Advances and Prospects in Distributed Generation Sources Digital Twins Design

Abstract

Power electronics devices are highly dynamic and nonlinear systems governed by complex control algorithms. In addition, power electronics converters must demonstrate high reliability and must be safe to operate, although in some applications they condition dangerously high power levels. Therefore, the development, evaluation and deployment of these systems traditionally had to be meticulously conducted, using specialized tools and approaches. With the proliferation of power electronics devices into the domain of power systems, in form of distributed generation sources, the mentioned tools and approaches had to evolve further. Consequently, a wide range of representations of the addressed systems within various digital platforms is nowadays at disposal of researchers and engineers. These representations, designated as digital twins, facilitate, and sometimes simply make possible, expeditious development and comprehensive evaluation of increasingly complex power electronics-based systems. This chapter catalogues the most important digital twin types, explicates their advantages and disadvantages and addresses their applicability. Hence, it could be regarded as a set of guidelines on how to choose appropriate digital twin type and digital twinning platform for some particular research and engineering problem. Also, details on how digital twins of distributed generation sources will be created and utilized in near future are provided.