Research and Educational Opportunities in Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of Advanced Power Systems: An International Perspective

Hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HiLS) is a specific technique designed in the experimental environment for studying the coupling between different technologies, where simulated and hardware components interact to each other. Two different HiLS facilities used for educational and research purposes are examined in the paper: the Hybrid Performance (Hyper) project facility at the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and the Hybrid system emulator at the Thermochemical Power Group (TPG) facility, run by the University of Genoa in Italy. Since one facility is at a national laboratory and the other one in a university environment, both facilities dedicate considerable resources to the education of students with a different perspective: industrial and experimental approach. A description of the two configurations, the unique and overlapping attributes of each facility and the experimental results are reported and discussed to show different possibilities for students and researchers. Undergraduates, Postgraduates and Ph.D. students have the opportunity to learn innovative configuration of energy power systems, innovative control strategies applied to hybrid configurations, how to design real hardware components, and how to implementation real-time simulation models. The strong impact of these two laboratories is to show to students the applicability about their knowledge studied during lectures.