Test facility for control system validation in electric industrial plants

The management of an electric industrial plant requires a control system able to guarantee a safe operation in all situations that may arise, limiting possible outage conditions. A key issue is the validation of the control structure which requires a real-time simulation of the electric power system that is fairly accurate and computationally-efficient, together with tools for data exchange that allow a reliable communication with all the control devices. In this paper, the components and the architecture of a laboratory test facility for the validation of control systems is presented, which is based on a real time digital simulator of the electric industrial plants. Specific details are given concerning the communication structure needed for data exchange between the real-time simulator and the control system. The results of validation tests are presented to show the behavior of the industrial plant in different operating conditions and to prove the validation of the control structure by means of the proposed test facility.