Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Interfacing of Grid-Forming Inverter for Microgrid Islanding Studies

The evaluation of voltage and frequency stability of microgrids, especially of those relying heavily on renewables and low inertia distributed energy resources, is essential for deploying a safe and reliable power system. Protection scheme performance under reduced short-circuit current levels must also be validated. Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) testing offers a high-fidelity approach to this end but implementation details for grid-forming inverters are lacking in the literature. This paper describes the approach taken to interface a BESS with grid-forming capabilities into a PHIL environment for evaluating microgrid islanding/reconnection transitions as well as protective scheme performance. Results from the application of this work are also provided at the end of the paper.