Diesel Generator

On oil rigs, diesel generators sets are used to supply secondary power, when the main power has failed. Therefore these set have to be highly reliable. To test the reliability of the control system running the diesel generator set under various conditions, a HIL simulator was developed.

Setup

The HIL simulator was based on a PC with Windows and 20-sim. A SIMBA Profibus module is used to couple the PC to a SIMATIC S7 PLC over a PROFIBUS fieldbus.

Plant Model

The model of the diesel generator was created in 20-sim. The model consist of a dynamic model of the diesel, a full 3 phase generator model and a 3 phase load. The load can be fed with several data files to give different load scenarios.

Test

During various test (generator excitation, start up, load out,...) the control system is tested for the various modes of operation, including tests that in reality would have severely damaged the setup.