PNNL

Abstract

The recent development of smart grid technologies has resulted in increased interdependence between power and communication systems. Many of the operations in the existing power system rely on a stable and secured communication system. For electrically weak systems and time-critical applications, this reliance can be even greater, where a small degradation in communication performance can degrade system stability. However, despite inter-dependencies between power and communication systems, only a few studies have investigated the impacts of communication system performance on power system dynamics. This paper investigates the dependencies of power system dynamics operations on communication system performance. First, a detailed, dynamic networked urban-microgrid model is developed in the GridLAB-D simulation environment, along with a representative multi-traffic, multi-channel, multi-protocol communication system model, developed in the network simulator (ns-3). Second, a hierarchical engine for large-scale infrastructure co-simulation (HELICS) co-simulation framework is developed to enable interactions between GridLAB-D, a centralized microgrid control agent, and ns-3. The impact of communication system delays on the dynamic stability of networked microgrids’ is evaluated for the loss of generation using three use-cases. While the example use-cases examine microgrid applications and the impact to resiliency, the framework can be applied to all levels of power system operations.