Distributed Processing System for Monitoring using Digital Twins in Medium Voltage Grids

In recent years, Digital Twins have been increasingly used in power system research and operations to replicate real use-cases in a digital system. Thereby, Digital Twin use-cases range from the replication of individual devices and systems to entire grids. The core of these systems is the emulation based on the real process, whereby the digital model is continuously tracked to provide additional information about the state and parameters of the application. The paper presents a distributed processing system including Digital Twins with a flexible system architecture for data distribution between edge nodes and central applications for analysis and monitoring functions. The Digital Twins include dynamic modeling and monitoring of the behavior of grid nodes, as well as the conversation of the grid's state into an emulation of the entire grid. The system architecture developed implements a distributed topology to handle different levels of data resolution and provides a flexible integration of functionalities to adapt the computation regarding the requirements of the process. Edge computing enables model optimization with high-bandwidth measurements, while central applications can use real-time processing systems to generate a complete overview of the grid. Finally, the system was tested and validated in a laboratory setup with real communication interfaces.