PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface

This section describes the PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface component, one of a collection of PHIL components for specific system applications. The PHIL setup where this interface component is used is a high power three-phase current-source.

The PHIL Three Phase Current Source is a PHIL interface component used to link the real time simulation with a real power amplifier, to form a PHIL system, by means of analog input/output signals. The PHIL Three Phase Current Source component's internal structure is shown in Figure 1. It is composed of three analog input controlled voltage sources, voltage and current measurements, and a RMS calculation unit. As can be seen electrically within the simulated model, this interface component is represented by three voltage sources with series resistances. These voltage sources are defined through the analog inputs of the real-time simulator. These analog signals must be provided by the power amplifier. The analog signals that are sent to the power amplifier are the Ia_msr, Ib_msr and Ic_msr currents. These currents are the references for the power amplifier, therefore the amplifier behaves as a three phase current source.

Table 1. PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface in the Schematic Editor core library
component component dialog window component parameters

PHIL Three Phase Current Source
  • Phase A analog input
  • Phase B analog input
  • Phase C analog input
  • Dynamic gain and offset settings
  • Phase A analog input offset
  • Phase A analog input gain
  • Phase B analog input offset
  • Phase B analog input gain
  • Phase C analog input offset
  • Phase C analog input gain
  • Assign Phase A analog output
    • Channel
    • Scaling
    • Offset
  • Assign Phase B analog output
    • Channel
    • Scaling
    • Offset
  • Assign Phase C analog output
    • Channel
    • Scaling
    • Offset
  • Bandwidth enable
  • Bandwidth limit
  • Execution rate
  • Series resistance

Dynamic gain and offset settings are available only if the selected real-time simulation HIL device supports Time Varying Elements. When the dynamic gain and offset is enabled, related SCADA inputs are added. This is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface

The list of measurements available in the PHIL Three Phase Current Source is shown in table below.

Internal analog measurements of the PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface

Analog output variable name Description
(name).Ia_msr Instantaneous phase A current - usually used as a reference for the power amplifier.
(name).Ib_msr Instantaneous phase B current - usually used as a reference for the power amplifier.
(name).Ic_msr Instantaneous phase C current - usually used as a reference for the power amplifier.
(name).Va_msr Instantaneous phase A voltage.
(name).Vb_msr Instantaneous phase B voltage.
(name).Vc_msr Instantaneous phaseC voltage.
(name).Ia_msr_RMS Phase A RMS current.
(name).Ib_msr_RMS Phase B RMS current.
(name).Ic_msr_RMS Phase C RMS current.
(name).Va_msr_RMS Phase A RMS voltage.
(name).Vb_msr_RMS Phase B RMS voltage.
(name).Vc_msr_RMS Phase C RMS voltage.

A typical use case of the PHIL Three Phase Current Source Interface is in a Three Phase Load Emulator PHIL system (Figure 2). In this system, a load defines the current that it consumes, therefore behaving as a current source. The three phase load is simulated by the real-time simulation. The load currents are measured and fed to the power amplifier's analog inputs through the real-time simulator’s analog outputs. Voltages measured by the power amplifier on its high power terminals are provided to the real-time simulation through analog inputs.

Figure 2. Three Phase Load Emulator example illustration