SIMULATION OF AN ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK AS STUDY CASE FOR ANALYZING THE NONLINEAR BEHAVIOR OF CONCENTRATED LOADS

This paper discusses the utilization of Very High Speed Integrated Circuit plus Hardware Description Language that includes Analog and Mixed-Signal extensions (VHDL-AMS) for developing a simulation for an electrical distribution system. Developed simulation utilizes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and an interface for data acquisition from the electrical grid into VHDL-AMS environment, allowing changes for the parameters of power distribution system. The case study used in this research consists of a distribution feeder, considering a typical real electrical-distribution scenario, in which was applied a network reduction and loads concentration tool (Not mentioned in this paper). The main simulation results for the distribution feeder test case are presented, in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed VHDL-AMS platform (GUI environment). On the other hand, it was used the well-known Orcad/Pspice software to compare and validate all VHDL-AMS results. It was evident that using the simulations results was possible analyze and study the nonlinear behavior of concentrated loads. This work are still under development, in order to implement a distribution management system and control of electrical feeder.