Advanced Switchgear Signals Simulator for a Distribution Substation Model

The complexity of current substation automation systems and digital protection relays makes educating of young people in the scope of substation and protection engineering a difficult task. To fully understand all the relations and dependencies between the relays, switching and measuring equipment, and the substation control system, theoretical lectures must be supported by hands-on training on hardware as close to reality as possible. To bring the education process as close as possible to reality, we decided to develop a new substation model representing a distribution substation with 7 bays, combining real and simulated hardware in a manner to simulate the operation of a real substation. This paper introduces the development of an advanced switchgear simulator, emulating the reactions of the switching equipment in a medium voltage bay to control signals and providing the related protection relay incorporated in the substation model with state signalization. In contrast to several simplified switchgear models used for testing of protection relays, this model allows precisely simulate the control logic of individual switching devices including locking coils and multiple trip coils, reaction time of control coils, operation time of drives, limited energy reserve of the spring drive mechanism and simulate some basic failure modes. The model can simulate both disconnectors and circuit breakers and a single simulator unit can emulate up to 6 independent switching devices.