Electrical Equipment Testing With Power Hardware-in-the-Loop

Use power hardware-in-the-loop testing to validate connected and fully-powered electrical equipment thoroughly

Electrical engineers use power hardware-in-the-loop (Power HIL) testing to test electrical equipment that is connected and fully powered. Connect the electrical terminals of your hardware to a virtual electrical system such as a transmission or distribution network, microgrid, electric car, more electric aircraft, or fully electric ship. Power HIL testing enables the thorough validation and verification of your electrical equipment’s typical operation and fault conditions before final deployment to the power grid, electric vehicle, or any other DC or AC power system. Typical equipment under test (EUT) includes power converters, protection relays, EV chargers, or onboard power system components. High-bandwidth electrical interfaces are emulated using power amplifiers ranging from a few hundred watts to megawatts.

“Speedgoat together with MathWorks products offer a very efficient workflow to design, test and validate algorithms for Battery Management Systems.”

Marc Lucea, Senior Application SW Engineer, Leclanché Energy Storage Solutions

Thoroughly test power equipment like inverters, protection relays, and battery chargers using Speedgoat hardware.
Emulate complex electrical systems with grid emulators, battery emulators or motor emulators. Debug, test, and automate from within Simulink, or a Simulink-based app
Deploy electrical and multi-physics simulations created in Simulink, Simscape Electrical, or another MathWorks product.
Interface to other equipment via communication protocols like Modbus TCP, EtherCAT, DNP3, or IEC61850.
Connect to a wide range of high bandwidth power amplifiers using analog interfaces, fiber optic, or the Aurora communication protocol.

Use Speedgoat turnkey interfaces to power amplifiers from Cinergia and EGSTON Power
Create a Power HIL test bench including a fully customized rack systems with other power components such as power supplies, 3-phase inverters and protection relays
For maximum flexibility, use our joint solution with Cinergia for a power amplifier with a Simulink-based controller
Emulate electric motors, including rotational sensors like resolvers using our joint solution with EGSTON Power


Electric car	Wind generators	Inverter	Electric motor

Featured Application Use Cases

Testing of Electrical Equipment

When developing electrical equipment, testing the integration with the rest of the system is rarely possible due to limited availability, high cost, or safety considerations. For example, it usually is impossible to connect to the power grid when testing renewable energy integration. When testing electric powertrain components, the electric motor or battery pack may not be ready. One cannot reproduce extreme and fault conditions with field testing. Therefore, engineers use Power HIL testing to thoroughly test power equipment under typical and fault conditions by connecting to a virtual electrical plant.

Power HIL is a technique in which electrical equipment is incorporated into an electrical simulation through its electrical power interface. A power amplifier creates the electric power interface with the equipment. The actual and simulated interfaces are synchronized via a high-end real-time simulation.

Learn more about the concept of Power HIL in this video.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources

Testing Industrial Power Hardware with Power HIL - Webinar
HIL Testing for Power Electronics Control Design - Whitepaper
Simscape Electrical - MathWorks product

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Grid and Battery Emulation

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Test renewable energy sources, power converters, or protection relays against virtual AC grids, DC grids, or battery packs using Power HIL with Speedgoat real-time solutions. Test typical operating conditions and electric fault conditions thoroughly by using power amplifiers, virtual transmission lines.

Simulate the grid network or battery pack dynamics in detail using Simulink and Simscape Electrical. There are several examples to get started, including microgrids, grid-tied inverters, renewable energy sources, and energy storage solutions.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

EGSTON Power Interface (fiber optic)
Cinergia Interface (analog)
PROFINET
DNP3 protocol
IEC 61850

Simulink Application Resources

Microgrid System Development and Analysis - Video series
Distribution System Model in Simscape : European Test Feeder - Reference Application
Stand-Alone Solar PV DC Power System with Battery Backup - Example

Electric Motor Emulation

Use electric motor emulation to test power inverters and EV power converters against a virtual motor. Emulate any motor type like internal permanent magnet synchronous machines (IPMSM), induction motors, or switched reluctance machines (SRM). You can even include non-linear effects, saturation, and space harmonics by using specific motor data from FEA tools. Use our joint solution with EGSTON Power to emulate motors from 10 kW up to 2 MW.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

EGSTON Power Interface (fiber optic)
Encoder Emulator
Resolver Emulator

Simulink Application Resources

Developing a Real-Time Motor Model for HIL Testing - Webinar
Include PMSM Flux Linkage Data from JMAG-RT - Example
FEM-Parameterized PMSM - Documentation

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Power Amplifiers

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Speedgoat collaborates with several manufacturers of power amplifiers to support you in setting up a Power HIL test bench. Choosing a power amplifier that covers your needs for voltage, power, and bandwidth is essential. Speedgoat can help you choose a power amplifier for your project. The power amplifier manufacturers that we work with are listed below:

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

EGSTON Power Interface (fiber optic)
Cinergia Interface
Aurora Communication
Analog I/O Modules

Simulink Application Resources

Testing Industrial Power Hardware with Power HIL - Webinar
Power HIL for railway power supply - Technical Article

Electrical and Multiphysics Simulations

Create an accurate representation of the power grid, electric vehicle, or rest of the system by creating models with Simulink and Simscape. Include electrical, thermal, mechanical, hydraulic, and environmental effects when testing your electrical equipment. Access full-fletched reference examples created in Simulink and Simscape to get you started on microgrids, electric vehicles, or renewable energy integration.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources