MATLAB and Simulink for Renewable Energy and Energy Storage
Model, analyze, and design controls for renewable energy systems
Renewable energy systems, such as wind and solar farms, are evolving rapidly and contributing to a larger share of total electricity generation. Variable electricity supply from renewable energy systems and the need for balancing generation and demand introduce complexity in the design and testing of renewable energy and storage systems.
Engineers use MATLAB, Simulink, and Simscape to model renewable energy system architectures, perform grid-scale integration studies, and develop controls for renewable energy and energy storage systems.
Simulink and Simscape Electrical provide a library of prebuilt, parametrized electrical component and electrical system models for you to rapidly develop renewable energy system architectures. You can:
- Model renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and PV arrays
- Include energy storage components such as hydrogen systems, supercapacitors, and batteries in your design
- Study the steady-state and dynamic response of the renewable energy system by running desktop simulations
- Explore system configurations and find the optimal system design for generation and storage
“With Simulink and Embedded Coder, we can show our customers and grid operators a simulation that incorporates the actual code that will run in our power plant controller. That’s what grid operators want, and it gives Vestas an advantage over competitors who still use conventional approaches.”
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With Simscape Electrical, you can integrate renewable energy system models with a grid models to test your power management strategies against the grid and ensure compliance with different grid codes. You can:
- Establish operational scenarios in a repeatable way across different system architectures
- Model and run multiple operational scenarios in parallel
- Replay field data, such as voltage step tests or grid events, to compare the model against the measurements
- Change the fidelity of the simulation models to evaluate scenarios for timescales ranging from milliseconds to years
- Evaluate voltage and frequency performance against grid codes, such as IEEE 1547 and NERC PRC-024, for compliance checks
Simulink and Simscape let you design control strategies for voltage and current regulation, frequency stabilization, and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and test controls for renewable energy systems and their storage systems.
- Simulate active/reactive power response and implement protection mechanisms
- Analyze power quality issues and mitigate them by using converters with phase balancing or active filters
- Identify design errors early in the process using Simulink Design Verifier, create test cases for the controls using Simulink Test, and check test coverage with Simulink Coverage
- Generate defect-free, optimized C code for the controller from Simulink models
- Generate code for the plant and perform real-time testing on the control algorithm with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing under normal and fault operating conditions
“With Model-Based Design, we can prototype and test an early version of our algorithm much faster than is possible with traditional methods. In a matter of hours, we can create a fully-functional prototype that would take several days without Simulink and code generation.”
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Learn More
- Energy Storage for a Renewable-Powered World – Newsletter
- Third-Party Products: Model-Based Design for Renewable Energy Systems – Article
- Developing and Testing Model Predictive Control Algorithms for Wind Turbines for Field Testing – Customer Story
- Vestas Develops Control Software for Wind Power Plants with Model-Based Design and Continuous Integration – Customer Story
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