A Distributed Multimodel Cosimulation Platform to Assess General Purpose Services in Smart Grids

Future smart grids with more distributed generation and flexible demand require well-verified control and management services. This paper presents a distributed multi- model co-simulation platform based on Smart Grid Architecture Model (a.k.a. SGAM) to foster general purpose services in smart grids. It aims at providing developers with support to easily set-up a test-bed environment where they can simulate realistic scenarios to assess their algorithms and services. The proposed platform takes advantages of Internet-of-Things communication paradigms and protocols to enable the interoperability among different models and virtual or physical devices that compose a use case. Moreover, the integration of digital real-time simulators unlocks Hardware-In-the-Loop features. To test the functionality of our platform, a novel scheme of fault detection, isolation and restoration is developed, in which communication and interoperability of different functions and devices are crucial. This service is applied on a realistic portion of a power grid in Turin, Italy, where devices communicate over the Internet. Finally, the laboratory experimental results achieved during a real-time co-simulation are discussed.