A Real-time Device for Smart Excitation Control

Systems
Autore 1, Affiliazione, Autore 1, Affiliazione, …
Ente di appartenenza n, Indirizzo n
posta elettronica dell’autore di riferimento

Riassunto - interfaces, communication units, etc.). However, using a

This work presents a Smart Excitation Control System complete operating system brings advantages in terms of
(ECS) for synchronous generators, implemented using a higher software tools and libraries, i.e. modeling software,
Real Time Operating System (RTOS), running on windows interfaces and network communications and can
General Purpose Processors (GPPs). The Smart ECS integrate all the required functionalities in a more rational
with its communications capability can operate as an way and into a single device.
Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) and constitutes a One emerging development strategy for realizing control
building block for future smart grids.. systems [5] utilizes GPPs endowed with RTOSs. Several
applications have been already developed [6,7,8,9]. With
Parole chiave – alcune possibili temini e nomenclatura che this hardware architecture it is possible to execute control
identifica l’argomento della memoria. codes with a guaranteed signal processing timing while
keeping latency bounded within a level compatible with the
application sampling time (the latter in the range of 0.1-1
I. INTRODUZIONE ms, depending on computation and I/O activities speed
required by the process) [10]. According to this approach,
The voltage at the alternator terminals has to be controlled this work presents the results of the actual implementation
within certain limits to ensure correct voltage ratings under of a new generation of ECS, named Smart ECS, using
the different loads. Under different conditions, the alternator Linux operating system, the Real Time Application
should therefore absorb or produce reactive power operating Interface (RTAI) and its extension called RTAI-Lab [5,11].
respectively in under-excitation or over-excitation mode [1].
This control is called excitation control and contributes to Block diagram of Fig 1 describes the fundamental blocks of
the stability of the individual generator and of the overall an ECS: the regulator, the exciter, the generator, whose
transmission or distribution system of the electrical energy. output voltage is fed-back through a measurement and
An ECS requires Hard Real Time (HRT) signal processing filtering block (transducer) as shown in Fig. 1.
and was first implemented with analog electronics and with
dedicated digital processors like Digital Signal Processors
(DSPs) or microcontrollers. Up to date, experience on the
evolution of these processor technologies is consolidated
and has been reviewed [2]. However, these controls
operating in the industrial production of electrical energy
normally need to implement many additional tasks, as:
logical functions, communications, I/O signal filtering and
conversion, auxiliary functionalities and so on.
Furthermore, most of times they have to be integrated into Fig. 1 Block scheme of an excitation control system.
Energy Management Systems (EMSs) or Distribution
Management Systems (DMSs) as power station controls,
supervisory and automation systems i.e. the Distributed In case of the Smart ECS, many functions are added to the
Control System (DCS), the Supervisory Control and Data conventional voltage regulator block as new embedded
Acquisition (SCADA), or even into higher level grid-area software modules, according to the blocks depicted in Fig.
voltage control systems, i.e. the Secondary Voltage 2, which can be summarized as follows.
Regulation (SVR) [3,4]. These interfacing capabilities can - A simulator of the physical plant (generator/grid),
be implemented either into the DSPs or microcontrollers for control code automatic generation and for
themselves, or adding dedicated hardware (PLCs, validation purposes, which is mathematically
 - and so on, the EMSs and DMSs need to strongly interact
- with the Information and Communication Technologies
- (ICTs) [12,13,14]. Communications indeed are one of the
- main tasks to be realized. For the proposed Smart ECS, all
- communications with SCADA or DCS systems are
- implemented using common software protocols based on
- TCP and UDP over IP. Network protocols like TCP/IP have
- been successfully applied to applications than had not even
- been imagined when this protocols have been designed.
- Ethernet is the most common local-area network (LAN)
- technology in use today. Ethernet comprises a family of
- products covered by the IEEE 802.3 standard, and it can run
- over different physical media as optical fiber and copper
- cables.
In last decades there have been a continual improvement in
Ethernet technologies, and this has leaded to the use of this
standard in different industrial applications.
Fig. 2 Functional scheme of the Smart ECS. The major drawback of Ethernet standard for its application
to industrial networking is the medium access control
protocol used which exhibits a delay in principle not
bounded due to frame collisions.
modeled using a high-level software tool (e.g. An improvement has been reached with the application of
Matlab/Simulink or Scilab/Scicos): once the model the switched Ethernet: if multiple stations transmit
shows the desired behavior, source files are generated simultaneously, frames are delivered without collisions
and executable code is then compiled to run in the when their destinations are different.
regulator block of the final hardware device. The One advantage of using IEEE standard based equipment is
simulator runs in parallel with the control algorithm in the possibility of exporting all the data and operations to an
real time and can be used to facilitate factory external Ethernet environment.
commissioning and further maintenance or upgrade The Smart ECS fully takes advantages of these protocols,
activities. and utilize them not only to communicate with EMSs or
- A finite state machine, which realizes all the logic DMSs, but also to achieve two other fundamental goals:
functions to be handled (start/stop sequences, protection 1) the same structure of Fig.2 can be symmetrically
functions, warnings and alarms). duplicated to implement a redundant dual-unit for ensuring
In charge of the regulator and finite state machine blocks high availability to the Smart ECS. Two PCs are employed
there are all the usual functions of an ECS: voltage control, in this case, Master and Slave, using the same Ethernet
reactive power control, line drop compensation, reactive interface to communicate and exchange memorized states
droop compensation, power system stabilizers. Additional each other;
functions as the automatic synchronizer device, virtual 2) the same Ethernet interface can be used to exchange
instrumentation for real time monitoring and data-loggers control signals (as the voltage reference raise/lower
can be embedded, on demand, as software modules as well. commands) and measured field data with higher hierarchy
- The Human-Machine Interface (HMI), which can be controllers, as the Secondary Voltage Regulator [3,4]. In
realized using the RTAI-Lab extension or other suitable this case, the AVR module of the ECS results naturally
libraries. compatible with higher-level controls: no further peripherals
- The I/O activities, which include drivers for both are required to implement SVR. This example shows how
digital/analog I/O cabled signals and communications the Smart ECS is capable to be fully inserted into control
from/to DCS, SCADA, SVR, and so on. These I/O channels structure of future complex electrical control system.
are implemented using digital and analog I/O boards (for Ethernet technology refers only to the two lower layers in
cabled signals) or using network boards (for the OSI standard networking model. In the application
communications): as the hardware platform utilized is a PC described, the Internet Protocol has been used for Layer 3
computer, it is possible to use the widest range of I/O cards. and Layer 4: the communication protocol has been based on
For their importance, the use of embedded communication the UDP. The Master and Slave units communicates
functions is described in the following section. exchanging UDP packets following Fig. 3

II. COMMUNICATIONS

To develop systems and concepts as smart grids,

microgrids, virtual power utilities, distributed generation
 418 ms, without collisions (as in peer to peer connection or
in switched Ethernet) is far beyond that value and can be
limited to some milliseconds.
The measurements have shown time

III. REAL TIME PERFORMANCE

Several works concerning real time performance evaluation

of different RTOS on different hardware can be found in
literature [15,16] and prove that RTAI can be used in the
implementation of real time controls.
To test the control code execution of the Smart ECS, two
performance indexes have been chosen to be measured: i)
the time for the computation of the excitation control cycle
and ii) the jitter of the scheduling time.
The jitter of the scheduling time is the difference between
the time the task is scheduled and the time the task should
be scheduled according to the given sampling frequency.
Fig. 3 Communication layered architecture. The scheduling jitter is strongly dependent on the I/O
activity and therefore has been measured with the all I/O
activity supposed to be necessary for the SMART
A non real time task is interposed between the control real Excitation system presented: 81 digital I/O lines and 17
time task and the network layer: in such a way the analogue I/O lines.
applications which sends and receives data packets through
the network are ordinary process running in user mode and
can use the standard drivers of the OS.
To test the performance of the proposed architecture a
simple test bed as in fig. 4 has been implemented.

Fig. 6 Scheduling jitter for the presented SMAR

Excitation System.

Fig. 4
In Fig. 6 it is shown the probability density function of the
random variable Ts (sampling time). The test was performed
for the duration of twelve hours (27 millions loops of 1.666
A digital real time signal (i.e. a square wave) is generated in ms).
the real time control task, the signal is transmitted to
another PC and retransmitted back with the same
mechanism. The delay of the Ethernet transmission can be
measured directly in software and in hardware outputting IV EXPERIMENTAL TEST
the two signal on a digital board. The measured delay
comprises: the transmission time over the Ethernet, the time The above Smart Excitation System has been applied to the
spent in processing all the system calls involved in the following variable frequency generator system. The
transmission through the kernel code, and the I/O time. excitation control system is required to provide excitation
Although the Ethernet transmission worst case has been power, regulation and control for a synchronous generator.
calculated to be (in certain condition as described in [17]) of
 in EMSs, DMSs and higher-level control systems.
Performance tests will be presented in the full paper to show
the industrial readiness of the solution proposed and to
regard the Smart ECS as an employable block for building
future smart grids.

II. MODALITA’ DI PRESENTAZIONE

A. Formattazione del documento
La memoria deve essere digitata a computer. Il testo deve
essere presentato in formato UNI A4 (21 x 29,7 cm), su
doppia colonna con margine superiore 2 cm, inferiore di
2,5 cm, di 2 cm a destra e a sinistra, 0,5 cm tra le colonne.
Nella prima pagina il titolo del lavoro dovrà apparire in
maiuscole seguito, nell’ordine, da nome, ente di
appartenenza, indirizzo degli autori, posta elettronica
dell’autore di riferimento, nonché da un riassunto di circa
35 parole. Seguirà il testo vero e proprio, sulla stessa
pagina.
Fig. 5 Test setup I lavori dovranno essere preparati in formato elettronico
usando uno dei seguenti formati:
• PDF (Portable Document Format)
The system is composed by the following elements: • MS Word
• An asynchronous motor as prime mover; Qualunque sia il formato scelto per il documento il carattere
• A variable speed gear; utilizzato deve comunque essere Times New Roman. Per
• A generator under the control of the SMART chi intendesse utilizzare il formato MS Word ricordiamo
Excitation Control System; che le eventuali formule vanno scritte esclusivamente
• A dc tachometer generator . tramite Microsoft Equation Editor. Non saranno accettate
The intended behavior is the following: copie su carta dei lavori.
The generator reaches a selectable low speed set value I lavori dovranno pervenire entro e non oltre il 15 aprile
between 3 and 5 Hz. When reached this value the SCR 2011 al seguente indirizzo di posta elettronica:
bridge excitation is started, the generator is energized with [email protected]
a current proportional to the load but limited to 250 A until I lavori inviati dopo tale scadenza non saranno presi in
the speed of 14-16 Hz is reached. considerazione.
Upon reaching a second adjustable speed value (16 Hz) the
field current limit is switched to 520A and the control
follows a V/f constant law.
B. Carattere e corpo
Usare il carattere Arial con i corpi indicati nella tabella 1.

C. Lunghezza del manoscritto e numerazione delle pagine

È auspicabile che il testo non superi le 6 pagine, inclusi
IV. CONCLUSIONS tabelle, figure, bibliografia, ringraziamenti.

Several advantages can be taken from the hardware and

software architecture presented: communication libraries, III. TESTO
high-level software tools for system design, low cost and
high availability hardware. Real time performance A. Titoli e Sottotitoli
requirements are analyzed and the effectiveness of the I titoli dei paragrafi devono essere in maiuscolo, essere
proposed equipment is shown. Communications and control centrati e numerati con numeri romani in progressione (I.,
performance will be key requirements for the devices that II. etc.).
will be employed in future energy transmission and
distribution networks in almost every generation, I sottotitoli devono essere in corsivo, con la sola lettera
transmission and consumption node of the grid. The iniziale maiuscola, essere allineati a sinistra e indicati con
presented Smart ECS embeds control and communication lettere maiuscole in progressione (A., B. etc.).
capabilities through a single interface ready to be integrated
Tra titolo e sottotitolo mantenere la stessa interlinea del Affiliazione Times New Corsivo
testo. Roman giustificato
11pt
TITOLI Times New Maiuscolo
B. Formule CAPITOLI Roman Normale
Le formule devono essere centrate e numerate in parentesi 10pt centrato
tonda in ordine progressivo: Sottotitoli Times New Corsivo
Roman bandiera
f(x) = 0 (1) 10pt sinistra
Testo Times New normale
Roman giustificato
C. Figure e Tabelle 10pt
Limitare i dati riportati nelle tabelle per facilitarne la Didascalie Times New Normale
comprensione al lettore. Roman
8 pt
Le didascalie delle figure vanno riportate sotto le figure Bibliografia Times New Normale
stesse, mentre le testatine delle tabelle, vanno riportate nella Roman
parte superiore. 8pt
Le figure, le tabelle e le foto devono essere possibilmente Note in calce Times New Normale
posizionate all'interno del testo. Roman
8pt
IV. NOTE IN CALCE
Le note in calce vanno collocate al piede della pagina in cui
le note stesse sono richiamate. Devono essere indicate con V. VARIE
numero progressivo in parentesi tonda: (1), (2) etc. Il testo definitivo delle memorie deve essere fornito in
lingua italiana oppure in inglese.

VI. CONCLUSIONI
In questo lavoro, che costituisce il modello di riferimento
elettronico per la redazione dei contributi da sottoporre al
Convegno Nazionale AEIT, sono state fornite le
informazioni essenziali sulla formattazione del testo finale
per la pubblicazione.
Per eventuali chiarimenti in merito alla redazione della
memoria, siete pregati di contattare la Segreteria
Organizzativa del Convegno al seguente indirizzo:

AEIT Ufficio Centrale

Via Mauro Macchi, 32
20124 Milano
Tel. 02 87389965
Fig. 1. Esempio di posizionamento della didascalia per una figura inserita e-mail: [email protected]
nel testo
TABELLA 1

Font e Corpo Stile RINGRAZIAMENTI

Times New Normale Si ringraziano gli Autori per la gentile collaborazione.
Titolo Roman
24 pt
centrato

Times New Normale BIBLIOGRAFIA

Autori
Roman centrato I lavori elencati devono apparire al termine della memoria e
11pt numerati in ordine progressivo con numero in parentesi
quadra ([1], [2] etc.). Analogamente vanno citati nel testo.
Riportiamo, a titolo di esempio, due riferimenti
bibliografici:
• Citazione di una conferenza:
[1] A.B. Autore: "Titolo della memoria", negli Atti della Conferenza su
Titolo della Conferenza, vol. 1, pp. 210-220, città, anno
• Citazione di un libro
[2] A.B. Autore: "Titolo dell'opera", Editore, città, anno, pp. 122-127
[1] Marconato R.: “Electric Power Systems – Steady State Behaviour,
Controls, Short Circuits and Protection Systems”, Volume 2, Second
Edition March 2004 - CEI Italian Electrotechnical Committee
[2] Arcidiacono V., Corsi S., Ottaviani G., Togno S., Baroffio G., Raffaelli
C., Rosa E.: “The ENEL’s Experience on the Evolution of Excitation
Control Systems through Microprocessor Technology”, IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion, Vol. 13, No. 3, September 1998
[3] Arcidiacono, V.: “Automatic voltage and reactive power control in
transmission systems”, CIGRE IFAC Symposium 39-83 Survey Paper,
Florence (Italy) 1983.
[4] Corsi S., Pozzi M., Sabelli C., Serrani A.: “The Coordinated Automatic
Voltage Control of the Italian Transmission Grid- Part I: Reasons of the
Choice and Overview of the Consolidated Hierarchical System”, IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems. Vol. 19. NO. 4, November 2004.
[5] Dozio L., Mantegazza P.: “Real Time Distributed Control Systems
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[6] Chiandone, M., Cleva, S., Sulligoi, G.: “PC-based feedback
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[7] Zhang, W., Yu, D., Hu, Y.: “Research on a Platform to Build Real-time
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Mechtronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, 2008. MESA 2008.
[8] Neto, A., Sartori, F., Piccolo, F., Barbalace, A., Vitelli, R., Fernandes
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[10] Chiandone, M., Sulligoi, G.: “Performance assessment of a motion
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2010
[11] http://www.rtai.org
[12] CIGRE Brochure, “Communications technology fundamentals for the
design of modern protection and control systems”, Working Group D2.16,
Aprile 2007
[13] Northcote-Green J., Wilson R.: “Control and Automation of Electric
Power Distribution Systems”, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, 2007
[14] Grillo S., Massucco S., Morini A., Silvestro F., Scalari S.:
“Distribution Management System (DMS) per la gestione intelligente di
reti elettriche”, Convegno Nazionale AIET, 27-29 September Catania
(Italy) 2009
[15] Proctor, F.M, Shackleford, W.P: “Timin Studies of Real-Time Linux
For Control”, Proc. of DETC01 ASME 2001Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
September 9-12, 2001
[16] Barbalace, A. ,Luchetta, A. , Manduchi, G. , Moro, M., Soppelsa, A.,
Taliercio, C. : “Performance Comparison of VxWorks, Linux, RTAI,and
Xenomai in a Hard Real-Time Application”, IEEE Transactions On
Nuclear Science, Vol. 55, No 1, February 2008
[17] K. C. Lee, S. Lee: "Performance evaluation of switched Ethernet for
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