Digital Twin of a Single-Phase Home Converter System Integrating Distributed Energy Resources

Abstract

A digital twin (DT) is a digital representation of a physical entity or process that closely emulates the behavior of its real counterpart and is strongly connected to the real entity through data exchange links. DT technology is widely applied to various areas like smart cities, industrial automation, equipment design, manufacturing, and the automotive industry. Such applications are intended for improved design, operation, control, and maintenance of the real entity whose digital twin is prepared. Power Electronics applications heavily rely on digital electronics to model, simulate, and control the power converters. Such applications can immensely benefit from DT technology, but such applications in power converters are nascent. This paper presents a digital twin of a single-phase home inverter connected to a battery, AC load, and the grid. The inverter supplies power to the connected load in two modes- battery mode and grid mode. The digital twin of the inverter, implemented in Opal-RT, emulates the actual behavior of the hardware counterpart in both modes.