Hardware-in-the-Loop Co-simulation of a Smart Building in a Low-voltage Distribution Grid

In order to facilitate a more flexible energy system that is able to cope with a high share of renewable energy sources and distributed generation, the concept of a smart grid comprising heterogeneous interacting systems, such as energy management systems (EMSs), has been established. These systems combine technologies from a range of disciplines including electrical engineering, control engineering, building engineering, and computer science. Due to their complexity a pure analytical description and analysis of them and of their interaction is impractical. Therefore, engineers use simulations, co-simulations, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations to develop and test their systems. This paper discusses in detail the challenges faced when designing and implementing a real-time HIL simulation, compares the proposed solution with similar approaches in the literature, and presents first results obtained in a HIL testbed consisting of a real smart building with an automated building EMS and a low-voltage distribution grid comprising simulated smart buildings. The initial results demonstrate the validity of the approach, successfully achieving an accurate coupling of the multi-building simulation and real building.