Performance Evaluation of a Cloud-Native Open-Source Power System Digital Twin for Real-Time Simulation.
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| Title: | Performance Evaluation of a Cloud-Native Open-Source Power System Digital Twin for Real-Time Simulation. |
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| Authors: | Noreña, Juan-Pablo1 (AUTHOR), Perez, Ernesto1 (AUTHOR) eperezg@unal.edu.co |
| Source: | Energies (19961073). Apr2026, Vol. 19 Issue 8, p1982. 16p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Power system simulation, *Cloud computing, *Real-time computing, *Benchmark problems (Computer science), *Cyber physical systems, *Digital twin, *Open source software, *Scalability |
| Abstract: | The increasing complexity of Cyber-Physical Energy Systems, driven by the high penetration of power electronics, advanced control, and digitalization, demands scalable, flexible real-time simulation platforms beyond traditional laboratory-based solutions. This paper investigates the feasibility of deploying open-source real-time power system simulation frameworks on cloud-based infrastructures while meeting real-time computational constraints. An open-source architecture based on DPsim and the VILLAS framework is implemented and evaluated across five computing environments using open-source tools: bare-metal, non-cloud virtual machines, private cloud Kubernetes clusters, public cloud virtual machines, and public cloud Kubernetes clusters. Each environment is carefully configured and tuned using real-time operating systems, CPU isolation, and affinity mechanisms to improve deterministic behavior. Performance and scalability are assessed through a benchmark based on replicated IEEE 9-bus systems, progressively increasing system size, and measuring simulation-timestep execution time. The results show that cloud and cloud-like infrastructures can support soft and, under controlled conditions, firm real-time simulation tasks, although achievable system scale decreases as additional abstraction layers are introduced. The study identifies practical performance limits for each infrastructure and discusses their suitability for different real-time simulation and co-simulation applications. These findings demonstrate that cloud-based real-time simulation can complement traditional digital real-time simulators, enabling scalable and cost-effective CPES experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Database: | Energy & Power Source |
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| Abstract: | The increasing complexity of Cyber-Physical Energy Systems, driven by the high penetration of power electronics, advanced control, and digitalization, demands scalable, flexible real-time simulation platforms beyond traditional laboratory-based solutions. This paper investigates the feasibility of deploying open-source real-time power system simulation frameworks on cloud-based infrastructures while meeting real-time computational constraints. An open-source architecture based on DPsim and the VILLAS framework is implemented and evaluated across five computing environments using open-source tools: bare-metal, non-cloud virtual machines, private cloud Kubernetes clusters, public cloud virtual machines, and public cloud Kubernetes clusters. Each environment is carefully configured and tuned using real-time operating systems, CPU isolation, and affinity mechanisms to improve deterministic behavior. Performance and scalability are assessed through a benchmark based on replicated IEEE 9-bus systems, progressively increasing system size, and measuring simulation-timestep execution time. The results show that cloud and cloud-like infrastructures can support soft and, under controlled conditions, firm real-time simulation tasks, although achievable system scale decreases as additional abstraction layers are introduced. The study identifies practical performance limits for each infrastructure and discusses their suitability for different real-time simulation and co-simulation applications. These findings demonstrate that cloud-based real-time simulation can complement traditional digital real-time simulators, enabling scalable and cost-effective CPES experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 19961073 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/en19081982 |
