AN EXTENSIBLE REAL-TIME DIGITAL TRANSIENT NETWORK ANALYZER

Real-time simulation of large power systems is a requirement for tasks as varied as operator training and the testing of new devices such as relays. Until recently, the network portion of the simulator (the Transient Network Analyzer, or TNA) was of necessity implemented with analog hardware. This paper reports on the development of a completely digital multiprocessor TNA with the following characteristics: One processor is assigned for each bus in the network being simulated. The topology of the TNA is identical to that of the network. There is no limit to the size of the network which can be simulated. The simulator is extensible. The integration step size is under 100 musecs making possible the simulation of electromagnetic transient phenomena. The processor used is the transputer, a novel microprocessor designed especially to handle interprocessor communication. Use of the transputer keeps the cost per node of the simulator to a minimum.