High-Fidelity Models and Fast EMT Simulation Algorithms for Isolated Multi-port Autonomous Reconfigurable Solar power plant (MARS)

Abstract

The integration of hybrid photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage system (ESS) based plants has become a promising way of solving the intermittency of PV plants and providing frequency support to the power grid. The multi-port autonomous reconfigurable solar power plant (MARS) can integrate the PV systems and ESSs to an ac grid and dc lines. The proposed isolated MARS incorporates an isolated converter that connects to the PV arrays and is based on the dual active bridge (DAB) converter. The high frequency switching in the DAB and the means to control the DAB converter using delays between switching signals lead to the need for a small timestep in simulations. Moreover, several hundreds of modules that include a DAB converter are present in the MARS. The small timestep and the presence of several hundreds of modules lead to a significant rise in the overall simulation time. To address this issue, simulation algorithms like numerical stiffness-based hybrid discretization and the hysteresis relaxation technique are applied to the switched system model of isolated MARS. Additionally, an event-driven interpolating method is introduced to help increase the minimum timestep to simulate the conventional DAB converter model while maintaining high accuracy in the simulation results. The developed model is validated by comparison with its reference model built in the PSCAD/EMTDC and MATLAB software environments using library components.