Design and Implementation of a Fully Controllable Cyber-Physical System for Testing Energy Storage Systems

Cyber-physical power systems integrate the various devices, which provide ancillary system services. In this paper, the design and implementation of a fully controllable cyber-physical system are presented. This system simulates the behavior of the real power systems and additionally assures controllable repeatable testing conditions, enabling investigations of energy storage systems. Ancillary system services provided by energy storages are especially crucial in the context of renewable energy sources and electromobility sector development. Credible tests of control strategies, realizing system services, require controllability of test parameters. Such investigations are impossible in a real power system, due to its inherent variability. The novel approach presented in this paper enables the management of power system resources supplied by various producers and ensures flexibility in the realization of assumed scenarios of power system operation. Such an controllable cyber-physical power system constitutes a suitable environment for tests of the effectiveness of ancillary services provided by energy storage systems because the system is independent of inherent variability of the real power system and enables flexible realization of the control algorithms developed for all of the system components (power source, loads, and energy storages). The voltage profile improvement in low-voltage grids has been shown in a case study confirming the applicability of the proposed approach.