User Spotlight Series: Week 6

Presenter: Panos Kotsampopoulos, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

Abstract: PHIL and CHIL simulation is proving to be an efficient tool for research, testing and education. Best experiences of using HIL simulation at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) are presented focusing on power electronic converters and smart grid controllers. First, the proposed procedure, stages and topologies for the testing of power electronic converters are shown, related to battery inverter development and testing, FACTS testing, microgrid control and interactions between DER and OLTC. The second part deals with the HIL testing of smart grid controllers, including the testing of a coordinated voltage controller in a combined CHIL and PHIL setup, the adaptive protection testing via HIL simulation and the testing of a distributed control scheme based on Multi-Agent Systems. The last part of the presentation explains the benefits of using PHIL simulation as an advanced method for hands-on and experiential laboratory education.

Bio: Panos Kotsampopoulos received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece and the PhD degree on distributed energy resources in 2017 from the same school. Since 2010 he has been working on research projects at the Smart RUE research group of NTUA, where he is currently a Senior Researcher. He was a guest researcher at the Austrian Institute of Technology AIT (Vienna) in 2012 and 2013. He has participated in several European research projects as principal investigator for ICCS-NTUA and in national projects with PPC/HEDNO. He is responsible for the development of the laboratory infrastructure of the Electric Energy Systems Laboratory of NTUA. He is chair of the IEEE PES Task Force “Innovative teaching methods for modern power and energy systems” and active member of the IEEE PES Task Force on “Real-Time Simulation of Power and Energy Systems”, the IEEE WG P2004 “Recommended Practice for Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation Based Testing of Electric Power Apparatus and Controls” (chapter co-leader) and member of other Task Forces and Working Groups. He is Editor of the “IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy” and member of the Editorial Board of the journal “Energies”. He is Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Advancements in Real-Time Simulation of Power and Energy Systems” of the journal “Energies”. He is chair of the IEEE Young Professionals Greece and co-founder of the energy community/cooperative “Collective Energy”.  He is senior member of IEEE and member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.