Co-simulation of components, controls and power systems based on open source software

There exists no universal tool to analyze the increasing complexity in smart grids. Domain specific simulation and engineering tools partly address the challenges of complex system behavior. Different component technologies, customer behavior and controls in the power networks are interacting in a highly dynamic manner. Results of isolated simulations may be not accurate enough on the system level. Free and open available tools like GridLAB-D, PSAT, OpenModelica and 4DIAC are well known and widely used because of their excellent domain specific expertise. With co-simulation approaches the individual strengths of each tool can be exploited to model and simulate the various aspects of complex smart grids. The achieved level of detail and realism potentially surpasses the results that the individual analyses would gain. This paper demonstrates a local smart charging control strategy implemented with the IEC 61499-based standard for distributed control systems. It is simulated with different electric vehicle driving patterns, modeled with the multi-agent environment GridLAB-D. Battery models are defined in OpenModelica and embedded as individual dynamic loads. The power system is simulated using PSAT. This work shows that boundaries and restriction in terms of modeling cross-domain specific problems can be overcome by coupling these open source applications.