Real-time simulation of distributed generators, for testing a virtual power plant software

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are designed to monitor and schedule a large number of decentralized producers and consumers via intelligent software. A possible way to test the VPP functionality is to interface its software with simulated producers and consumers under various scenarios. This paper presents the development of the real-time simulation platform "OpSim" and its first application as a testing environment for VPPs. A test case is described, in which the VPP from Bosch Software Innovations is connected to a simulated CHP plant on the OpSim platform. It is shown that the VPP can monitor this plant via a standardized interface "VHPready 3.0". Time shifts in the signal between VPP and OpSim are observed. Moreover, a future outline is given, for applying real-time simulations as a testing method for VPP software.