the potential to be used not only within the customer's premises but also to serve different markets and grid operators, leading to use cases with multiple actors and systems. Thus, the validation of distribution system control applications with a focus on cross-system and cross-actor communication is needed. This work conceptualises a suitable hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment for validating distribution system control applications with the customer premises in a hardware-in-the-loop setup. The realisation shows how grid operators, field devices, a meter operator with smart meters, the customer, and market participants can be integrated into the simulation environment. Accordingly, suitable standards and market roles are identified and implemented. Derived from that concept, this work gives an outlook on future use cases to be validated using the simulation environment.