Model Checking Autonomous Components within Electric Power Systems Specified by Interpreted Petri Nets

Autonomous components within electric power systems can be successfully specified by interpreted Petri nets. Such a formal specification makes it possible to check some basic properties of the models, such as determinism or deadlock freedom. In this paper, it is shown how these models can also be formally verified against some behavioral user-defined properties that relate to the safety or liveness of a designed system. The requirements are written as temporal logic formulas. The rule-based logical model is used to support the verification process. An interpreted Petri net is first written as an abstract logical model, and then automatically transformed into a verifiable model that is supplemented by appropriate properties for checking. Formal verification is then performed with the nuXmv model checker. Thanks to this the initial specification of autonomous components can be formally verified and any design errors can be identified at an early stage of system development. An electric energy storage (EES) is presented as an application system for the provision of a system service for stabilizing the power of renewable energy sources (RES) or highly variable loads. The control algorithm of EES in the form of an interpreted Petri net is then written as a rule-based logical model and transformed into a verifiable model, allowing automatic checking of user-defined requirements.