Co-simulation Aspects for Energy Systems with High Penetration of Distributed Energy Resources

Distributed energy resources (DERs) have seen significant expansion in utilization over the past decade. This expansion is best observed with the rooftop solar panels whose penetration has substantially grown in terms of deployed MWs. With the transformation of the grid towards more distributed supply of electricity, a new set of challenges arise. Although the challenges for adoption of DERs are plenty which span across technical, economical and policy domain, in this paper we discuss simulation challenges within two particular domains, cyber-security and voltage stability. For addressing each of these challenges, co-simulation has shown to be a promising path to take. Co-simulation (or combined simulation) represents the connection of two or more simulation tools with the goal of addressing a particular problem that neither one of these tools could address individually. Within each of these domains, we discuss the aspects for the design of co-simulation that one must consider when addressing the problem. The discussion is followed by short simulation examples.