Model Based Systems Engineering proves its worth in G-PST work

The Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) Australia Stage 3 reports have been published. G-PST focuses research on the most critical aspects of the electricity transition, including topics such as Control Room of the Future, advanced inverter applications and distributed energy resources. Topic 7 is about system architecture, a matter dear to our heart.

Researchers from Energy Catalyst have applied Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to translate a comprehensive set of architectural mappings of the NEM into an advanced digital environment. These have included:

• NEM ‘As-built’ Reference Architecture
• NEM ‘Step Change’ Reference Architecture.

Further, the work also completed the first common-format structural mapping of three major recent Distributed Energy Resource (DER) coordination demonstration projects, namely Project EDGE Architecture; Project Symphony Architecture; and Project Edith Architecture. The advanced MBSE tools were also employed to develop common-format structural mappings of the SA Power Network’s Emergency DPV (distributed solar) curtailment, to manage DER during minimum operational demand scenarios; demonstrating significant practical value of the tools for taming complexity and enhancing multi-stakeholder collaboration.

The researchers reported that through collaborative interactions with various stakeholders, they gained numerous insights as existing structural arrangements are made visible and related architectural trade-offs laid bare. Key insights are outlined below:

• Documentation agility: A key tenet of MBSE is that it provides a holistic ‘single source of truth’ about a given system, and can do so in near real-time.
• Reasoning about structural choices: The fidelity of structural analysis of power systems can benefit from a model-based approach as it allows alternate structural configurations to be more efficiently represented using component classes and then simulated in executable models and simulation.
• Specificity for interfaces: MBSE can support, and in some cases, automate the documentation of interfaces, demarcations and hand-offs among various system actors across different configurations, and timelines.
• High-level validation: An executable model allows for simulation of data flows and exchanges through the end-to-end power system.
• Stakeholder collaboration and alignment: MBSE allows to abstract a model commensurate with the level of detail required for a particular cohort of stakeholders.
• Scalability and extensibility of solutions: More sophisticated implementations of MBSE could introduce more complex and accurate mathematical proxies for the performance of optimisation algorithms, and centralised DER fleet dispatch engines.

The GPST Topic 7 report includes videos showing how the MBSE model works.

The model created for G-PST covers a portion of the Australian electricity network, and is a good demonstration of the broader MBSE model that is being created for the whole Australian energy system, including gas, coal, hydrogen and adjacent systems like water, for use within the National Energy Analysis Centre.

Read the latest G-PST reports , or read more about the importance of MBSE to the Australian energy transition.