1. WINLAB
Distributed Simulation of Power Grid in ORBIT
Matthew Chan, Glen Huang, Parth Parikh, Chhayang Patel, Jeremy Savarin
Advisors: Dr. Hana Godrich, Ivan Seskar
Modern power systems need to incorporate two-­
way communication and power flow which
increases:
• Scale and complexity
• Amount of data/communication
• Difficulty in testing new hardware in the
system
A distributed simulation of a power grid allows for
testing:
Complexity
• Distribution across multiple processors
reduces computational loads
• Enables simulation of large-­scale systems
Real-­Time Simulation
• Flexible simulation for testing new hardware
(Hardware in the Loop)
Communication
• Timing and synchronization of processes to
ensure accurate data
Implementation Tools
Motivation System Verification
References
OpenMPI
• Popular open-­source implementation of MPI
(Message Passing Interface) standard
MATLAB/Simulink
• Simulink Legacy Code Tool – compiles
custom MPI-­enabled Simulink blocks
• Simulink Coder – generates optimized C
code to test model on ORBIT testbed
ORBIT Testbed
• Testbed used to distribute power grid model
across nodes
Open MPI: http://www.open-­mpi.org/
Open Energy Information: http://en.openei.org/wiki/Main_Page
ORBIT Lab: http://www.orbit-­lab.org/
Simulink: http://www.mathworks.com/products/simulink/
• MPI-­enabled Simulink model loaded with a
typical Newark residence over 24 hours on
January 1
• With a variable power factor profile, determined
reactive power
• Used real and reactive power to determine
load characteristics of the residence
• Assumed 30 meter distribution line
System Architecture
MPI Communication:
• MPI uses password-­less SSH sessions to
communicate data across nodes on a local
network
• Each node designated unique process rank
number – identifier to other nodes in network
Allows for explicit distribution of processes within
program
• Fine-­grained control of distribution
MPI-­Simulink Integration
MPI-­enabled Simulink block set
• Deployed model to ORBIT testbed and verified
results with undistributed, single processor
model
• Data collected within each subsystem matched
data collected in centralized model, used for
system verification
Link to project GitHub:
https://github.com/JeremySavarin/WINLAB-­Distributed-­Simulation-­Power-­Grid
Hour (h)
0 5 10 15 20 25
Resistance(Ω)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Load Resistance
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Inductance(H)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Load Inductance
Hour (h)
0 5 10 15 20 25
Power(W)
500
1000
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2500
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3500
Real Power