Abstract
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are playing a crucial role in the global efforts towards the decarbonisation of power networks. Power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) provides a realistic evaluation method for BESS before the actual commissioning on power networks. Most BESS are integrated on the network through a two-stage power converter topology. Such topology includes an active stage interfacing the system to the network and a dc link in between the power conversion stages. The paper proposes a reduced-hardware PHIL test setup on the assumption that the dynamics of the back-end converter, which interfaces the battery bank to the dc link, are of interest. The objective is to utilise the front end converter of the hardware under test as the power amplifier, thus relieving the need of a separate power amplifier. The reduced hardware makes the PHIL setup easier and more accessible. The dc link voltage is used as the voltage source for the hardware implementation. The paper will look at the implementation of the proposed reduced-hardware PHIL setup. It will consider its stability and asses its performance against conventional PHIL setups.
Cedric Caruana | University of Malta