Realization of an Energy System-Informed Digital Twin of the KARA Accelerator at KIT in a Real-Time Simulation Environment: the ACCESS Project

Particle accelerators are complex and energy-intensive facilities that require extensive and intertwined
connections with the public electrical grid. Furthermore, accelerator facilities are well known
for their low power demand flexibility, which depends only on experimental operations, and it must
be accommodated independently from the grid. So, it is necessary to develop, and test new energy
solutions for an energy-efficient and stable operation of particle accelerators. However, validating
novel solutions at a research facility is difficult because technical problems can disrupt the research
process.
In the ACCESS (ACCelerator Energy System Stability) Project, a digital twin of the accelerator
KARA will be realized at Energy Lab 2.0 in a real-time simulation environment. The goal is to
validate any energy solutions that can be applied to accelerators in a safe and flexible environment
(simulation) without interfering with KARA experiments, while retaining high accuracy (digital twinning).
As the first step, the electrical system of KARA will be modeled. A real-time communication infrastructure
between KARA and Energy Lab 2.0 will be installed in order to transfer measurement
... mehr
data in real time from the accelerator to the simulated environment. Once initial communication is
established between the two labs, voltage and current sensors are placed at specific strategic points
on the KARA to capture the state of the system with high time resolution. Voltage and current
curves are saved in local data memory together with the experiment sequence and sent to the digital
real-time system OPAL-RT available in Energy Lab 2.0 via a fiber optic backbone at full sampling
rates.
This work will provide a look at the first results of the ACCESS project and will highlight the
need for fast measurement systems in particle accelerators.